is that I completely neglect mine but it seems to bloom just fine. I have never fed it, and only watered it a few times when first planted. Are you doing anything differently the past two years? Is the weather doing something different? I'm in central Maryland, by the way.

You might look for your tomato seeds in various seed-sharing groups. I've seen some online when I was trying to find out what a particular variety was called (Black Zebra).

My Rose of Sharon trees are an average of 2-4 years old, liberated from the deserted property behind me in a small town. Just across the alley. They even bloomed better as first years. I don't think the weather's changed noticeably in NE MO. Same gardening zone 5B as southern ME.

Normally I don't frequently deep water more established trees very often, but the new ones I must in the hottest weather or they wilt. I'm also aware that with lilacs you're not supposed to water a 4-year more than once or twice a year, not at all after 7 years. They don't like it and will die on you fast. I don't overfeed the ROS, just a little. I have a green thumb and can grow most roses and veggies and fruits w/o blinking an eye. All my other trees do well. But these transplanted ROS's almost seem to taunt me with those big fat buds that never flower much if at all. They're kept properly trimmed, too, not left to grow rank.

I even posted on Garden Web once. No luck. Tried heritage seed groups, no luck. Ruskin is not technically a separate variety; the soil conditions in Ruskin simply produce ideal results which I could duplicate if I ever got my hands on a single seed. But nobody will tell me what technical variety Ruskin tomatoes come from. I just sent a third FB message to the festival people in hopes that personnel might have changed recently and my plea will fall on kind ears. I even told them I'd settle for one rotten tomato that I could get my own seeds from. Have to wonder if they're not trying to protect their special PR status.