10 year old hens? OMG, I would personally not keep them around. No way I will keep my chickens around that long. I know they can live longer than that, but here's a statistic: "The percentage of hens over four years old that will develop ovarian cancer is 45%" I have personally pulled a huge tumor the size of a large grapefruit out of an old hen, and it wasn't even 10 years old. No way I'm gonna put my chickens through that. My chickens are not pets, they're livestock. They live a happy life part of the time in a aviary, and a few times a week they get to free range all over the backyard. They get fed plenty of healthy treats but after 3-4 years I'm replacing them with younger ones.

Thank you, my friends for your nice comments. Dain, yes, they are from Rinoa. (Rick turned me on to Rinoa..ha ha!) Karen, so true here as well I'm finding out; next rain season I will erect a white canopy for my Adeniums. They don't like the sweltering heat of that time either: brilliant all day sun one day, rains for a couple days, and so forth. I lost a few adeniums two months ago due to rot. Rick, thanks for your advice, they are always welcome.

Rooting roses teach me what cause black canker on canes: 1) Acidic & too wet soil 2) Pockets of wetness, either a clump of wet clay, or wet sand Perlite helps to create "air pockets" and fast drainage of water so canes don't rot in rooting roses. In OUTSIDE garden, can't use perlite (it decompose & flatten out), but pine-bark-mulch in planting hole is FANTASTIC for fast-drainage, and help tremendously with winter-survival: prevents feeder-roots from being frozen & destroyed. Digging roses up from Dec. 26 to Jan 1, at 40 to 37 F, here's what I notice: Dee-lish bought end of June is green to the tip, with green leaves, the soil below is made fluffy with pine-bark mulch, drains very fast, upper soil is alkaline clay to retain moisture. Same with W.S. 2000 with green & healthy leaves this Jan: excellent drainage dug down to 3 feet. While digging up Comte (grafted-on-multiflora), I notice where I mixed sand with clay: it's frozen into solid-ice. But where I have gypsum and pine-bark mixed it .. that PREVENTED SOIL FROM BEING FROZEN. I once spent 1 hour researching on whether potassium fertilizer helps with winter-survival: some site said it helps, other studies showed it did not. With my own eyes, my verdict is "No". Where I put high-potassium cocoa mulch: it's frozen solid at 40 F, same with soil below high-potassium red-lava-rock. But high calcium, esp. gypsum helps to keep soil fluffy, thus prevent roots from being frozen solid. I used gritty lime to de-ice my front-walkway, and it worked great in the winter. There are studies that backed this. CONCLUSION: Digging deep for drainage, plus make soil fluffy with gypsum & pine-bark-mulch helps with winter survival: leaves are still green & lush as OWN-ROOTS despite previous weeks of -10 to -13 below zero. Below are green & lush leaves of Dee-lish rose, picked on December 26, in my zone 5a:

I think its SO frustrating and irresponsible that stores like Lowe's and THD sell so many plants that really are not suited to the climate! I often see the rows and rows of gorgeous, bright blue lacecap hydrangeas they offer, and think sadly about how for the most part, these plants are never going to bloom again! (In my climate, only a very few lace cap/mop head hydrangeas are reliably bud-hardy). It makes me sad that then new gardeners get excited, buy the lovely plants, and then are disappointed when they don't bloom the next year. I just hope people don't assume its their fault and give up on gardening! Did the roses you bought have labels with names? Because if they do, you could research them and get the real story on their hardiness. I agree with the suggestion of keeping your receipts, in case they don't make it. Also, if you don't mind the hassle, you could increase their chances of survival by protecting them (I often do this with first-year roses that ARE hardy in my climate, as they sometimes need a little help during that first winter). You can mound the base with leaves, etc; and then I like to make little shelters for them out of leaf bags (paper ones). I cut off the top of the bag, so that I have a tube - slip this over the rose, secure it with a little twine and some stakes, and voila! You have an inexpensive rose cone! Best of luck with your roses!