JoshTx I'm glad you and your garden are weathering all the storms down there! This does seem to be one of the worst springs that I can remember. My sister is in Dallas battening down the hatches alongside you. $5.00? What a deal! And just for the record, I'm betting that your Strawberry Hill is gonna make it through spring storms, summer infernos, and every other seasonal onslaught. Those who mentioned a soil check have a good idea in mind. Since you're planning to tuck Strawberry into a bed, that's a good time to check for anything obvious. I might also do the ol' landscapers dunk by soaking the whole rootball in a bucket of water for about 5 minutes before planting. Pruning: in PDX, I tend to follow the program Strawberryhill (the ARF member not the rose) and others have suggested. I give newbies a good pruning and jumpstart with fresh growth. In TX, I would follow michaelg's and others' advice. I know your neck of the woods is already hitting the 80's, and the higher temps in that region cause more stress to struggling rose babies. I'd only cut out the dead wood. Keep us updated on your progress. I'm rooting (pun intended?) for your little bargain! Carol

hey searching for buds.. is common to any plant you wish to cut back ... just a simple lesson for a newbie ... there is less fear.. if you can see what you are doing ... past that.. it was just a curiosity as to what the plant is.. because it looks nothing like the shasta daisy's my parents grew in the 60's and 70's .. nor me.. in the 80's and 90's .. that is not to say they havent come up with new versions.. but it is key to learning .. to actually know what plant you have ... link below to my recollection of a shasta daisy .... if you google the term .. that flower is a vast majority of the pix offered.. but there are others ... including some doubles ... google comes up with no pix on Margarita Darling - Darling Shasta Daisy .. and Darling is a dwarf.. which is nothing like yours ... whats that all about. ... at this point its simply a mystery .. but it is still daisy.. and the snipping rules hold ... somewhere back down the line.. your plant started as a seed ... and it is not out of the ordinary.. that you might have some weird mutant.. no matter what the tag says ... enjoy it ... ken Here is a link that might be useful: link

greenhaven, no slight at all. The mir gro says potting mix, feeds plants up to 3 months, so there is something in it. Before I used Canadian Gold, doesn't seem to matter, this brand and size is usually drier where I buy it so can load it up and carry it into the house more easily. I think some people have good luck by putting them along the wall joining the house of an attached, unheated garage, but it may go dormant which is more natural, but I wouldn't know how much water to give it. I'd be open to that if I had one, basement is too damp, drier in winter, but my gut tells me not to try it in mine. Now I have the option of putting them under my lights, but sunroom works and toughens them up a bit more. My cat jumped all over stuff in the sunroom but never bothered any of my plants. Any get knocked over, it's usually me, hasn't happened with any roses, and I don't have little kids, just visitors. And my dear cat is gone, used sit on the table w/no plants to scratch on the glass if she saw something outside in the night :-). Since this is the regular rose forum and that book and interview was mainly about OGR's, maybe you won't be that thrilled with it, but some very basic knowledge & tips there but not a walk thru on everything to do. I don't know if my old rose friends know about that book, but I loved it, and don't read many rose books, much cross talk between the two forums so don't worry about it any more. I do try to get a heel when I take a cutting if I can, have scored, scraped and started by not scoring, some cut straight, some on diagonal, see, so many ways, dampen, roll in Rootone, tap excess off, make a hole w/pencil, stick, firm. Jury is still out on that, but I think it might help scoring or scraping the lower 1/2" or so, especially if you wound at the node where you have removed the leaves. My rooting medium is primarily a seed or tender plant starter and think it has an anti-fungal in it to help prevent damping off. The ones that have rooted the fastest retain all their leaves. As long as the canes stay green, and sometimes I have cut off parts that are starting to rot successfully, some not, but never give up unless the obvious, sterilize all my pots and pruning shears, everything, they still root. Losing the leaves is more stressful for them but some will make new ones, root and pull through. I go for healthy cuttings, but don't always have a choice in the spring or fall with found roses people let me try cuttings from - usually, one I did the no no, it was on a vacant lot but I sensed the owner would say no. I don't feel good about it but have a real beauty now, and like I thought, he ruined his, it's back now but is probably destined for destruction when they build on the lot and clear things off. You're doing fine, yours are very delicate yet, so I think you are choosing what is right for you. Hope that is my last long post for awhile, people don't want to wade through too much.

"Yes, they are pruned heavily, but not to reduce their natural size by two thirds. They're pruned to promote fruiting. Their size is controlled by growing them on appropriate root stocks." Well, that's not totally true. First, a variety of pruning styles are used when growing apple trees, and frequently pruning is used to reduce the height of the trees. Pruning is definitely not limited to promoting fruiting! Also, dwarfing rootstock controls growth rate, but not really so much eventual size. An apple tree grown on a medium dwarfing rootstock will eventually get pretty large without pruning, it just does so at a slower rate. I'm not saying it's a good idea to top your crabapple (especially in the way you describe), but it is something that can be done (especially if your goal is to keep it shorter than normal but not necessarily at no more than exactly 7' high). You can make some selective pruning cuts along the way, as it grows, and encourage it to grow more out than up.