Sure, will look into, probably next week when it is hopefully cooler! It was 104 here today.:( Anything shipped now might turn into steamed lettuce. Also, I will see about removing the soil, just in case it has something you don't! Maybe I can bareroot it as soon as temps dip???? No, it is unlikely that I'll attend because my four-legged menagerie makes arrangements complicated. The day with the presentations is kind of pricey too, and I'm retired so cost is a consideration. I wonder if they could webcast it? Local colleges/universities are sometimes sources of webcast capabilities at very moderate costs (especially if it is part of a student project where they can earn credit for supporting an event) or even free (if you know who and how to ask). Many online webcasts that I view on horses are free (but an organization that doesn't have the budget to do that might be able to charge a small fee). As to President Dutailly, his is the picture featured on the hybrid perpetual page at Vintage. Gorgeous!!!! I don't know about the heat requirement however, as I've only seen him in my garden and Eurodesert's. Maybe you could ask Gregg Lowery? But as to the shade, well I have 2 PD's (it's that suckering habit dontcha know!), and one gets early morning sun, then dappled shade/sun the rest of the day. It looks perfectly happy. Whether it would like that amount of shade in a cooler location I don't know. Melissa

pshaw.. you could have left them on the driveway.. boy its good to say that.. its been a while.. lol ... the only issue with late planting.. and no snow or lack thereof .. is heating of the dark soil on sunny days.. which could lead to heave in the great white north later in winter ... a dormant plant is dormant.. and if kept dormant.. there are no issues ... its when they start going back and forth in and out of dormancy ... that problems might start ... thaw of surface soil on sunny days.. could hurt the tiny plants.. whose roots might not remain deep in the cold soil.. and those are also the ones ... if recently planted.. that can heave ... birds eat slugs... and no snow cover might actually reduce slugs next year.. i dont know.. its as viable a theory as otherwise ... once the ground is frozen.. the bags of mulch would be great ... but insure they get off in march ... if water accumulation is a problem ... they cant get sodden .... and lack oxygen... in my sand.. i could probably leave the bags there until may .. to keep the plants dormant longer .. to avoid frost.... but i dont know if that would be wise on clay ... they are hosta.. the only thing to watch for.. is spring on the calender ... otherwise.. i wouldnt worry too much about hosta ... too many peeps are worriers.. and my point is simple.. dont worry about hosta .... ken ps: wouldnt lack of snow.. reduce vole issues????

First of all, you may wish to take the second link down as it shows not only pictures of the house but others you may consider more personal. The fastest fix is to make your whole album private, and deal with getting the pics separated into a public album later if you can't do it right away. Now as to the utility bills: I believe you are in upstate NY right? Last winter (2011-2012) was extremely, freakishly mild. I am somewhat north of Albany and last winter we used only about 55-60% of the fuel we normally use. Also for the fuels that most people use (except for home heating oil) prices were affected by the mild winter as well, with both electricity and gas (natural and propane) being unusually low, so the dollar amounts on the bills may be lower than normal for the same amount of power in other years. (Residential electricity is returning to norms -i.e. rising - now.) So those factors may be the reason that the previous years' bills were not forthcoming, as the sellers may be reluctant to let you see the normal costs. Or not; they simply may have already discarded their bills in prepartion for moving- though they can probably request duplicates if pressed hard enough. And even if you can't get the bills you may be able to get info about comparative heating degree days between last winter's mildness and normal, and more typical rates and work the numbers out for yourselves. Anyway I would assume that last January's $320 cost would normally be in the mid/high $400's to low $500-ish range in years when temperatures and prices are closer to norms. Amendments or improvements to storm windows will improve your comfort but probably not make the house temps warmer, unless you are talking about solid (opaque)covers like blinds or well-fitted insulating curtains. Certain types of insulation projects may help depending on what you find there. But it may already be maxed out for space possible. The bills don't seem excessive to me if they include all of the lighting, water heating, heat, and in summer, A/C. (I have no A/C so I may be wrong about that.) We heat entirely with solid fuel (wood), but our power bills for hot water, lights and small amount of electric space heatng in Jan-March are about $250-350/mo during the coldest months. We use lectricty to heat H/W for the washing machines, but rarely use any for drying as I hang out 12 months of the year. Mostly I cook with propane, with a small amoaunt of electricity for MW and induction. I don't use a DW. HTH L.

Alana, I'm colder than your zone so some of my experience might not apply, but once the roses (and bulbs) start growing, there's nothing I can do to convince them to stop. They might get a bit frost nipped here and there, but unless you get weather returning to the 20's for several days in a row (and that's all day, not just a brief tip in the night), you should be fine. Apparently roses when they first start growing in spring have nature's equivalent of "antifreeze" in their canes and they're more insulated against cold snaps than they are later in the season. Roses like the rest of the garden are reading a multitude of factors that you may not be aware of (e.g. day length, soil temperature, moisture), and they usually know what they're doing or can recover from it if not. As for pruning, I prune off obviously dead wood as soon as the crocus and such come up, which is before the official forsythia blooming start to pruning season. Dead wood is dead, and the rose doesn't know you've cut it until you get into live cane. If you're worried that it's too early to prune, leave an inch or so of probably dead wood on the tips, and it'll just be a haircut to the rose, not a stimulus to start growing more cane. Once you can tell that the rose has indeed given up on that cane, and you feel better about stimulating growth, you can do a second round of pruning to get rid of those stubs. In my zone, we always have to do 2 or 3 rounds of pruning to get rid of cane that was only temporarily alive in the spring, so this isn't unusual for us. Bottom line for me is I prune off dead wood as soon as I feel like being out in the garden, and then do a more detailed prune once the leaves are definitely emerging. I figure if it has leaves it's going to be subject to weather variations with or without my pruning, and I want to get it done before planting season starts. Cynthia