I have two large areas of my yard in perennials--one is a xyric bed mulched with fine gravel,the other has more water intensive plants and shrubs and is mulched with wood chips. I usually water by hand, but when I am out of town, it is asking a lot of my neighbor to stand out there for over an hour and hand water everything. I'd like to buy one of those sprinklers mounted on an adjustable tripod for the few times a year when a neighbor has to water. Can anyone recommend a sprinker model? Gilmor, Nelson and RainBird make something similar, I believe, but theNelson has received bad ratings. I need one that rises up to about 5 feet since i have some 4 feet tall shrubs in the area. Ideally, I'd like a rotary sprinker that has a square pattern or is adjustable, but it looks like the impulse type is all that is available. I'd appreciate any suggestions. Or, if you have jury-rigged something on your own, I'd love to know what you did. Thanks, Hazel

What a terrific thread! I now feel somewhat better prepared to prune these tripod roses than before reading this. I have just started with tripods--so easy to do it yourself with rebar--and my roses are still too young to worry about pruning much this year. One thing that would be ever so helpful would be pictures of mature roses on tripods without the leaves. That way one could see exactly how the canes are tied and pruned back. I know I have seen a couple of pictures on this forum on pillars in the winter that showed how the canes are wound around the structure. I would certainly be very grateful if anyone has pictures like these to share. All the pictures in this thread and the other one about tripods are magnificent by the way. Thank you for sharing them with us. The tripods show these roses off to great advantage in that they all look full and bushy. I can certainly see where some roses that tend to look gangly and sprawly would look nice trained in a tighter, narrower fashion. Wouldn't it be nice to take some before and after pictures of our roses, i.e. just pruned and how they look the spring after pruning. It would be such a good learning tool.

Oh, isn't E. nodulosa a horrible stretcher. Don't feel too badly about it, Rina; I find that plant would eventually become less than perfect in even ideal conditions. After a year or two, I have to cut mine and re-root because its losing its lower leaves makes it extremely gangly. I re-root it the most often of all my Echeveria. Winters are tough, but I find it just to be a tough plant to keep looking good without a little help. I believe that Sempervivum is going into flower, not stretching for light. :) This post was edited by teatree on Sat, Jan 25, 14 at 21:55

Penny_sav, It's called a quick release plate. I'd do an internet search if you have a brand name or a model # on the tripod. You can always purchase a new tripod if necessary, but I wouldn't give up until I explored all avenues. Plus, it would be nice to be able to use your Dad's tripod! :) Pam