I have Lavaglut and even with pruning, after a couple of years it was getting up to 4 feet tall... not good for the front of the border here... next spring I'm gonna really chop it down... Falstaff went a long long time ago, it's famous for being an octopus... I have three roses that are more wide than high, WS2000, Country Dancer and Eureka... so what I did was move them to places where they could sprawl and moved everything away from them. A pain to learn these lessons, but all in all the end result is all that matters... For the past 10 years, shovel pruning is a large part of the creation of the garden... My pot ghetto has really shrunk over the past two years between shovel pruning and tossing the pots that don't bloom the way I want them too. Either the wrong color or the wrong form... My neighbor is gaining a pot ghetto of my rejects too... When roses get too tall they either get moved to the climber fence or hit the road... Chicago Peace got moved to the fence... Peace hit the road... it's all a matter of preference, and how long the blooms last etc... Quietness got replaced by Home and Garden, Heaven on Earth got replaced by Nancy Reagan, and so on... There is always a better rose out there... Well sometimes... Distant drums had to go because of blackspot and I still haven't found a replacement for that color... I have Irish Creme there now but it just isn't the same...

My mints grow strong underground runners. That is one reason their prowth must be restricted with some kind of a barrier if you dont want them to invade all your garden. If caterpillars eat your mint, cut them back hard, they will grow back nicelly, plus the caterpillars that hatch from the eggs left behind will have a hard time growing with less food.

I don't have time to read all the other messages but just a quick word of advice - Colorado Natives are not real fond of transplants, as in people who immigrate here. Their top two disliked transplants are Texans and Californians. Change your license plates ASAP as a matter of top priority. And I have learned to stay very quiet about being from out of state. When we first moved here (7 years ago) there were often write ups in the paper about eggings of cars that were from Texas or California and people being harrassed, kids at school, etc. It is fairly openly discussed in social situations, as well. I had family here who helped me transition fast, they were concerned for our family. People like being here and it's getting body to body over-crowded and the growth and expense is staggering. It's on the minds of many - like at the top of their minds - and sometimes it's just better not to say you are a transplant, especially don't be passing the word around that you are from Southern California. The transplant to native ratio is evening up fast so this may not be an issue for too much longer. Good luck! And I am not saying this to put anyone down or cause fear or anything like that. Just friendly advice from someone who went through it. Like I said - it's getting better but we have had a ton of construction again lately, you will see that in the Springs - and people are antsy again.

Some people are collectors of handguns. They've had to have had them registered for well over 50 years. There are strict rules as to the security with which they are stored. If they want to take it/them to a shooting range, they need to get a permit to do so. There's been some controversy lately, because some such people have had their guns/collection stolen, and some of those guns were used by people who had bought them in the black market in murdering people. They say that when a gun has been used in one rather high rpfile, or several less so, murders, its price on the black market goes down. A few years ago they started a registry program for long guns, and many fought it. Others said that it seemed strange that people had no problem with registering cars, but resisted registering guns. It cost huge amounts of money - over a billion, some said closer to two billion - and there was a lot of controversy over that. Some of us said that we didn't see why that should cost an arm and a leg, for they'd had a registry of all of the handguns for over 50 years, so it shouldn't be too hard to set up a parallel program to register the long guns. A recently elected government dislikes that registry and is talking about scrapping it. A billion (or maybe closer to two) ... down a rathole. ole joyful