Hi SueinNYC Still doubting ? I remember the sarcasm of the first one but remember the warm welcome in 2001. I can't add more to what I probably said in the original thread ... bourbons Mme Odier and Prince Napoleon are the best here for survival of cane by covering ... latter a quiet one in the world but just as good as or superior to Louise for bounce back. Canker a roll of dice for me and some years can lose up to 80% of the canes but does not stop them as up come basals and a few blooms in bad years. Prince Napoleon has 7 or 8 canes and about 4 or 5 new basals this year. Shorter than Louise. MIP was doing well until last fall when I unfortunately I step on her bent canes putting up the Xmas lights. Snapped all of the large ones off at the soil line so back to the beginning for her and up are coming basals. Problem with MIP for me is her canes stiffen up by season 2 or 3 and she is difficult for me to bend down without snapping. Province de Panache and MIP a close third. These Pickering are still alive and bloom but not as good as the top three for consistency and density of bloom. Boule de Neige - a struggle and sure all clones suck Coquette des Blanches - short and reliable Eugene A. Merlitt - new 2 winters Gruss an Teplitz - (steadfast recovery but to the ground with protection so in my world it has china in it) Honorine de Brabant Mme Doré Mme Ernst Calvat Mme Lauriol de Barny - touchy with blooms if damaged Mme Pierre Oger - no problem but weak still - a low grade from 2004 Reine Victoria Rose Eduardo - (not pickering) Sir Joseph Paxton - (really winter touchy and do not recommend) Souvenir de la Malmaison Zéphirine Drouhin (inconsistent wintering but last year was awesome - cane survival good and finished year with 5 to 6 foot canes in zone 3 and a smattering of repeat - this year smoked to the ground, but 5 new basals. You can do it.

I am not aware of any reference text that has any really suitable material on mosses per se or any particular moss species per se. Even most scientific works do not deal with ecological concerns of mosses but rather are geared towards angiosperms and mention may be made of the moss understory. Your best bet is to check out all the web sites on mosses and some give images of mosses and their locations. Matching this info up with accuweather info could give you insight as to the weather patterns for the area the moss occurs within. I have listed on one of the threads in this forum all the relevant link I have. Check those. One good one I can recall is Dereila which has images and is based out of Canada. If moving to Montana you may wish to see if any of the major colleges there offer courses in mosses that might provide some reference materials.

Here we get some really extreme temperature shifts,even in the course of one day. I clearly remember shoveling deep snow away from my gate, sweating in the heat of the sun!!! then, the sun goes down and the temperatures plunge,and all the melted snow turns into ice.All year round there tends to be a huge difference between day and night temperatures; it's a very unhealthy climate , for people and plants, IMO. The sun is just SO hot! We were really struck by the difference of, say, the Irish climate, where there is no great temperature change between night and day,so no organism has to deal with the stress of constantly trying to adjust. Still, I don't know that this is particularly a problem for established plants. However I do zealously protect newly planted bare-root roses by mounding. One person on the forum kind of "sneered"at me for this, saying it wasn't necessary,but I disagree, and so do many Italian rose nurseries. it isn't just the temperture swings; the mounding helps guard against the canes drying out,for example, if it's sunny and windy. I mound with synthetic materials: wine corks and pieces of styrofoam ,held in place with rocks and gravel and sand, because one winter I had problems with disease,but most people don't seem to have this problem.

I pay extremely close attention to these trees. Enough to notice the difference between Japanese and hybrid plum buds leafs and fruit from its visual features and fruit texture The ptitsen bloomed at the exact same time as this plum did maybe a few days after but very similar bloom time hence the heavy loads of fruit the two produced as they are only 4ft away from each other. I assume it's a ptitsen 9 as it came from bylands and summer land budwood orchard near by sells ptitsen 9 I'm certain bylands buys bud wood from them i do agree with you Konrad they look very similar to the ptitsen 10.