Our organic method Old Rose garden has these Tea and Tea like roses that thrive here where condtions favor p.m. more months of the year than blackspot: these I consider to be A list Tea roses and I would buy them first: Mrs. B.R. Cant a larger bloom and deeper pink than Duchess de Brabant and I consider both to be Must have Pink Tea roses along with the China-Tea Le Vesuve which has very rapid rebloom,, and Mme. Antoine Mari, which gets lightly covered with p.m. but no loss of leaves nor bloom production. Mrs. Dudley Cross, very healthy and quite smooth stemmed. Souvenir de Pierre Notting, a lovely Tea rose that has large blooms. I'd give it a few hours of filtered shade to keep it from bleaching out in the hot summer sun. Etoille de Lyon: can be kept to c. 5' in zone 7 a useful size and easy to espalier in a narrow space. Lady Hillingdon and the apricot form of Anna Olivier are also healthy A list Tea roses and most Teas are pale or light hues so these are very welcome in a Tea rose garden. plus A.O. is the most strongly scented of all the Tea roses to my nose. The white Tea roses, such as Niphetos and Devoniensis can be Divas depending on cultivation and situation, the ones I've found to be easy to grow are: Westside Road Cream Tea" I adore this fragrant white Tea rose, and bought two of them. W.R.C.T. is far more resistant to p.m. than Ducher which defoliated and was shovel pruned. Le Pactole" I had to leave mine behind when I moved, a great loss for it takes ages to build size and is worth every second of waiting. Exquisitly elegant blooms. Caveat Rosa: I shovel pruned my "Georgetown Tea" it was far too sickly from p.m. to keep in my garden, it defoliated c. 90% of its leaves. Mme. Lombard is borderline for p.m. resistance here,yet although it is covered with a thin icing of p.m. it neither defoliates nor decreases bloom production. As an organic method gardener I'm used to ignoring this amount of p.m.. Mme. Berkeley is quite resistant to powdery mildew in our area, but I have heard from folks elsewhere that it is not as resistant to blackspot as some other Tea roses. I love it and have it outside my living room window so I can see her often. I prefer Monsieur Tillier to Gen. S. for color and M.T is slightly healthier in our garden. The Triomphe du Luxembourg we received appeared like a plainer version of Mlle. Franziska K. and I regret ordering 3 of these. "Alliance Franco-Russe" shows less resistance to p.m. than Etoile de Lyon and Souvenir de Pierre Notting. best wishes for a beautiful Tea rose garden. Luxrosa.

Duchesse: Thanks for asking the question about pruning teas. It's actually the next question that I was going to ask, and I have saved the responses for future reference. BTW, Chamblee's is wonderful. I emailed them about replacing the "Lovers' Delite" with "Mlle. de Sombreuil" and they answered back immediately with no problem. Thanks for whoever recommended this nursery to me! I already have a "Sombreuil" growing in a pot, and it will be interesting to compare it next to the real thing. I'm also glad to find out that Mlle de Sombreuil has very good disease resistance. BTW, if Mlle de Sombreuil is actually a tea, and not a noisette, what does that make the impostor Sombreuil? My rose book lists it as a tea. Also, if Mlle de Sombreuil is not "La Biche", what was the original La Biche? Jeff

"I don't think you can get a nice finish coat directly on top of the bonding agent. At least I had a difficult time, although perhaps a pro would know how. For me, everything slid around too much while you were trying to work it smooth." Sounds like you are not leaving enough material on the wall, possibly using too much water in the mix, and did not allow the bonding agent to dry enough. The layer is about 1/16 to 1.8 inch thick. The mix for skim coating should be about like peanut butter in consistency. This allows it to be pushed out easily but has enough body to be workable. Bonding agents need to set up to tacky before applying the plaster. The water in the plaster will help it soften again and grab. Use of drywall knives also makes covering large areas even more of a chore than it needs to be. A plasterer's trowel makes short work of covering large areas and produces a smooth finish. It takes some practice to barealy raise the leading edge to obtain a good finish. The trowels with the tiny (3/4 inch diameter) handle are not as good as ones with a decent (~1.5 inch) grip diameter.

Thank you everyone I know I am being a bit sensitive and probably a bit insecure and worrying when I should be grateful. Our living situation makes me insecure. I blame my mother lol it's something I deal with in therapy but I still have made any headway on it. I have lived the 'with money' life with my ex and even when I say, id rather have love than money any day, since I've had both, I still wish I owned my own home, in a neighborhood full of kid with my own flowerbed to dig in and my own walls to paint. It's a goal. We are close but it's been a long two years. Mostly because I have legal fees out the you know what... And I married a man that never planned to marry or have a family and so he never planned for the future. At our ages we are just starting and we have two kids to raise... One is half way out the door ... My son will be settled and in a home in a neighborhood before he starts school and he probably won't remember that if it weren't for hand me down clothes, he might have not have been dressed the last two years. Thank goodness for our blessings because we have always been able to pay the bills, afford extras for the kids and cover the little things that come up in life. I come from a home where we never moved. My mom still lives in the home she bought 42 years ago when she married my biodad. Our lives were always very settled and we all went to the same schools, had the same teachers etc. Grew up with the same neighbors and friends. Dd has moved 3 times in her life, has been to 2 schools and I'm just feeling guilty that we aren't as settled as we should be. I know people move all the time but for someone that came from such a settled background, it's hard to justify to myself my unsettled feelings. I know my Dd doesn't care, I'm sure she doesn't. She is too worried about what books she is going to read and what performance she will do at the talent show. With that said, she hears a lot from her dad about how crappy we live. I know he and sm are just trying to upset me and maybe even make her think the grass is greener over there. I would not say I am jealous of them at all but I feel insecure that he COULD provide a more stable environment for Dd as far as a home goes. Nothing more. I provide fine for her mentally, emotionally, financially. He has made comments that with the amount of support he pays we should be living in a better area. Couldn't be further from the truth but I internalize it and I worry that as Dd gets older, she is going to buy in to what he says to her. And she won't want to be with me anymore. It's just a fear I'm sure there is no basis for it but it is my feelings and I can't do anything but accept the way things are and move on. Thanks again for letting me vent here and giving me great advice. I really appreciate it!!!