Wow, guys, you've bowled me over! Truly, Jim, I appreciate your compliment on my humility but I can't lay claim to it, for sure. Reading all your posts, I see the gist you all got was MY metamorphosis (which, of course, is there, but I didn't see it.) I was trying (maybe ineffectually) to describe a garden with some maturity under its belt, a garden that stood up last month, looked me in the face and asserted "I'm a big kid now!" It's like watching - and being jolted by - your kids growing up, stage by stage, after being convinced they will never survive and at each new level of growth being astonished at my own lack of awareness of what the future would bring. I don't have children so don't have those experiences anywhere but in this garden. It really feels like all my fretting and stressing were needless. The roses were going to do their thing no matter what I did, as far as worry goes. The biggest lesson here is "don't sweat it!" I feel the tiniest bit of mellowness coming on. Me? Mellow? Hardly, before now. In the original post I had started to write that I was concerned that the highly anticipated spring flush might not meet expectations, but I deleted it. That definitely has the ring of mellow to it! Melissa, what a wonderful thought...that I deserve these beautiful plants. How can that be? Anita, *** time for them to meet their shovel *** What a laugh you gave me!! Re Cels Multiflori, I had seen (I think on the Vintage site) that it is a very small rose, so you plan accordingly and what happens? It's moving time. I had also planted a Salvia next to NN, and the first time I cut the Salvia back I saw I only had half a rose bush. So the Salvia is the one that moved in my garden. Jim, an apt student? I hope! Patricia, I like your designation and I humbly accept the award. And you're right; stuff is happening whether it's observable or not. Florence, I'm hooked alright. 67 roses on .17 acre! DH is far too tolerant of my mania! Mendocino rose, I loved the way you put it. *** your growth along with your garden *** Kinda gave me goose bumps. Leslie, yes, yes, do learn from my mistakes - and from others'. Even though no one can be perfect AND inexperienced. It's a very good idea to apply what you learn - makes life MUCH easier. Oh, my back, when I move Belinda's Dream! I keep putting it off. Had the thought yesterday "I'll wait till Louie blooms then I can wack off the side that's blocking my access to BD." Sounds reasonable. Jeri, wouldn't it be great to see my garden 20 years hence. Boy, will I be a geezer! Had another thought the other day. I've basically made our property unsaleable with all these roses. They say there's a buyer for every house, but I don't know... Thankfully, this is our "last house" so I won't face that issue. We'll let DH's kids handle it! Sherry

This is the first year I've grown any from seed, and I overdid it. I'm about 20 miles from Augusta, GA, on the line between Zone 7a and 8b. Hot summers, often dry, Wanted to see which Heirloom types survive in this setting. From Seed Savers Exchange: Cherokee Purple Black Krim Black Cherry From Tomatofest: Mortgage Lifter (red) Arkansas Traveler Opalka Marianna's Peace Stump o' the World Winsall From Burpee: Brandy Boy And in a moment of weakness I bought several plants at a garden center: One each of Druzba, Reisentraube, Park's Whopper, Beefmaster, Rutgers, Marglobe, Celebrity, Super Sweet 100, Summer Set and Goliath hybrid. When I started the seedlings, I found that by far the most vigorous seedlings were the Black Krim, followed by Cherokee Purple and Arkansas Traveler. Don't know if that will translate into better plants, but they were definitely better as seedlings. All of them seem to be doing well in the ground, though.

I guess everyone has their pet way of doing it. I used an 'oil' which is actually a gun product called FP-10. Its a light amber oil that has some cleaning properties and sports a friction modifier so it still lubricates when dry. The way I feel about lubricating this assembly is I understand the reasons why some say don't lube, but Briggs & Stratton saw fit to include the felt oiler and a small hole to oil it periodically. I never even knew the hole or felt oiler were there so this part never got oiled since it was built in 1989. Now that I know, I'll probably give it a few drops every spring as long as the engine lasts. The way it's going it may be working after I'm gone. Since I am using a liquid oil, I obviously know it will migrate, but I have my doubts it will cause any trouble in the lower assembly simply because rotational force will sling it out, leaving only the residual lubricating effects, such as they may be. This is the reason I will oil it in the spring and run it immediately. The only other thing I have to work on with this mower is trying to balance the blade. The normal way won't really help. As I said above I had to 'make' a blade because the originals are obsolete. I found a generic 20" multi-purpose blade that looked like it would work but the two indexing slots did not extend close enough to the center hole to fit the driver. I filed them with a round file until I got the blade to snap into place, but I got a slight vibration. I think the indexing slot on one side has to be touched up so the blade can move to that side just a hair. Its going to be a trial and error deal but once I get it right I will scratch marks so I can take it off to sharpen/balance and get it back in the same position. If this mower wasn't absolutely perfect for the yard it now belongs to, I would have to talk myself out of going to all this trouble to keep it going. I think this is going to be the last go-around for it. The blade problem is a killer. The deck has a plenum under it of 14" diameter. The blade driver sits so a straight blade will just about hit the plenum, so any blade used has to dip at that location. I got lucky finding this blade that fits perfectly in that respect but every time I need a new blade now I have to modify the pin slots and go through the centering procedure to avoid vibration. Plus, everybody wants to mulch and this mower is not designed for that and simply doesn't have the power for it. It will discharge and bag great, though. Here is the last new blade I was able to get for it. You can see how it dips to clear the plenum. The plenum has a lot to do with adding velocity to the air in the 'vortex' part of the deck that leads to the discharge port. You can also see how close together the indexing pins are on the driver. I guess this picture was probably six or seven years ago and that blade is long gone. Under Deck

Thank you. It is what I thought then, but i couldn't believe myself. But how the seeds got there and why it sprouted now and not earlier is a total mystery. As for the Hollyhock performance on the West Coast I can't say anything because I live 550 km from there and the climate where I live is entirely different. I have drought (but of course I water my plants once a week), and heat (can't do anything about that). This year temperatures broke all time records with two and a half months of temperatures well above 30 C, and the end of June heat wave with temperatures above 40 C (100 F), up to almost 50 C (120 F) not far from where I live. Hollyhock was not thriving here in my sandy soil, it is why I tried it only once. So far it looks like it likes the soil in my edible garden in this bed recently improved more with my direct composting method (burying fresh stuff in the soil). Ah well, one more flower in my edible garden!