Once I make a decision, I do not like to think about any sacrifice I have made. However, when I sprayed, I grew: Mr. Lincoln, Veteran's Honor, Christian Dior, Europeana, Olympiad, and another red I cannot remember now. I had a white circle in the middle of my front yard with Prairie Star, and many flowers inside the circle. Then in front of the house, I had Europeanas and Olympiads. Possibly I had about 7 reds together after a circle of about 10 Prairie Stars. I liked that effect, and now that I do not spray, there are not large roses that have that drama. I do not want to spray, and I want to grow roses, so I learned to dismiss those roses that needed special care, and learn to really love the older roses that had a different (but safer) drama. I miss the old, but love the new. When I see the words, Veteran's Honor, I have fond memories, but now I think of Cramoisi Superieur, Ducher, and my very special SDLM's -- about 9 or 10 of them. I also miss those days when the children were at home, but appreciate their lives now, and have moved on to a different type of lifestyle. I guess this is TMI, but we can always appreciate what we don't have. This is a nice thread for us to dream about what we had, and think about what we now have. Sammy

Tomorrow (Sunday) it's supposed to be up into the low 60s and sunny, so I am going to plant the above mentioned bulbs and etc.. This afternoon while I was outside hauling rocks, my Blue Tick Hound dog, Bonnie Belle, got one of the bags off the table, and chewed it up. I don't know if she ate any of the bulbs, but I only found three. The kittens may have batted them under the sofa. Don't know where the rest ended up. That concerned me, but she didn't get sick. Man, there was dirt all over the carpet and floor! She likes to chew up plastic bags. She must have had one swell time. What a mess!

I pinched off the tops of my lemon balm and rosemary, to make them bushier. Put the cuttings in water. The little suckers rooted and are now back in the garden. did the same thing with my bee balm. Hoping to 'double' my money.

You can pot up anytime, though very late spring to early summer would be ideal. I'd wait until mid-June to do a full repot, which includes bare-rooting and root pruning. Plants have natural rhythms (search Circadian and/or endogenous rhythm). Over the course of the plant's rhythmic growth cycle, their stored energy levels and their ability to create energy/food waxes and and wanes. In most cases, to repot (as opposed to just potting up) a plant when its energy stores and ability to create energy are both on the wane is to ensure a much longer recovery period. Repotting and root work is a heavy hit for the plant. It draws down the plant's energy reserves much faster than would occur if you repotted in June, when both energy stores and current photosynthesizing ability are reaching peak levels would be at peak. Since a plant's natural defenses are a byproduct of it's metabolic rate, it's not difficult to see how a significantly weakened plant with compromised ability to defend itself, combined with a longer recovery period work in concert to make the plant far more vulnerable than it would be if you were patient enough to sync with the plant. Ecclesiastes 3:1 To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven: Your plants aren't in danger of serious decline due to root congestion, and they are small enough that, even if the soil they're in is VERY water-retentive, you can use a work-around that requires no special tools, materials, or knowledge, other than an understanding of how to put Newton's First Law of Motion to work on behalf of your self and plants, which I'm about to describe. When you water, water to beyond the point of saturation. The entire soil mass should be at maximum capacity and a good measure of the water used in your watering exercise (at least 15-20%) should have exited the drain hole. After the pot has stopped draining of its own accord, hold the recently watered planting over the sink and move it up and down. You'll soon see that on the reversal from downward to upward motion, quite a bit of water exits the drain hole, and the sharper the reversal, the more water exits the pot. An object at rest stays at rest and an object in motion [the water in the pot] stays in motion with the same speed and in the same direction unless acted upon by an unbalanced force. When water ceases to exit through the drain hole, you'll have removed ALL perched water that has the potential to be of any consequence. Last, but not least, we all have a 'nurturing bone' - we like to take care of things. Knowing that you're planning for your plants' future in a way that allows you to take advantage of its strengths and make allowances for it's weaknesses for no reason other than it's in the best interest of the plant, offers the grower a much greater sense of personal gratification than an approach that lacks that planning. Al