nickjoseph and nippstress: The name of the rose is Spectra, and that is how it looked yesterday. In 2014 it emerged around July 15 after that brutal winter. It did not flower, and was a weakling in 2014. Now it has 12 basal breaks, and is back to normal. Spectra is a large flowered climber; in France it is considered a hybrid tea if memory serves me correctly. Usually we cannot grow large flowered climbers in the Midwest. I planted two of these elsewhere in town and they died within 2-years. Behind my office where this is grown I have a microclimate that is probably more like Zone 7, with a southern exposure. I have buildings on the West, my shorter building on the North, and a longer one on the East that block the wind. In other words this rose bed is in the inside of a U facing south. I planted a small bed of 5-roses about 15 years ago when I moved in and they grow amazingly well. I have had almost no disease issues in this bed. The Prince gets 4 feet wide, and 5-6 feet tall. Spectra when it comes up timely like it is this year usually gets 8-9 feet tall. About 8-years ago I put a cane in the ground and it grew into a rose bush (Polarstern). If you have any tips how to post pics, I'd appreciate it because it is hit or miss for me. I posted pics on this site more than a decade ago, and even 4-5 years ago on the fruit and orchard subsite, when this site had a different interface. Now, I cannot figure out how to reliably post pics within a post.

Fingers crossed for you! Glad your blood orange is coming back. Is that a cutting or grafted? Hopefully it's not root stock. I also killed a favorite tree this year- transplant shock. Mine was def dead though. It's gone to the citrus gods in the sky now. To be replaced next year!

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

I grow all my mints in very large deep pots, and they do great - and have for many years, coming back year after year. I don't like the idea of mints spreading and taking over areas of my yard - that's the primary reason for the pots. Of course, they stay outside all year long. They die back completely each year when it gets cold enough. In the spring, before the new shoots start sprouting, I cut back to the ground all the dead stems to make it far easier when cutting. Each spring I also determine whether the level in the pots has dropped down too much, and if it has I carefully dump out the entire pot, add an appropriate amount of potting mix and compost in the bottom of the pot, return the dumped out root ball to the pot and fill in around the edges, to get the soil level close to an inch from the rim of the pot.