Peony tulips are unusually fussy. Even in a spot where other tulips not only survive, but aggressively multiply (sunny and dry in summer, dry-ish and cold in winter), the peony tulips don't return reliably, and never return as large as they did the first year. Parrot tulips can be persnickety, too. Your soil probably isn't *totally* perfect for tulips of any sort, but most of them are robust enough to tolerate some variation. My solution to peony tulips, if that's what I want, is to plant them in large (as in too heavy to lift once filled with potting mix, and that's about 1.5 3 cu. ft. bags per container of the stuff) pots and discard the bulbs during my late-fall cleanup, replacing them with fresh, new bulbs. Lisa

Some roses don't have the genetic ability to root at all. Some don't root easily. Some require specific handling to successfully root. Remember J&P's "New Generation Roses"? They were their own root moderns, created to eliminate the expense of budding. They prematurely announced Henry Fonda would be available own root until they discovered it doesn't root well and doesn't make a good plant own root. Week's offers some of their roses own root. Many, though, they don't because they don't develop good enough root systems to produce the quality of plants they want to have their name on. Mermaid, per one nurseryman, won't root for him until September. Locally, I've been told not to even mess with trying Fortuniana until Mother's Day. This is going to vary depending upon the variety and location. Grey Pearl is difficult to root and makes terrible plants unless budded. Many of the Coffee Roses are that way. Some roses just don't have the genetic ability to differentiate their cambium layers and form roots well. You can continue trying it and you may hit upon the right combination to produce the plant, but then it may not grow well anyway. Personally, unless the variety has special meaning for you, I'd move on to more successful varieties and grow the difficult ones budded, or not at all. Kim

I am probably not going to be posting many pics when asking questions any more because I find that too many people are only looking at the pictures, NOT reading the text, and thus their responses are either directly contrary to something I've said in the text (for instance "get rid of XYZ" or "the color of ABC is wrong" when I've already said in the accompanying that I love XYZ so it's not going anywhere or that the color of ABC is really more toward mauve when it shows up as puce in the picture) or have nothing at all to do with what I'm asking. I find that intensely frustrating. I have almost no pictures of my current house because it's still in "whatta dump" stage. No paint (walls need a TON of work), short on furniture, dreadfully designed kitchen that's a perpetual mess because there's nowhere to put things... and forget outside pictures, a few weeks ago we ripped out almost every trace of vegetation outside (and will not be replacing it until next year, probably fall '09 to get the end-of-season sales) due to a honeysuckle invasion that I swear was growing by feet per day and was starting to attack the porch. I'll happily post pictures of my previous house because I think I did a pretty decent job with it. We're not on Google Maps but we're kinda-sorta on Google Earth - but the best you can get is a fuzzy whitish blob in the midst of a bunch of other fuzzy whitish blobs on a fuzzy grayish stripe. No closeups. Our town is clearly not a high priority as far as Google is concerned! WRT security - we live in a somewhat iffy neighborhood so I am one HECK of a lot more worried about the people a dozen houses down the street breaking in looking for meth money than I am about someone trying to track me down via the Internet (I Googlebate every so often just to see what's out there re: me) from half a dozen states away. I've been email-stalked and -harassed a bunch of times in my 18 years online because of my outspoken ;-) opinions and my ISPs have always been helpful in dealing with it. However, I've had meet-ups with a whole slew of people I've met online over the years, twice flying nearly cross-country to do so, and it's been grand fun.

Gadgets, I know what you mean. I tried that when I was working and told them they could donate a $1 a month and it would add up to quite a bit with the number of employees we had. Some donated willingly and others acted like I was robbing them of a huge pile of money, good grief, a dollar!! They spent more than that on sodas each day. I didn't force them just asked it they would like to do so and majority, maybe, gave 4 or 5 dollars for the entire year, and had a couple that made up the difference. Our local Family Services sponsor a Share your Christmas each year for needy families. They accept donations of money, new and good used items. A few weeks before Christmas they put an article in the local paper with about 6 needy families listed weekly, no names, giving ages, sex, sizes and some wants the kids have. Families have to sign up ahead of time. You can adopt a family, which many organzations do and which we did a couple of years until it was like pulling teeth to get a few people to part with a little money. Wal Mart puts up a tree with names and wishes of kids on it and you can take one of the lists, buy the items and turn it in at the service desk and they send it to the Share your Christmas sponsor. I have done that a couple of times and probably will again this year.