"I better burn the CC bill before DH sees it. " Does the DH still buy flowers for you? Even when I was single and bought my plants, if it produced flowers and somehow I croaked it, I figured I got more enjoyment out of it and spent less money than for a bouquet that lasts a week. If you'd like some entertainment, there's a great thread about how to 'count' roses... 1. Mini roses don't count. 2. Floribundas 'because they are not full-fledged hybrid teas' count as half. 3. Shrubs, Climbers, Ramblers, Old Garden Roses, etc. don't count because they can be considered "landscaping." 4. Roses not planted 'or in pots' don't count. (See the "Territory" Clause). 5. Roses that were discounted count as half. 6. Roses received as gifts don't count. 7. Odd numbers must always be rounded off, if you're out of room, round the number down. For every one-hundred, divide by two. This is known as a "stock split." 8. Roses whose names you don't know or can't remember obviously don't count. 9. Roses that are on Shovel Prune Watch don't count; the roses that replace them also don't count as they cancel each other out. Duplicate/multiples count as one as they are considered a set. Roses that are not planted in a bed don't count. (See the "Landscaping" Addendum). Bareroots don't count because they are dormant when they arrive; once you plant them and they start to bud out, well, you've already done your count, so you will just have to wait until next season, by which time you'll be sure you already counted them. Mislabeled roses don't count because you probably already have one of them somewhere, which has already been counted once, probably. Anything less than Grade 1 counts only a fraction, and since fractions are not whole numbers they can be rounded off (remember the rounding off rule). Roses that you think you might give away can be excluded from the count, makes it easier to part with them; if, by some chance you wind up keeping them, oh well. HTs that get huge and wind up taking more than one space should be counted twice, but remember the duplicate rule. Now if, after counting, you have under a hundred roses, you must immediately place some orders and they don't count because they're in transit and therefore not in the ground. Roses ordered on a whim really don't count because they were never on a list. (This is known as the List Rule: If it's not on a list, it doesn't exist, most likely). If you cut many roses and give them away, this is considered Charity, and everyone knows that you get special allowances for Charity, which brings us to... Tax Deductions. (see Claiming Roses as Dependents). See? You really didn't have as many as you thought you did! Time to go order some more!

My Earth Song--about 8 years old and moved at least 3 times--has RMV and has never had rust. The RMV hasn't seriously impacted my Earth Song, as far as I can tell. Here are a couple samples of its spring performance: Earth Song--bottom right corner My daughter's pic of Earth Song several years ago and in a different location: Heavily pruned Earth Song--couple years ago after winter-freeze damage due to a lot of freeze-thaw-freeze-thaw fluctuations in early spring. That is the most severe pruning I ever had to give Earth Song, but as you can see, she bounced right back and had no trouble blooming again although she was shorter than usual as a result of the heavy pruning. Earth Song close-up--from about 6-7 years ago. Another Earth Song close-up from about 7 years ago. Wish it would hold that form for longer period of time. My conclusions, based on my experience with Earth Song: 1. Earth Song is NOT a "rust-bucket" in regions where there are NOT high rust pressures--which is most of America, I believe. 2. Earth Song is a fairly heavy and willing bloomer. 3. If Earth Song suffers from late winter freeze damage, heavily prune it back to good canes (with white centers) and it will spring back willingly with abundant blooms. 4. Under normal and usual Midwestern growing conditions, Earth Song exhibits good disease resistance (including good BS resistance). 5. My pics above show what a RMV Earth Song typically looks like and how it blooms. I can't see it is suffering much from being RMV. Sorry I don't have a picture of a leaf with the zigzag marking on it, but it never occurred to me to take a picture of it. I just had to come to the defense of this good rose, given the beating it has taken on this thread. Kate

Kind of funny story - a couple of years ago the guy across the street trotted over to show me this mysterious worm he found on his tomato plant. He wondered if it was something very rare because he had never even heard of a worm with horns and perhaps UCONN might be interested in having this specimen and maybe, just maybe, he had discovered something that could be beneficial to some plants here in tobacco valley and he could breed them and make money! He said there were many of them on his three patio tomato plants. "Whatta ya think, Jane? Should I put it in a jar?" I asked to see it in my gloved hand and as this guy was envisioning $50 bills, the silly worm reared it's head with horns and mouth seeking something to bite. I dropped it on the driveway and with a flash of my right foot, the mysterious money-making dream shrank into a bite-less green blob as my neighbor went into one of the most shocked and crestfallen expressions I'd seen in a while. I told him he had lost the horn worm lottery and to go home and squish all the others. I have a feeling that my reputation as a nice neighbor lady turned into tough old broad that day in the driveway. Squish 'em, Pixie, Squish 'em - unless you're going into the horn worm raising business. Jane (aka Hard Hearted Hannah)

Ann, at first I did not understand the significance of your question about excessive thorns. As you have stated in your e-book: "Hyper thorniness is not a dependable indication of RRD" I have a copy of the full Chinese paper. In it they state: "WRLRD differs from RRD in the following ways: first, the witches’ broom symptom consists of the proliferation of only small leaves along the canes, instead of both leaves and twigs at the ends of canes; second, the leaves are not distorted and twisted; third, the thorns are not red-tinged or produced in excess." Thus it appears that the Chinese closterovirus possibility (for the Damask rose infection) can be removed if the claim of excessive thorns in the damask rose is accurate. However, when I look at the picture that they (the damask investigators) provide, I do not see the clear indication of excessive thorns that I have seen in some rose rosette virus pictures. I suggest that we wait for the results of the definitive PCR test before concluding whether the middle East is or is not to be added to the known locations of rose rosette virus. I