Last night our rose society celebrated one of our oldest living rosarians and a consulting rosarian who will be leaving our area and returning to his homeland, England, with his lovely wife of 60 years. The dinner party was held at the home of a fellow rosegrower. Jon, the CR who was being feted asked me to walk out in the garden with him and help him identify some of the roses. He is getting cataracts now and making it more difficult to see, but he can see negative's and positive's. He remarked on what a great mulch they had and wondered why the roses were so small. He knew they hardly pruned, guessing that was one of the reasons for the small bloom. He walked over to a tea and asked me if it was Mrs. B.R. Cant (which it was) as he was no longer able to see them as he once did. He had helped them install their watering system which he designed a few years ago. He showed me how it worked and was appalled that I had never asked his advice for the same since my garden was so large. I swear it could be patented. It was the best watering system I have ever seen. He asked me about another tea which he could not decide between Madame Lombard and Monsier Tillier (I told him it looked like MT). He asked about some of the HTs, some of the newer ones that he was not familiar with. Two of them I had to guess myself as there were no name tags. All the while buffet was being set up inside. We walked over to a whitish yellow rose which we both thought from a distance was lovely and he said is it "Elina or Lemon Spice?" I pulled it closer to him and he said, "Lemon Spice." We both smiled as we both knew it was. He paused, crossed his arms and said, "When will gardeners ever learn to quit using all the fancy names and just use 8-8-8 or 13-13-13? Three times a season, no more, no less. One cannot be to busy for that, now can one, when one is mixing potions and teas for what? I tell you, it is one of the best things ever invented, the low neutral fertilizers. They need to use it. This garden needs help and the mulch is good, the water is good, just feel the moisture, just the right level." I asked him how in this poor soil could he have such a lovely garden (I have seen his many times) with just neutral fertilizers. He said, "Long ago, I built the soil. Once the soil was built, I left her alone. She will be good for a while with mushroom mulch. Someday it will need working but it has done well for 20+ years, yes, 8-8-8 has kept her that way and I will miss the soil from my garden, not the house, but the neighbors that I came to love in the garden, but the soil I built and the lovely friends I made along the way, like those of you here tonight. I will miss you, all of you but my time to garden has passed. I want to keep in touch with you. Don't be a stranger. Let me know by telephone or computer. You seem to understand more and inquire more about gardening than winning rose shows." Let me add, he had to be a great gardener in Scotland to get the job here that he had, caring for the best gardens in this state until age caught up with him. He has won many queens in rose competitions. He grows all kinds of groundcovers and perennials in his rose garden.

The only thing in my yard that still has leaves is my butterfly bushes. I'll let you know in about a month. My crape myrtles, which I planted last April (and almost killed with too much sulphur in the fall), are leafless but fine. Orchid tree was planted in August or September and has some slight branch dieback. Coincidentally, I'm soaking jacaranda seeds right now to be planted in my planters later today. I hope to get them in the grown by late summer, if not next spring to avoid the cold. I'm also soaking some western redbud seeds for planting next spring.

Would be great if we get excited like that in some other area's, after all these years going by roflmao Does it have a tag? I noticed on mine that it is time to redo the tags and also make sure they are not on to tight. Now that they are starting to grow. I do not want to chinx (sp) myself. But I think the day beak is showing signs of a few buds too yippeeeeeeeeeee. That was one of the very few brugs that did not freeze all the way down with the stems and has a great size. Computer ordered. Ships around the 11th of May. Gosh and then comes the setting it up so it is functionally. Install wireless card. Setup e mail program. Gosh I hate doing this. At this stage in my life I just want to get excited by seeing buds come up roflmao But then I can finally do again what I want. With hubbies laptop all I do is post messages. No photoprogram nothing :-( Lucy

Ahh - New plant disease. LOL I almost did the same thing, but not with peppers. I have a newly planted salad bed that I stuck a few of my transplants into and planted seed in the rest. A few days later, I could see little green things all over it. Well some of the lettuces had started to come up and were teeny, tiny, but the rest was something blowing in from the neighbors tree. It was bright green and in tiny little pieces. Thanks for the pepper info. I was hoping that they would be a small plant, but was afraid they would not be. I think there are going to be some crowded plants in my garden this year. I wish seed companies would put the size of the fruit or other edible part of the plant AND the 'average' size of the plant on seed packages. It would certainly make planning easier.....and I HATE, HATE, HATE generic seed packages. If it weren't for the internet we probably wouldn't know what we were planting. LOL Actually I don't mind the Thompson and Morgan method of a generic package inside the 'picture pack'. I think the foil pack may also protect for a little longer. It looks like a good business decision to me since you don't have to use colored and expensive printing to print packs for things that never make it to the shelf. Just stuff the pack as your inventory needs require. With the date stamped on the inside pack only, you could use the same outside pack for years, but only pay printing costs for the ones you really sell or display. I think maybe the Brits got it right on that one. LOL I had two tomato plants outside last night. One was in a container and covered with a milk jug with the cap off and the bottom cut out. I slid it under a glass top table for the night, and the other was in the center of a huge container with a window across the top. The window didn't cover the top of the pot, but did help to shield the plant a little. Everything here looks good but it still feels cool at 48 degrees. I need to go pull my 'tomato wagons' out into the sun. Just as I was typing this the temp jumped to 50 so I guess the peppers get to come out also. We're walking, walking, walking. I need to go move a few more from their tiny blocks to a pot. I'm almost done with that task, but I am getting some pepper seed in the mail this week and I know I will have to plant a few of those. Do I need them? No, of course not, but they will be pretty in the garden. LOL