Dear Florence how sweet of you to think of me dear friend. I always must remind folks that I live in Mendocino County and not in the village of Mendocino. It is however a big part of my life. I spend alot of time there and have good friends and a history there. We are 20 miles inland. Below me in a wooded valley are the headwaters of Big River that empties into the ocean in Mendocino. My friend Gayle and I call it our connection. Also the mists from the ocean make their way here often. Chance I can tell that you are a kindred spirit gardener. I appreciate your kind words. My garden is 12 years old and the roses have come from everywhere. Some are grafted from Home Depot some I've brought home to root from Pere le Chaise cemetery in Paris and Carmona in Spain. Many are from Vintage because Gregg is a dear friend and only 2 hours away. I'm not sure if most of them are climbers. It could be. If you go to helpmefind and search for Red Rose Ridge you can look at the list of roses here. When I plant my roses I first put gypsum in the hole because clay soils are low in calcium. Then I give them an organic powdered fertilizer like Whitney's. I mix the soil that goes into the hole half and half with steer manure or compost and then top it all off with compost. I keep a thick mulch of rice straw on to help conserve moisture. In the spring I give my roses alfalfa pellets and top that with compost. Every other year now I add more gypsum. We don't use Epsom Salts. The soil here is already high enough in magnesium. At the time when they are beginning to make new growth I toss on some fishmeal. I have started using less Miracle Grow type stuff. Although I do spray for fungus until the end of June and add something like Miracle Grow along with water soluable seaweed to the mix. In July I give them more alfalfa and fishmeal. I'm not sure what to say about Othello. I like it myself but I am very tolerant. Some people don't like it. It is a big rose and people are dissappointed that it is not a dark red as you would think. It is certainly healthy here. Maybe you can find some photos to help you decide.

We grew "Lundy Lane" and I found it to be a very lovely mostly-yellow Pernetiana. Its' foliage is a very light-medium green, and very attractive. One caveat: of all the Pernetiana roses I've grown it suffered the most badly from blackspot. I have an organic rose garden and never sprayed it with anything other than Cornell. It continued to bloom c. 3 weeks later in Autumn than my other Pernetiana roses, which also endeared it to me. For comparison, these are healthier Pernetiana roses for our area, near Oakland, California. I never needed to spray theses with anything: "Duquesa de Penaranda" the healthiest of all Pernetiana roses in our area. The climbing form is fantastic!!! "Soliel d'Or" "President Herbert Hoover" the most fragrant of the Pernetiana roses to my nose. "Gruss an Coberg" "Mari Dot" a fabulous Dot rose but very small on her own roots, I'd love it on rootstock. Luxrosa

Very few old HTs have any kind of following. There are a few of us, however, that think they're wonderful. Grace Darling, along with 75+ other old HTs and Floribundas, lives in my HT garden, in a prominent spot in my front yard. I love Grace's full flowers, and her bush-form is much more compact than the leggy shrub most people are used to when you say 'hybrid tea'. She needs fungicide here in Mid-atlantic bs-hell, but that's not a consideration for me since I spray twice a month during the growing season. Here's what you have to look forward to: Connie Here is a link that might be useful: rose blog

Back on topic - Lithuanian Crested Pink (LCP) My seed for this came from a trade with Steve "forgot his name but it's written on the packet" at least 7 years ago. I've been saving the seed from the largest, meatiest tomatoes with the smallest and fewest seed locules. Most of the time this is a wonderfully productive plant. Even cursed by the early blight this year, I had some productive, but not exemplary plants. ( I sprayed with copper sulphate at the first sign.) LCP is mild, sweet, fruity and my family loves it so it goes in every year, make as good addition to canned tomatoes because it has so few seeds. Wonderful salad: LCP sliced lengthwise, dress with 1:1 mayo: sour cream, thin with lemon juice, dill snippets, thin sliced red onion. My daughter and husband prefer Rose overall. I've mentioned this previously. Johnny's seeds of Maine advertised that Rose was better than Brandywine. I grew and ate both side by side - Rose won and goes in every year. It Also produced this year in spite of blight. The flavor is very fruity and you can tell when this is included in a sauce. I've saved seed for more than 10 years and have some fruits that have so few seed locules, they *almost* look seedless :-) New love this year: Coustralee - a keeper, big, flavorful, only drawback is the large, plentiful locules. I squish the seeds out before canning. Polish Pastel - like this one, productive, though it's a bit bland. Nice for canning since it is firm and keeps some shape. I think this may be unstable though, as one year the seed I planted had little resemblence to the yellow bell with pink highlights. John from Australia has not answered my email lately :-( Bless him for sharing this one with me. Tomatoes should not be political fodder - if you love one that does not mean the others are no good. It seems the different varieties are suited for different localities and weather conditions, different palates, personalities and uses. Peace through tomatoes. Back to lurk-land Maryanne in WMass