Despite the original posters overly extensive post, with certain questionable content, the central point is still quite vaild. We as a nation spend more money on grass than on any other crop. That by itself should be reason enough. Read up on the history of lawns and you'll find that they were orginally created as a means of demonstrating wealth (aka, I have this big area and I can afford to do nothing with it except grow grass I can't eat) Regarding the comments of junegem13 and zachslc, you might want to read up on the legal history of this movement. As it turns out, most weed laws (ones based on hight, not on noxious weeds) are unconstitutional. Nonetheless, if you are in a city or subdivision and decide to do a wildflower meadow where there is not an reasonable ordinance, then you should notify your neighbors and the city about why you are doing and the legal preceedants. The EPA has all this information. Regarding property values, that was the original complaint neighbors made against one landowner when she converted her lawn into meadow. When they were unable to demonstrate an actual decrease in property values, the city ordinance was ruled unconstitutional. Afterwards, the neighbors decided if they couldn't beat her that they'd join her and replace their own yards with meadows. Property values in that one neighborhood are now some of the highest in the city (Specific names and places, are available if you want them). Time and time again, lawn alternatives done correctly have shown to raise values, not lower them. In Charlottesville, VA local government is working on an ammendment to exclude native meadows from our weed ordinance. Other cities are doing the same very quicky, especially since the weed ordinance as written by many localites constitutes a legal liability to local governments.

ellen, i know this is late, but i will continue to pray for you & vt_..i looked at your member page & saw that you had bubra hoya, do ya still have it, will ya take cuttings???i have bruga,yellow & gold,named violets[babies] to trade.plmk,molly[sewnmom7@yahoo.com

A beautiful sentiment. My heart goes out to V-tech also, and I've been praying for the wounded.

It is not immediately systemic in the whole plant. It begins when one growth bud (or less frequently a growth tip) is infected. The mites like to settle in the crack where a leaf stem is attached and growth buds are located. Then the RRD growth will develop rapidly from that site. Because the plant juices are rather slow to move downward, it takes a while for the systemic infection to reach the crown and infect other main canes. What's "a while"? I don't know, but even if you monitor frequently, you will probably not notice the bad growth until it is too late to save the plant by removing the underlying cane at the base. I've had a very low success rate of 10% or 15%. If you try this, be sure to remove any (healthy) parts of the suspect plant that are touching or nearly touching neighboring roses. The midges may crawl around. Also if the RRD growth was touching other leaves, I would cut the whole plant down. With own-rooted roses that have developed a wide crown, you may have a better chance of saving something by digging the plant and splitting off a piece on the uninfected side that has some cane, some crown, and some root. This post was edited by michaelg on Mon, Sep 23, 13 at 15:51