Olga's roses are magazine worthy! I work at a greenhouse and nursery so I get TONS of stuff like that, especially because I'm one of the younger members of the greenhouse staff, some of the older customers totally butt heads on what I suggest to them. When I told a woman that rosemary wasn't hardy to overwinter in our area, some might be marginal towards the city, but nevertheless I was telling her about bringing it inside if she wanted to keep it- good harmless advice, but she insisted that she's had hers survive and make bushes here. I asked her if she had big bushes of it planted in her yard then and she said she didn't know where they were and that I didn't know my roseMARIE (her own pronunciation!) She was probably in her mid to late sixties- I was unsure. I had another person today claim she took care of her geranium hanging basket and watered it EVERY day, which is why of course it was bone dry, practically leafless, and she was returning it- but noooo she said it was diseased from the start and insisted that the Japanese beetles ( I showed her the beetle damage and talked about nitrogen rich plant food to fix it) MUST have came in on the plant and all her other plants started looking bad after she brought it home, which of course was July, when the beetles come out. Possible, but sketchy with the disease thing. I asked if she deadheaded the flowers, she somewhat answered but in general didn't know what it was. She got out the receipt but then wouldn't give it to us because " It was wrong, her husband grabbed the wrong one". Anyway I found at least ten dead Japanese beetles in the bottom of the planter- if she had watered she would have seen those buggers chomping on the leaves- excuse my language ladies but this lady ( I want to say rich b*tch because she complained about having come from a hot and strenuous tennis lesson- but that doesn't justify income or snobbery) was just flat out lying to get her twenty dollars back! Normally we wouldn't accept it, but being a gentleman I said to the cashier girl to refund it because I was getting annoyed with her intolerance and I didn't want to start gritting my teeth or argue because that's not polite and you don't do that with customers. I know people want plants and shrubs and all, but why stay so ignorant about them? It seems there is this abstraction people take with plants that just make them so black and white and set in stone, like the image of the ideal hybrid tea, they are a certain way and it doesn't change. A flower's a flower, give me one that I can't kill. Oh well, a bit of a tangent, but people like that make me a bit mad. - Max ( who would have a yard full of rosemary if it was possible)

Update: The carpenter came this morning and took down the cabinets. To his and my surprise, the glued ones came down very easily - no damage to the cabinets, and very little to the wall. (I almost didn't insist on replacing the cabinets because I was terrified the wall would collapse!) He and I had a cordial discussion about reordering the cabinets. He agreed to price them out and send me the quote so I could buy them where I wanted. He seemed grateful I wasn't going to insist he buy them someplace more expensive. (The result of that pricing exercise is now in another thread addressed to Kompy & LiveWireOak. :-)) Later the foreman came by, and I apologized to him for yelling at him last week. He was very gracious about it, and I think it helped clear the air a bit, at least in my head (and hopefully in his). I still have concerns about using the same carpenter to rehang the cabinets, but I don't have to deal with those *this* week. Also confirmed that the invoice was a computer mistake. Happens all the time. So far, so good - knock on wood!

Wow what a wonderful cousin you have! They look great ! Good job. I'm with bkay on this. Grow them in these pots until you see roots poking out the bottoms and then just barely up pot....then repeat and repeat. Remember to water water water in hot weather and make sure they are draining well. One day when they are much bigger you might try the ground.. I have or have had them all at some time. Patriot is lovely but doesn't love our heat, so if it doesn't thrive it's not because of anything you did. The others are happy. I have 3 SnS...2 in ground and 1 potted. The potted one is the biggest and happiest. I mix in wheel barrow 1 bag soil conditioner, 1 bag Sta green tree and shrub garden soil which is a good mix...not dirt...and 1/2 to 3/4 bag of potting mix . The mini nuggets that WW said would work great to...I just have bought a lot of bags of these and will use up. All this is from Lowe's. This is what works for me and my hostas love it. Of course you won't need this much mix at one time but you get the idea. Liberty probably won't ever be 6 ft across for us, but it will be bigger than the others and BEAUTIFUL and we enjoy the smaller versions just as much as if it was. And that's the key...ENJOY! :-) Gloria

This has perfect 5 leaf sets. Not much of a thorn. It sends out long canes .It does not look like any rose that I have ever grown. I looked at their website to see what they sell and they dont have pictures of the leaves so hard To tell But they don't seem to have a ton of selection so it shouldn't be too hard to figure it out. I love a surprise so I can't wait to see what I end up with