I just got (my first :-)) Ashdowns in the mail yesterday too!
I went out to the front porch, with my parasol to keep the sun off me, to check the mail. LOL

I don't know how you all do it!
Allison
ps enjoy your rose!

what a fun thread Kentstar! and I can't wait to read about everyone's dedication...hmmm, in my case I only have loony stories, lol! 2 in fact!...one was my Gemini tree rose, my very first rose, idiot me!... I planted it in March without even presoaking the bareroots (aaargh); almost 3 weeks later we were blasted with an ice storm in the middle of the night; I grabbed swiffer handle brooms and basically froze my fingers off trying to tie twine and clear plastic garment bags around it to keep it upright (which is the worst!!! possible thing one can do), and then as soon as I woke up, I drove in the middle of the snow/ice storm to my local garden center and was given the wrong kind of chemical burn fertilizer but at least was given advice to transplant it into a freebie pot, begged my neighbor next to me to help me dig it out of the frozen ground with the ice storm still! blasting at both of us, and dragged the tree rose into the garage, and then the basement and then! to the living room, not being able to make up my mind where to put it, posted to this forum as a first-time forumer, screeching and howling about my poor tree rose ...Karl, Evie, DianeJ, in particular and Ingrid_VC and Prairierose bless them all, had to come to my comfort / rescue those horrible nerve-wracking days...

The other story is my loony creativity...after my scary experience with sudden unexpected ice and snow freezes, I purchased those collapsible plastic leaf tents and gardening stakes to cover in case of hail and rain, which we did get about 3 days after I planted my Lincolns...and which I did run out and implement, but man, I was majorly soaked to a tee! LOL! wrestling in the middle of the night with rain, hail, and fumbling around in the dark with those leaf tents...

Here is my Gemini tree rose now...what a survivor it is! Bless its little heart and the countless people who've helped me along my gardening journey...
It has 26+ buds on its second flush--every bud huge, healthy and strong...

Beautiful! Looks lots like Brigadoon.

I think we have all done something just a crazy. I really want a certain rose that is out of commerence, and I found someone who had it and was willing to send me cuttings in the mail. The day they arrived I had worked late and when I got home I stood outside at my potting bench in the dark and rain with a flashlight so I could get them in the rooting pots. (It was worth it, cause it did root). DH thought I was nuts!

Liz

What we do for our roses ha,ha,ha, hee, hee, hee!!!

I still think Rosenpots is NORMAL LOL! compared to my havoc! I've always thought of rose cuttings as a magical "art" that only the arcane rose experts can even come close to duplicating...I've seen like tents! really dedicated to this art...(sort of resembles a child's sheet tent) illuminated from the inside with fluorescent lights). I tried to find a link for it, I believe it was posted here or in the rose cuttings forum a month ago...Pretty fascinating but almost seems rose-fi ....both science and magic, LOL! and space-age dedication...

Kentstar you would be amazed at the pic...It may take me a few days to find the photo...

Another crazy insane thing I did this morning...
I have to leave for work at 5:30 in the morning. I went out at 5:15 am to check on my rose, see if it needs water, how it's doing, etc before I plant it tomorrow. It was still dark out! No birds, no people, and I'm out there checking up on my rose!
Nuts!

I have you beat- Nuts is when you have to get a job in the rose business to support your habit. Nuts is when you go to work in your pajama's and your co-worker can't tell the difference. Nuts is when you have so many roses it just makes sense to move them all across country to add them to your boss' rose collection.

Trish

Hmmm? A job in the rose bursiness? I wonder...

Just kidding! He, he, he!
Boy, and I only grow a few roses! Wow!
Serena, your rose is gorgeous! I love the light pink tipped in red!

Deadheading before a thunderstorm with 30mph winds... dumb dumb dumb...

hee-hee! Trish, thanks for the huge smile this brought to my face... Yes, good 'ole PJs and peeking at our roses before the crack of dawn...it is a cute thing!

awww, thanks Kentstar... I was so lucky with my Gemini tree rose, it has endured so many horrible things even after the ice storm; sometimes it almost makes my cry to see how it has endured and how it keeps on giving me so much joy with its wonderful blooms and its strength...

you call in to work and say you are going to a funeral and then drive 3 hours one way to Sequoia nursery & turn around and come right back home, tired but happy.

for the record...I consider the closing of Sequoia a loss, so therefore I did not lie.

ooh! I love that gemini! You're not crazy or maybe were all crazy! I talk to my roses. I have them all classified as boys or girls. Maybe I am crazy.

.....you're clinging to the side of a hill in a semi-sheer long housedress, which catches on everything and keeps getting yanked up, when it's 120 in the sun, the little flies are trying to drink the sweat off your face, and you're trying to mulch and water a dry-looking Le Vesuve with your feet slowly sliding downhill, hoping and praying that dear 80-year-old Mr. Smith next door, who could not otherwise see me, does not have his birdwatching binoculars trained on my person.

Ingrid