Welcome, and congratulations! Listen, not EVERY rose requires dis budding to mature. Some are perfectly vigorous enough to flower and still grow. However, some definitely are NOT. Many own root Teas, Climbing Teas and particularly yellow Tea-Noisettes and some Chinas can take forever to develop and mature into the plants you expect them to be. Permitting them to flower only slows their development. Weak, stingy growers such as Austin's Dove; many of the earlier gray, brown and green roses; many of the Tea-like earlier HTs can also drag their feet, producing begrudging inches of growth. Permitting them to flower will slow them down greatly, too. Then, you have some more modern climbers, such as Kordes' Rosarium Uetersen, Renae and my Annie Laurie McDowell which will sit and flower like a blooming weed while refusing to climb. If you want to push these to climb, you pinch off the buds, forcing that energy into pushing elongated canes from the plants in their efforts to bloom again. Budding these particular types will speed up their development quite a bit, but they still benefit from dis budding to push growth. Own root versions of them are significantly slower to develop. It's with these that dis budding provides the greatest benefit. It is quite possible your roses won't require dis budding to develop into the plants you desire, in the time frame you have in mind. Whether they will or not, they very likely will mature into what you hope for faster if you don't let them flower. Whether you permit flowering as they desire; permit only some of the flowers to mature and open or simply continue dis budding them until they are the size you want them to be is up to you. Enjoy whatever flowers you want to, but keep in mind that if they are taking longer than you hoped to develop into the plants you expected or desired, removing the flowers to force growth should help you get what you want, closer to when you want it. Kim

Like Zeffy, I hated the puter. I was living with my ex who had one. We ended up getting internet, I had a Hydrangea that wouldn't bloom and some how ended up on one of the gardening forums. I wasn't allowed to garden with him, I used to sneak roses into the garden. He used to be so mean that he'd have to dig up the part of garden where I had a few roses. I had a Gene Boerner; went to my dad's with the kids one day, came home & it was destroyed. No clue what he did to it. Ended up having him removed, started coming to rose forum.. that was back before user names. Think the name I used was SBA@NJBell. At one time there were a lot of us named Sue on the regular rose forum, we used to sign our name OOTO (one of the other) Sues. At some point GW started growing, we had to make user names. I remember how ticked off some of us were lol I wanted something original, took me days to think of Rose Lover - and making it into Roselvr. Been through a lot here. Many people coming & going, some of free will some to "Disney". I've been "Spiked" many times. I used to hate waking up knowing either I'd be Spiked or Disney'd. There was a time when saying the name Veldfire would send your post to Disney, or you to Disney. A lot of people left to go to his forum. Although he was banned, he was able to hide his IP and get here to read. lol GW lost a lot of people to his forum. A lot stayed there, never returning. I've seen vendor's and hybridizers that have come here and given their time, banned because someone didn't like something that was said. We've lost a lot of great people. Before Veldfire there was another forum on Delphi, haven't been there in years, we lost a lot of good people there too. It was one hybridizer who started it I think.. We also had a guy named Sharif from Bangladesh who used to post other people's pictures. I think Anne got him banned one day, she finally proved he was stealing people's pictures & posting as his own. I'd already been "Spiked" a few times due to him, almost banned. We lost Rosesense back then. I met GW members. Cindy Tx, met her in New Orleans. Sue Belle; Helen FL, Karl; who saved our butts in New Orleans when my hubby left the travelers checks in a restaurant. Karl was able to tell them who it belonged to. Baldo, Anne, The gal who writes the column for New Orleans; her name escapes me right now. I've met a lot of nice NJ people Anyone remember Kang?

Speaking of LEGIT; This is a guess, but it's a no-brainer, I think... The hosta named 'Bruce', a collaborative effort released by the trio of David Stone/Pauline Banyai/Pete Ruh, is named for Bruce Banyai, son of Pauline (Gold Standard) Banyai. Mr. Bruce Banyai does post on this forum from time to time. Just today, actually. He of the fragrant garden from my dreams... That's my guess. Is it accurate...? Don B. P.S. For those who may not know (I realize many do) Pauline Banyai was a hosta grower, breeder and hybriizer, and I think it's of great accuracy to say she's a legend among hosta breeders/hostadom/the world of hostas.( 'Gold Standard'?) That is Pauline Banyai's baby, one of 'em. She created and discovered many, many wonderful hostas in her time. She was the lady that inspired ken to add as part of his vocabulary (I'm paraphrasing)... 'Toss them on the driveway, they'll grow' OK, sorry to everyone; I turn my rant off now : ) Cheers!

Thanks for your kind remarks everyone and wishes for recovery. I appreciate your encouragement and support! I have been very pleased with my progress in both surgeries. The shoulder is back to 95% with just a little range of motion to get back, which apparently impressed my surgeon as it's well ahead of the usual schedule. All that good muscle tone from hauling garden debris and stretching to reach wayward roses has clearly paid off. I'm really grateful for that use of my shoulder, since I rely on it to get into and out of sitting positions now after the hip surgery. Even four days out of surgery, I'm already standing and sitting fairly easily and navigating my house without much problem. Lesley (and Diane's friend) - the best advice I can give you as you work up to your hip replacement is to keep moving within reason - the two best forms of exercise to counteract arthritis are apparently light weightlifting and (ahem, drumroll...) gardening! Think of it - all that squatting and stretching and weight shifting we do all the time? The better you can move before the surgery, the easier the recovery. At the same time, listen to your body and the doctors! If it hurts or feels wrong don't do it, and follow the doctor's instructions. There are some horror stories going around my YMCA of a member who had his hip replaced and felt so good he cleaned his garage the next day, mowed the lawn, and other foolishness. He ended up getting the hip infected, needing a second surgery, and totally complicating his life. There's a reason I'm unapologetically propped up in my recliner and making my preteen kids do the household chores ("you'll thank me later, kids"). Boy, we do have quite a collection of injuries and ailments affecting our GW family! Alana, I hope your doctor can fit you in now to get past the problems so that you can enjoy spring! As Jackie and Carol said, there is something inherently healing about being out in the garden and "playing" with our roses. Meredith, a bone graft on toes sounds daunting and complex, though I'm glad you've been able to manage long enough to schedule surgery in winter when it's more feasible - I don't think we fully appreciate how much we rely on our toes for walking and standing until they cause us problems. Judith, I totally sympathize on waiting for non-emergency surgery until you don't need use of that hand - we'll all be thinking of you and Meredith and Alana and hoping for a speedy recovery as well. In terms of your knee surgery, I totally sympathize. In my hip/knee prep class, I learned that knees are much trickier surgeries than hips because of the structure and pressure on those joints, and the rehab is much longer and more painful. Glad to hear you're back to speed as far as the knee goes! Ingrid, it's fantastic that you've been able to relieve pain without surgery on your shoulders! I remember you talking about how debilitating those shoulders were, and as gardeners we rely on our shoulders more than we realize for everything you do. Of course your garden and landscape is an inspiration to you, since it clearly is to all of us as well, in your lovely photos and stories of gardening. Here's hoping for decent rainfall into the growing season in California. Ken, I can relate about picking your house with the garden in mind. When we were planning to move in town about 8 years ago, a friend suggested we look at their house they were selling in a nice part of town. I mentioned how important gardening was to me and she said, "Me too - I have a well-established garden". I drove by and her garden was no bigger than my couch. Clearly we had different ideas of what we were looking for in a garden. Sharon, I agree with you on travel. There isn't a trip we've made in the last 10 years that was even considered in April or May, which is prime rose planting season. Even an extended family gathering in mid-June last year was pushing it a bit, but it was a unique situation. Besides in Kansas, July/August is the right time to head to the mountains and escape the heat. Karen, you're very sweet to enjoy my garden photos and posts - that's one of many factors that make GW the go-to place for enjoying rose chatter. And really folks - Diane & Ingrid included - you forget when I'm talking about pruning 750 roses, this is zone 5 and I'm a zone pusher with lots of hybrid teas. Pruning an HT can take as little as 30 seconds - "is there any surviving cane?" "nope" - lop off entire blackened rose bush an inch or two above soil line. The Austins can get a little tricky, as they have canker that's not visible that needs several cuts to get to clear cane. Huge twiggy roses like Darlow's Enigma tend to not get pruned at all in spring - partly because he laughs off the winter, and partly because trimming off those pesky little dead twig ends is easier when the leaves are fully emerged. At a pinch, I can get all the roses spring pruned in three fairly packed weekends, but this spring I get to do a few hours a day and to me in spring, that's leisurely. Stay healthy and thanks again for the support! Cynthia