Sara Ann, we are in the same zone, and our weather this last year has been pretty bad. I am not sure what affected my roses more, the drought or the cold, but I had to make drastic cuts to my roses to have a decent garden. We have to make choices when things are bad, and I chose to cut almost to the ground. That means that the new growth has nothing to hang onto. Many of my new shoots are being knocked over by the wind. I never spray the entire garden. Recently I have sprayed for little beetles that seem to be heading for the house, but I do not spray for insects or fungus. The thrips are bad, and the roses will get all sorts of problems this year before they get larger. Tracing your Perfume Delight to the ground, what does the cane look like? You know that a badly infected or damaged rose will often put out a good spring show, then fizzle. I think there is some energy in the cane that allows it to do this even though the cane itself is dying. Leaving the canes for the show is good, but sooner or later they need to be cut as the new ones often grow. What I think is important is the entire rose, and new shoots. Considering your second bloom, I bet your rose is fine. Sammy

MmeOlenska - my neighbor up the road also didn't have a good result with russian sage, but in her case I think it was because it wasn't in full sun. They really love sun and I'm assuming if you're putting it with daylilies you put it in full sun. They don't need much water either. If it doesn't rain, I water my daylily bed twice a week. Other than that, I don't know why yours isn't performing well. Did you buy the regular tall variety?

thank you for that. I've got things saved people have written about inside, outside and misting. I wasn't set up to do that, have way overspent, am low on energy. It was all I could do to make myself turn back to my plants from other things going on. In due course, I'll try out your method, I'm not set up with any fluorescent light except on my kitchen ceiling, was going to work on that over the winter. Now I looked at the few gallon pots I had, was wondering where to get more, and decided the heck with it, went and bought some plastic half-gallon terra cotta colored pots at the hardware store (no they look like almost a gallon). If roots start growing through the bottom holes of those, I'll deal with it then. I know gallon pots would be better, they are too heavy, take too much potting soil, and have huge holes in the bottom, and I did not feel like looking for any more rocks to plug them. My cuttings have all these roots but no new leaves, so I wasn't sure if I should pot them up. Think I should, and am thinking of even potting up the ones that have bare stems and covering with soda bottles, and see what happens. But pot them in what soil? I've got contingency plans and shelves ready to move them to the west wall of my bedroom that gets only reflected light from the house next door (close), shut the register as far as it will go, and get a humidifier when I start to wean them out of the bottles. If I get to that point. Thank you for sharing your experience. I don't know if I should use pure potting soil or mix some peat and vermiculite in with it, been reading about H2O2, wonder if that will work instead of capstan when I start seedlings next spring inside, wonder if I should use it on my cuttings, tried some with one that is growing white moldy stuff on it, nothing happened with that, people talk about ml, how do I measure that? I read 1 tbsp then fill a cup with water. What H2O2? The regular kind you buy in the brown bottle at the drugstore? This aimed at anyone who may happen to read, not you, Angel. I've been following michelle_co's posts, and everything different ones write when they've had success, she has to bring hers in now, too, my situation is just a little bit different. I'm at a critical point now. I will watch them carefully and may have to wing it on some of it. I think every cutting but one that looks iffy in the medium George Mander recommended to me has rooted, 8 of those. Maybe that rose just roots easily. I had it going earlier, didn't see roots but it (and another kind) was growing new leaves, then the heat got them all. My rooted ones I stuck August 13, not quite two months, the temps outside were up and down like a yoyo but not like the heat wave we had earlier. It was the medium, the pop bottles, and luck I guess so far. I'm really scared to get any sun on them too soon. They were getting just a little sun outside, but it was cooler by then. I'll take the caps off the bottles for a few days before I take the bottles off, and then only for maybe about 4 hours a day for a week or so, it's so darn confusing, don't want to jostle those delicate leaves by too much off and on.

Heather is awesome!! Is it fragrant? Can I grow it in Zone 5? I have never seen such a true lavender. Also loved country lady. I think that's a Buck? I want to grow more of those too