Hi Fishermanblues, Welcome to the forum. I to live in Az, in Phoenix (land of the oven). I am fairly new to growing cps, started a year ago. This will be my first summer with plants outside, so I may not be much help, but . . .here goes. Last fall I placed 2 VFTs and 1 Sarr outside when the temperatures were equal with indoor temps. They over-wintered going through the dormancy period. We are lucky to be able to have our plants outside for natural dormancy without worry or mulching, etc. Those 2 VFTS and Sarr are still outside now and growing like weeds. They get direct sun until about 11:30 am when the UVs reach "very high". I have a heavy, at least 75%, sunscreen that protects them for the rest of the day. However, I am not getting all the color on them that they had when purchased. The green is a healthy vibrant color but I am still working towards getting them to really color up for me. I acquired a few more VFTs and another Sarr over the winter. After being acclimated and repotted into larger pots I placed them outside in the same setup as the other plants have. The VFTs struggled some with adjusting to the sunlight but are now growing new vibrant traps. I am guessing that the plants we purchase from stores, (Home Depot, Lowes, 99 cent store, etc) are not use to the sun or strong UV rays. I'm not sure how the large nurseries that ship to these stores grow, I would like to know. There is a thread here in the forum discussing the reaction of some VFTs to being moved outside. It's called "Have you ever heard of this before?" posted by cpenthusiast on Mar 22, 08. As for growing in the hot AZ sun here are my ideas and plans. One of the problems of growing plants in our heat seems to be the temperatures of the media, that is why large pots are suggested. Seems the soil heats up quickly and can kill the plants. Right now my plants are in 6 inch pots, obviously that is not large enough. On one 85 degree day about 2 weeks ago I checked the temperature of the media in each pot. Some were still under the sunscreen, some not. The ones not under the sunscreen during the middle of the day had a media temp of 94 to 98, a bit hot I think, and the ones under the sunscreen were about 80 degrees. That's when I decided to put the sunscreen up permanently for all the plants and adjust it for when the UV rays are the highest. Aside from using sunscreen and large pots I have also heard that top watering twice a day or putting ice cubes on the media and in the water tray helps during 110 and + degree days. I am just "feeling" my way along here. The Sarrs seem to like the heat much better than the VFTs do, they are taking some time to adjust. I'm not sure if I will leave them out all summer or bring some or all in during the hottest part of the summer. I'll wait and ask the plants when the temps go higher. If anyone has any ideas or information I to am open for suggestions and help. Enjoy your plants, Nycti

Good nurseries in the Tuscon area: Mesquite Valley Growers (18 acres)on far East side; Catalina Heights Nursery and Harlow gardens, more east/central; Desert Survivors, west of U of A campus; Moon Valley Nursery, 3775 W Chandler Blvd, Chandler. Links for you about growing citrus in your special triangle (Tuscon, Phoenix, Yuma triangle). http://www.azcitrus.com/ http://ag.arizona.edu/yavapai/anr/hort/byg/archive/growingcitrusincontainers.html A very good reference book to have on your shelf for growing citrus. A little biased toward Florida, but still very good for us here in S. Calif. and AZ (again, copy and paste this link, as GW breaks the link at the first hyphen): http://www.amazon.com/Citrus-Selecting-Varieties-California-Illustrated/dp/0962823643 Attend the Arizona Cooperative Extension Citrus Day, a great educational opportunity for you in your area (we have a similar function at UC Riverside here in S. California, in February). Here is the main page for U of AZ Extension and Citrus (copy and paste this link, as GW breaks the link at the hyphen): http://extension.arizona.edu/programs/citrus-management Be sure to check out their "Event Calendar" for future citrus classes and presentations. They hold Citrus Clinics in various areas in January And, Pima County's extension site: http://extension.arizona.edu/pima You have a great citrus fertilizer available to you, that is especially formulated for your soil and citrus, Arizona's Best Citrus Fertilizer. Many, many great cultivars for you to choose from. Any mandarin is going to probably do just fine for you. Satsumas are famous for handling low winter temps in stride. Gold Nugget is even more cold tolerant and produces ripe mandarins at a different time than the satsumas, so you can extend your mandarin season. Several grapefruits also do well, Rio Red, Oroblanco/Melogold pummelo hybrid (my favorite, as they as sweeter and less bitter), and Cocktail pummelo hybrid (yet even sweeter, and one of my top 5 fav citrus). Lemons tend to be less cold tolerant. Eureka is the standard, but I would the Improved Meyer which has some orange or mandarin in its genetics. It is more cold tolerant and is a little less acidic than the Eureka. Extremely prolific fruit producer as well. Tangelos, Minneola is the standard, but you might want to consider the Page mandarin. It's not really a mandarin, but a cross between the Minneola and the Clementine mandarin, so that makes it 3/4 mandarin and 1/4 grapefruit. It is an absolutely outstanding citrus cultivar. Just meltingly delicious. Worthy of a spot in everyone's citrus collection. You can buy anything on semi-dwarfing rootstock. In fact, most citrus comes on semi-dwarfing rootstock, harder to find it on standard rootstocks. I would recommend that over truly dwarfing rootstock (really only two, Poncirus trifoliata 'Flying Dragon' or Cuban Shaddock), as the trees will mature more slowly on dwarfing rootstock, than on semi-dwarfing, and be slower to produce fruit for you. You can keep the trees crotch pruned to a managable size very easily. I have a "No Ladders" rule in my orchard :-) No climbing a ladder to pick a piece of fruit. Too old and bones are not up to that kind of tumble anymore. My rule is no tree can be taller than what I can reach up and pick. And, I'm only 5'5", so that's not very tall :-) Semi-dwarfing trees will only grow to about 10'-15' anyways, so very little pruning is needed with citrus. Do learn how to crotch prune correctly, though, as citrus produce fruit on new wood, at the tips, so if you go at your tree with shears and not pruners, you'll have a lovely, round tree with zero fruit :-) Here is a decent article about pruning citrus trees in AZ, with the exception of leaving dead wood. That is absurd. Always prune out dead wood, as it is a source for infestation and infection. Just protect the branches and trunk from too much sun. Very easy to do. Just paint exposed branches with the cheapest flat latex paint cut in half with water. All evergreen trees need to have protection from the sun on their branches and trunks, especially when very young: http://ezinearticles.com/?When-and-How-to-Trim-Citrus-Trees-in-Arizona&id=1386215 An excellent article on how to correctly prune all fruit trees, including citrus. This is how to crotch prune fruit trees: http://www.crfgsandiego.org/Presentations/Fruit%20Tree%20Pruning%20Central%20Leader%20and%20Modified%20Central%20Leader.pdf Good luck, definitely reach out to your local extension folks to get to their Citrus Day/Clinics, or any classes put on by your local Master Gardeners about citrus. Let us know what you end up with, and how you fare! Patty S.

Thanks for the info, TR...good to know, even though I have never gotten a rose that small, or a cutting like that. I have bought all my OGR's from Seminole Springs, and they were all either 1 gallon or 5 gallon containers, with well established root systems. All I had to do was plop them in the ground, and watch them grow. I gave away 90% of all my roses last fall, though, as I wanted to switch to a different type of garden. I do intend to grow a few OGR's here and there, as single specimen plants, but I don't want another bed full of them. When it looks good, it's great, and when it doesn't...well, not so great. I needed the bed they were in to look good most of the time, so away they went to be replaced with plants that don't have much "down time." I know if you are really good with roses, you can make them look good all year, but that wasn't working for me. I needed something that stays greener all the time for a backdrop. Now I'm looking for a couple of roses to tuck in here or there. I had kept my Louis Philippe, but it got a "cane browning" disease of some sort and lost a cane every other day or so, all the way to the ground, until the entire plant was gone. I have to have another! Can't be without LP. Duchesse is one I would still like to have someday in a special spot, and I'm glad for the info, in case I do have to order it. Marcia

That's great to hear Lou-Ann. It is a great color, isn't it? Mine has put on a decent amount of growth in the 2 weeks since it was potted up. The bugs or something are eating small holes in the leaves, but all my roses are having that issue right now, South Africa Rose especially. SA is still quite small, so I hope she makes it through. The leaves of Florescence are shiny and otherwise disease free so far. I'd love to know how big this rose will get or how big the flowers get at maturity. I wasn't sure at all where to put it in the garden. The tag says 2 feet, but I feel like they are always underestimating the sizes of plants. Thanks again for commenting! Glad to hear I'm not the only one with this pretty rose.