Thanks Suzie for the link! Very interesting! Are you sure my grapes would not do well for you in CA? I believe they are good to zone 9 atleast. I ordered them from a place out that way I believe. I should have plenty left if you want to try some. I had an idea. Since my fridge is in a cut out type cabinet, I cannot really get the cuttings up there. However, I do have a heat mat that I use to germinate tomato seeds. It is a very low heat. Do you think they would be good on the heat mat? I remember when I was rooting figs for the first time (figs, my first love!), someone had suggested using a heat mat. How do you feel about this? Well, they are all wrapped in their garbage bags. Hopefully a few will make it! I did use rooting hormone on some of them. I had so many, I figured I could experiment. Well, all 3 vines are in the ground. I planted them yesterday. Hopefully they will take. I also dug up a rose bush that was at the house that my mom planted when I was a baby. I do not know how that will do. I did re-plant it here at my house, but the leaves were already limp. I wonder if roses can survive that. I also took a few cuttings from the branches, only about 4. I read to stick it in rooting hormone then into dirt with a soda bottle on top of it. They said to keep a few leaves on them, but the leaves are already pretty limp. I do not know much about roses, so I do not know if they will survive or not. That would be a shame. Although this bush is over 30 years old, it was cut way back, almost to the ground a year or so ago, so it was not as big as you would think it should be. It did have this huge, deep, long main root that I had to cut at one point since it was down so deep. Well, I will update on the grapes, and also the rose bush. thanks again for all the info! Christy

Hi merry: I moved 2 roses last year, and 7 roses this year (William Shakespeare 2000, Nahema, Crown Princess Mag., Paul Neyron, Jacques Cartier, Eglantyne, and Pat Austin). I moved Eglantyne last week in 90 degrees heat. I did it at 8 o'clock evening time. I prepared the new hole in advance, then dug Eglantype up. I put it on a garbage lid, and threw water over the rootball immediately. Then I drag the garbage lid across the lawn to the new hole. None of its leaves got droopy. I moved Pat Austin (2nd year bush and big) a few days ago. Unfortunately I didn't have the new hole ready. I dug Pat up, and plunged her into a bucket of water, then spent time digging the new hole. The upper branches are droopy, but the lower ones are perky. I cut off the upper branches, and 3/4 of the leaves are still perky. I moved Pat around 8 o'clock evening time, since day time temp. was over 100. From what I researched on moving plants, it's best to water it the day before, but NOT RIGHT BEFORE MOVING. You want the rootball to be slighty moist, but NOT SOAKING wet, which the soil crumbles and roots get snapped off. Eglantyne was slightly moist, but mostly dry when I dug up. Pat Austin was soaking wet, and lost most of its hairy roots. In the past I moved 3 huge Knock-outs bush by watering it right before moving - bad mistake, all 3 lost roots, lost all their leaves and took at least 2 months of daily watering to sprout new leaves.

Hi James, I suppose you're back in Houston now? Hope everything looks OK. The small trees that I planted this year will be OK I believe, and I have enough 3-gallon root-maker pots to take care of them. The ones I'm concerned about are an LSU Gold about 4-5 years in the ground (bush, with several trunks 1-1/2 to 2") and a Kadota about 1-1/2" caliper planted this spring (tree form). I've ordered a bundle of 15-gallon root-trapper above ground containers and a case of 5-gallon grounders also, so I should have something adequate to handle the trees. The 15 gl containers are 18" diameter x 15" tall; 5 gl grounders are 12" diameter x 10" deep. I was planning to wait until they drop their leaves and go dormant before actually digging them. I have to transport them about 170 miles, but that shouldn't bother anything if they're dormant and the roots are kept moist in good potting mix. I'll probably keep them in pots for a while, at least until spring, depending on my progress in building sheds for my equipment and preparing an area for planting the trees. I have several other relatively young trees to move in addition to the figs, but don't really think they'll be a problem. About a dozen blueberries, 5-6 cryptomeria yoshino, a few chinkapin bushes, a cowcumber (big-leaf magnolia), and a few others that aren't easy to replace. I think that most of the young trees that I planted this spring will go into 3-gallon pots OK, and I have plenty of them, and if not should have enough 5-gallon on hand. My primary concern was in preparing them for the transplant. I've been using a mix of pine bark fines and turface, about 2:1, and it has worked well for everything I've tried so far. I found that if I added a shallow layer of turface to the surface it seemed to help with moisture retention (a day or two), and I've been painting all my pots white.

The HD and Lowes here have gone crazy with there prices.They only have S.minors,Green Mediterranean fans,and B.capitatas.They do have one more type W.robustas,the worst looking ones I've ever seen. Chad, The T.fortuneis they have here are no where near the size of the ones in your picture.They have 1gal.size palms in 3gal.size pots for $20. There doing that with all there cold hardy palms here.There all a lot smaller than what size pot they have them in.Then there priced twice what they was last year.I cant believe what there doing.Most of them has some type of disease on them also.You would think there selection would get better and there sizes would be at least what there supposed to be. If HD and Lowes keep doing this it will drive people away from buying palm trees.It's sad to because there is no other places that sell cold hardy palms around here anymore.They need to get there palms from some other vendor than the one there using. I just thought I would post about this so people wouldn't think it's just in the north.I'm going back to the Internet myself to buy my palms from. If anybody knows of a good nursery around Atlanta,GA.that sells a good selection of palms at reasonable prices,please let me know. Randy