We looked at that rose yesterday and think the tree is probably "only" 50-60 feet high,and the rose is going up 40 feet or a bit more. There's still room at the top for the rose to climb, and we believe that it will reach the top, and cascade down once it has no more place to grow. Ann, I think you are right about the microclimate. The cemetery was originally a sand hill, created from the Sacramento river. Its high ground, in a city second only to New Orleans in risk of flooding, is why the cemetery was established there in 1850. Up at the top of the hill, where the banksiae is planted, is the sandiest soil of all. The curator has always suspected that the water table is pretty high. When we have removed roses, we are sometimes astonished at how big and deep the roses grow. I told some of the sheriff's crew to remove an Alberic Barbier, and went to lunch. When I checked on them, they were standing chest-high in the hole, still digging! It is a cemetery, for heaven's sake - we don't want to dig TOO deep! - so I had them stop, even though there were still substantial roots to be seen. Many of our roses grow bigger in the cemetery than elsewhere. We don't prune hard, we rarely feed, and we do usually provide regular, weekly water. But it must be something about the microclimate/microsoil. A funny thing about that banksiae - it's only been there a dozen years, and I'm told that a volunteer cut it off a few years after it was planted. All of that growth is from the last eight or nine years. Anita

Just got an email from Vintage Gardens canceling this Saturday's Open Garden. They are also cancelling the one on May 30th. There wasn't one planned for Sunday the 2nd so I'm afraid you are out of luck. If you want to come back to the cemetery on Sat, many things are blooming that weren't when you were here last. We also might get a chance to talk! There's to be a tour on symbology, which should be fun - it is at 10 am. You would also be welcome to come by my garden in the afternoon. Glad you've had a good tour overall. Empire mine is usually pretty late, in my experience - I've never yet hit the Fortune's Double Yellow in full bloom. One year, it didn't happen till the beginning of June. Anita

Fogrose - the cemetery is closed on Wed, I am afraid. And Thursday. Budget cuts. We did indeed sell every single rose. We've never done that before. I didn't get to see all of you, but I'm so glad that you came! Thanks to everybody who helped out, too. I came home with a rose this year, which I try not to do. It was Barbara's Apricot Musk (BAM), a seedling from Cemetery Musk Seedling. BAM may have Perle d'Or in its parentage (it's in close proximity). Flowers are single, about 2" across, and fairly apricot in color. It blooms constantly and has stayed small. Benny Lopez doesn't seem to sucker much - a few new canes near the base, nothing to worry about. Really a wonderful rose. One comment about Placerville White Noisette. It hangs onto its dead flowers and must be deadheaded to look good. Because it flowers so heavily, that's a bit of work. Lux, I'm glad that you made it. I understand your comment about the name of Cemetery Musk Seedling, but since that's the rose our curator gave it I don't think we'll change it. In general, we try not to put the class into a found name unless we are really sure of a rose's origin. For example, we have "Pickering Centifolia," which is really an HP, and "Hayward Gallica," a Hybrid China. We keep the found names for consistency, but it confuses people. Jackie, Purezza may repeat bloom in a coastal clime, but only offers scattered flowers here. We also grow "Vina Banks," which is very similar if not identical to Purezza. I've notice that if we cut back canes during the summer,we prompt new laterals that bloom in the fall. If we don't, there is no repeat bloom. Also, Jackie, we were so concerned that we had 'Lady Roberts' mislabeled that we went to check this morning. There were FOUR labels, all of which had the right name. I wonder what rose you were looking at instead. Do you recall the name? Lady Roberts is indeed in 525NE. The main catalog is right, but there was a little typo in the sales catalog so it said it was in 526. These things happen. Mendocinorose, Fred Boutin thinks that the Fairmount rose is not the historical rose named Proserpine. It's never been identified, but seems to be a very nice rose. I really appreciate this feedback and thanks for the nice comments, which I will pass along to the volunteers who work so hard and have such good ideas (such as the Rose Hotel). Fogrose, starting at 10 am would be easier on us, too - but I've learned that when we change a time or date, many people don't get confused. However, we'll consider pushing the start time back, since so many people come from out of town. From all of your comments, we definitely need to have more Forest Ranch Pompom and Benny Lopez next year, if at all possible. Jannorcal has a lot of clear space now to start anew! Anita

Speaking of Yuba City in rcantors posting While looking up google yuba city i ran across an interesting article, here is just a sentence i found In 1851, a Methodist Missionary in Syria sent some fig trees to Hanson, who planted them in his back yard in Yuba City. In 1856, prices of food and other things were very high in California. During that year he attended the State Fair at Sacramento and purchased two hives of bees, paying $200 or them Back then 200.00 was a large some of money i would think. Anyways if you like to read copy and paste to your browser http://www.geocities.com/heartland/village/2262/hanson/gmhanson.htm