Well, today I dug up 2 Prairie Sunsets, 2 Breathless, Tiffany, 2 Gruss an Aachen (they were damaged by the ice storm), Abe Darby, and Joseph's Coat. Most of them are badly damaged by the black spot, and the canes were no longer healthy. Rina Hugo seems fine. Arethusa is beautiful, as are Square Dancer and Splendora. I am going to put Arethusa and Natchitoches Noisette in the front by Marie Van Houtte and Spice. Opposite them will be Splendora and Square Dancer. Once we get these out, we are going to expand the dogs' yard. I have needed to reduce my garden for years, and this is a good way to do it -- to give part of it to the dogs. Sammy

Yes, I grow it - I am in Central Europe, you will read about the climate in my "my page" description. This grass doesn't get out of control in my garden because I have poor, dry soil. In my sister's garden, which has much deeper and more fertile soil (but also not wet) it spreads a bit faster. It doesn't form a dense bush in dry conditions - it doesn't crowd out other small plants but sort of grows along with them. I have no idea how it would behave in moister soil which it seems to prefer. It does spread by rhizomes which resemble tough cords, hence the name. It is said to rarely bloom here but it did bloom for me last summer, I had several blooming stalks. It needs sun and a long summer to bloom. It looks very pretty in the wind, the leaves are very long. I grow the variety Aureomarginata, which has thin yellow stripes along the leaves. It also transplants easily, last year I transplanted it to a new bed when it was almost 2' tall and it grew AND bloomed the same year.

Patty - glad to help! It sounds like you have a great plan for these roses after the move, and I find that the color combination works for me. I'm impressed that you were able to find a pot big enough to wrangle Quadra into for the move, though if it were young it might be less aggressive. Now you can use your new thread for showing us pictures of the roses in their new homes next spring! Bella Rosa - you really think I'd FEED a monster like Quadra (smile)? That's kinda like putting out cookies for King Kong. Admittedly I do throw out some alfalfa and 10-10-10 fertilizer at his base when I feed the other roses once in the spring, but since I only get around to doing that every couple of years he basically fends on his own. World domination doesn't depend on mere human behavior - just plant him and get out of the way. He's easily my biggest and best reblooming climber. Yes, you need to replace yours (smile). Kristen & Bella Rosa - from what I understand it, every rose propagated has a decent chance of having mosaic virus lurking that may pop up now and again, but I really don't find that it has much effect on the rose in the long run. Supposedly it can reduce the vigor of the truly wimpy roses, but the Buck roses are bred for zone 5 and they can shake off the effects pretty easily. Mosaic virus (RMV) is not by any means the immediate death sentence of RRD, so I mostly ignore it if I see symptoms of RMV. By all means it's good to support companies that go through the work to virus index and attempt to clean the scions, but that's only available on a fraction of the roses out there. I don't let it stop me from a rose that I really want. Cynthia

I can almost see zone 4a from here, I'm that close to the line. Again, you never know. Right now my seedling Gleditsia triacanthos is completely covered up (protected) with several feet of snow. The first year or two is supposed to be the worst for winter kill on these. There are many mature ones growing around town so I know it's possible once they get established. Be the second winter for my Sugar maple and Japanese tree lilac. Don't expect any trouble there bc we had near -40 last winter and all came through. My Red Oaks laugh at this weather, same for the Bur Oak and Red maple. I did see some kind of borer on the new Green Ash, just one spot, so have a plan for replacement if they appear again this year. It might have been something other than EAB so we'll see. The Tsuga c. may come again from dormant buds idk. If I would've left the burlap surround off, it would have been near completely covered with snow but somehow that surround causes the wind to sweep around it, almost to the bare ground. If it survives this summer, it's on it's own next year.