Wow - thanks for reviving this, Sara Ann. You've been so good at posting to give us all chances to show off our roses by colors this year that we got plenty of rose eye candy already this year. I appreciate your warm comments as always, everyone - Trish, Kate, Molly, Diane, Sara Ann, Ingrid, and it's both fun and discouraging to look back at how wonderful the roses were in 2013. Coincidentally, I'd also give a major body part (OK, maybe just a major amount of blood loss) to have any single rose bush whatsoever look that good in my yard this year. Not that this was such a bad year overall, but the rose stars were few and far between. Everything (virtually) got pruned to the ground after winter and it really strikes me how much difference it makes to have surviving cane vs. no surviving cane. The rose puts all its energy into regrowing cane, and forgets to bloom, except for spots of isolated blooms here and there on scattered bushes. For the most part, my better bloomers were the newly planted roses that didn't have to regrow anything and still had the flush of youth. They say it'll be a relatively milder winter in these parts with plenty of snow, so I'm hoping for another year like that one in 2016. Now for the questions - Diane, I still like Ascot and it tends to hover in the 4-5' range for me. It's a reliably healthy bush, but it seems to be one that appreciates some surviving cane, like most of my roses. Here is a closeup from 2013 of Ascot showing those luscious big fat reddish blooms: In contrast, here's the one solitary bloom cycle I caught for Ascot this year (and I went out faithfully every week all summer). Pretty meh - washed out hot pink with more like semi-double blooms. Still rock-solid healthy leaves, just in recovery mode like most of my roses. Nevertheless, it's still a keeper in my world for the sake of the photo above: Ingrid - sorry for being confusing in labeling the medium pink rose in the first picture. Petal Pushers has small mum-sized blooms in regular profusion (it was one of my more reliable bloomers this year) but it's toward the back near the grey shed, obscured by other roses. The prominent one falling over the fence is one I forgot to label - the Delbard rose Dames de Chenonceau. It's a totally reliable rose for me and not bad for blooms this year. I'm sure with your warmer climate it would do more blooming, though I'm not sure if the multiple petals would make it more vulnerable to drought or not. I dearly love this rose, as well as the Champagne Moment/Lions Fairy Tale to its left in that first photo in this thread. Here's a closeup from July this year of Dames de Chenonceau. I think Roses Unlimited carries it if you're tempted, Ingrid (smile) - this looks like your style of lovely subtle colors. It does tend to flop though - I had to lie on the ground to look up for this shot. For comparison, here's Petal Pushers from June of this year. This is what I usually see when I catch this rose, as it's a notorious droopy rose and doesn't climb very high. When I'm motivated to lie on the ground for a photo (not all that often, considering all the stray rose thorns also on the ground), this is what Petal Pushers looks like, also from this year. Yep, this one makes me dizzy and I can't exactly tell which way is up: Anyway, thanks for your comments on this blast from the past, and may our next rose years be good ones this time! Cynthia

Christin, I've read that both Doppleganger/Doubledecker and White Swan are seed strains so they should both be good, I hope your coneflowers turn out spectacular. I know folks have been collecting and sowing seeds from those hybrids and I sure haven't seen much encouraging news on this thread so I'll keep my fingers crossed for you. Even though I knew I shouldn't, I started drooling when I ran across Pink Double Delight seed on a trade page I was browsing last night. How I managed to restrain myself from sending an email, I'll never know. Lol. Terrene, they look fantastic, I can't wait to see them in bloom! I kinda stalk the daylily threads so if you post pics I'll surely run across them! I started all my daylilies in red drink cups and a lot of the smaller plant starts that I take to the swap go in recycled easy mac bowls, which my son was addicted to a few years ago. T-bird, that's exactly what I'm talking about. I'm frugal as can be and almost all the seeds I start are from trades. I know that other folks have been growing seeds from trades and I haven't grown an Echinacea since the '90's so I figured I would save myself a bunch of trial and error and just ask others their opinions. Folks on GW are great, I never go wrong following the collected advice here. Jeanne

I think Doug brings up some excellent points. With this hobby, you need to be cognizant of which aspects you most enjoy, then prioritize prioritize prioritize. Otherwise you end up wasting time and resources on projects you will later scrap. Growing Hoyas from seed uses up a lot of space, requires a lot of checking-in, and results in plants that are (usually) of limited trade value. To me it makes perfect sense that Doug, who specializes in blooming Hoyas, and painstakingly sharing his strategies and photography, would have little time to monkey around with seeds. On the other side of things, growing from seed is quite interesting to me, and I'll explain why. For me, growing Hoyas is less about raising champion plants, and more about learning about the genus as a whole. I have a big collection because I want to see as many representatives as possible and explore their characteristics and adaptations. That's also why I like to obtain multiple collections of the same plant. It's interesting to me how it has developed differently in different locations. I probably won't ever approach proper scholarship, but I have an academic mindset and would like to understand more about what these differences imply. Therefore, raising seedlings is another fun data set to play around with and learn from. So, if I were going to make a beer analogy, Doug would be the brewer, and I would be the geek hitting microbreweries and posting on beeradvocate.com That said, now that I'm moving and will have more space, I am going to take a big page out of Doug's book, set up a more intensive grow space and push my plants a little harder. So far no luck on my Aleya seeds germinating, so it's been a bit of a wasted investment this time around. That's not to say I wouldn't try again, but I would definitely save my trials for species that were maximally interesting to me, so the gamble is worth it.

Alycia, you sure put in a lot of effort to get your garden to come together so nicely. Beautiful layout and lovely plants as well. Be sure to take a picture of your NOID's blooms this summer. It will put the final touch to the ID. Then be sure to ADD THE NAME TAGS. :) NOIDs add a touch of mystery to the garden, but you never know what to expect from them. Glad you have a good option for the ID.