I guess four oclocks are a popular plant..lol. So everyone is winter sowing them though, right? Except you lindalana..you do some of both. Under lights in the house, to get early start? I have sworn off indoor lights, and I do find it an adjustment to rely on winter sowing for all my annual needs. I was used to going to the nursery in the spring and buying annuals for my containers...until I had too many. [g] I am still working the annuals out too. threeorangeboys...yes, the fragrance is the reason I grow them. We don't seem to spend as much time outdoors in the evening, but I will walk out there at night just to smell the fragrance of any of the nightbloomers and to check out the night visitors. :-) Sorry Carrie that you are getting snow! YOu can't seem to win there...no rain when you needed it and now snow! pm2

I dont know.. Ive learned through the years not to bother even HOS.. I really pack it in the strong the survive and the the plant looks way more dramatic that way.. I basically take all of the seedlings in a jug, plop them into one whole without breaking them up.. This is the kinda result I like with that method...

Hello there :o) Sorry it took me so long to get back. You are correct, YOUR new rose will be a different rose. For me, that is the fun part, not knowing what you will be getting... climber, single bloom, color... plus you can name your rose. I have had a blast giving my little ones a name of their very own :o) Okay, as for the hips:"they" say you should gather them when they have turned an orange or red in color. Some take them if they are still green and have had germination(s) from green hips. The same day I gathered the hips ( red, orange and even some green: I believe you can gather the hips until the 1st freeze, as late as the end of October, for my zone that is), I removed the seeds. I made a batch of peroxide and water in a large measuring cup: 9 parts water/one part peroxide. I then cut the hip open with a sharp knife, removed the seeds and placed them in the water/peroxide solution. This process took me a little over 2 hours, thus the first seeds were in the water/peroxide for approx. 2+ hours and the last seeds only soaked for about 15 minutes or so,(it is said you should soak them for 12-24 hours, I didn't know this until after the fact.) Next I got out plain white paper towels. I used 3 of them layering one on top of the other. I then used them as a strainer, pouring the water/peroxide and seeds onto the towels. I then folded the towels over the seeds and gave it a good squeeze to remove the excess water/peroxide. You want the towels/seeds to be damp but not soaking wet. You don't want to let the seeds dry out. I then placed the seeds in the towels in a plastic container with a air tight lid. From there I placed the container in the bottom drawer of the fridge. I made up a spray bottle of the water/peroxide solution to use when the towels got a little dry, do not allow the seeds to dry out. Check on them from time to time. In about 3 months you should start to see germination. Not all seeds will germinate. I still have seeds that have not germinated but I have kept them. A germinated seed will get a little white tail. Once you have a tail place him/her in a seedling potting soil with the little white tail pointing down... it is the root not the top of the plant. I found this out the hard way :o) Regular potting soil killed a bunch of my babies, I think it is too heavy for them. You don't want to place too much soil over the top of the seed. I used a pencil to make the hole for the seed, not making the hole too deep. I set my heating pads on med. at night and low in the day, if the day temps got down too cold I left the pads on med. I purchased large plastic planting flats (kinda looked like a plastic cake pan) to set the pots on and then sat the flat on the heating pad. Light: They had approx. 16 hrs of light. I would turn the lights off at night before going to bed and back on in the morning. I purchased all of my lighting from Walmart. I couldn't find bulbs for plants but did find aquatic bulbs. They are pretty much the same thing and worked just fine. Watering: After trial and error, I found misting them with the water/peroxide solution 1-2 times a day worked the best. You want the soil moist but not too wet, the peroxide helps prevent the seedling from dampening off. After they got a little bigger I use a tab. spoon full of water/peroxide 1-2 times a day. Transplanting: After they got around 3-4 inches tall I transplanted them into a bigger pot. With pots hard to find, I found the large plastic pic-nic like cups worked well too: The blue cup in the back: Also cottage cheese/sour cream, containers work well too. I used a cork screw to make drainage holes in the bottom of the cups/containers. They then went back to their spot on the heating pads and under the lights. From there May finally came and out to the garden they went. For your rooted cuttings you might want to post your question if you have not done so already. Let me know if you have any questions. I will try to find an answer :o) Good luck, The Lioness, Cheri

Hi Manur83. Thanks for taking the time to reply. They have been 2 summers without blooms, hopefully this, their 3rd year. I suspect we have been impatient. My wife says they came in small containers and they weren't very big in spring of '15 when they were planted but they grew nicely. Last summer (their 2nd) they were a little taller, nice green leaves, healthy looking but no sign of buds or flowers. Like you say, maybe they were focusing on growth and we've probably been expecting too much. This spring, now, the leaves look very healthy AND we have buds. Making progress :-). Fertilizing...each spring, just as most stuff is starting to come up, we give all plants a healthy dose of bone meal which apparently is very high in phosphorous. But I'm sort of torn whether to fertilize any more. Did go to Endless summer web site and they recommend a high phosphorous fertilizer for "BloomStruck" late spring early summer. We gave them Bone Meal early spring. I don't know whether to give them another shot of fertilizer or not, now or later in the season...or what to give them. I'm thinking, maybe some rose food 18-24-16 in about 3 weeks... High in phosphorous with some iron. But not sure. If you or others have thoughts on this, would like to hear them! We have Annabelle's in 3 locations in our yard, and they do fantastic with nothing but Bone Meal in the Spring and water. The ES plant's card says to "keep soil evenly moist" whatever that means. So keeping an eye on that making sure the soil doesn't get dry. We are hopeful of getting flowers this year, would be nice. Thanks for your comments.