Well, I have been very busy w/ all this "homework" you all gave me! There is so much color variation in pics that it makes deciding difficult. Looking at the pics on HMF, I really like Madame Charles, but I wonder how big it gets and how resistant it is? Spice, unfortunately, appears to be a pinky-white. As for Devoniensis, would you describe it as pinky-white, apricot-white or creamy-white? The Vintage catalog shows D. as about 4 ft tall (the illustrations are great for shape but I don't like relying on them for size), which would be too short to plant between 6 ft tall roses. Many of the OGRs seem to get very large- that is going to limit how many I can get :( Nickel.- It wasn't Vintage that listed that hgt- it was Heirloom. And HMF says 4-10 ft. So many to choose from! I like contrast, so I want a good contrasting color between the 2 reds, and I would also like a rose w/ many petals. 6 ft tall will work fine, taller would be okay IF I can tie it to my deck railings- will that be okay? I need all the help I can get and appreciate all of you taking the time to share your experience w/ me. Brandy

Better now than later. Do it as soon as you can, then later you can add in from trades or what you find in local store. Remember, the economy has tanked, and because of it a lot of people are now growing a little salad and herb garden when they never did before. Last spring seed catalogues were swamped and it took nearly twice as long for most people to get their seeds. Hybrids run out faster than OPs because novice gardeners select hybrids because they take less care to maintain. If you, or anyone else, are looking for tomatoes I can help with that--I've just enlarged my list to 150 varieties. Here is a link that might be useful: Your Choice Tomato SASE

'Loreley' grows like an absolute weed here and I've loved it from the start. However, if you're looking for a tall plant it doesn't really fit the bill. They say it would probably be classified as an MTB (miniature tall bearded) if it were introduced today. It had 11 stalks it's second year here and was started with a single fan. Add to that, that it's standards have BC (broken color)/irregular splotches of veining and sometimes the flowers can appear almost flat (considered a "new" development in iris breeding). I would definitely recommend it. Oh, and it pulled runner-up for our show last year against all the modern, colorful, ruffled things. Here's a shot from last year:

Tmcclure, The seed catalog that Johnny's Select Seeds sent me was their small 49-page version. At the time I received it, I didn't realize they had bigger versions. My little catalog listed only three watermelons this year: Festival, Sunshine, and New Orchid. All three are F1 hybrids. We live in Manchester and since our local Longfellow's Greenhouse has Johnny's seed racks, we went there to purchase all three of those F1 watermelons. To my amazement, Longfellows didn't have any of those three varieties, but they did have three other varieties of Johnny's watermelons. One was Sweet Favorite, which I purchased. I don't recall the other two but I think one of them was Sorbet Swirl. But obviously the 49-page catalog that Johnny's sent me was not a good guide to their seeds. A few weeks later my wife and I happened to be with my daughter and grandaughter on a shopping trip to Waterville and my daughter mentioned that Johnny's Seeds was nearby, so we realized we could save shipping charges on a Johnny's seed order by just stopping by their catalog store. That's when I discovered they had a 129-page Home Garden Catalog and a 153-page Commercial Catalog, both of which I picked up. We bought seeds that day and even more seeds on a subsequent trip. I enjoy shopping in their catalog store. If I had known about these large catalogs I would have listed Johnny's Selected Seeds among my favorite catalogs in my first message in this thread. I will be shopping from their big catalogs again next year and, weather permitting, visiting their catalog store for my actual purchases. It's about an hour's drive from where we live and we are in Waterville from time to time anyway. MM