Kentstar, you are being wayyyy too hard on yourself... There are so many individual approaches to how to transition/plant your young own root roses and it all depends on the condition of your own root when you receive it... Not all own roots are created equal and to be so hard on yourself is not fair to yourself... Karl's way is always ideal (100% fail-proof) esp. if it's a baby band (there's no way a baby band can survive zone 5 and colder on its first year)... For young root roses, if! they have matured enough and have reached a certain size, at least 1'6" for example, they can survive being planted straight in the soil... Tomorrow, I'll try to take a photo of my own young root rose as a comparison... My young root rose started healthy and at the appropriate size unlike my very sick baby band. It is now twice the size that it was 2 weeks when I received it with absolutely no sign of transplant shock... Now if you compare it with yours, what is happening is that you are almost 2 weeks behind with the transplant shock... About the Sea Tea, what will happen is that it will nourish and start feeding the root system... Once that root system is fed and absorbed, it will supply lots of nutrition to the plant itself... Even though the dying leaves will continue to die, the stored nutrients will push up new growth into the stems... I also believe that some of the softer, semi-wilted leaves will also begin to straighten up. It just takes the sea tea maybe 2-3 days for this to occur if any of the former leaves are still viable. Again, this is all catchup time for the sea tea. My dying baby band started out being 3-1/2" tall with a horrible yellow-green color to its stems and leaves. I left the dying leaves until I could lightly stroke the leaves and they'd fall off/crumble away. Otherwise I left everything else intact. Then new pineapple baby stems started appearing everywhere, and now beautiful glossy leaves... That dying baby band is no longer dying, but thriving... so it goes to show that I would not! be doing any sort of pruning at all! just prop up the bent stems with one of those thin vinyl wire supports with a velcro tie... This allows the baby stem to breathe and circulate its nutrients easier through the entire length of the stem. Think of it this way, if you bent your chin all the way down to your neck, breathing is much more shallow as opposed to a straight neck, head-up position. Young roses benefit from the extra support until they stabilize... The benefit of Karl's pot method for me would be that it holds in the sea tea so that the tea is preserved in the pot... Since you have ground soil instead of contained soil, if you've been washed out by heavy rain, once your ground soil has dried out to a light loose semi-dry texture, you can reapply the dilute sea tea sooner than the normal 7 days...day 5. However, if it's just light rain, 7 days' interim is ideal... But again, be very! careful not to get soggy soil! Soggy soil can cause root rot...and that! would be horrible... imo do not water too deeply for young root roses... they won't absorb as much moisture as a bare root or grafted nursery rose... (their anchor roots are too immature and underdeveloped). In other words, be sure to feed any excess to other plants. The soil should always be spongy soft not sopping wet. (if you tap the soil it should have a little bounce to it with just a very slight dampness to it). Also, watch the weather channel to plan ahead on how much water your young rose plant will need. Hope these descriptors are of help instead of confusing...

With large trees it will be difficult to trim the high branches, and thin the crowns. If it were me, I would clip up every thing that was low enough to hit me while I was mowing under the trees, and plant ferns, hosta, etc. There are several types of shade woods flowers that are very colorful. Re think the goal of your garden, most plants will die with in a couple of years, the oaks could be there for another 100 years. We lost a long leaf pine in front of a house we had several years ago. Not only did we lose the shade but it also affected our air conditioning bill.

On the plus side, your present layout of kitchen appliances is in a good working order (fridge, sink, prep space range) so you may be able to save $ by not moving any of those items or not moving them much. While I don't mind the older cabinets (I have an older, vintage style myself), there are not that many of them, and it may be within your budget to replace them. Without measurements, my thought would be a peninsula off the wall between the windows to increase counter space or possibly a small, movable island. I have the small island but it just fits and your space looks a tad smaller. There might not be room for a peninsula - why measurements would be helpful. You are correct that the style clash is not helping:) Realistically, a table that is the only eating area and part of the kitchen will probably need to be less formally dressed. If a peninsula wide enough to hold a couple of eating spaces fits, smaller meals and snacks could happen there, and then the dining table can be a bit formal. I think if you change out the cabinets, counters and backsplash to a less country style, you and your husband can find a style that is a better mix of your taste. If this was my space I would also consider at some point putting the same flooring throughout - for me that would be an ordinary solid hardwood.

a1an - what kind of battery sprayer did you get? Have been considering one. I have a question regarding pruning on bareroots from Palatine I planted in November. I live in zone 8, about 2 hours from Houston. All are in pots, starting to put out some nice leaves. Looks like we are going to have a mild winter this year - cold temps but not too many freezing days. I prune at Valentines Day. My question is.......do I prune these new potted bareroots or just let them go ahead and leaf out as they are doing now? Or take off several inches and let them start regrowing their leaves? I am tempted to do the latter, but would like some expert opinions. Judith