Quite often, bare roots dry out before they have a chance to develop the feeder roots so they can absorb sufficient water. Grab a bag of planting mix and dump it over the rose so you bury the green canes almost their entire length. Keep that mound of soil over the plant damp when you water until new growth begins showing, when you can gradually uncover the plant. You can make cylinders of card board or many layers of news paper stapled into the size cylinder necessary to permit filling it with soil so only the top two or so inches of the canes are exposed. Water into the cylinder so the contained soil remains damp. It isn't necessary every time to mound newly planted bare roots like this, but where it's likely to be windy, arid, warm, brilliantly sunny where the plant is going to have to battle being pushed into growth too early before it can generate roots, it helps greatly. It's the same theory as planting the callused, wrapped cuttings deeply in pots or cups to prevent them from drying out or being pushed into too early growth before they can grow roots. Bare root body bags used to have those instructions on them. It's been so long since I've even looked at rose a body bag, I don't know if they're still there or not. The main causes of bare root failure are receiving or buying dried out, nearly dead plants and exposing them to desiccating conditions without proper protection against drying out before they can grow roots. Trevor Griffiths, the nurseryman from New Zealand, wrote in one of his books of people who would bring back "dead" bare roots. He would bury them under soil to rehydrate them then pot them to take to speaking engagements to show how "dead" they were. I frequently bought "dead" returned bare roots for fifty cents from work years ago because I knew I could bury them a few weeks, then plant and nearly every one of them lived to become decent plants. It honestly IS hard to kill a rose...as long as you know what you're doing. Kim

[I'm reposting this from my account in the hopes that the moderators will be able to delete my prior post that displays my e-mail address.] I found this thread while searching for information on what's going on with my red oak. I live W of Boston and suddenly one of my many red oak trees started dropping leaves from the bottom branches. This morning I watched leaves rain down from the branches when a breeze came through. This has been a very normal summer. While it was hot in July, it's dropped back to seasonable temperatures. We've had over 7" of rain in August and I have a lawn irrigation system that waters the area that the tree is in. I've read the descriptions of SOD and SOW. Both SOD and SOW seems to start at the top, so that doesn't match. I'm stumped. The leaves seem to darken & turn slightly brown & then drop while still green. The tree hasn't been pruned in years and nothing has been done to base in a long time. The hosta probably went in 5+ years ago. I've included a link to a photo album showing a dropped leaf, the base of the tree and the entire tree. Thanks, Geoff Here is a link that might be useful: Tree Photo Album

While the television tuner can become intermittent and/or fail, it really is somewhat rare. I highly recommend connecting your television to your husbands coax feed to see if the problem is still there - just part of the basic troubleshooting process. If it gone you know the television is OK and it is a signal issue. As far as who to call, there is not a simply answer anymore. Cable companies used to wired the cable to multiple rooms for you. Now they have typically taken the telephone company approach of a demarcation point at your house where their line responsibility ends on the outside of your home and your responsibility begins. Since your husband's television is working OK, and I'm suspecting your television will work OK on his coax feed - the problem is then on your side of the demarcation point - or simply the wiring which is your responsibility. That should be something your "local TV guy" should be able to address. One possible reason why the problem may occur more on commercials is that local ads are inserted into the network program stream and slight variations in the signal may occur.

Hi Sylvia, Took Bud in at 4:30 yesterday. They couldn't get a pee sample out of his bladder so they kept him overnight. DH and I felt awful having him stay there. We were there at 8 this morning soon as it opened. We knew he would have pee'd and they'd have a sample so hopefully we could take him home. Otherwise it would have been until 5:30 before we could get him. He does have an infection so they gave him 2 shots which will last 2 weeks. We're to take him in for a follow-up in a couple weeks. So it looks good, and he's real happy to be home! The other cats missed him too.