Don't worry about a couple of failures. It happens to all of us. Trying an easier rose like Karl recommends can help take some of the stress off since it will survive even with some neglect and ignorance. As for Barbara, try cutting into the canes. If there is a white center with a ring of green around the edge then that part is still alive. If all the canes are brown in the middle then the rose is probably dead. I'd go ahead and replace it. You should be able to find a nice big potted one (maybe even on sale) this time of year. If you post some pictures and tell us what happened to your rose we might be able to help you avoid whatever killed it. For instance, if it died from poor drainage you will need to fix that before you can plant another rose there. If it was the blackspot you will need to find a better fungicide or a more resistant rose.

Actually, plantlady, Dahlias are a lot like potatoes. The Aztecs used to grow them for the tubers, which they harvested like potatoes and cooked with like potatoes. I have taken cuttings even with no roots and they root within 3 weeks if kept moist. Last year I made a whole collection of 80 plants of about 50 varieties for my mother starting with little or no roots. The plants still grew to full size and, remarkably, had full tubers at the end of the season. There was no way to tell the difference between these and the ones planted with full tubers. Dahlias are extremely forgiving and resilient. You should feel free to experiment if you want to make more plants. By the way, I didn't even chill my tubers this year. I left them in grow bags full of soil and stacked them up in the back of my heated greenhouse and didn't water them. Out of 213, only 2 have yet to come back--they began sprouting in March when the temperatures in the greenhouse turned tropical. They are all about 2 - 3 feet tall now and it's getting crowded in there. I think there are a lot of myths surrounding the the care and handling of the tubers. Stories get handed down and everyone forgets to experiment.

Well, if you are using a cage, you will have to keep the light a certain unreasonable distance away from the plant early on. I mean, you aren't going to wait until the plant needs the cage to put it around it, right? Aside from stronger lighting, I recommend against a cage. You could use strings hung from above so that they can be adjusted with the lighting. You want the light as close to the plants as possible. Especially with a weaker light source. If my calculations are correct (if not please, someone, correct them): 100W Bulb = approx. 9500 lumens at 12 inches away. For a 2x2 ft area, you are talking 4 square feet. Problem is, you will need to be about 2 feet or so away for that area. That means you are down to 2375 lumens. Now, account for any growth. A 24 inch plant with leaves on the top foot only (good pruning practice) means the lower leaves are 3 feet away from the light. So, using the inverse square law you find that those leaves, not counting shading of upper leaves, are only receiving 1055 lumens per square foot. How often do you see tomato plants at only 2 feet tall? So, lets move on to 4 foot plants. You have fruit forming 18 to 24 inches up the plant on vining varieties, bush varieties may have fruit forming lower. Your lamp is at least 4 feet from the leaves where your first fruits are coming in. You are now down to 594 lumens per square foot at the 24 inch mark and 470 at the 18 inch mark. Keep using the inverse square law from there to get results for greater distance from the bulb. Also, in case you don't already know, the best way to maximize reflected light is to use a matte white paint. Foil doesn't do it like many people (including me at one point) think. Mylar will if you have the stuff smoothed out perfectly, but it is quite pricey and its reflective surface loses efficiency shortly due to stuff getting on the surface. A lot of hydro outlets don't even sell 100W lights due to the fact that they simply don't produce satisfactory results on the most common plants grown in hydro, which are supposedly tomatoes (and pot). The fact is that they don't make repeat business if you fail to get what you want and give up. They usually start at 250W. If you are going to stick with the 100W choice, please be sure to post your results with pictures. What I would be most interested in, of course, is the resulting taste. Unfortunately, that is a matter of individual preference unless you have a Brix meter. Tomatoes taste like crap when grown in low lighting conditions. They may look okay, but they don't contain the sugar that plants in more intense light contain. It's a matter of chemistry.

Mastering the use of a scroll hemmer on the bias is no easy feat. I have an old Willcox&Gibbs rotary take up machine from the '40s. It came with a very unusual assortment of specialty feet (scroll hemmers, folders, shirring feet, etc.). It had come from a lingerie factory (rotary take up permits exceptionally fine tension adjustment). I love the machine, but the idea of using a 1/8" scroll hemmer to finish the bottom of a bias cut slip makes me sweat!