It sounds like you are a roseaholic - welcome to the club! By our friend Kim's calculations you may not really have 50 rose bushes: HOW TO COUNT ROSES -- Kim_SC at Gardenweb 1. Mini roses don't count. 2. Floribundas, because they are not full-fledged hybrid teas, count as half. 3. Shrubs, Climbers, Ramblers, Old Garden Roses, etc. don't count because they can be considered "landscaping." 4. Roses not planted, or in pots, don't count. (See the "Territory" Clause). 5. Roses that were discounted count as half. 6. Roses received as gifts don't count. 7. Odd numbers must always be rounded off - if you're out of room, round the number down. For every one-hundred, divide by two. This is known as a "stock split." 8. Roses whose names you don't know or can't remember obviously don't count. 9. Roses that are on Shovel Prune Watch don't count; the roses that replace them also don't count as they cancel each other out. Duplicate/multiples count as one as they are considered a set. Roses that are not planted in a bed don't count. (See the "Landscaping" Addendum). Bareroots don't count because they are dormant when they arrive; once you plant them and they start to bud out, well, you've already done your count, so you will just have to wait until next season,by which time you'll be sure you already counted them. Mislabeled roses don't count because you probably already have one of them somewhere, which has already been counted once, probably. Anything less than Grade 1 counts only a fraction, and since fractions are not whole numbers they can be rounded off (remember the rounding off rule). Roses that you think you might give away can be excluded from the count. This makes it easier to part with them; if, by some chance you wind up keeping them, well, oh well. HTs that get huge and wind up taking more than one space should be counted twice, but remember the duplicate rule. Now if, after counting, you have under a hundred roses, you must immediately place some orders, and they don't count because they're in transit and therefore not in the ground. Roses ordered on a whim really don't count because they were never on a list. (This is known as the list rule: If it's not on a list, it doesn't exist (most likely). If you cut many roses and give them away, this is considered Charity, and everyone knows that you get special allowances for Charity, which brings us to: Tax Deductions (see Claiming Roses as Dependents). See? You really didn't have as many as you thought you did: time to go order some more.

Nice new finds! I'm a fresh addict too. The only advice I would give is to make sure the ones that are grouped together have similar living habits (sun, water, temperature), because that was the cause of the death of your pleiospilos nelii. Other than that, enjoy your new babies! Here is a link that might be useful: My windowsill plants

Paula, I think the decision to overhaul the "jungle" was the catalyst. The Hostaholic was already buried deep inside me. Just needed some freshly tilled dirt to come out and spread its roots through my bank account. I am not new to botanical addictions though. My other passion is orchids and I have about 80 cultivar in a room upstairs under grow lights. It is a 3 year old collection and also growing. We can't afford real food in my house so we eat fertilizer and perlite . . . kidding . . . well maybe not after I get all the Hosta I have my heart set on. I have not "been" to Hallson's since I am in PA but I did call Chris the other day to see when the earliest was I could place my spring order. He was so delightful and courteous I felt so bad I kept him on the phone for like an hour just basking in his knowledge (I am full of questions as we all know by now). It was awesome talking to him. I will def be placing an order . . . and then another one . . . and another. I can't imagine actually going there in person. I would probably suffer mild cardiac arrest upon entering just at the sight. Your Fire and Ice is awesome btw !!! I am sure in time I will come to own one of those as well but I am a bit scared with my inexperience to tackle a fussy little guy like that at the moment. We will see how things go with Cascades first. Babka - I am already making arrangements to talk to the neighbors and see if I can rip all that Liriope out of the lower part of our side porch to make more room for Hosta since my garden is going to be filling up quick with all these giants. Was thinking about putting some of the spreading types that HH was mentioning to help with erosion control since as we all know it is much more pleasant to look at Hosta than Liriope IMO. Alexis - yeah I am a sucker for the big variegated types. I notice this when deciding what I want and am trying to balance it out with more characteristic solids. My whole thing with Guardian is I want to be able to see that beautiful spring variegation all year and the virescence would almost be like a tease as I watch the colors fade. Same goes with Warpaint. I forgot to mention in the earlier post: Raspberry Sundae Lionheart These two are also in the spring order list. Raspberry for the variegation and red petioles. Lionheart since it came recommended by Chris as a solid white leaf grower. Thanks again everyone for sharing, Ludi

I have not scheduled surgery yet and am ignoring the suggestion of having them both done at once. When I was a newly graduated RN I worked ortho for a year ( some disasters but hips have come along way) and my mom had a horrible hip replacement outcome, so I am putting it off for as long as I can. Don't wait so long you are too out of shape ... it's best done while you are still reasonably spry with muscle strength left for rehab instead of totally crippled and weak. And before you have wrecked the surrounding support muscles and tendons compensating for the pain and lack of mobility. (SO has a prosthetic knee, his brother has 2 of them, and another brother has a hip replacement he loves). Yes, it's come a LONG ways, even using 3-d imaging and custom manufacture of the prosthetics if needed. They can build a copy of the joint, figure out exactly how things need to be altered and dry-fit the prosthesis without ever lifting a scalpel.