In my previous post (5 plants to id), I called this #2: And this number 4: New pics on the left, old pics on the right Hope someone can id them. Thanks! aj

I'm having trouble w/photos today, the macro lens is hard and I don't want to change lenses. Are these a little better? I put the cam on a monopod, bumped the ISO, used external flash, and dialed in an aperture of f14 to get better DOF, and still they're not too good. Tear off the brown? That's easy enough. But it hadn't rained that much before, and Hettie, my new rose in a pot had it, ruined a photo I submitted to HMF actually. Seems ok with her now. I finally planted the two of her, same general area, and no sign of anything wrong yet, no browning on blooms. I am SURE I have powdery mildew on Gruss and Thomas Affleck on the east side just don't want to take any more photos and am fighting for room on both my hd's until I clear tons of stuff off, which will take forever to sort through. Can I spray those with Lysol before it gets any worse? The humidity since that rain is terrible, more rain expected, so high humidity will be an issue off and on, mostly on, throughout the rest of the summer until fall when it eases up. This rose, and I'm not sure which pink one it is, bloomed beautifully, now this. Although it faces south, this rose got enough sun to bloom its first flush, nice blooms, but it does get more shade than the ones closer to the street.

Rosebush- veilchenblau is one of the very easiest i have to root. It's extremely vigorous (up to 20' canes!!), moderately thorny, scentless and only blooms once. But it covers itself when it does and it's a unique color. Plus it is very carefree- the jap beetles do gnaw some, but it bounces right back. Blackspot is never an issue for me. If you come to the swap, i'll be happy to bring some, or you can email me and we can meet up separately somewhere sometime. You'd be welcome to come here when they're all blooming- which should be 2 or 3 weeks at most. If you haven't made it to a swap yet, though- you really need to come!! Alicia, thanks for the thoughts on the roses. I guess it amazes me because even though they are glorious when they bloom it's fairly brief and it's not as though they're that interesting as foliage plants, though i do love the winter spring color. Most people seem to be so much more into repeat bloom and the more formal shape of the teas. The ones i have really are easy- i have never sprayed for anything- don't really do much but occasionally give them espoma, and prune when needed. Most of them only get about 4.5 hours of sun and have done well (the fence ones get more like 5- 5.5). I wish you could see Betty's spread. I doubt it'll ever be open for another open house because of their health. Knock on wood- so far the deer have left the roses alone since they're up front.

How firm is the beeswax that the rest of you are using? The only Bee's Oil I could find locally was at Williams Sonoma. It is very soft, so there is no need to heat it up (tho I tried--just out of curiosity. It didn't really melt at all--just got warm). It has the texture somewhat of a shea butter cream. As soon as my hands rub it, it melts into the counter. If it were more solid, I think I might get frustrated with it, and switch to regular mineral oil. I use it as hand cream in between the SoapstoneSpaTreatment (trademarked--tho I didn't coin this term--someone else here did. Who?) My feet could really use a spa treatment. Thinking...thinking...Can't figure out how to do that without slipping and falling. We need to get some t-shirts/bumperstickers made: "Real stoners use their hands" "Have you rubbed your soapstone today?" "My parents went to Punta Gorda and all they brought me was this soapstone" "My other counter is made of soapstone too" "My soapstone is silkier than your Chipman Middle School Honor student" etc Can't wait to see more pictures! I can imagine how stressful the waiting and wondering has been (will it fit? did we template right?). Thank goodness it turned out so well! Hooray!! Francy