It was a very good year. Most of my new roses didn't disappoint at all. Some were a little slower to develop than others, but none were losers. FLORIBUNDAS MARDI GRAS - an amazingly vivid color combo- very striking. LAURA BUSH - was just OK until fall, when it started showing some really interesting colored blooms. JULIO IGLESIAS - a little slow to develop and then had blooms that look just like SCENTIMENTAL. LOVESTRUCK- another very interesting color bloom and a photographers delight! ENCHANTED EVENING - slow to grow, probably because it may not get enough sun. Fall blooms were lovely. BURGUNDY ICEBERG - really surprised me at how well it grew and bloomed the first year. Great color! FRANKLY SCARLET - this was the big surprise to me. I never expected such pretty brilliant red blooms. I even won a trophy with it at the rose show this fall. HYBRID TEAS AND GRANDIFLORAS DREAM COME TRUE - not in the best place, and doing poorly. Blackspotted even with spraying. Hope it improves. CATALINA - another one that hasn't developed well yet. Just saw a couple of blooms, but they showed promise. APRIL IN PARIS - very pretty, but,so far, looks more like a floribunda. FALLING IN LOVE - this is going to be a winner for sure. CALIFORNIA DREAMIN' - my favorite new one - great color, tons of blooms. DAWNING MOMENT - another one with great color and good bloom cycles. ESTELLE - This is a florist rose and is going to take a little extra babying. It only had a few blooms, but they were very interesting. Think I'll put it in a pot. I planted a bunch of own roots, but don't even try to judge them the first year, especially the teeny ones from Heirloom - so don't despair, Katyrose! Plus, I have to agree with Predfern, the Generosas are great, but it took a year for me to appreciate the one I have - CHANTAL MERIEUX. It was really very attractive this year and I love it. I got HAPPY BUTT, from Karl, too, Erasmus. It has grown fast, but I have only seen a couple of blooms so far - but they showed a lot of promise. Pauline, I am sure your garden was gorgeous, as usual. I have had MEMORIAL DAY for four years and it has survived my tendency to shovel prune because it is such a pretty rose with a great scent. My problem is that the thrips like it so very much! My NEPTUNE is slow to repeat, too, but, whenever I eye the shovel, it puts out some gorgeous blooms to deter me! Alisande, I know we live in totally different environments for roses, but I hope you don't give up on QUIETNESS. It is truly one of the loveliest of my 200 roses, and I hope it will be for you. Peachiekeen, I wish my JERI JENNINGS was doing well. It's in its second year and still a slow grower. And, Piper101, free LIV TYLER from the pot and you may be amazed. That is a big shrub and, at least here, it is gorgeous! All in all, it was lovely gardening year. We won't talk about the economy! Here's to another great rose adventure in 2009, fellow roseaholics!

to answer some questions-pulsatilla is on last picture. I found it strange germinator- sometimes it is just straight warm couple of weeks and sometimes complete dud, even from reputable company. I grow four different varieties and they all never overwhelming for me- small clump of flowers- but they are so cute I love to have more. They are ephemeral for me so they will go away in the middle of summer. Flower on the 4th pic is epimedium rubrum- most common variety of epimediums. Those plants can get real fancy and sell for $100 each for newer varieties. Bloom is so delicate but at same time it is a tough plant and likes dry shade. LOVE euphorbias- while many of them are little on the wild side and tend to spread there are not many plants so reliable and easy growing. I treat them as ephemerals too- once they stop blooming I pull them out, knowing that next year whatever root system will be left will produce new crop of bloom for me. This way I have something else late blooming like anemones growing in the same spot and repeating bloom and show later on. Token, those nicotianas are great, I so love them, got this year 3 trays, just finished planting them out. Thank you for Burshtyn tomato pic- I am growing this variety this year first time- something to look forward to, wonder if it is good tom, mine were not the most robust germinators but I have got a few from Trudi's seed.

Garden centres in the UK are already looking like plant supermarkets unfortunately. One has to go to specialist nurseries to find anything different, and they are disappearing too. The garden centre a mile away from my house is the largest in the UK, and cost seven million pounds to build. Same lines get sold every season, never anything different. It is a plant supermarket. My point about the variation in plants is this: you may well carry 32 varieties, but if they all end up being TC plants, there will be very little, or no variation within those individual groups. If H.x hybridus does end up being mass produced through tissue culture, those doing it will soon learn what sells and what doesn't. The range available will shrink. I like to have a choice as a consumer. What one person overlooks, I might want. I don't want a narrow selection of plants with flowers that are, for example, white, dark violet, yellow, and pink. And then the same again with spots. I want to be able to search through dozens of plants, looking for something that I think is special. I'm not anti plant patenting. I just don't think it is helpful to anybody in particular. I suppose it gives whoever developed or discovered a plant which they believe to be especially gardenworthy, a false peace of mind. Take 'Pink Marble' as an example - If I have 1000 lividus here, there is a very good chance that a number of those plants would look just like 'Pink Marble'. Obviously that patent doesn't stop me selling those plants. All it does is stop me using that particular name. On a small scale, it doesn't even stop me doing that. Who is there to police it? Calling a plant Helleborus 'Pink Marble' is just bad nomenclature. At the very least it should be H. lividus 'Pink Marble', and I don't like that, either. There is a very good reason why names shouldn't be given to selections of the species, and that is because they, in most cases (probably all), haven't been propagated by divison, and if that is the case, they are no more than 'strains'. Potter's Wheel is a classic point. The name was given to a single plant originally. But yet we still have thousands of plants in the trade all around the globe carrying the name. Is this right? None of them are divisions of the original. They probably don't even descend from the original. I can go into most colonies of niger I know of in Croatia and Slovenia, and find a few plants which fit the description of 'Potter's Wheel'. Does this mean that these plants are Potter's Wheel? Not to me it doesn't. They are simply niger with large flowers. And yet if I collected those plants and stuck a 'Potter's Wheel' label in them, nobody would know any different. I don't know about in the US, but here in the UK, nearly all niger with a 'Potter's Wheel' label do not have flowers which are any larger than can be found regularly in the wild. So to answer you question, in the case of Potter's Wheel, no I don't recognise the distinction between that and the straight species because there isn't really any. As for Wester Flisk, Gold Bullion and Silver Lace, yes, I do appreciate that using these names does allow us to be able to have conversations about the plants and all know what the other person is talking about, but the names (leaving aside Wester Flisk) were not given for that reason. They were given to appeal to the buyer. It looks like we are destined to disagree on most points, but it's an interesting debate nonetheless.

I have grown H. x 'Ivory Prince' since it was introduced into my market area and consider it to be an outstanding plant. As gardengal stated, the flowering period is exceptionally long and the foliage is attractive all year. I also have a number of 'Candy Love' (H. x ballardiae) and 'Snow Love' (H. x ericsmithii) that have attractive flowers and foliage. All of the above mentioned plants were produced via micropropagation (Tissue Culture) and for the most part, are identical clones of the parent plant. The only variation I've detected, is a slight variation in foliage, from plant to plant and that may be because of their young age. I also agree that, if you want a particular color of flower, you should see the plant in bloom before purchase. No matter how carefully pollination is controlled in seed strains, the genetic variability of plants can produce flowers of a different color. Two years ago, I purchased about one hundred Hellebores from a well respected TC Lab, assuming they were TCs, since there was no disclosure to the contrary and received seedlings of various colors, some were even doubles, although I didn't order those. So far, only one plant has produced flowers that matched the tags provided with them. To say that I am keenly disappointed, would be an understatement! Before ordering online and paying exorbitant shipping charges and receiving very small plants, I would check with local nurseries. At this time of the year, Hellebores should be in stock or soon arriving. I have found that you can purchase a gallon sized plant, often at a lower price than you would pay for a 4" pot from mail-order sources. For example, I paid $6.50 for one-gallon 'Ivory Prince' and $2 each for 'Candy Love' & 'Snow Love' in 5" pots and in bloom. Of course I've paid more for H. x hybridus from specialty growers/hybridizers, that have unusual or desirable flower colors. (In bloom, of course!) I should also mention, Hellebores hate wet feet! Under those conditions, they will reward you by turning up their toes (roots) and die! Select a site with humus-rich, WELL-DRAINED soil, with morning sun, bright reflected light or all day dappled shade. In your Zone, they would probably tolerate more direct sunlight than they can withstand here. After becoming established in a suitable location, they are somewhat drought tolerant and only require supplemental irrigation during long periods without rainfall. Once you become addicted to these winter flowering beauties, you will wonder why you didn't plant some long ago! I have been growing H. x hybridus for more than 25 years and have hundreds of them, in many colors and combinations of colors. Along the way, 12 additional Helleborus species and many seed strains have been added. In addition to the uncounted quantity of seedlings found each year under and near some mother plants, they appear like weeds all over the garden, pathways and in the lawn (ants, beetles, hard at work)? That suits me, as I enjoy flowering plants, wherever they appear, especially during cold winter days, when the garden is best observed by peering out my windows!