I'm just north of Davenport , Ia in Clinton, IA. I've been an Iowan for the better part of my 55 yrs and have grown or been around rhubarb for most of those years. My best rhubarb tips are first, make sure your rhubarb bedding areas are well drained. One thing rhubarb rhizomes and root systems hate is to be drowned. Either plant them in slightly raised, sloping or well draining soil. Mine are somewhat raised in moderate draining soil and I mulch my beds with grass clippings throughout the season. Also plant them where they can receive as much sun as possible. If you don't receive at least an inch of rain per week or so, water them. I cut the round seed pod stems off as soon as they become obvious. Mine are never allowed to go to seed. Another point, if you're planting more than one rhizome, plant them at least 1-1/2 to 2 ft. apart. They'll spread throughout the few years before you dig them up to split and re-bed them. That's the time you either expand your beds or sell/give away part of your rhizomes to someone. Now they're not really going to be the best stalks for eating or cooking in their first season after you've transplanted the rhizome from it's original bed. You can try it, but I won't guarantee the quality. Always grasp the stalk toward it's base and pull it up from the plant. Only harvest 1/3 of the stalks at a time. This will allow the plant to continue to grow and stay healthy. The rule of thumb is to only only harvest rhubarb in months without an "r" in them. Thus, June-August. I'll admit that I've cheated and harvested as late as mid September in some warmer years. Your 2nd season is when you'll normally see your first seed pod growing. It'll be a thick round stalk growing from near the middle of your plant. I either pull mine out, if I catch it soon enough or cut off as low as possible. This 2nd season is when you'll see your stalks start to thicken up and really start to grow taller. Don't let them get to big or they'll start to get woody or pulpy and less tart tasting. You'll get to know your plants and when the optimal time to harvest the stalks is. There are many varieties/species of rhubarb, so I'm not going to specify when yours is ready but even the thin stalks can pack a wallop flavor wise and tartness. I mentioned earlier about digging up your rhizomes and splitting them. My plants start getting pretty thick after about the 4th season. So at the end of the 4th seasons harvest, I'll pull all the stalks by the end of September. This will allow a few more to start appearing by mid October when I'll dig up the parent rhizomes. This gives me the opportunity to renew my bedding area. Adding any additional topsoil and manure mixtures that are needed to raise the beds. I cut my parent rhizomes in half, at least, leaving some immature stalks on both halves and trimming all the roots to only about 4" at the most. Try to remove as much of the root system that you can when digging your rhizomes. I use a spade or garden fork when digging mine rather than a shovel so I'm not cutting the roots when digging. Now that you've split the rhizomes and have decided whether you're expanding your beds or giving some away, you're ready to re-bed. This is why I've left some immature stalks on the rhizomes. You're going to open your hole only as wide around as your roots and deep enough that the the bottom of the stalks at at their previous depth. Remember to leave them spaced apart. Once they're back in the ground, mulch them and keep them watered as you normally would through the growing season. One the first frost hits, I pull the stalks that have been left on the plants. Now that they've been reestablished in their home beds, next seasons crop should be good as before. Wrap the rhizomes that you're giving away in newspapers and advise the new owner how to plant them. Get them in the ground as soon as possible, they'll do best if they "winter" in their new beds.

Well, I'd like to start with the disclaimers. I live a few miles away from Jon's home, he and I belong to AW.org. Like Joel said above, yes, it's all true, he has spent quite a lot of time and money developing Rosalie's Zero Suds. It does not take much to make him talk about a lot of stuff he tried etc. With that out of the way, here's what I've heard from people I know and trust who actually tried the detergent: some did not like it because the scent was too faint, some did not like it because the scent was not faint enough, some did not like it because it wasn't unscented. I've heard people claiming that they could NOT deal with a detergent that basically made no suds, they are too used to seeing suds. Some couldn't deal with the detergent being so concentrated that just a tiny scoop would do. Most agreed that it was a competent detergent and that it cleaned well or really well. A lot of the "problems" expressed above could easily be solved by a large corporation just by offering the same product with different scents, concentrations and suds suppression, but this is not the case here, there is one formula, not everyone will be pleased. I have been using this Rosalie's since it was released -- Jon gave me a free box, and I already bought another two from Gray's Appliance since. When it was released it was *clearly* the best American detergent for sale, after that, Henkel released Persil ProClean which forced P&G to release Tide HE Turbo, which have similar performances, but produce more suds than Rosalie's. I would have probably bought more boxes, except that, I don't know if y'all have ever heard of this condition, I find it very hard not to test any laundry detergent I see at the supermarket that have wordings to the tune of "New" or "Improved", so I have a stash of Tide HE Turbo, Persil ProClean etc competing for attention with Rosalie's. I find it funny to see people talking about the price not because they shouldn't but because *I* have succumbed to the temptation to buy *imported* German Persil *multiple* times. I find Rosalie's and German Persil to be mostly tied for performance, one cleans some stains better but change stains and you might need the other detergent. Here's the thing: the "use one scoop" direction is for High Efficiency washers with about 8 pounds of regular soiled clothes. This is not that different from what many of us here have been using when we use German Persil. If you have more than 8 pounds, or the clothes are very dirty, or your water is very hard etc, you will need more. If you are using a deep fill toploader with the traditional agitator, the box directs you to start with 2 or 3 scoops and increase from there. Here's what I like about Persil and Rosalie's -- with the water I have available to me (0-4 grains most of the year, thus "soft"), I can use enough to clean most things. I have had one of my frontloaders washing about 16 pounds of *heavily* soiled clothes and I used, if I remember right, 3 scoops in the pre-wash and 6 scoops in the main (hot) wash, everything came out clean, the washer did not suds lock in the interim spins and the last rinse was clear water. The clothes were clean with a very mild scent that reminds me of old-time detergents, not the sweet cloying stuff on the shelves today. The dosage I used of Rosalie's is very close to the dosage of Persil Megaperls that I got from Germany when you use the Persil scoop provided. I don't know much about business, so take the following with a grain of salt: I've heard that when All was released in the 40's or so, they released a small box to emphasize how concentrated the product was and it did not start selling well until they started selling it in a large box and people who failed to read the directions (we don't know anybody like that, right?) started using a heaping measuring cup of All instead of the intended dosage (I forgot if it was 1/2 or 3/4 cup), which of course made it clean and rinse better than other detergents of the time. I think that might be the case here -- if Rosalie's came up with a box 4 times the current size and an oversized scoop directing people to use the same quantity they tell us now, a lot of people will use the full scoop (or about 4-10 times as needed) and the thing might start flying off the shelves, because it will rinse well and clean well. I am sure there will be some absurd dosage that will make it oversuds or even sudslock, but I have not found it yet. Maybe people with different water quality will experience differently than me. The other thing I want to say is that if you look at the ad in the webpage, the two women are holding a box that appears to be twice as tall as the current box, but with the same number of loads, I think. So, I commented in person to Jon that I was surprised the box was shorter (changing box sizes and having to print a new different run is expensive) and he told me that one of the problems he found out a bit too late was that he had to experiment with the formula and make it more concentrated because shipping depends on the volume of the box and also the weight. At that time, boxes were about 2 pounds, if I remember right, and his goal was to make it under one pound because anything above one pound gets *much* more expensive to ship. This is not a huge company that can tell FedEx or UPS that they'll go with a competitor and get a much lower rate. Someday, if the shipping company starts parking several trucks at their docks everyday, shipping might go for peanuts, right now I think the company is paying about as much as I would if I shipped it. Anyway, I believe he was offering free samples. I would suggest people take him up on it and make up their minds. I like the product, most people I know liked it too, a lot of them find it too expensive, but such is life until production can ramp up significantly. I would like to add here that the opinions I've expressed above are my own and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of anyone at the firm that researches, develops and/or manufactures Rosalie's Zero Suds -- I have no connection (financial or otherwise) with that company except for knowing the inventor of Rosalie's. Cheers, -- Paulo.

Carol, you are so sweet. You should travel for various reasons. You should cross the Pacific ocean when you get the 1 St chance, just go. Don't let anything hold you back I flew alone. My husband can't go with kids in school. I had a marvelous time. Food was great, people were awesome, friendly and kind. I give you an example, I went for a body message for an whole hour for just 2 dollars (US $) and I can never afford here. I got tired if tourists attraction so I told my tour guy ( hired him for 1 week). Take me places where locals go..I was looking for lots of things but they can be bargain. He took me to local own goods and I was shocked with prices that was half slashed from what I bought other days. Some were even more. Still he said they made good money of you. I love art and paints..that is where I got those above pics for $ 15-20 dollars. I can never buy that size or oil paints here even Pier 1 can cost more than 400 dollars . This pic I paid only a quarter..seriously a quarter...no bargains in retail store.pic is below. Japan was pricey and so was Singapore but I have best time of my life.

second is one a type of argenitne saguaro (e.pascana, terchekii, atacamensis etc) the look similar to melocactus, but the shape is always off third is opuntia microdaysis. A common one.