Jane, I apologize for snapping at you as I did. That was rude. My suggestion, if stated more politely, is valid. Each thread in this forum explores a gardening topic of some sort and can be the basis for a gardening article. Some threads are of more general interest than others and some go into more depth than others. Pick a good one, flesh it out with additional information by Googling, check your facts, again by Googling, and you have an article. About writing in general, I think you might find the book, Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance interesting. It contains some really helpful insights into developing writing skills. Good luck with your writing. Jim

I would get the seedlings outside in the real sun as quickly as possible, but during the coolest part of the day and under the shade cloth. You could even put a cardboard box over them, with the top flaps partly open to allow the light in, but indirectly. Make sure they have plenty of water and aren't allowed to dry out. Gradually increase the time they are out over about a week. You may need to keep the shade cloth up until cooler weather finally arrives. Martha

Hi Nancy, you may get more responses on the General Rose Forum. As far as the number of buds go, it depends on the rose. If the rose is a Hybrid Tea, they normally have one bloom per stem. However, many times there will be side buds. What exhibitors do is remove the smaller side buds when the buds are just forming. That gives you one bloom, which will be larger than it would be if you left the two side buds. But usually when not exhibiting, most people allow all the buds to bloom. More blooms = good!. If a rose puts out more than 3 buds, then it is likely a Floribunda, which has more buds per stem. So you should do a little research and find out what kind of roses you have. Different roses grow differently. Not all roses are like florist roses with long stem single blooms.

Thomas - I have to disagree about going modular. If you want a truly custom high-end home, stick-build. We have a semi-custom modular (I modified a stock floor plan and showed a pic of exterior I liked to builder's regional rep who did elevations for us). They missed things like centering the bathroom window on the wall b/t the tub and corner (plans didn't show how deep tub and soffit were), lighting and outlet placement, have had bad framing issues (high/low/twisted studs, drywall past window jambs in some places, under it in others so trim doesn't lie flat, cracked main beam), etc. My cousin who is a carpenter (has done structural and finish) and cabinetmaker says that this is typical of stick-built construction as well, but basically (whether modular or stick-built) it's all time (get it done as quickly as possible) and materials (they didn't want to "waste" drywall so used cut edges on corners and built them up so baseboard doesn't lie flat, they used 16ft long pieces of baseboard and scarfed them with smaller pieces even if cutting 6 inches off the 16ft and making the smaller piece 6" longer would have put the joint over a stud). There are "custom" or high-end builders who will (for higher price) make sure that the finished product *looks* good as well as being structurally sound. It costs more to frame/drywall to make things easier for the finish carpenter, but I believe it would look much better than having to skim out walls or cut and caulk drywall just to get the trim to lie flat and mitre joints to stay together. Have your architect design the house paying attention to details (like my bathroom windows - one too close to tub, the other right above where we were going to put a stovepipe for woodstove) and make sure he keeps an eye on the builder to make sure it actually gets built to the plans (again, I had final plans and certain outlets/switches/vent stack locations got changed during production). I don't know if an architect will actually check that framing is straight though a good GC should. There may be higher-end "custom" modular companies out there, but my company supposedly did "custom" and were one of the oldest, respected companies out there, but the framing and the finish work was not up to my expectations. We're working around the framing as best we can, and redoing the trim and some of the electrical. Eventually we'll get around to replacing the poorly-installed laminate countertops (probably with the same laminate, I picked it and like it, didn't want solid surface or stone with kids right now).