Laurier, My observations of Exotic Star have completely opposite results. However, I admit that I did not try to cross Exotic Star with a Tet. Since Exotic Star was available at Walmart for a reasonable price (and NO shipping costs), I was able to obtain quite a few additional ones. Forgive me, I forget how many, but lets just say it was something like 6 of them. The crosses that I have made with Exotic Star in the last couple of years include (but not limited to): Exotic Star X LaPaz Exotic Star X Ruby Meyer Aumputo X Exotic Star Misty X Exotic Star Exotic Star X Misty We are talking here about 100s of seedlings. The majority of the seeds germinated and are spending their summers outside in 3-5 gallon community pots. Hans-Werner has proved that you can cross a Dip with Tet pollen. Houston Pat has had success with Tet X Dip. Irregardless of the possiblilities of mixing ploidy, the sheer numbers of viable seeds are greatly reduced when using Diploid and Tets are mixed. I tried, but was unable to self Exotic Star. Needless to say, I have not given up on that venture. In the meantime, my experience indicates that the ploidy of Exotic Star is DIPLOID! Try your Exotic Star with a DIP and I think you will see what I mean. You will get many more seeds and over 90% will germinate.

Dorothy...I was out shopping tonight, but not for Christmas gifts!!! I needed potting soil for my brugs....the roots are wanting soil! It is hard to find soil this time of year. *************************WE HAVE A WINNER OF ALEINA & BRINDEI'S BIRTHDAYS!!! AMELIA!!! Congratulations!!!! The birthdays are March 9, 10. Aleina was born in 1992 and Brindei in 2004. My two heart dogs only born one day apart. Thank you all for playing! You did a great job learning about Afghan Hounds. Maybe next year when my brug cuttings flower and grow we can do a game with them. I hope I will know much more about them by then. I have enjoyed inviting you all in for a peek into my family, who are near and dear to my heart! Holiday blessings to all of you! Amelia please send me your address. Joyce

Let me give you a few off the top of my head: I tend to like roses that are easily trained; that is, one with flexible that 'bend to my will'. My absolute number one favorite climber is Francois Juranville. It is classified as a rambler, hybrid wichurana, bred in 1906. Height is said to be 15-25 feet, 10 foot width. I have this rose on an arbor that is 8 feet tall, 10 feet wide, and 4 feet deep. It covered the arbor in two years and that was from a band I direct planted. It's absolutely covered with soft pink blooms right now, has wonderful dark green, glossy green foliage and is less thorny than most roses, but does have thorns. It is said to have an apple fragrance but it is fragrance you have to search out, it doesn't drift. I have never seen a bit of blackspot on it. Another climber I have that is listed as a shrub rose is David Austin's James Galway. It is trained on a pillar and is about 8 feet tall. It is fragrant but you have to search it out. I have never seen this rose have blackspot and mine is ten years old. It is a bear though with its thorns. It is one of those roses that I have to get up my gumption to go out and prune or work with the new growth to get it back in bounds. It is a medium pink bloom. Third is Awakening. Awakening is a sport of New Dawn, hybrid wichurana, discovered in the 30s and introduced into production in the 1990s. It has a hybrid tea rose-like pale pink bloom and blooms nonstop. It is classified as strong in fragrance. This rose is planted on a new arbor we built just this spring, but the plant is in its second year since I kept in a pot until we got the structure built. It had very minimal blackspot last year in the pot, and by that I mean a dozen or so leaves, but none this year so far. I did have two other starts of this rose which I gave to a neighbor and we put her roses where they would cover a brick wall on which we built a wire system. They are covering about half of her brick wall so far in their second year. It is said to be 8-14 feet tall and 8 feet wide. I am planning on it covering an arbor that is 8 x 8 x 8. Those are my personal experience climbers that don't have blackspot problems for me and are fragrant. I have a Souvenir de la Malmaison which is a fragrance drifter, tolerates shade, has a wonderful palest pink bloom and is growing about 20 feet into a tree, but it loses its leaves to b.s. most years. You might also consider a Lady Banks White. Mine is incredibly fragrant, it smells like hyacinths to me. It is thornless, has 2-inch white blossoms that cover the plant and is never bothered with blackspot. It is a species or wild rose of the early 1800s. It will cover as big an area as you will let it. It grows in the same tree as my SDLM rose. Lady Banks is almost a tie for favorite with Francois Juranville simply because it is so low maintenance. But FJ wins out because it is a "ROSE"!! Marcy

HOLLY: How was I putting him on the spot? I was asking his professional opinion about some work done by someone else--work that was *clearly* inferior. (I will be happy to send you a photo if you would like.) I wasn't demanding that he answer. He could have dodged my inquiry quite diplomatically. I've seen doctors dodge quite diplomatically--and I think there's more of a code of ethics among docs than contractors. PLUS, this question was in the context of "now, if I should hire you for this job, how will we resolve things if I see YOU doing work that looks sloppy to me?" And you said after all, "...focus on the negative...rather than focus on the person in front of you and their work and references. " How, after all, can I get some kind of objective idea of his work and references? What contractor is gonna give a potential customer negative references, or say anything bad about himself? Isn't it very naive to expect that a contractor, hoping to sell his services, will give a prospect ANYTHING of a negative nature?