You know what - I feel completely stupid now. For years I thought that EarthKind meant you didn't do a lot of spraying pesticides and fungicides and I suppose I never bothered to read the lit particularly closely. Connie - I was about to ask you what you were talking about but I checked first and you are entirely correct, the web site says: "only to those roses demonstrating superior pest tolerance, combined with outstanding landscape performance" Nothing at all about fungicides or disease resistance. Just pest resistance. Until now it never occurred to me that you could have an EarthKind rose that required spraying for blackspot. Duh. I should learn to read English. And as a matter of fact, that makes me wonder exactly what the use of the Earth Kind designation is. Japanese Beetles eat everything. So here's what I can say about the EarthKind roses out here in NYC - Belinda's Dream, Caldwell Pink, Knockout, LaMarne, Mutabilis, Mary Daly - outstanding disease resistance. Close seconds are Pearle d'Or and New Dawn. Ducher is OK, not an outstanding rose in any way though. I don't grow the others. And as I mentioned, Crepuscule is brilliant and very resistant to blackspot, at least in my back yard.

I enjoy studying catalogues and reading books by Elizabeth Lawrence and Pamela Harper. Since Orene Horton's death, our newspaper has been terribly inadequate about gardening information, although there are several fine columnists who occasionally contribute. I subscribe to Fine Gardening and Horticulture and find it useful to re-read the issues. Ages ago, HGTV used to carry Gardener's Diary (no, it doesn't come on here at 7 a.m.). I find the Southern Living Garden Book very helpful as a resource, as well as Allan Armitage's book on annuals and biennials. I'd love to be able to afford Dirr's Manual for Warmer Climates. Visiting the Botanical Garden here in Columbia and outstanding gardens such as Philip Jenkins' are wonderful for inspiring ideas. I'd enjoy getting involved with the Master Gardener program some time. I often ask questions right here when I'm stumped about a plant. My own garden is probably my best teacher. I wish I were more disciplined about record-keeping, but taking lots of digital photos really helps me see my garden in a way I don't seem able any other way, in addition to preserving how the garden looks at certain times. In fact, one of the most astonishing results of picture-taking is that often my garden will appear much better than I remember it, but perhaps that's because I don't photograph failed plant combinations or the plants riddled by insects! Still, to have a visual reminder of what works in the garden is a tremendous boost to self-confidence. I've been re-reading one of my Elizabeth Lawrence books, and I'm struck by how often she candidly admits that a plant fails to bloom or to live. If it happens to the most skilled gardener, then how bad is it when it happens to us?

I posted some photos two days ago but the link went to an error page, and later, the post disappeared. I think they were having problems over the weekend (but a similar link worked fine on the Garden Photo Gallery so maybe it was just the Cottage Garden forum).

I see you picked the Dijon - good choice! I had not seen it before and think its beautiful. (I did not like the Citron) Just for comments - l I think Cobalt blue is a classic sort of kitchen accessory color because over the years country kitchens, white cabs etc. come back into style and blue looks really wonderful with that. Also "yellow" sunny walls are popular in kitchens and blue looks good with that. I have the Flame and occasionally think I'd like to switch, but then change my mind. Its classic in its own right as one of the original colors of a pretty old name in French cookware - now too trendy for being copied by Rachael Ray, Mario Batali etc. but I like the sense of tradition it gives me and I believe orange is supposed to induce hunger? (not that I need any more of that:)