Our community does municipal compost. It gets hot enough to kill most diseases, so I put my rose clippings in the yard waste disposal bin. If something unusual or nasty comes along, I cut that up small and put it in the regular garbage. This happened when my nectarine tree got gumosis. I called the master gardener hotline and was advised not to put the wood in the compost. So I cut up the larger pieces for firewood, and cut up the smaller pieces for trash. Big job. I don't put roses in my personal compost, because I do a cool compost that does not get hot enough to kill diseases. I don't put weeds that have gone to seed in either, because it is not hot enough to sterilize seeds. Rosefolly

Yes, bluegirl, the varieties you asked about are not known for their own root vigor. I grew all the Ophelia, Columbia, Peace, Talisman and Charlotte Armstrong mutations own root in my old Newhall garden years ago and that was a very good environment for them, even own root. Very few had anything even remotely resembling "vigor" on their own roots. It took quite a few seasons for any of the Ophelia clan to generate nearly two by two feet, even with copious water, copious horse manure and regular bud pinching. Now, Radiance and her variants, will grow like weeds own root. If you're serious about wanting to create your own seedlings, honestly, you will be significantly better off "standing on the shoulders" of more recent breeders, using their vastly improved results over museum pieces of the past. There really isn't anything to gain from the older types as far as vigor and health are concerned. Been there, done that, had fun, but all of those efforts resulted in nothing worth keeping long term. Kim

Carolyn, I'll have to check out Baker Creek and see if I can get some. Who knows, maybe I'll see something else I'd like to plant too. I'm into butterfly gardening and hang out on that forum most of the time and have never been here until now, so I'm not too with it on what's in and what's out in the tomato circles. :) I know that I liked the Egg Yolk tomato and would like to plant it again. My husband and parents also thought it was delicious. I'd have saved seeds from when I had it here before, but I suppose since I had other varieties they'd have crossed with it and I might have ended up with something totally different. hoosiercherokee, So are you saying that not many people care for that variety of tomato? Well, my family and I do so I guess maybe we're just oddballs. lol Cathy

Is the only difference between using some sort of Forbo concrete imitating paste vs using a micro topping like Ardex PCT - is that one of them needs to be polished and the other one does not? I can't tell you the differences between the two products after application. However, I read the instructions on the Forbo and the process is similar. Forbo: trowel on paste, let dry, sand, trowel on paste, let dry sand, protect. Ardex: trowel on concrete, let dry, sand, protect. I don't see where either one has to be polished. Concrete floors are often polished in general to achieve a desired finish level, but that would be required for either one, and is a function of the protection layer rather than the cementitious layer. On a side note, troweling a floor is a PITA and you are not going to achieve the results that they do as a DIY project. So you are going to have to sand the crap out of it, even pros who can make it look easy, which it is most certainly is not, don't trowel unless they have to. Unless you have a lot of holes in your floor (heating vents and open to below areas) a high flow product that is applied with a squeegee will better and a lot easier to DIY. It seems the product is designed to be somewhat flexible, as it can be installed over cement backer board, but I could be misinterpreting that. There might be other advantages, I just don't see it. I am not really a pro at this, I have just done it a few times. I suspect that any of these products is going to crack if the floor below it moves and cracks.