the definition of species.. or part of it anyway.. is that it comes true from seed ... without an ID of what you have.. nor what you are thinking of buying.. there really isnt any answer to your multitude of questions ... but.. genetics is genetics ... and akin to a cross between you and a spouse ... which will result in a strawberry ... no one can ever be sure if the child will be anything like either of the parents ... besides being a strawberry ..... to mix a metaphor and pour a daiquiri .. lol .. and even if you name both parents.. i am going to bet .. we hear in the perennial forum might not have the experience you wish.. to broaden your audience.. you might try a fruit forum ... good luck ken ps: are straws perennial .. or biennial????

Thanks everyone for the comments so far. It seems crosses involving Twilight Zone or any of the mauves are heavily favored, and I don't blame you! Twilight Zone just came out this year but it is such a gorgeous rose, and definitely an improvement over Ebb Tide. Diane, in my opinion I think you have the right idea with using Ascot in breeding. Cynthia, there is no time like the present, and don't be intimidated by the numbers! When they say worth keeping they mean is having commercial and market value, and most of the fun in rose breeding isn't about money or finding americas next super-rose, it's the anticipation of what you might get. Also every breeder, like roses, is unique and has his or her own personality and I believe that is reflected in the roses each breeder comes up with. For example I bet when I mention the names Radler, Swim, Carruth, David Austin, Moore, Sproul, etc. a certain type of rose comes to mind. I'm not sure I have a defined "style" yet but rest assured I am determined to revolutionize roses in my own way. My dream/goal is is to create thornless fragrant shrub roses, in beautiful colors, high petal count, with the disease resistance of knock outs. Some people say well that's just the perfect rose but l believe there's no such thing and never will be since different people value certain traits more than others. Sure my goal is ambitious, but just watch, eventually I will succeed! :)

There seems to be a few variations of Johnsonii(s) beautifully growing in the south. Somewhere in TX is a gardenful of Johnsoniis Where my Johnsonii came from. It does have that long necked bulb. Flower shape ranges from trumpet to semi-trumpet. That thin white stripe on the petals, red inner eye, and as Kristi has mentioned, the style and filaments color being half white and the other half red. One very particular thing that I have noticed and documented is this. The "thorn like" growth in it's style. Have you guys noticed this on your johnsoniis? This johnsonii of mine is fertile and has produced wonderful seed crosses. Hopefully someday, we can have more hardy varieties like it.

I have a faucet that sprays and stays: Cobra faucet. It's really great in my laundry room, which I used for dishes for nearly a year. ;) It's not so "nice" looking as some of the others. I think it would work really well wall-mounted; I have it on the deck of a laundry sink. It might help for you... Brenda, I had to look back at what I'd written when there was some implication that I was proferring any sort of marital advice!! lol and then some. While I can claim to have been acquainted with my partner going on 33 years, I know I know positively zero about marital (or any other kind of) harmony. By returning that faucet I wasn't really keeping peace or falling through on any game plan; it was just not really possible to have kept it. You kinda had to be there.... ;) Back to hosing about faucets ... I think there are a few parameters to consider and evaluate for your own personal relevant importance/priority. I'll try to list a few, others can add: (i) appearance (ii) spray presence (iii) spray style (depress and hold or stay-on) (iv) spray default (returns to spray on close or stays where you left it) (v) arc (affecting where stream starts relative to dink's edge) (vi) arm length (affects where stream hits bottom of sink, closeness to drain) (vii) pull down vs pull out (affects how your arm twists to grab moveable spray head) (viii) touch (foot pedals, finger touch - possibilities beyond needing a hand to turn faucet on/off) (ix) one/two handle (affects whether water temperature is mixed internally or by you with two separate handles). (x) mobility of spray handle (thus "pro-style", others address this as, say, the Cobra, Karbon's moveable spray arm, pullout and pulldown spray heads attached to faucet arm) I think selecting a faucet is a very, very personal priorities thing. Plus, critically, a matter of dovetailing with the sink you choose. Don't forget that. I think too often this is a source of outright mistake, as opposed to, say, personal preference. Problems arise when the faucet doesn't spray in the right place on the sink's bottom, or there isn't enough room to mount handles effectively or the spray is too high or hard or for whatever reason having to do with the sink (and there's no obvious formula for determining this), the spray bounces too much. I'm sure others will flush out these lists, the list of personal preference parameters to negotiate, as well as the list of problems-sources. The only part of this whole process I truly hated was choosing the faucet, and I'm not sure I did a good job. My Karbon Kohler gets too wet at the handle, all of the time. I suppose this is a function of how I use the sink, with dripping-wet hands. Dunno. It may be just that coupled with its appearance with the little chrome ring on the countertop you just really see the water all puddled up. It's kinda annoying. My lady lux needs to have a button depressed in a too-concerted effort; there's not a ton of room to pull it out given my sink - a mistake I suppose. Both faucets need a huge amount of water pressure before their spray stays on (not so for the cobra which stays in whatever stream style you depress; it's a mechanical switch rather than an internal one dependent on the water pressure). The cobra wouldn't have been a long enough reach for the kitchen faucets. FWIW the fauset I really really wanted was the Waterstone semi-pro. At $2500 that was just an order of magnitude more than I could stomach paying! But it had a great stream, good spring, beautiful appearance, great "hand" - really a good one if you could find it in a fire sale or something.