donnabaskets - obvously I am not familiar with your growing conditions but I am not sure sowing parsnips now will be successful if you are hoping to eat them this winter. They are sown very early in the year in my climate and take many months to reach a decent size for eating. Although they are eaten in the winter they have been growing since the previous spring. e.g. sow in February and eat in November. Maybe they grow faster in NZ or they eat them much smaller but certainly in the UK they take a VERY long time to mature. Here is a link that might be useful: Growing parsnips

Personally, the Radiances are not in my plans. I just don't know where I'd put them. It sounds like a wonderful rose, and hopefully, others will decide to try it from reading here. I have Tiffany also, and it's doing very well right now - even with all this rain. Really, all of my roses are doing well, but that was also the case last year before summer hit and with it the BS. I'm hoping that another year under their belts and my improved mulching will keep them from stressing as badly as they did last year. IOW, I'm not overconfident about being free from BS later in the year. Re these old HT's I'm really interested in these that Vintage says stay "thigh-high" or thereabouts. *** you might be lookin' for love in all the wrong places. So what else is new, Michael? Right now my Mme Abel Chatenay is perfectly clean. I looked her up on HMF today, and she has lots of HP's in her lineage, so we'll see. The ladies at Rose Petals Nursery prune their HP's hard after each bloom to force new growth and get rid of older growth that is susceptible to or infected with BS. I don't know if I'll have to resort to that technique with MAC, but I guess it's an option unless she's a total mess. She defoliated last summer (along with several others), but I think it was heat stress. Laura, you're right. HMF does not say Betty has a Damask fragrance. I was reading the wrong line in my scribbled notes. Elaine, do you spray? Captain Christy's pics really are beautiful. Keep us posted on these roses as they progress, OK? We Floridians need to know. Anita, I have wanted KAV for 2 years. I should have gotten her (I tried but VG sold out) last year but was unsure of her disease resistance here, and now the garden is full :(( Hopefully, others are growing some of these roses. W E Lippiat and British Queen are gorgeous - among others! Sherry

Laura, I think that a lot of us have had cosmos that were nothing but jolly green giants with no blooms at all. Research I've read says that a big reason for that is because cosmos needs short-days to bloom well. If they're started early enough, they will bloom in late spring, and keep on blooming through the summer. But, if they are just hitting their stride in the long days of June and July, they will refuse to bloom much, if at all, until later when the days get shorter. I don't really know how important the fertility issue is. ThinMan Here is a link that might be useful: Short-Day Bloomers

My Mother-in-law gave me some English Ivy about 25 years ago. It was gorgeous for awhile. It started growing up a tree and now, we realize it is a nuisace! We are afraid our tree will die. I have been told if the English Ivy grows to the top of the tree, the tree will die. Our ivy has not grown over half-way up this tree until last year when we had a drought. It is now inches from the top of the tree. My husband is trying to kill the English Ivy. The stems from the ivy are about 2 inches in diameter. English Ivy is on the list of plants that will give you a rash like poison ivy. So, if you need to prune or carry the ivy anywhere, you could get a rash. Some people (lucky them)do not seam to get a rash. We wish we had never planted the English Ivy! For years, we loved it.