Blueboy, I have 50 sweetcrisps....if they fall flowered you would think at least 1 of the 50 would do so. My Emeralds fall flower and so do my Windsors and Southmoon...think that is all. Florida Hill sends out wrong bananas, figs as well as flowers. I said it before and will again....in my opinion it is not an accident. Bought 3 HUGE 4 foot tall 'Star' BB yesterday. A small local garden center was having a half off sale so they were just $7 each. The bases were bigger than a golf ball.

Hi Guys, First off, I am truly saddened by the closing of Chalk Hill. I have purchased quite a few Clematis from them, and always recieved good service from them. Out of my 50 or so Clematis I bet I have purchased 45 of them from private growers[Brushwood, Silver Star and Chalk Hill).And the other 5 from HD, or Lowes or Hy Vee Grocery store. What the heck does it matter where I purchase my plants? If I like it I will buy it, no matter where it is. I think this is the U.S. right? I've been observing these posts for awhile now and It occured to me that certain negative elements on these posts, remind me of my 9yr old son who creates negative situations to focus attention on himself. As I read earlier, there is probably very limited knowledge of Clematis, but just a need for attention. Kinda sad and silly but also kind of funny. Anyway, I to took advantage of the great prices at Chalk Hill and now have to find spots for 17 more of my friends. Have A Great Day! And stay positive!! Tracy

I stopped by and had a hard time deciding what to get, but finally ended up getting one of those aloe polyphyllas, even though I have another large one. They are nice specimens for the price. At the first 60% sale, I brought home a nice large astrophytum ornatum. Good deals to be had. Summerwinds nearby ais worth a stop afterwards for some nice and fairly inexpensive pottery.

Kim you are spot on the cultivars with susceptibility to gall. Interesting they are still used in some breeding programs. Ball is a broker of liners of a variety of genetic programs and brokers a couple of different liner producers. Star does broker some liners too, but most go to the fields for production of own root one-year plants. As you all know Star Roses sells a lot of roses in the market. There have been some reports of gall being a problem in the budded rose fields too, but I have not seen this, I only heard some comments about it. If true, then gall has become more virulent. Crown gall is one of the biggest problems for greenhouses producing cut flowers roses the world over. I always want to remind everyone that crown gall is a disease of a wide range of plants, not just roses. It is present in soil over a very wide area of N. America and may very well be present in the soils where you plant roses. It often can be fairly dormant and you will see no symptoms, but if the soil was tested it would be found to be present. Hot humid climates like Florida seem to have more problems with gall. Florida Ag gets aggressive about reports of crown gall in plants because it is a huge problem in the production of tropical foliage which is a pretty important economic crop for Florida. It is often really hard to tell where the crown gall originates, the liner producer, the field grower, the container grower or the consumer's garden. It is spread through soil, mechanical wounding of plants and water - so a few plants with crown gall in a nursery can cause larger problems over time. That said, yes the industry needs to take the utmost care in production. I find it interesting that the target seems to be Greenheart. I have observed that no other producer has addressed the problem and has taken more steps to make sure they have clean plants then Greenheart. They have hired the best consultants on crown gall and have worked with Oregon State and UC Davis to insure clean production. I think the problems are now limited or non existent at Greenheart. One of the largest growers of wholesale field grown own root plants has also really committed to procedures to minimize crown gall in the field. I think there will always be some problem as it has so far proved to be impossible to eradicate. There is some research being done in other plant species on the genetic markers for disease resistance. Intriguing and I hope that if they are successful we could apply some of this knowledge to rose genetics.