I'd be interested in Rangoon Creeper seeds. You can find my trade list at the following link. I also have seeds of the following roses: Celsiana, Rambling Rector, William Baffin, Henry Kelsey, (Kordes) Aloha, an unidentified heirloom type, and an unidentified single pink wild type. Here is a link that might be useful: Audrey's Trade List

It depends on your ultimate plans for the rose. Both of these will develop as quite pleasing shrubs without any pruning to shape, so that is definitely one way to handle them. Dead and dying wood has to be removed to make room for new basals. With Canary Bird that may not show up for ten years or so. Mme. Plantier will cycle through canes a lot faster. If space is an issue, they can be pruned back. However, I'd strongly recommend finding somewhere else for Canary Bird, if that's true. Mme. Plantier can probably be pruned like gallicas and damasks, though I can't think of anybody doing it. The way to get more flowers is to simply have a larger bush. You get a larger bush by leaving it alone. Aside from dead and damaged growth, not touching either for a few years isn't a bad idea.

Pam, "My" recipe is just my adaptation of Al's 5-1-1 mix from the Container Forum. I've tried to tailor it to the kind of conditions I have here, as well as to my wish to largely avoid peat as much as possible. I even vary what I put in it and in what proportions depending on whether I'm expecting a year that is wet, dry or average. For example, if we were expecting an El Nino spring with heavy rainfall, I'd mix it so it drains better but if I was expecting a drier year, I'd add coir to help it hold moisture. When it is very hot and dry here, even 20-gallon and larger containers often need to be watered twice or three times daily in hot weather so my container plants suffer in a dry year if the mix drains too quickly. As far as the ProMix, that's a lot of peat. If I was going to grow regular plants in it, I'd add pine bark fines for sure. If I was growing acid-lovers like blueberries or azaleas, I'd still add pine fines, but less of them. I can only dream of growing anything here that likes acidity because my soil and water both test at about 8.2 to 8.3. I can modity the soil and lower its pH pretty easily but not the water, so I don't grow anything that prefers highly acidic conditions. Peat is so peculiar. When it is wet, it can hold moisture forever, and that's what I don't like about it. And, when peat gets really, really dry it is hard to rewet it. In climates where the weather can swing from dropping several inches of rain in a few hours to virtually no rain at all for weeks or even months, I feel like mixes that have a heavy peat component underperform compared to mixes that have only a moderate amount of peat, or no peat at all. I do agree that pine bark fines improve any mix heavy in peat, and would drastically improved most any mix you can buy. The heavier peat component in starter mixes is necessary for great drainage, but I don't like that heavier percentage of peat for growing plants beyond the starter stage. Pine bark mulch seems controversial in terms of being used in a veggie garden and I suppose it might not be helpful in every situation and every climate. However, I have used it in years when I couldn't find much hay to use as mulch, and I loved it. It looked wonderful, didn't wash away in heavy downpours and didn't cause me any problems. I read a magazine article once that I think was written by a Texas gardener who was coping with high clay content...as in almost pure clay. Defying the conventional wisdom, he routinely rototilled huge amounts of pine fines and pine mulch (the smaller pieces, not the gigantic ones) into his clay and had huge improvement in a pretty fast time frame. He didn't even state whether he added additional nitrogen to compensate for whatever nitrogen is depeleting as the bark decomposes, but he had enormous soil improvement and was very pleased. His article made me smile because I had started adding some pine mulch to my soil about 3 years before and hadn't noticed any problems and also had huge improvement. For me, the amazing thing is how fast the mulch rototilled into soil breaks down. If I rototill it into soil in January or February, it is largely gone by the following winter. Only a few pieces that were larger than average to begin with will remain a year later. I started adding the pine mulch because so much of my compost was disappearing every year (as the old saying goes, "heat eats compost") and it seemed like I just couldn't add enough to the red clay to fix it. And, I should add, that my red clay is flower pot clay---I believe I could wet it down and work with it and make flower pots---so it takes massive amounts of improvement to make it workable. I wouldn't necessarily add pine bark to fairly normal soil. Having never had fairly normal soil, though, I use lots of pine. This year I added vast amounts of pine fines and humus to one 8' x 4' raised bed that had amended clay that just was not well-amended enough for potatoes. I then immediately planted the potatoes. That was probably in late January or very early February. Those potato plants are growing incredibly well and are about to flower. By contrast, the four long rows of potato plants planted at the west end of the main garden are 1/3 their size and a lot way from flowering. Those were planted in an 8" deep trench and I covered the seed potatoes with a couple of inches of soil, and then continued to add soil as they grew until the trenches were filled in. It really isn't even fair to compare the performance of potatoes in a raised bed to those in grade-level beds, but it is such a striking difference that I cannot believe it. I do think heavy, heavy rain that filled those trenches with water for several days likely had a negative impact on the potatoes and slowed them down. Clearly I need to add a gazillion tons of pine bark fines and compost to the west end of the veggie garden before next season. It is a sandier-clayier loam than the rest of the veggie garden, but no matter how much compost I add to it, it still seems like it isn't as improved as the heavier clay. I usually grow either sweet potatoes or potatoes there, but then find the soil rock-hard at digging time. It probably is the least-improved soil in which I grow veggies because it started out in better shape than the clay, so I kind of ignored it and didn't amend it nearly as much. Now that the rest of the soil is so much better than the west end, I need to work on the west end a lot to bring it up to speed. Susan, I'm sorry you couldn't get the soccer goal. That would have been so perfect. I find so many interesting things at garage sales that can be used in the garden. I got a wooden ladder for $3 once, painted it a medium purple, and now grow purple hyacinth beans on it. It is just the coolest-looking thing when you see only hints of the purple ladder peeking out through all that bean foliage and flowers. Mommyrosalyn, You're welcome and be sure to let us know what you end up with and how they do for you. That's how we all learn from one another. I did forget to list one favorite (not hard to do when you have 100 or 200 favorites) that doesn't get a lot of attention but which does produce very well in our climate, and it is one called Fantastic. There's also an improved version of it called Super Fantastic. I actually prefer Fantastic, which I have to raise from seed myself because I usually don't see it in stores, but I see Super Fantastic in stores pretty often. When you are tomato shopping in chain stores or nursery chain stores watch for tomato plants from Chef Jeff. That particular line carries oodles of heirlooms. However, if you can shop at The Tomatoman's Daughter or at any of the festivals where Duck Creek Farms sells heirloom tomato plants (see link to Duck Creek Farms website below---their schedule of farmer's market and festivals is available there), then any variety they sell likely would please you. Dawn Here is a link that might be useful: Duck Creek Farms

Will passion vine grow in zone 4a as a perennial? I know that P. incarnata is one of the hardiest, but not sure it's hardy to that zone. If you try honeysuckle, try to get Lonicera sempervirens or a cultivar of it. They are gorgeous and attract hummingbirds, and will do fine in part shade. Also, Sweet Autumn Clematis would do fine on a chain link, too. It flowers in late summer to early fall, with masses of tiny white blooms that are very fragrant. Ampelopsis brevipedunculata (porcelain vine, and I think the name may have been changed by the all too underworked taxonomists), has mottled green/white foliage and produces berries that are purple, blue, white, hence the name "porcelain". It is in the grape family. Aristolochias are vines that do well in part shade, too. They are old-fashioned vines that people used to shade their porches way back when..... A. macrophylla would be the best for you (big leaf pipevine). You may also be lucky enough to get some pipevine swallowtails to lay eggs on them. They do flower, but rather the flowers are usually hidden by the huge heart-shaped foliage. It is called pipevine because the flowers are shaped like meershaum pipes. You could also use other clematis varieties that tolerate partial shade, but I find they do not really provide good coverage of a fence. While your perennial vines are growing and filling in, you can plant some annuals back there, like sweet peas. Those should do well for you in your climate, and there are so many different colors available on today's market. They usually flower in spring. I don't know if you will get a sustained period of heat long enough for morning glories to bloom in your zone. Canary flower would probably do well for you as it likes cooler weather. If I am wrong about passion flower or morning glories, please correct me. Susan