For those of you having troubles with cukes and squash, you might want to inter-plant with nasturtiums next time, try it! My garden in 9b is just going to be one year old, or should I rather say, I will be celebrating one year of being the garden's loving custodian....so I have lots of troubles. In march/April I had a jungle of brassicas (both rapas and oleraceas). I had this green explosion and almost ran out of room in the freezer. Turnips, kales, collards, bok choi, beet greens, you name it. When it got warmer the harlequin beetles attacked them and they all died, after I had hopes for their perennialization (a word?). The Harlequin proceeded to suck the jalapenos and the tomatoes, ruining several tomato plants too. I was (am) so afraid to put brassicas on the ground again, until I realized I need to give them sacrificial crops. This started to work to some extent last year, and my fear was that sunflowers would not sprout at this time of the year. Guess what? they did! I now have sunflowers growing and I just planted some kale and mustards near them. Not sure if nasturtiums will do the trick for brassicas but I put them in too. We also got some brussel sprouts trying to germinate in a protected environment (terrarium), I think I will use the plastic cylinders from soft drink bottles that grandad from Louisiana is showing on the cole crops thread. So glad I overcame my fear of trying brassicas again. I still have to successfully grow cauliflowers and broccoli though. We will see how the brussel sprouts do and think about it, my cauliflowers never flowered last year, but the leaves were good....LOL In the mean time, the amaranth is still producing as many greens as I need. They are tougher leaves now that the plants are seeding, so I just cook them longer and they are still acceptable. Whatever tries to attack them gets in turn eaten by a large collection of lady bugs that seem to hang out near them a lot. I am encouraging more lady bugs by planting more and more cilantro. When they reach their end I will still have several dozen pounds of frozen green in the freezer from the spring. After that I hope the cole crops will be ready to harvest, and the harlequins somewhat controlled. So I hope anyways. I was so furious when i found out they are an introduced species! grrrr.....and no predators either, not even chickens will eat them. Anybody knows of other sacrificial crops to deter bugs from cole crops? I will need something after the sunflowers run their course, but I suppose since now I know they will grow at any time, I can keep planting more and more sunflowers. A very handsome looking sacrificial crop at that.....

Memphisbelle, quite a few clematis suffer in the heat and humidity of my garden here in NC during the pits of the summer. Integrifolias are typically not ones that seem to be fazed by the heat and humidity however except for the issue of mildew. Roguchi gets mildew horribly in my garden if it is not sprayed with a mildewicide as does Embers. The other integrifolias, except for those mentioned previously, have never had an issue with mildew in my garden and do well in my summer conditions. Not sure why you would have a problem with Andante and not with Rooguchi. Just shows everyone's garden conditions differ greatly and the experiences we have with the same clematis varies as well.

Sarah and Val - That's the ffo on Always Applique, and I would expect the applique eye to become pronounced on subsequent blooms. It's also blooming on pretty short scapes this first season. I look forward to this one settling in and maturing. Nancy - That's right, with Bohemia After Dark eight years in the magic number. Just kidding. Your plant probably hasn't faced the lack of sun that mine has. I was just thrilled today to see it look similar to Petit's photo. Back Scratcher is a great one. I think you'll like it. Debra

Where do you think the graft is/was Keithog? There are two possible sites - right down by/just under the ground, which is where it would be for a grafted shrub or climber, in which case everything is fine, as it'll resprout from the remaining canes. OR, if it was a standard or 'tree' rose then the graft would be several feet up, so the roots and a single straight trunk would be one variety and the bushy flowering part at the top would be another. In that case, rip it out like Kate says. Looking at the picture, I personally don't think it was a standard. Could you take a better picture of the base of the rose, and hopefully someone with better eyes than mine can determine whether that small cane at the bottom was a sucker or whether there's a graft below it or not.