Blazeaglory - in my No Cal garden, this has been the worst year for rust that I can remember. I agree that roses are getting it which have not in prior years - I attribute this to the very weird weather we have been having since last Fall. The best advice I know of is what Kim said in this thread above, on June 3, 2011. Of course, this does not involve shovel pruning any rose that shows a sign of disease! However, I would also like to comment that Jeri (who is one of the most responsive, knowledgeable, helpful, always goes out of her way to help folks, kindest, people we are privileged to have on this forum) is correct, as usual. In my garden ALL of the roses that got rust in this most rusty of years are hybrid teas, large flowered climbers, and other modern roses. I have over 100 roses, which include lots & lots of teas and chinas and noisettes and hybrid musks, and hybrid giganticas, and polyanthas and old ramblers and banksaies. NOT ONE of any of those classes of roses have even one dot of rust - nadda, zippo. I personally tolerate some rust (don't mean I ignore it - just that I don't pull out the bushes) on the others because, like you, I have some heritage roses in my garden that we inherited from ancestors, and I am keeping them, no matter what horrible things they do. Most years it is not too bad. If I really did not want any rust, I would get rid of the rust buckets. 80% of my roses have none, as I said above. Jeri is right - if you figure out which roses will grow in your exact conditions, you can have beautiful, healthy bushes that bloom for 9 months of the year (at least, in my climate) without spraying. If you, like me, insist on growing some that do rust, you have to deal with it. Jackie

Very often things come down to us just that way, Tom. At one time it may have had an "official" name. But the folks growing and saving it don't remember what it was. Sometimes, however, they do. Get as much info as you can from your wife's granny. How long it's been in the family, who grew it and where, etc. Saving this information can be as important as saving the variety itself. >I certainly agree that the best way to keep them going is to pass them along to people with an interest in preserving seed. Too right, Tom. That's one of the reasons AHSC (Appalachian Heirloom Seed Conservancy) started its Living Seed Bank project. The best way of preserving a variety is to assure that somebody (hopefully, several somebodies) somewhere is growing it every year. For your own seed saving efforts, make sure to set aside at least two year's worth of seed. That way, if there's a crop failure for any reason, you still have enough stock to start over the following season.

I just received the Carolina Jessamine seeds I ordered but there were no instructions as to how to plant (germinate) the seeds. Anyone has any suggestions?

Jsvand5, I don't know of any commercial source for Goose Creek seeds, but two people listed Goose Creek in the 2008 Seed Savers Exchange Yearbook. If you aren't a member of SSE yet, this would be a very good time to join because the 2009 Yearbook is just now going to the printer and will be out in a month or two. The Yearbook is a very good place to look for varieties that you can't find anywhere else, as many members list those for which they have enough seeds to offer. Laurel, there was never any patent granted for Goose Creek, nor will there be. Jimmy Williams applied for a patent on November 11, 2004 but it was never granted. Goose Creek was not "invented" by Jimmy Williams, and as noted above, the stages of ripeness described for Goose Creek are not unique to Goose Creek. Jimmy Williams can apply for a patent if he wishes but he won't get one. The United States Patent and Trademark Office has a public web page at http://patft.uspto.gov/ where anyone can look up patent applications as well as the patents that have been granted, and you will see that there is an application but it has NOT been granted. Anyone who wants to can go to the web page and verify this for themselves. Here is a link that might be useful: 2008 SSE Yearbook