GardenWeb's MidSouth Fall Swap 01NOV2008 As usual, a pancake breakfast will be served by the host. Is GardenWeb serving pancakes?

Hi everybody, I'm a newbee. I've gardened in Memphis for a year, but live close to Covington. I grow all kinds of perennials, a food garden (about 20 x 50'), and roses. I have crepe myrtles, shrubs, evergreens, dogwoods, and all kinds of traded flowers I just stuck in the ground and kept alive. A lot of it was here when we bought the place, and the rest has been added over the years by us. I moved 12 tea roses to another location in my yard at the beginning of July (eeek!), after researching how to do it safely, and now they are full of leaves and flowering out. Then, my friend and neighbor, who is a plant rookie, bought us both an Eden climbing rose. She said she had lived there ove 20 years, and SHE WANTED HER YARD TO LOOK NICE. She then said we needed to go in together on a rose order of English roses. HAH! She said ten roses each. I ended up getting 24 roses in all, and I'm now the official baby rose nurse until they get planted when the weather cools off. I didn't know that it was going to get over 104 degrees during the time when they were supposed to arrive. NOT TO WORRY. My husband, the ever present plant genius, told me how to keep them from frying. I took them into my bathroom, unwrapped them, and watered them with cool water from the shower. Then I potted them up to 1 gallon pots (they were only band sized rooted cuttings), watering the soil before putting it around their sensitive roots. THEN, I prepared a bed in partial shade in the back of some evergreen bushes on the shady cool side of my house, by using 4x4 timbers stacked two high, and filled that with damp peat moss. (All this in 104 degree weather) Then I BURIED the pots up to their rims in the peat moss bed. Every day I misted them 5 times a day. Every one is living and only had maybe one yellow leaf, and one is even putting out flowers (actually one flower, but it IS a beautiful one) The main thing with pots is that the roots get overheated, and the damp peat moss takes care of that. You could bury the pots directly in the dirt, but in 104 degree weather you might heat stroke out yourself digging all those holes!!! The peat moss is pretty expensive, but you can use it elsewhere when you don't need it any more. The second batch of roses (six bands) came yesterday in the mail, and it was so hot I was afraid to even put them in the peat moss bed. So, again my genius husband told me to just set them on the porch, and bring them inside the house when it got hot. And when the weather cooled down to the 90's, THEN put them in the peat moss bed. (He really is a genius. He's the one that designed all the flower beds in our yard) I think I've lost my mind ordering roses during a heat wave. I probably should be posting this in the rose forum, but y'all were talking about West Tennessee gardeners, and here I am! BTW, I also do a LOT of plant research on the internet, and have a huge inventory of info that I've collected over the years.

Besides not wanting to drive to Tunica to go to the fair I guess I am just old and sentimental. I have a lot of fond memories of the fair as a child then my teen years and then taking my own children. I was so glad to get to go one last time at the fairgrounds with my daughter, we even brought home the famous fair goldfish. My oldest daughter went on her own with her friends, she was also in the talent contest and got to the semi-finals, she was pleased and of course I was a proud mom. The fair grounds shouldn't be a festering boil on the anus of Memphis, instead Memphis should learn to embrace the good things that it has and actually invest some time and yes money to make them better, just think of how much revenue the city just lost to another state!!!! and that is the trend of the way things in general are going.Yep that is the trend, south to Mississippi. I would love to move back to the city proper as it does have so much character, but I wouldn't dare with kids still in school. I wouldn't dare send my kids to a city school, as the city doesn't seem to know how to protect its resources and I feel like I have 2 of the best resources, and I don't want them wasted!!! Mary

UPDATE: Again thanks everyone for all the great advice as this has turned into a really nice thread, and I had started the original post. Have all the tomatoes starting in trays and starting to germinate, and the winning varieties taken from the advice given here are: Brandywine Pink Kelogg's Breakfast Box Car Willie Brandywine Red Rose Giant Belgium Porterhouse Hybrid Cherokee Purple Orange Wellington and for cherry tomatoes: Black Cherry Sun Gold As I said before once they are in the garden and producing, I will add some more updates along with pictures during the season! Thanks again everyone and as you can see I took advice from the forum and used some of your suggestions thanks to fusion_power , PupillaCharites(FL 9a), fireduck(10a), seysonn(8a WA/HZ 1), foose4string(z7 MD), seysonn(8a WA/HZ 1), and everyone else!! Now I can't wait till the plants are actually in the garden and starting to grow. Last year I put some epsom salts, bone meal, and some sugar in each hole with the plant, then sprayed blooms with some booster and got some amazing results. I will still buy a couple plants from the local nursery Whiteman's just a stone's throw from my house-probably like Rutger's and Early Girl. Still a little chilly here in N. Indiana (overnight in the 20's) so will have to be patient. Usually have the garden in by mid-May.