Wow, lots of discussion here overnight. I hadn't thought about hybrid multifloras . . . the green canes and thornlessness could go along with that . . . this little guy is showing no signs of flowering in clusters, though. It's got single main buds on the laterals, with two side buds. No variation from this pattern anywhere on the plant. BTW, what constitutes a 'fringed stipule'? I've been comparing this rose to everything in the garden, and I don't see that its stipules are any more fringy than some of the others I have. The comparison to Seven Sisters is an interesting one. To my experience, there are a lot of roses out there being passed off as Seven Sisters -- some with different habits and bloom styles and sizes. The only one I've ever seen in person is one we planted at a public garden downtown, and we doubted that it was the real thing. The flowers are much smaller than my rose, and it always flowers in clusters. I checked the photos of Seven Sisters on HMF, but I couldn't find one that showed enough of the leaves or buds or canes to make a good comparison. The Lansdowne rose started last year with a main cane (the one that I rooted the year before) and one basal. Over the course of the year, it sent up at least 6 other basal canes to make quite a little cluster of canes. No signs of suckering away from the base of the plant, though. As far as comparing this to my other roses, I find that this one sort of resembles my Madame Plantier. Both are thornless, with green canes, with main and sidebuds on the flowering laterals. MP was new to me last year, so I haven't had a chance to compare the flowers in person yet, though some of the photos of it on HMF are a dead-ringer for my rose, except that the flowers on MP are white. This probably doesn't help us narrow the choice of class for my rose, since the Madame has conflicting classifications -- is she a noisette, or an alba, or what? The photo of MP in the link below shows some of the characteristics of my rose. Some of the buds are fat with shorter sepals, and some are fringy and foliose (I love that word, thanks Melissa.) I wish the mama rose wasn't gone. Connie P.S. We can trade cuttings later in the year -- it's a little bit too early to do that here. Here is a link that might be useful: Marcia's Madame Plantier HMF photo

Final update, for me anyways. Sylvia : Papi Amarillis, lavender mint, pink rose For me : Yellow bird of paradise, culinary sage, lemon mint, schoolhouse lily if you have any extra Phyllis : Varigated ginger, lavender mint, lemongrass For me : Flame acanthus, sabrina hollyhocks, purple butterfly bush Seamommy : Orchid For me : Pots and purple salvia will be great Fortunegardener : Rose and mexican mint marigold For me : Texas Star Hibiscus, garden phlox preferred or sedum is fine element : 3 gallon potted Vitex seedling do you have any potted plants on my wish list?? or kombucha baby or several 3 gallon or large pots?? barkingdogwoods : I have a large hawaiian crinum spiderlily, multiplying onions, elephant garlic For me : rooted fig cuttings, corona de cristo passionflower I will have some extras for the orphan table for sure. See you all Saturday.

I have all my photos on CD's. I scanned all the photos into folders, topic, year, celebration, whatever and burned them. I made two copies. One is in the safe deposit box at the bank, the other in my house. I only scan onto CD-R's. I find that they are tolerated by other computers and as long as I burn them as jpeg, I can view them on the TV thru my DVD player. (Your DVD player has to be able to project the jpeg images) The cost of CD-R's is so low, in fact if you watch the ads, you can often get them free after rebates. I often send CD's to family and friends after a get-together. The cost is so low. I try to use brands that I have had good experience with. It is also very helpful to have dates on the images, at least some of them, to stop the arguments of 'when was that taken' as you view them. I do have a software program that helps me organize the pictures and allows me to insert text on the images. Images on CD's last virtually forever. Storing them on other media may not be. It took a long time to sort thru the old photos and scan them into the computer, but the knowledge that fire, storm, whatever cannot take these memories is a good reward.

Hi guys! No, I didn't finally jump over the ledge :) I just took a small hiatus. I boarded "charliedawg" in a kennel, packed the suitcases, got the family in the car and got the heck out of here. WHEW! If I ever build a house again (which I highly doubt I will) I will definitely put mental health vacation $$$$ in my budget. LOL Tragusa, I'm not glad that you had all of the problems but I'm glad to know that it worked out for you so I know it will all be ok fo me too. GC will be back tomorrow. She has ALWAYS made things perfect so I'm not sure why I doubted it now. I think I just felt out of control because she is gone. I'm not the type that needs to be in control of such a big project, I guess ya'll figured that out by now.