James Galway gets over 20 feet tall in late fall as 7th-year-own-root in my zone 5a. James' Blooms has amazing carnation scent when aged in the vase. It lasts 5+ days in the vase. Below bouquet was taken mid-July, showing pink Comte de Chambord, and bright-red L.D. Braithwaite at center (lasts long in the vase, but not much scent). Left yellow is Golden Celebration (form is bad in hot & dry). Dark reds are W.S. 2000, it's a continuous bloomer as 12th-year-own-root. Lavender Crush is good for the vase, it used to be deep ugly purple, I don't like the color so I dug out the top 1 foot of clay and mixed pelletized lime to soften the color, and it has been 100% healthy with zero blackspots, plus the color is lighter & prettier: Below pic. showing Lavender Crush with zero blackspots as 7th-year grafted-on-Dr.Huey. Pic. taken this August 11, 2022. It's over 5 feet tall and blooms at the top:

Catkin, as sandyslopes says, you can start wintersowing on the solstice, although I think many people do this more for a symbolic gesture, and you certainly neither HAVE to start on the solstice nor do ALL your sowing at once on the solstice. Believe it or not, weather (i.e. snowfall or not!) permitting, I'm often still working outside at that point - either putting down leaf mulch (which I put down after the ground freezes), or, sometimes still cleaning up my zillions of leaves to begin with. And even if there is snow, I'm too busy with the holidays to start wintersowing. I usually start near the end of January to mid-February, and I do about 6-10 containers at a time, a day or two a week, and take my time with it, sowing all the way through April. IMO, this is absolutely, hands-down, the best way to start seeds, and the most fun - nothing like the smell of potting soil in January! I'm so excited for you and hope you have a great time with it - I know you'll have success! Camp, sometimes those little spring bouquets are the best! Nothing like a few cut snowdrops or muscari or mini-daffs in a jelly jar on the counter to get one excited about spring, and one of my very favorites a bit later is a little bouquet of lily-of-the-valley to perfume a room - a little bit of heaven!

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Thanks for your patience everyone (particularly Lisa). You've actually timed me pretty well and it's time to put everyone out of their misery with...the ANSWERS. The bouquet I would have picked and the one the primary woman being honored picked was the single overlap (knew she was a woman after my own heart)... Neon Lights of Broadway. I really thought I gave that one away in my descriptions since I mentioned neon at least three times in describing the various bouquets, but since there's lots of neon everywhere there were a lot of choices. When Cori Ann nailed my choice immediately I figured that would be that, but fortunately everyone had their own perceptions and that made it more fun. For the rest of her family members, as soon as I said they could all take a bouquet (or all of them) home, one of the other ladies made a beeline for Oddballs and kept a death grip on it for the next half hour daring anyone to challenge her for that one. Go for it! The other two chose Pastel Princess and Apricot Galore, which showed agreement with many of you. As we were setting up the bouquets, one of our male computer experts that was helping mentioned casually, "These are nice but I really like THAT one". Somehow I didn't even have to turn around to know he meant Prairie Harvest. When I asked if that was indeed the one, he said yes and added that they were "guy flowers" (his words, not mine). I heard the same comment from multiple guys at the party, including a male member of the family as they were gathering up bouquets. When he was reminded that he could take that one home, he looked at us like we were crazy and shook his head with a "what would I do with flowers" look on his face. When I scrolled these photos past my twins and asked what they would pick, my son immediately responded, "The purple one". Hmm. Since everything had purple spiky things in it, I told him I needed some help here. He had me scroll past the bouquets and singled out "The Pit of Despair". My daughter immediately chimed in "me too". The surprising orphan in all these selections was Seasons in the Sun, which I'd unofficially say was the majority favorite among you chiming in. Perhaps the gentle harmony of this one didn't draw the eye as much as the brighter bouquets in person, where you who have more time to contemplate things liked it more. I'd have to say among the rose bouquets it's the one I would least pick (granted, I like them all) because I like pizazz and this one is, well peaceful. It's like my yard - most people like the shade bed best because it has harmony and gentle colors that tie everything together, but I like any other bed that has something vivid in it even if it is spotty overall. Just my taste, but I can appreciate and even create things with harmony when I try. The selections left me with my second favorite - Ow My Eyes Hurt. The bouquet lasted a surprising eight days on my desk, only pulling out a few stragglers here and there. Maybe there's something in the caffeine of the Mountain Dew (smile). I'll see if I can find the picture I took after a week or so. I would stare over at Milestone and sigh happily into its neon depths (not a rose that usually blooms that neon for me, BTW). I also discovered that something in that bouquet had a scent but I have to say I didn't find it overwhelmingly positive (smelled musty to me). Everyone that came in my office commented on how nice it smelled though, so it's just my odd nose. Prairie Harvest went out into a table in our office bloc since a friend in that area had donated it, and the computer tech that liked it is also in our bloc. My secretary picked The PIt of Despair for her desk. Our clinic managers picked Seasons in the Sun, and Big Bertha sat proudly in a corner of the clinic for the week. So every bouquet got appreciated, and for those of you who liked that bouquet someone appreciated it sincerely. Thanks for playing everyone and I appreciate each and every one of your comments. Cynthia