Nicely documented. I have one suggestion, and this is just me being a stickler about the photos. Make sure that your camera is the appropriate distance away from whatever you're trying to focus on. I find that people often take photos a little too close and thus they end up focusing on the background, as opposed to the part of interest. Most of your photos are well-focused, there are just a few which are not. -Audric

Hi Patreesh, I'm not in the same zone as you, so the following should be evaluated with that in mind. Most of my well established roses are either once bloomers, or bloom in two heavy flushes with sporadic flowering between. Well established and nearly continual bloomers: The Austins - Heritage, Mary, Sophy's Rose, Molineux and not quite as continuous(but was moved this spring, so..), Geoff Hamilton. Shrub rose Easy Does It. Florbunda Marie Pavie. Very good rebloom on the rugosa Roseraie de l'Hay. Fragrance to die for! One year in the ground and a pretty constant bloomer - HT Firefighter. I added many new roses this year, it will be interesting to see who does what in the future. Do you water your roses? I found that to be the most influential factor for bloom and vigor, as well as over all health. A deep soak whenever they need it(not on a schedule!). I use RoseTone, alfalfa pellets, Neptune's fish and seaweed emulsion(secret weapon), some organic hydroponic amendments, green sand, and copious amounts of compost(the garden/nutri brew, bagged mushroom compost and leaf compost. Mulch with small pine bark nuggets. If I could get ground pine bark, I would buy all I found and use that. Not an expert by any means, but just what seems to work out for me here. The water seems to be the most important thing, by a long shot. Nice to see other CNYer's here! I hope you enjoy gardening in CNY, Nastarana. I have been following your posts for a while. Krista gives very good advice, and helped me with some choices several years ago. I think of you every time I look at Eglantine, Krista. Thanks.

Hi Mamabirrd, If you ever get to Central PA (and since you are a Penn State Master Gardener, I'm guessing you do), I have 600+ varieties of daylilies! I'm in Bellefonte, 15 minutes north of State College. I am through Bedford/Breezewood every other Friday evening/Sunday afternoon if you want to meet to trade in person. Or a mailing trade would be great too! Just let me know if you are interested. Elizabeth Here is a link that might be useful: my trade page

We are currently working with Nassau and Suffolk County on getting a minimum 5 Acre location for a nursery. We have a 3 acre location being developed in Old Brookville. While there is a trade off between the full root system of an easily shipped 3-5 footer(Trachy), our feeling is that customers will want a legit looking palm asap so the minimum 8 footers make sense. I'm hoping that the palm's maturity will spark quicker regrowth of its root system within a max 2-year period. So during those two years, at least the customer will have a palm of substance to look at and brag about. We will be offering a 1-year guarantee on all palms provided the customer uses our winter wrapping service. We feel the crucial months for protection (before establishment of the palm) will be Dec-Feb...Possibly first 2 weeks in March. Hey, the way I see it, covering a palm in NY for 3 months-to have palms isn't that bad. Our targeted market is pool owners-who are used to officially closing/covering their pools, BBQ, deck chairs....OK, so now include your palms. A ritual they are already used too. Shipping will be choreographed to spend as little time in transit as possible. We are currently speaking with different nurseries in GA & NC. Obviously, dealing with NC would provide us with the closest and most cold hardy of the species. Our goal is to get our nursery up and running ASAP so we can get our 1st generation of NY'ers followed by future generations-hopefully winding up with "New York Tough" lines of different palms species. We will also be test planting Dates, Sabals, Washingtonias, Yuccas and Agaves this spring to see how they cope with the next winter. I'm also going to be getting some Jubaea and Butia Hybrids. We will be experimenting with chemicals, sprays...trying to stay away from anything requiring electrical. One thing we will be working with is Beet Juice. Believe it or not, there is a company that has a patent pending on beet juice as an ice melt. In STL they use it instead of salt to melt the roadways as it is all natural and not corrosive. Can beet juice lower the core water temp freezing point inside a palm? Maybe, wont know until this winter. I just hope it doesn't dye the darn palm red :). Also, purely by accident, I discovered that I have seepage form a broken line in my leaching field where cesspool water is coming up. The grass in contact with that water is lush, growing and green as can be while the grass around it is frozen, brown and lifeless. A fertilizer rich in potassium and nitrogen may do a NY palm well in helping survive a winter. Each area in the US is different, even if they are listed in the same zone. There are Fortuneis on Long Island that are 20+ tall over 45 years old living on Long Island-no protection(Not having anything to do with me...www.nypalms.com. Our goal is to get them through the first 2-3 winters and then they should be able to cope. Butias may require winter protect for 5-10 years or until they are at least 15 feet high. I'm really looking forward to experimenting with other species and sharing the finding with all of you.