Lovely bouquet Seil! I always enjoy seeing your collection. You often inspire me to try something that I might have otherwise dismissed as too tender for my climate. It seems to me your temps are often similar to mine, I really suspect I'm in more of a 6 than 5. Anyhow, you've also inspired me to show my "just before the snow" collection (although in typical New England weather tradition the predicted snow never happened). We've had a couple light frosts but many of my bushes keep right on blooming, especially the minis. L-R: Sunshine Daydream, Dream Come True, Fireworks, Sachet, Marie Pavie, Easy Does It, Distant Drums & Iceberg, Champagne Wishes & Distant Drums, Bees Knees & Rainbow's End, Busy Bee, Rainbow Sorbet.

Thanks everyone. Julia, Moonlight Mist has a description of frosty peach pink blend - it's definitely peach in my garden. Michelle

Hello dear Florence, Yes, I hear from Grace from time to time. She didn't 'officially' move out since most of her belongings are still here....and so is Zeus, thank God! She pops in every couple of weeks to grab some of her things and to give Zeus a hug. We are on good terms and she always hugs me and tells me she loves me. Her life is a mess right now and I think she feels she has brought too much trouble onto me to still live here, even though I have never asked her to leave. When she got arrested because of the boyfriend and the drugs in her car, she lost her car and had to pay a huge fine in court (which she borrowed from me and paid me back with her tax return.... it took all of it). So since she no longer has a car and is working again, she is staying with a friend who lives closer to where she works. Her lifestyle is not what I want for her and she chooses to hang around the wrong kind of people, but she is an adult and my hands are tied. However, we remain friends and on good terms. I just wish she would come to her senses and realize that she is going nowhere with the choices she is making. I feel like the mother is always the one that the children lash out at. My youngest, Tiffany, treats me with such hostility whenever she is mad at her deadbeat father.... he lives all the way across the country and rarely calls her and is in arrears on his child support bigtime. She can't lash out at him since he's not around and says how much she hates him (to me) but the 3 times a year he thinks to call her, she acts all sweet and loving toward him. For some reason us mothers are the 'safest' to hurt and treat badly because our children know Mom will always forgive them and will love them no matter what. I am certain that with maturity and a lot of patience, our children (and your granddaughter) will come around. Sometimes it takes becoming a mother themselves to comprehend all that they take for granted now. I had hoped that my daughters would gain that knowledge by watching me care for my own mother. My mom was cold and distant to me all my life and we were never close. Once she got the Alzheimers she became kinder and gentler and I am learning to forgive all the past hurts. Maybe one day my girls will learn to forgive me as well, for not being perfect. One thing they have always known is that my love for them is unconditional. They know they can always rely on me....my arms are always open. My love to you.... Celeste

Thank you, Jim and Cottagegarden for reviving this thread. I really appreciate the company of kind, and positive visitors to this forum. Like Cottagegarden, I bought 2 soil-test kits from local stores: Lowe and HomeDepot. They are totally useless and gave false result. Then I paid $20 for EarthCo. (professional soil-testing company) and my soil test came back high pH at 7.7, and deficient in everything, plus barely adequate in calcium ... I was so sure that my soil has plenty of calcium !! I'm next to a limestone quarry. For years I disagree with my neighbor on calcium. He insisted that his tomato in pots are lacking in calcium (blossom end-rot) ... He's right, after seeing how mixing gypsum (calcium sulfate) into the soil made 1st-year band-size La Reine went beserk with buds: due to winter-kill, it's only 8 inch. tall, but with 10 buds !! But the plant is stunt & brown leaves, and the blooms are small. I forgot to give it sulfate of potash (it should be twice more potassium than calcium). Yes to mixing gypsum into planting hole, but no more than 10% (I spent hours researching on the right % to mix in). I broke that rule many times, and end up with stunt plants & leaves showing potassium deficiency. Too much calcium drives down potassium. If you have a large garden, soil can vary: some part can be alkaline if watered frequently with high pH tap water. Most tap water are alkaline, I already tested a few with fish-tank litmus paper, even mineral bottled water has pH over 8. Some part of a garden can be acidic (if get rain water only, pH at 5.6). My soil test recommend mixing sulfur into clay. BAD ADVICE !! That was expensive and killed tons of earthworms. I like gypsum better, less caustic & cheaper ($4 for 25 lb. at Menards). Gypsum is great in breaking up compacted clay, provides calcium, plus de-salt soil. I moved 4 roses this spring: The ones that didn't get gypsum in the planting hole were slower to recuperate. The one that got gypsum in the planting hole, was VERY FAST in pumping out buds. See Duchess de Rohan below, 2 weeks after moving, with lots of buds. I moved that one since it was in too much shade, zero blooms. After moving to more sun, it exploded in buds. A note on moving roses. Roses which are grafted on Dr. Huey is less forgiving in moving. Dr. Huey is a long stick, and it's easy to break the tiny roots at the end. I moved knock-outs grafted on Dr. Huey twice before. Both time they lost all their leaves, and took at least 3 months to get back to normal. With own-root, it's so much easier to move: The roots are cluster: wide & shallow, rather than a long & deep stick like Dr. Huey. I moved at least 10 own-roots for the past 4 years: They recuperate quickly, lose zero leaves, IF THE ORIGINAL SOIL IS LOOSE & FLUFFY, then moving is zero stress. If the original soil is compact, digging them up caused many roots to be broken.