Practice by shopping for ripe melons at the market. Get good at it. A ripe watermelon will be heavy for its size. The "ground spot" will be cream colored, and won't be ripe if still green or white. Put the melon to your ear and tap the melon with your finger. The tap is performed by touching the tip of your first finger to the tip of your thumb, as if giving the "ok" sign, and then give a little flick of your finger. Hit the melon with the flat surface of your fingernail. The sound will be a dull "punk" when tapping with your finger. If you hear "pink", the melon is not yet ripe. On the vine, check for the closest tendril to be dried up. There can sometimes be a little "spoon" leave that dries up as well. Splits in the vine leading up to the melon is a good sign as well. From there, followup with checking the ground spot and finger tap as you would at the market.

Armstrong nursery (a smaller chain in SoCa) also has gotten less roses in than in previous years and it seems to be the same with Walter Anderson nursery (an individual owned nursery, with only two locations). I guess it is the same here, people just don't buy that many roses anymore. We have water restrictions and water is relatively expensive, which certainly contributes to the fact that a lot of folks seem to be shying away from roses. What most of you wrote just makes it clear to me that it is so important, that we buy from the small, mostly online rose nurseries and talk as many people as we can reach into buying easy-to-grow and disease resistant roses in the climate we live in (OGRs of course, but also moderns in my opinion). This seems to be the only way to keep the resources for a variety of roses to choose from alive. I also think planting roses in the front yard where people actually can see them, giving fragrant freshly cut roses from our own gardens away, and invite people over for garden tours might be helpful. I certainly believe that our own actions have an influence in the world! Christina Here is a link that might be useful: Organic Garden Dreams

There is only two weeks left to sign up! I hope more sign up and join in the fun. Please email me thru my page to sign up. It's always so much fun to see who has sent you a card each day when you go to the mail box! Tami

I had to sign in too. that meant looking up my password and hoping I had it written down. I think yesterday (or last evening) I didn't have the left side options of forums. It's back now.