That describes most of this years summer for us (highs 70's, lows 50's) and some how I managed to get over 20 ripe watermelons (moon and stars). I do pull all small fruit off and pinch off growing points and blossoms in August so the plants can direct their energy to to melons. Being a zone 3-4 my big goal is to try and get them ripe in August, I even germinated them indoors this year, but we had one of the coldest summers ever, I should be happy I had ripe watermelons at all. I was surprised I even got some 25-30 lbers.

There have been a couple of threads on the topic of 'Grace's' growth pattern...one of which I started last year. I have a half a dozen 'Grace' and about 15-20 others, from straight obovatus to coggygria cultivars. None of the others, (including the C. obovatus) demonstrate the bizarre and to my eye, unattractive habit of 'Grace'. I like 'Grace' for two reasons - the largest leaves of any of the Cotinus and the incredible fall color, as lola-lemon notes above. The summer color is much redder than the purple coggygria varieties. I found that 'Grace' put out 12-15' of whip-like growth per year, whether I coppiced the shrub in winter or left it alone. whaas pointed out that I might try pruning back once the spring growth was underway (often a suggested pruning technique for deciduous trees) and that seems to have worked much better. 'Grace's' shape is still more ungainly than the others, but much better than it was. Prairiemoon not sure how helpful this is for your situation, but 'Grace' is a relatively new cultivar and out here, at least, designers went nuts spec-ing them for all situations and then were aghast when they saw what their growth pattern was. I was told that mine were freaks until everyone else started noting the same thing. As bboy mentions, C. obovatus can get enormous, and there is something in that cross that produces aggressive growth. I love Cotinus so take my negative comments in that light. Sara

You are so very very right about never letting any vegetable get pot bound, and it is even worse for head-producing veggies. That would absolutely destroy them and is probably the most important thing for all veggies. I may have kept peppers in a smaller container too long last year, and one plant must have had just one blossom that I did not see as I planted it. Because of that accident, that plant only grew 1/3 as big, and produced less than half as many fruit all year. It finally had lots of blooms in the fall - when it was too late. I uppot as much as 4 times. You do not have to cover big healthy brassicas if frost. Only if it gets down to 25F. If you are planting smaller seedlings, it may be different. I improve soil temp by heat cables, black plastic, walls a water, and jugs of water around the walls. (By the way, Parks has had Kozy Koats on sale for 3/10.50. Best price I ever saw. No tax from Parks to Ohio and free ship over $49.) Based on the wonderful advice in this column, and trying to minimize postage rates, I will order Blue Wind and Goliath. It is almost time for me to plant them. Thank you so much!

Looks like a great list, AC91z6! You should have fun with those roses (including the Firefighter you replaced for the sold out Munstead Wood. Glad I could help talk you into Felix LeClerc. My Therese Bugnet is 7 years old own root from Burling and it prime full sun. I really can't say I'd recommend her at all, and I toy with digging out Therese and her nearby companion Fimbriata (Bear in mind that I've only deliberately shovel pruned 3 roses out of 1000 to put this into perspective, though of course I've had 100's die without my help). They have only sporadic bloom for about 2 weeks but TONS of vegetative growth that does virtually nothing. So far they've been spared the shovel because they're such early bloomers, but they're getting the interim treatment of pruning them almost to the ground after bloom. That's what I do for Variegata di Bologna and I've occasionally been able to coax a little fall bloom out of him this way. I kept leaving TB and Fimbriata at full height thinking surely they'd rebloom when mature, but 7 years is too long to wait for that. Linda Campbell is a vastly superior rugosa in my zone, and our climates are similar. Karen, glad to help with the cheap and easy idea about the pots. Note that these are not rabbit proof since the bunnies have learned to nudge the pots over if they really want what's inside, and they can nibble at what extends beyond the pots as well. My pots are the black gallon ones Roses Unlimited sells so they're a bit at risk for burning foliage in the really hot parts of summer (assuming you get spells of 90+ for long). I'll often pull back the pots by July or so if the rose gets up to a good height. Green would be less noticeable in the landscape, but like you I have soooo many pots after a history of large orders from RU and elsewhere that I need to use what I have. Here's a shot of a shade bed showing two of those pots - one with a tiny rose on the left not visible below the pot and one on the right that's peeking beyond. If I get a lot of them in a bed they look a little odd, but this many of them look acceptable to me (at least better than missing roses that the bunnies ate). Cynthia