AC, I too have Schonste. Boy, is that a rose or what???? Move it while you can! : ) Seriously, it's unstoppable and with those prickles and the fact that it is a once bloomer, it has been banished to the back of the garden. It's beautiful though. Surprises for me have been lots of Austins I've tried this season. Pleasant surprises. I'd always purchased them own root and they've been so slow to grow and I'm getting older…..on rootstock they are amazing. Grace, Tamora, Pat Austin, Anne Boleyn, Charles Darwin, Jubilee Celebration, Princess Alexandra of Kent, Princess Anne…they are all fantastic and healthy enough here in my no spray garden. The most beautiful of all is his The Lark Ascending….almost continuous beautiful, gossamer blooms. Another wonderful surprise has been finding a love for vintage HTs…The Doctor, Radiance, Betty Uprichard, Irish Fireflame, Irish Elegance, Bonnie Jean, Betty….I love these roses so much. The blooms blow quickly but the repeat is some of the best! The meh? The same old disease ridden modern HTs that I think I can grow no spray. Nope. Complicata and some of the gallicas just don't thrive here. Didn't do much and then looked nasty all summer… I wish you a long and bloom filled Indian Summer and hope frost will stay away! Susan

Funny how different our experiences can be with the same variety of rose. I had mentioned that Moore's Striped Rugosa doesn't tolerate spray, and Paul (Trospero) corrected me by saying it does. OK, MINE chemical burned from it, and I've heard others say the same thing. I smiled, too, when Sunnishine mentioned Livin' Easy & Easy Goin' being bad blackspotters. My Livin' Easy never got more than a trace of it, even growing next to a bad BS'er. Just goes to show the value of taking everyone's advice with a grain of salt. We each have particular growing conditions that can greatly effect health outcomes. And sometimes our particular plants even differ in constitution from others of the same variety. That's why its good to get as wide an array of input as possible, and even then treat none of it as gospel etched in stone. Mike

Hi Ann, We share your joy. :) Our pair had 3 successful nestings in our backyard box this year. All 3 broods have followed their parents back to our mealies and at least some of them continue to come for worms and fly around our yard daily. Of course we're preparing ourselves for their absence soon, as we fully expect them to all take some time away (probably months) in the Fall. But we had 2 pair of adults over-winter here last year and we're very hopeful to see them again before Spring nesting begins again. If you keep a safe clean box available and provide food and water, your chances should be good. They tend to return to locations where they've had successful nestings in the past. Congratulations on your success, and best luck, Kenn :) Here is a link that might be useful: A year's worth of Bluebirds

I live in lower mid Michigan, and although I seldom see bluebirds in winter, I hear them all thru the winter. They normally are flying over at about the length of a football field up into the air. They have 2 different calls, so once I learned them, I can mimic them and occasionally get one to drop down a little to check out who or what is calling. I run a heated bird bath and will see them at the bath maybe twice a winter. We have a starter orchard and I have seen the blues gather in groups in the orchard in the fall. We had a drag out summer here. as I noticed that some robins raised 4 broods, a bluebird pair raised 3 broods, and although I can't prove it, I think a couple of tree swallow pairs had 2 broods. It wasn't all that hot, but the rains were timely which helped the insect and worm supply.