OK, I have my four choices and I need to ID two alternates. And obviously I can't do this without a lot of hand holding. The four main choices are: M. Tillier, Clementina Carbonieri (that was love at first sight, thank you, Joanne!), General Gallieni, and Maggie. Right now for alternates I am leaning toward Westside Road Cream Tea, which I just keep coming back to. If I get white, I think I like those creamy whites the best. I need one more and possibilities in my mind include Niles Cochet, Lady Hillingdon, Natchitoches Noisette, Mme. Alfred Carriere, Prosperity. I'm worried about size. The places I have where I could put something bigger are much more challenging spots to get a rose into the ground and maintained and I am on a very limited physical/mental energy budget. Comments please.... There are also a bunch of apricot-buff roses that look wonderful to me but I am not listing since in my tiny collection I already have Buff Beauty, Abe Darby, and a giant cluster of Peace -- I realize Peace isn't classed as apricot but it gives a very apricot impression in our climate; and I have Rosette Delizy and General Gallieni on order... and I want some brighter color too. I do think that the Teas are probably going to take over my brain for a while. They seem to have a lot of what I want. -Greta

Carolyn No, it isn't something I think I need, either. With a heavy mulch and my clay-loam soil (at least in my raised beds) none of my plants need much if any water. Though I put out drip irrigation last year, I think I turned it on just once, after finding the top of the soil under the mulch was getting hard and dry. I think the whole bit about transferring the signal from one technical device to another is a bit much for a home gardener. A blinking light or a sound of some kind out among the tomatoes would probably work better. Hook it up to an automatic watering system if that strikes somebody's fancy. The reason I posted it is because so many newbies seem to be so perplexed about the watering needs of tomato plants. Eventually the observant will be able to tell if their plants need water, but there are apparently lots of people who haven't arrived there yet. Most overwater their plants. Another "alarm" device has been devised for houseplants in containers based on a different water-sensing technique. Interactive Telecommunications Researchers Develop A Device For Plants To Send Text Messages January 1, 2009 Â Interactive telecommunications researchers designed a soil-moisture sensor device that can allow a house plant to communicate with its owner. The device can send short messages to a mobile phone or, by using a service called Twitter, it can send short messages to the Internet. The messages can range from reminders to water the plant, a thank you or a warning that you over- or under-watered it. To communicate, probes in the soil emit electric waves. A voltage level based on the moisture content is sent through two wires to a circuit board that compares the optimum moisture level with the current one. A local network receives this data and allows the plant to send a message through the device. I suspect a sensor of this kind would work better for container tomatoes than those planted in the earth, since container soil has pretty much the same moisture content. Not sure about how reliable measuring earth soil moisture content would be. Still, a "notification" device might be helpful to people who are baffled about watering tomatoes. [Of course there are good old-fashioned moisture meters that work fine with a push into the soil.] And yes, I suspect the first device was really designed for commercial growers who must do things on a large busy scale.

This is what info was given to me but I could not do it because I do not have that kind of modem. Step 1: Click on the Start menu. Step 2: Click on the Control Panel. Step 3: In your Control Panel, click on the Printers and Other Hardware link. Step 4: Under the Printers and Hardware section, choose Phone and Modem Options. Step 5: Once there, click on the Modems tab. Step 6: Under the Modems tab, if you see "V.92" under your modem name, you can easily set up PC on Hold to be notified of incoming calls. Step 7: While in the Phone and Modems Options box, on the Modems tab, click on Properties. Step 8: In the Properties box, click on the Modem on Hold tab. Step 9: Under the Modem on Hold tab, checkmark the box beside "Enable Modem on Hold to place a checkmark in the box" and then click OK. When you first receive notification of a call, a flashing box will appear at the bottom of your screen. That box will say "BCM V.92." Click on the box to open the BCM V.92 Modem window. Note that you will not see the name or phone number of the person calling. It will only say "Unknown." However, if you have Caller ID, you may be able to see that information. From here, you can choose to Answer the call or Ignore it. By clicking Answer, you will have effectively placed your Internet connection on hold and you will be able to talk on the phone. Once you finish your conversation, simply press Resume to go back to surfing the Web.

Hi Seattlemike, I looked at the specs for your printer and it appears to connect via USB or parellel to your desktop as a standard setup. It does have an optional network adapter/print server. Does the printer have this optional feature (does it have a port for the ethernet cable?). Are you currently having issues with the desktop staying online? I'm trying to ascertain why the tech wants you to go wireless when you have the router a few inches from the desktop. Ideally, you would connect the modem to the router, then the desktop to the router via ethernet cable, the laptop connects to the router via wireless and then there's the printer. If it has only USB or parellel connection, you will have to connect it to the desktop, then share it on the network to enable printing from the laptop (the desktop must be online and active for this to work). If it has the optional ethernet port/print server then it also can be connected to the router and given a static (assigned) IP address. In every case, you will need to connect the printer directly to the laptop in order to install the driver, then disconnect from the laptop and place the printer in it's permanent position. After all of the physical connections are made, you'll need to syncronize the network. This entails powering off everything (usually requires electrical power to be disconnected, some items do have on/off switches) and bringing them online in a specific order. Starting with the modem, plug it into power and watch the lights until the 'online' light becomes stable. Next will be the router, plug it into electrical power and wait 2 minutes for the router to obtain it's IP address from the modem. Now turn on the printer and computers, order is not important here. Everything should be online at this point. Please make sure that you utilize wireless security on the router to protect your network especially since you will have to enable file and printer sharing on the desktop in order to allow printing from the laptop, leaving your desktop wide open to intrusion. The router has several options, WEP, WPA, WPA2 and WPA-PSK/WPA2-PSK. You will need to see which of those options that your laptop's wireless adapter utilizes. I'm sure that I've missed something, please ask. Other helpers will also add pertinent details that I may have overlooked. Pam