I agree, this can be lots of fun and very rewarding. I have taught classes of this method of "preserving" our gardens but instead of printing the images on paper we printed them on fabric (this was a quilting class). The fabric for doing this is readily available at quilt shops and stores such as JoAnn's and it's cut in 8"x10" size, perfect for the home scanners most of us use. I had previously taught this group of quilters a color theory class so they put their new knowledge to the test on their floral scans with great success. Some of them made wallhangings, while others just made an individual scan and framed it. All of them were beautiful! Diana

mandolls, Sunrise Sunset does have some scent, and My Girl has a little. However when they are in full bloom like now the scent is very noticeable. What I have found is that most roses that are bred for hardiness seldom have much scent. I have been very pleased with the Easy Elegance roses that I grow. For me scent is secondary to hardiness. GGG, they hold up quite well. We do get a lot of heat and humidity in late June and July and they keep on blooming. now they don't look quite so nice as we got 1.98 inches of rain within 1-2 hours this morning. It got extremely dark and poured and poured... Hard on the bushes when they are so loaded with blooms. mantis_oh, I emailed that picture to my sister and she told me I "boobooed" as my red shirt did not go with the pink roses! We have had that pump somewhere in the garden for the past 10 years. It was a nice dark burgundy color, but has faded and desperately needs repainting! Kathy, I hesitated to post that picture as I don't usually put myself "out there", but when I have posted these roses in the past it was mentioned that it would be nice to have something for comparison (to determine the true size of the bushes.) No, not too many holes in these, but there are paint spatters/wipes as these are also some of my painting clothes! roselee, thank you. I have many more roses in the yard, but didn't want to overdo the picture posting. Also still getting used to the new software and it is taking me a little bit to get the hang of resizing. Somewhat different than the old program. schoolhouse, yes there have been some drive bys the past few days. Slow down, stop, go, stop, etc. Kind of fun to watch. DH noticed 2 yesterday. Kay, I was actually only watering last night, so stayed fairly clean, if a little wet. Usually much grubbier! One pair of painting/gardening jeans are so full of holes and paint that it is hard to tell they are blue jeans! Thanks again everyone! It is fun to share with other gardeners. None of my friends are really into flower gardening. Most think it is way to much work! Will post more pictures after I have time to get a better handle on resizing.

If you buy something, get a photo scanner, not a "flat bed" scanner with some after-market backlight arrangement. Most, many(?) scanners, especially the ones that come on the "all in one" multipurpose machines have only 300 dpi resolution, way to low to get anything like 35mm film quality/resolution. I have a low cost Epson Perfection V100, it has hight resolution. I think I got it on a rebate offer about a year ago for about $60.

No judgement can be made because we don't know the size of the photo that was scanned, nor can we see the original and a print of the digitized one to compare. The file size will be porprotional to the area of the scanned object plus some overhead. I've had good success scanning B/W photos at 300 dpi (dots per inch) and using 256 gray scale. A finer gray scale can be used but there won't be much difference in the final tonal scale. Scanning to a jpg format reduces file size and you can control how much reduction to make; jpg files are 'lossy'; defintion loss increases with increased file reduction. B/W photos can be scanned in color which will pick up any yellowing or color tinges at the expense of a much larger file. I have found that 256 gray scale is quite acceptable. I will switch to a color scan if I wish to preserve color tinges. (My scanner always scans in color. It then writes the digital file depending on user selection. It converts the color image to gray scale for writing the file. Therefore, once the image hs been scanned, I can flip back and forth between color and gray scale.) After a photo has been scanned, it should 'played back' in a photo editor to check the result and to correct the color or gray scale balance. If the technician did not take time to check and make adjustments, the result may be disappointing. This brings us back to your monitor. If you display the digitized file on your monitor, the result can be puzzling. For example, the picture when printed on your printer may not match what you see on the screen. That's because your monitor was not color corrected and needs to be adjusted to a standard. Some older CRT monitors may not have adjsutment range. In some cases, best result is achieved by adjusting the video display card. This is done by software supplied with the card, if it is adjustable. The quality of the copied photo depends greatly on the skill of the operator both in making the copy file and printing thereof. If you have only 10 pics or thereabouts, it may not pay to buy a scanner. If you have 50 or more photos to digitize, then a scanner purchase is recommended. Once you have a scanner and become familar with its operation, you will find uses for it.