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

I use the basic signs that I saw from a youtube video. If my twins start to show an interest in it (they're 1 year old and haven't so far) then I might take it further.

"This is the time we should spend money to help our economy if we possibly can. That's why recently I've gone into my savings and done a few long-wanted improvements around here." Especially if you spend the money to HIRE PEOPLE instead of just buying more stuff (especially imported stuff from the TJMaxxes and Targets people race to when they don't have much cash). Put people to work! That was part of our big outside project last year - DH had gotten a bonus at work, and we got a good tax refund, and we felt like we could afford to dip into our savings a little bit, so we dumped a chunk of our cash into the pockets of local workers. If you can afford to do so, it's even more important to do so now since things are worse now for a LOT of people than they were last year. This year, though... no decorating and some of the "socks and underwear projects" (phrase stolen from the Old House Forum, meaning the necessary and boring stuff that no one is really going to see but that just has to be done) will be put off for another year. No bonus this year, very little tax refund, have been helping support family members in worse shape, we're taking a really hard hit on the medical-bills front this year and have just discovered that DH's car is highly unlikely to last to autumn which means coming up with a down payment and rearranging the budget to fit in car payments. Although DH works for an extremely stable company and we know his job is safe (in fact they're finally hiring another person for his department) I won't risk the savings we have left for anything as, well, downright petty as decorating. It's been months since I've looked at eBay or Craigslist, and I used to be a major addict! Ah well, I just decorate in my head.

I'm w/Janie - ew! Phones can get really dirty anyway and having one out and exposed next to the toilet is just gross = P Sometimes my phone is in my back pocket at work and I do have to be conscientious of that when using the facilities! And I've found phones left on the toilet paper dispensers at work too. Recently there was one on the floor in the stall, and I just left it there; I didn't want to touch it. These are mostly phones belonging to kids, so they're already pretty grody. This is what our dispensers look like, plenty of space on top for a phone: I sanitize my phone daily. And my BIL takes his laptop into the bathroom with him. I'm kind of afraid to touch it...