Those are gardening staples and frankly, so expensive they should kiss you. Invest in a pair of good metal snips. Take your old hangers, the ones that multiply in your closet? Snip the two shoulder points off of them and you have garden staples as long as you like. Dee, that totally depends upon your water pressure, your length of hose, and how much water you want your roses to get. Remember, that with any circumstance, watering deeping is important. If you don't, particularly if you mulch, where the mulch will soak up a lot of the water? You promote shallow root growth. So plan to really soak the recommended inches down into the soil. I mulch so heavily that not only do I get very interesting, anerobic fungus, but I leave my 150' hoses on overnight sometimes. I wouldn't trade in my soakers for anything. Ok, maybe more of certain plants, but I'd really have to think about the dehydration my gardens would definitely suffer! :) Christine

You are seriously sane. I overwintered both the mandevilla & moonflower mentioned in another post. Basically, if you are lucky enough to have a southern window for them, you cut it back to about a foot long and park by the window. Otherwise, I think some folks have had luck putting them in basements. There were lots and lots of threads about this last fall. Do a search and you will be ready to go. Good luck with it!

you made me remember my parents first remodel. My Mom happened to run across an ad in the local paper for an appliance store that was closing. She went over to check it out and found the following: a 7-element Thermador cooktop (over 48" wide?) a Thermador double oven. a VAH wide enough for the cooktop with heating racks. a GE 25' SxS fridge a KA (or at that time Hobart) dishwasher a KA (probably Hobart) disposal a GE washer/dryer pair. Mom said, "How much?" The store owner said, "well, if you take them off my hands today and pay cash, how about 25% of list price?" Mom said, "give me the phone." She called my Dad who drove over with the pickup, loaded everything up and paid cash. It all sat in the garage for the time it took to complete the cabinet build-out, but at %75 off it didn't matter. Oh, the Thermadors, VAH and dw were stainless. The fridge was white. But the price was right. ;-)

A 15 year warranty is a great marketing tool, but it isn't worth much of anything in reality. If your stone stains, it just means that if they are still in business, they'll come out and apply a poultice to remove the stain. That is, if they don't say it's your fault for not wiping up the staining substance immediately. It doesn't warrant against etches, which will happen no matter how much you seal it. It doesn't warrant against chipping or cracks or anything else that is normal wear and tear or abuse.