sammy, thanks about my roses. There was someone here who cut bottles in half then duct taped them, seemed to have a good success rate, but I don't think she filled the bottom with soil, just put the cups in there. I don't want to mess with pulling off duct tape; it's stuck on there pretty tightly; you'd have to exercise extreme care pulling it off. I use a bleach solution in a bucket and/or directly on all containers and run everything through it first (not the cutting or rooting medium!), then rinse very well, just guess at proportions. The rooting medium I sterilize with boiling water the night before, let it sit overnight; if get too much, squeeze it out the next day before I stick cuttings into it as they don't do well if you get it too wet. It's easier for me to cut my bottles like Jeri does. Even though I'm rooting under lights, I still need them for when I transplant, the first week, cap on and off, tricky, have lost some in that process. After about a week you can take the bottle off and let your transplanted cutting acclimate, very gradually introducing it to the sun, watching for signs of stress and curling leaves. Sometimes they falter but pick up, but in spite of everything, I still have a few losses at that stage. I top water at that point. When I transplant the cutting, I try to keep as much medium around the roots as possible, cup it in the palm of my hand after gently emptying it out of the cup, scoop a fairly decent-sized depression into a pot of prepared soil, then plant it, very gently pushing the soil around it to get contact with the delicate roots. If you've already struck your cuttings, I can't really advise you but think you could transfer them to plastic cups if it hasn't been too long. Be sure you have at least 2 drainage holes at least 3/8 to 1/4 inch in the bottom of the cup. The nice thing about the clear plastic cups is you can see the white roots forming in at least one side. When they start going thru the drainage holes, they are ready to transplant. It's just nicer to watch their progress that way and not have to tug on them although I confess if they are slow and it's been awhile, I tug very gently to see if I get any resistance. Somebody might tell me that I am wrong about any of this, but do not water your cuttings directly. Mist if you think you need to and bottom water only if they look like they are drying out and watch for condensation again. Do not let them sit in water once they are dampened again. I had some redbud seedlings in cut off pepsi bottles with several drainage holes. I wouldn't do it that way again but some might. I lost them all over the winter, should have buried the bottles but might have lost them anyway. The soil was good quality, but it seemed to me maybe it was a little too confined and upset some balance, suppose it depends on what you're trying to grow in them. No, it's not fun but nerve wracking until you start to get some successes. Then that motivates you to keep going with it, and it gets a little fun. It takes mine a long time from rooting to see the first blooms mostly because of being once bloomers, my zone, and overwintering. Some people have repeat bloomers kicking in fairly fast after transplanting. If I can get them in the ground the same year I root them and they make it thru the winter, they will bloom the following spring. Once bloomers don't bloom full size at first for me. There're so many different ways people do it and get success. It takes awhile to find out what works best for you. Good luck!

Honestly the best method these days for bookmarks to be sure you have them available at all times no matter where you are is to use xmarks, it saves all your bookmarks and sycns them between computers and it provides a webpage with all your bookmarks so you can access them from any pc anywhere. You can restore one or all. You can still make the occasional manual backup file if you want but using xmarks for recovery or to set up your bookmarks on a new pc is so so fast and easy. Here is a link that might be useful: xmarks

THANK YOU friends! When this bookmark exchange began three or four years ago, I bought an small wooden antique chest for my bookmarks. Each year, the collection grows. And every time I start a book, it begins with a search through the chest for the perfect bookmark. EACH one of you has sent me lovely gifts that represent YOU. Each one of you has bookmarks in that wooden chest that are treasured and used regularly. Thank you. Thank you one and all - for your thoughtfulness, your time, your creativity, and for being a part of my reading life. PAM

REALLLLLLLLLLLLY OFF TOPIC: lol...my French is rusty (with whom can I even hold a French chat? lol), but even so the basic grammar stuck. But if you don't know the feminine/masculine designation of the noun involved, some things seem absolutely arbitrary. But they ain't, lol. First of all, all common, non-formal nouns are preceded by one of the following articles: "Le" or "la", means "the": Le + masculine word La + feminine word les = plural, non gender specific --------------------------------------------------------------- "De, d' ", literally "of", non-gender specific. So: De + word d' + word beginning with a vowel. -------------------------------------------------------------- "De le" is literally " the one, of the..", but equates with "some" when used in French. "Du" is the masculine form. du (+ masculine word) de la (+ feminine word), de l’ (followed by a vowel) Des = more than one, non gender specific -------------------------------------------------------------- "Un, une" equals "one, 'a'... (fill in the blank)" un (+ masculine word) une (+ feminine word) --------------------------------------------------------------- Now to confuse things royally, the noun is NOT masc/fem depending on what it IS, but rather on the root of the word. So it's the word itself which is feminine or masculine, not the meaning of the word. A word denoting something we think of as masculine could be a feminine WORD, and vice versa. Knowing which is which takes...a great memory or a good French dictionary, lol. There are some clues, though: Nouns ending in "e" will be feminine 90% of the time, therefore you use "de la" or "une". EXCEPTIONS are words ending in "-age, -ege, – ` eme, -ome/- ` ome, -aume, -isme". These endings denote a masc word, even though they end with "e". Nouns ending with a CONSONANT tend to be MASCULINE, again, probably 90% of the time. Therefore you use "du" or "un". See....easy peasy, lol. (Francophile) John