For every one of your questions there will be more than one answer. Every one does it differently. The trick is to find the ones that work for you. I water my roses when I can, morning, noon or night. I don't have a drip system so I use soaker hoses, sprinklers and the hose. I often spray off the leaves to keep them clean. Whether that helps with diseases, who knows, but I don't think it hurts. Sizes will vary greatly by zone and even by individual garden. Warmer zones have much longer growing seasons so roses can get larger. But even in my cold zone many roses have exceeded their "stated" sizes. Of course, many others never got any where near as large as advertised. So you really never know. Pruning does encourage new growth. Whether it gives them longer stems or not I think depends on the variety of rose. Exhibitors hope it will give them those nice long straight stems they need for rose shows. On some varieties it may work but some roses just don't have that type of growth habit in their genes. I got New Zealand last season and as a new rose it did have short stems. I may not get to see if that changes with maturity since I don't think it made it through my severe winter. It isn't a bad idea to let the supplier know that the rose was diseased when you received it. They may not do anything about it but they should be made aware of the situation. There's always a possibility that it came down with it during the stress of shipping and usually will clear up quickly once it's in the sun again. I know I often see roses lined up in the nurseries with black spot all over them. Sometimes the conditions of crowding, high humidity and little air circulation will cause such outbreaks. I don't let it deter me from purchasing because I can isolate it at home until it clears up. So don't be afraid to do a little experimenting and find the answers that work in your garden with your roses. Most of all don't get too caught up in all of the "stuff" surrounding rose growing and spend a lot of time just enjoying your roses!

I found one growing in a wooded area behind my house, it used to be part of the gardens here 20 years ago before it was abandoned. The ground is covered with English ivy, periwinkle, ditch lilies, crocuses, and who knows what else. It rarely gets any sun, and as you can see, it's not harmed. It's a little scraggly, but it's blooming like crazy.

I suggest you do a google search for Farmer Says He Grows World's Longest Green Chile since we are not allowed to post url. Sweet and mild or hot and spicy, New Mexico chile farmers grow peppers for all taste buds. But one man in Hatch says the size of his peppers are breaking world records. "See this one here's 13, 14 inches," said Jim Lytle, as he picked fresh peppers from his 100-acre chile field. "I had one 17 inches." Lytle said he knew he grew the world's longest chile the moment he laid eyes on the enormously long peppers. "Yippee! I was really happy we had a new record to do it with. And then I got to looking in the field and found out that we had a lot more," Lytle said. The unusually large length does not affect the taste or quality of the product, he said. Instead, it simply adds eye appeal for customers, Lytle said. "That's one big chile," said a man purchasing the peppers at a nearby store. One measures about 15.5 inches from top of the stem to the bottom, breaking the current record of 13 inches set by Lytle's mother in 1988.

Maire, we have sisters' night once a month. I'm glad I didn't go. Every winter they always have several rounds of colds, flu, 'stomach flu', etc. And it takes forever for it to circulate throughout the home. This year the person who runs the Home instituted some changes. One was to have Purell containers placed throughout the building, w/signs for all to please use. When a nurse saw ANY symptoms of a contagious disease, the resident was kept apart from the others, not allowed to eat in dining room. This was just a couple of things. They had only a few isolated illnesses this past winter. Shirley