All of us do things a bit differently, but here's my feedback. We just recently planted some potted up roses here, and also some others about 3 weeks prior to that. I know what you are going through in worrying about the effect of the heat on the rose for planting now. We've had mostly weather in the nineties, including the high nineties, but our newly planted roses are doing wonderfully well here in spite of it. Fingers crossed that yours will do great too. Books. If you're fairly new to roses, there are some cheap, cheap, cheap used books available at Amazon with advice on things like the planting hole. My favorite is Liz Druitt's "The Organic Rose Garden" because of its thorough discussion of organic nutrients to put into the hole and to use for feeding your roses. But another excellent book is Judith McKeon's "The Encyclopedia of Roses: An Organic Guide to Growing and Enjoying America's Favorite Flower" and it has all the necessary information. Judith McKeon's book is especially strong on illustrating the basics. Mycorrhiza. We use an organic product called "mycorrhiza" on the roots of all our roses. It's not essential, but one of the ways it helps the rose is in providing extra pathways for the rose to receive extra nutrients, including water. Planting a rose in the dessert in the height of summer heat, your plant can probably can use all the help it can get in taking in sufficient water. The product we used was BioVam from tandjenterprises.com and we were happy with it, though I don't know that one is better than others. David Austin also sells a product with mycorrhiza and it looks good too: "David Austin Mycorrhizal Fungi". You don't need much of this stuff per plant; once it makes contact with the roots, it spreads. Siting the rose. It needs some protection from too much sun in the near term, but probably not the long term. If it's a full-sun needy rose (almost a certainty), it would be better off located in a full sun spot or as close to full sun as you have available. Then you can use something temporarily added to help block some of the sun for the next few weeks while the rose is trying to adjust. Most people use a lawn chair for that, I think. (We never have that problem, as we don't have any spots with absolutely full sun, other than some spots that deer traipse through near our vegetable garden where we won't have roses anymore.) The planting hole. Don't step on the soil for tamping it down; it's too easy to break off your plant's precious roots that way. Just gently use your hands to tamp down the soil and let a lot of water settle the rest of the soil. Be sure to water your potted rose the day before you're going to plant, but never water it immediately prior to planting or soak a rose that's potted up; doing so leaves it vulnerable to losing large chunks of roots from the weight of the soil that might fall off. It's going to get plenty of water as soon as it goes into the ground. If the rose is pot bound at all, then you'll need to gently loosen and brush the soil away from the roots all along the edges and bottom, going inwards by maybe an inch or so. If you don't do that, the roots might circle round and round in the ground to keep growing in the same soil they've gotten used to, failing to venture out and get more moisture and nutrients that a larger site can accommodate. For the last three roses that we planted in the heat last week, they're all doing great. Two that started as bands in April that we had potted up into gallon containers weren't remotely close to being pot bound and they went into the ground intact. The one that we got from a nursery in April and were slow in getting into the ground was slightly pot bound, though, and we had to do the soil loosening thing on it. It's doing fine, but of course, it has been babied too, with its roots sprinkled with a little mycorrhiza during planting and then getting overhead watering once or twice a day. I'd suggest lots of organics for the hole; there's no risk of a burn or stress on the plant that way. If you get Liz Druitt's book, you'll see that you can use lots of different organics to add up in the long run to the macro and micro nutrients the rose needs. We use what we can find around here: lots of chopped up banana peels, bone meal, lots of composted oak leaves, some spaghnum peat moss, lots of alfalfa and cottonseed meal, composted cow manure, and a bit of greensand. Our roses do pretty much take off and start blooming like crazy once they get into the ground here, and that's true too for those roses we're planting in the very hot weather here of late. We never ever use anything on our roses other than organic products and they work well thrown on top of the mulch later in the year too. Watering. We water on top of the ground, and if we ever see powdery mildew, give the affected rose a good hard spray. The only roses that have ever gotten any powdery mildew here have been growing in far too little sunlight though, so you probably won't have that problem... especially if you can do the overhead watering thing when the sun isn't out to burn the wet leaves. Another benefit of overhead watering is that you'll moisten the mulch that way too, and that wet mulch will evaporate some of the water as the day wears on, thus reducing the dryness in the immediate area of the rose. And finally, if you overhead water or hand water with the hose sprayer, you stand a good chance of washing any blackspot fungal spores on the surface farther down under the mulch, where it won't affect the rose. (Note that this advice isn't standard within the rose world, but we've had excellent luck with this method--if you have enough water to be able to do this. Or at least do it initially, until the rose is established. You probably don't have much of a blackspot worry to begin with, though.) In the heat of the south and especially in the dessert it would be much better to water once or twice a day for the first couple of weeks until it's looking settled in and growing. That's assuming the rose has good drainage. It's more wasteful of water, of course, but I'd much prefer heavy watering on top of the mulch, not a drip, drip with crossed fingers that you've dripped enough to add up to something meaningful. With a rose that's just been transplanted, you don't want to take a chance on inadequate moisture. Good luck with your precious rose! Best wishes, Mary Here is a link that might be useful: The Organic Rose Garden [Hardcover] by Liz Druitt

Hi Byron, I'm Patrick in the Seattle area. Until recently, I was a member of both the Gesneriad Society and the Puget Sound Gesneriad Society (which has/had a few members in the PDX area). The main GS is sometimes referred to as the Mother Ship, to differentiate between it and any of the regional "clubs" or subgroups, such as the PSGS. You might consider joining the GS's Hybridizers' Group, where you can not only get fresher seeds but also newer hybrid seeds. Altho some Gessie seeds have a long shelf life, not all of them do. And I don't believe the GS seed banks keep track of the age of the seeds. I hope you enjoy your membership...Gessies can be really addictive! I've had fluorescent lights set up in the dining room, living room and 2 bedrooms and ran out of room everywhere. I'm looking forward to seeing pics when your Sinn. speciose seedlings bloom.

Any interior drainage system will not stop water coming through the rubble walls. That's the nature of rubble walls. You can clean and parge them from now to forever and water will seep through. If you're not waterproofing from the outside--a potentially risky job with rubble walls--what you can do to keep the space dry is provide a way for the seepage to drain away. Then you can insulate the walls and finish in front of them. Unless relief cracks or separators were used in the slab, cracking is par for the course and isn't necessarily the result of hydrostatic pressure. Also, rubble foundations didn't require concrete floors to brace them laterally. See link below for detailed information on how North America's most famous building scientist tackled the same job. Here is a link that might be useful: Rubble foundations

I wish I had found this site last week. We are in Toronto, Canada and have just signed a contract to replace our old Oakwood Ironworks, cast iron 1919 boiler. We love that old boiler but the Gas Company and Direct Energy, who rent us the gas conversion burner for the boiler are getting out of the conversion burner business. The conversion burner is breaking down, not the boiler. Anyhow, we are putting in a Triangle Tube model Solo 399 stainless steel boiler at a huge cost. (We are an 8 plex apartment building) We went with installers in business since 1908 who seem to be very good. I doubt we will live to see our money back as we are now 68 years old and the cost, installed is $33,000.00 plus, Canadian dollars.