gh, I will pot it for you. I would leave it potted for at least a month. From there on it should survive the winter in the ground, but don't overfeed it so it has a definite chance to harden off for winter. Give it light feedings of liquid fertilizers like Miracle-Gro for Roses at 1/2 the suggested rate once or twice a month until the beginning of August. Then let it harden off. I will get it potted up this weekend and nurse it until you adopt him.:) Rob

Dragoonsers -- The Girija and Viru Viraraghavan, in India, are working on lines of "warm-climate" roses. They are working intensively with Tea Roses and other Gigantea types, well-adapted to your conditions. They've created some wonderful things. In California and in much of Australia, "warm-climate" roses excell. No, we can't grow Gallicas here to advantage, or Damasks or Albas (not that I haven't tried) -- but we jolly well can grow Teas. :-) In our climate, Teas are at their very best during and following our "rainy season". They slip into dormancy to some extent, when it is hot and dry. This suits me, for that's when I am not out in the garden. Here, they get fed when we have time. Or not. They're obliging, and not demanding. They rarely get pruned at all in our garden, as Teas and Chinas in particular are twiggy plants, that store energy in their canes. Heavy pruning really sets them back. I STRONGLY recommend a book: TEA ROSES: Old Roses For Warm Gardens. Authors are Australian ladies: Chapman, Drage, Durston, Jones, Merrifield, and West. As in our area, many of those old roses have survived for long years and decades with no care at all -- demonstrating their toughness, as an accompaniment to their beauty. Jeri Below: Mostly Tea Roses -- Blooming in the Historic Rose Garden, in the Sacramento City Cemetery, Sacramento, CA

If you want honey bees but do not want to make the investment in time learning how to care for them and then doing so, your best bet as mentioned above is to get in contact with your local beekeepers club (look online). Club members are always looking for places to put new hives. You could probably work out an arrangement where you get the hives placed for free and maybe a jar or two of honey. The beekeeper would usually keep the bulk of the honey to help pay for the quite substantial costs of setting up the hives, maintenance and equipment. Whether in fact the bees help much with the fruit trees depends on what else is available when they are in bloom. Honey bees tend to be specific to certain plants: when they find one major supply of nectar or pollen they like, they concentrate their energies on that and ignore other sources. I have found that my bees are all over my stone fruit but tend to ignore pears, with apples somewhere in between. On the other hand, when major sources of nectar are not available, as in summer, the bees will be very effective pollinators in your vegetable garden -- especially for things like squash and cucumbers. (Though bumblebees do a good job on these too.) You can attract more native pollinators like bumbebees by planting flowering plants that attract them. One other option is to get mason orchard bees. These do not live in big colonies like honey bees. They are sold in tubes, which you place out in the orchard. They are only active for a few months of the year, when fruit trees are in bloom, and focus their energies on fruit trees and do not roam far from the available trees. (Honeybees can fly up to at least two miles from their hives.) Bee for bee they are much more efficient pollinators than honeybees, and they are much, much cheaper to get. You can look them up on google using key words like "orchard mason bee". Their main drawback is that they will not pollinate your vegetables and if you only have a few fruit trees nearby there may not be enough food for them to survive and build a sustainable population.

Hi 2meforester! I understand your physical limitations--I have rheumatoid arthritis. I'm doing a complete gut of the eat-in kitchen of the house I just bought, and ease of access is critical in my planning. Not just what is accessible today, but also looking 5, 10, 15 years out. I'm also a fan of having as close to nothing as possible on my countertops; it's simply a style/taste preference for me. The eat in kitchen and living room are one big open space, and that is about half my house. My house is a single wide manufactured home, so picture a big rectangle. The "great room" is the middle. Each end is bedrooms, bathrooms, and on one end is also laundry area. So when you walk into my house, bam! you're in the living room, but the dinette and kitchen are right there too. I hate clutter with a passion. I want the focus of my home to be the beauty of the interior design rather than the dish rack, the popcorn tin, and several small kitchen appliances that are sitting on the counters. There's nothing wrong with any of those things! It's purely a matter of personal preference. I occasionally help a realtor friend of mine stage houses, and just like your magazine photos, the first thing we do is de-clutter. Potential buyers can't picture themselves in your house if all your stuff is everywhere. It's all very minimalist. But as sushipup1 so rightly pointed out, most people don't actually live that way. Herbflavor pointed out how some warm, inviting things on the counters can make a house a home. But, as I said, I personally prefer clean counter space. For one, I have very, very little of it. Anything sitting on it is taking away space I need to prep and cook. Second, because it's such a tiny space, even a couple things sitting out make it look cluttered or messy. So here's a couple of things I'm planning to do. One, do a hood/microwave combo over the range. Microwaves take up a fair bit of counter space. Two, no base cabinets, all base drawers of various sizes, except the corner one. That will be a cabinet with a super susan. Drawers are so much easier to see what's in there and pull it out. No more crouching over with a flashlight and a yardstick trying to get something from the way back of the cabinet, haha! Three, I'm getting a farmhouse sink. Because they're totally cool, sure, but also because you don't have to lean over counter space to do anything in the sink; you can just belly up to it. That might be easier on your arms...just a thought. Four, I'm a sucker for drawer organizing systems. I'm doing an IKEA kitchen, but even if you're not, go on their website and look at all their cool drawer organizers. Besides flatware and knife inserts, they have things so you can keep all your spices in a drawer, plate stackers, etc. Also go on KitchenMaid's website; they have amazing kitchen organizers!! Five, I'm getting a portable dishwasher. This won't work for everyone. Because it's an eat-in kitchen, I actually have a space to "park" it unobtrusively when not in use. This means I get a whole other base cabinet drawers! Also, the one I'm getting intentionally has a butcher block top, creating a small but valuable food prep station! Last, You can also get cool pull out organizers for all your cleaning products; they're easy to pull out and then you're not trying to dig into a bucket under the sink. So, by creating as much useable space as possible, I can be totally, 100% organized in my drawers and cupboards and thus, don't need anything on my counters, with the exception of a shiny SS tea kettle on my cooktop, and maybe, maybe a coffee pot, if I find the perfect one. Oh, just to weigh in, other than toilet paper, I haven't used paper products in a couple of years. Microfiber cloths, cloth napkins, and handkerchiefs. And wash cloths and towels in the kitchen. :-) Hope this helps!