Bluegirl....... I figure it takes two years at a minimum to grow out a band to have a large enough root mass before I can plant the rose in my garden. I now overwinter my roses in a friend's green house, but I think the larger root mass going into the ground makes the plant more heat tolerant in the long run. This is just from my personal observation in my garden. For the first year in the ground, I use the sprinkler to water the bed beyond the size of the rose hole I have dug to encourage the roots to spread into the glacier slurry. When I first moved up here, I had to overwinter my roses outside. I clustered them together and surrounded them with bags of leaves with the largest plants in the middle. None of them died even tho' my night temps are generally around 20F and can get into the low teens. I put some of the roses that were in the smaller cans into larger pots with leaves stuffed between the pots for additional insulation. With my soil, it's a lot of work to prepare a rose hole, so it was worth the wait. Sandandsun ... I am gardening in glacier slurry. There is no way I can possibly prepare a whole bed. Nor can I build raised beds since everything has to be hauled up the gardening area and hauling the amount of soil that would be required is beyond me. My best bet is to dig big holes, amend the soil because it has no natural plant organic material in it, and plant a healthy plant. I mound up the soil in the planting hole so that when the organics break down and the rose sinks, it usually ends up at the height I want. Of course, I keep mulching. Ingrid..... I truly envy your ability to be able to plant directly in the soil, but it just wouldn't work in this garden. I know you grow beautiful roses, so if it's working for you, there is no need to change. Learning to garden in this climate and in glacier slurry has been an adventure. Smiles, Lyn

Don't ditch it; if stored cool and dry the seeds should still be viable after a year.

Gee! I'm feeling better already. But to balance it out, going through boxes today was like Christmas! Found things I forgot I had, found things I didn't know where they were, assumed they were somewhere. Remember the Hampster Dance?? I bought the mug. Found that. Some of this stuff has been packed away for more than 6 years! Wonder why it is that plumbing things dissapear. Like you, mine were stored with the remodeling stuff. I've seen the box. I have the papers and the packing list. All that's missing is the box and contents. Faucet is installed but the left overs were going to be used, too.

I have a huge walk-up attic and it's too easy to keep things. I also have the junk brought back from college in random boxes of books and dish towels, or bath caddies packed with notebooks & spatulas. Lots to go through. And I don't have 36 lamps, but whenever I upgrade one of my lamps I've been putting the old one up there for the "kid's apartments". Well, turns out that my kids don't want my old lamps, so I've been ditching them little by little. This summer I had to get a new refrigerator. I had the old one 12 years, and I bought it used then, so it was time. My stove has also been slowly dying (oven sometimes acts possessed, the burners need to be lit and have low flames), and I came across a great deal on a new Viking, so even though the stove is still hanging in, I'm replacing it before it's an emergency. I feel just a little bit wasteful, though, since the old one is still working. I bought leather couches 10 years ago and while it would be nice to have something new and different, they are in great condition and I can't justify replacing them. They can go to one of the kids, but who knows I might have a move sometime in my future and I'd rather get new stuff then.