I got Ebb tide, babied but it went down hill. then winter came and the canes turned black.Then spring came and it started sprouting leaves and I thought for sure it was the graft growing, but to my suprise it was ebb tide. it's still small but any rose that can come back like that is staying. About yours being a 2 cane wonder, here something to think about. I had a frederick mistral that refused to grow. In fact it lost a lot of canes until it was down to one. One bloom the whole year. I was about to SP it when I just decided to move it to see what would happen. A year and a half later FM is 4 ft tall and 3 ft wide and blooms like crazy. maybe moving it might be an answer for you. Tammy

Thanks, Tracey! :) I'm one of those that goes out there and walks in the dirt in my bare feet, and pulls all those little tiny weeds with my bare hands - then I come in and scrub all the mud out from under my fingernails! I figure my foot makes smaller footprints in the soil when it's bare, than when I have shoes on! And really, who looks at the bottoms of my feet anyway? "My friend makes this groovy salt or sugar and olive oil scrub for me too - a scrubbing with that stuff gets rid of anything!" - That sounds WONDERFUL!!

I totally need this hoya LOL! We have chickens and we're in the city, more and more cities are allowing chickens now. If yours doesn't go to backyardchickens.com or get Pat Foremans City Chicks book, both will give you the resources to get your city laws amended to allow chickens. We have 2 Rhode Island Reds that lay about a dozen eggs a week and a bunch of little chicks that will eventually lay eggs. @ Eileen I have some silkie chicks that will be pretty tame and grown by the wedding, you can borrow a splash (whose mostly white) or even better one of the blues and she can carry it LOL! My best nursery for hoyas is in Kansas city!! I go every time I visit my Aunt and bought 4 last year. No carnosa either. It's a big place, I think part of a chain. I'll have to find the name. We go nuts there, it's a good thing bearded iris won't grow for me or I'd need a trailer to get home. They are just so tempting and they have an astounding variety of coneflowers, which also won't grow for me. Tally Ho!

In an effort to try to find things I could use on my ailing mom's clothes and on ours, my list is huge. I have just about every low sudsing or HE detergent you can readily buy in the US. Hold on to your hats...this may take a while. Powders: Tide HE Tide HE w/ downy Charlie's Soap Country Save Biokleen All Tempurature Sears Ultra Plus Stain Fighter Sears Ultra Plus w/Oxi Cheer Brightclean Cheer Brightclean free and sensitive Gain HE Fresh Start Liquids: Tide HE Original Scent Tide HE Coldwater Tide HE Coldwater Free and sensitive Tide HE/ downy Gain HE Original scent Gain HE Island Fresh Biokleen All tempurature Misc.: Soap Nuts Fabric Softeners: Downy April fresh Liquid and sheets Gain Island fresh Liquid and sheets Gain Original fresh liquid Purex lavendar and cotton liquid Final touch liquid Suavitel Field of Flowers liquid and sheets(aka Cuddly in some countries) Suavitel Morning sun liquid and sheets Suavitel Aroma sensations jasmine & stargazer lily Bounce outdoor fresh sheets Bounce fresh linen sheets bounce unscented sheets Store brand Unscented sheets Additives: Borax Washing Soda Baking Soda Tide stain release granuals Store brand & Sun Oxi bleach powders Cholorine bleach Most items were bought in the last month and a half. Some items purchased are not listed as they were given away to others cause they made all of us break out including mom and not too mention I didn't need all the things I had tried. Some of you may remember me telling you about the laundry issues I was having while taking care of my mom. I ended up going back to Charlie's and using Sears and some fab softeners depending on what was needed. She declined shortly there afeter. Her decline caused serious odor issues and Charlie's was not cutting it even with three washes, and that included using additives and chlorine bleach. The sears didn't make a dent in it either. I was gonna try some Henkel Persil, but didn't want to spend that much just to try it. Ironically, I ended up spending even more just trying to find something locally that would work, and washing a load of laundry 4 times was unacceptable. It was really that bad. I ended up buying whatever I could find on sale that I had not tried already to counteract the odor while hoping we wouldn't itch like crazy. Mind you I already had a stash of things I had tried prior. With everything I bought the only thing that ended up working to get rid of the odor in one wash was the friggin soap nuts. However,although soap nuts rocked at getting out the odors it did nothing for my kids stained clothes. Mom passed on the 7th of May, another irony. Now I have all these laundry products I have to use up. I have already donated all that others would take and I refuse to waste money. My sister said to hold on to the Gain as she would take it when she ran out, but that still leaves everything else. I've been slowly experimenting with amounts and combinations to see what I can get away with. I figured some of them out so they are slowly getting used up. One surprising developement was so far no one has had a problem with the Suavitel even though it is pretty strong smelling, it was the one fabric softener my mom could not stand, but doesn't bother the rest of us. Another of Life's irony. Go figure. I will still try to give away as much as I can until I get back to my favorite. Anyway, that is my list and my tail of laundry and Life's irony. I'll be happy when I'm back to just Charlie's again. I'm the type who likes to keep things simple.