Thanks, Jo, for the newbie shout out! I have been a GW member for a few years, but kind of fell off the scene a few years back. I'm back now & I have to say, I really missed this group of people on this board. They're amazingly knowledgeable & friendly! Folks on here helped me tremendously when I had a small veggie garden a few years ago. I can't wait until I have the proper fencing to make a new garden in our new yard! :) Thanks to everyone for being so friendly & accepting of all our newbie questions & sharing your skills with the rest of us poor unfortunate souls who are not so smart about gardening. :) I hope that maybe next year, I can come to the Spring Fling. It seems like ya'll always have such a blast & while I wouldn't have much to offer in the way of plant swapping, I could always collect my flower seeds to share. If anyone's brave enough to want morning glories or moonflowers, that is! Moving to southern Oklahoma & leaving all my friends & family behind to be a stay-at-home mom for the last 4 years has made for a lonely transition. I picked up gardening as a hobby to share with my son & pass the time & the people on this board made me feel like I belonged, even though I'm a newbie. Thanks a million to ya'll :)

I really enjoyed seeing the beautiful kitchens too. I saw one counter top that I absolutely love. I saved the picture to show my husband, he loves it too. I just have to find out what it is. I need to go back and get the name of the poster and see what they can tell me. They have a gallery section of all the kitchens I can spend hours there. My kitchen does not match my dog but I didn't pick this kitchen, or the dog for that matter, she picked us. Edit to say the poster was fivefootzero on the dog match thread. If anyone knows that counter material let me know the specifics please. My best guess is that it's a soapstone but what one? Beautiful stone. This post was edited by ravencajun on Sat, Feb 1, 14 at 20:42

and I thought it was really funny. Since I had opened the disgusted and gone post, I had to open SamKaren's. But, I am not reading all the responses. Sam, I just want you to know, I love your post. I wish, someone had gotten me. :) Moni

Thank you everyone, and especially those of you who have posted photos. I have been on a little hiatus because I had some minor surgery, and to be honest I forgot that I posted this! I truly understand what most of you mean when you say that you should not prune until the roses are about 3-4 years old, I know they need their energy stores, I know that they have awkward teenage stages (hey, who doesn't?). The thing is that most of the ones I am having troubles with are Austins, and just judging by how much growth they put on last year, if I went this whole year without pruning them I think by fall they might be gathering up mailmen and loose dogs that wonder on to my porch. I suppose I am of the same mindset as Lori_elf, to help inspire new growth I want to get rid of some of this awkward growth that will not support strong, large canes, even if they seem a little young for it. I always get a little confused when talking about the ages of some of my roses anyway, Munstead wood for example is going into it's second year in my garden, but I purchased it as a large (4' at time of purchase), grafted, 3 gallon plant from my local nursery, so it obviously spent at least a year with them, if not more, so would you consider him to be 3 years old at this point? or still just going on 2 because that is how long he has been with me? Not that it really matters all that much because when I judge them, I don't really consider their age as much as I consider their overall size and the vigor that I have witnessed under my own care. For example, I have two Jude the Obscure plants which I got last spring, both have been living in pots that are 12" across since their initial transplant. One plant was a band from from Heirloom and it was purchased earlier in the year, the other was a gallon sized plant purchased from Chamblees purchased a little later in the year. The band from Heirloom really took off and put on a lot of growth last year & is now about 3' tall, he is the one with the odd candelabra situation. Even though the Chamblees specimen was supposed to be a "gallon sized plant", he has grown much slower, but has retained more of a pleasantly round & even shape, it is a little over 1' tall. I feel comfortable pruning the Heirloom specimen because the largest cane is very thick & long, the plant is tall and seems very healthy. I would however not prune the Chamblees plant, it is still very small and looks very young at this point. I think this is due to the unusually small root ball it had upon arrival, both plants I bought from Chamblees did (the other being Molineux) which is why I probably won't be ordering from them again, they were puny as gallon sized plants and have been surpassed by every single band I purchased from Heirloom at this point. I did prune both the roses that I mentioned in the original post, but I did it gently, not removing the entire candelabra, just a few of the smaller branches here and there, or the most awkward growth on the cane in question, so that the new growth that they put on this spring will help them evolve into more balanced, rounded shrubs. I don't have many roses large enough to prune, so these two being some of my only decent sized shrubs (3-5ft tall) I really wanted them to be presentable, even if it sets them back a tiny bit, I need something pretty to look at while I'm waiting on my herd of 1 year old gallon sized babies to mature. I really don't think it will cause them much of a problem, because as I said, almost all of my Austins have grown very quickly and vigorously so far, and I already see Jude swelling into large buds in all the places I was hoping he would, so I think he will do great this year, still waiting on MW, but I think he will do great as well. I'll try to snap some photos today. Thanks again for all your responses! Jessica.