MANY excellent points in this thread! "Obsessives" (myself included) would want to offer every rose possible. Unfortunately, that is a guaranty for failure. The only way to succeed is to offer only those varieties which propagate quickly and easily, producing the highest quantity of Grade 1 plants, using the methods you prefer; limit the number of varieties to what you can realistically handle and primarily to only those which SELL in large quantities. It is/was wonderful for obscure and unusual beauties to be so readily available, but you can't make the required return on investment to make them pay their way. At best, quantities will always be limited compared to the ones which sell due to their names and reputations. And, very many of them were absolute witches to propagate, which is probably why many of them fell out of commerce as quickly as they did. I'm sorry you have to work outside your passion to keep the doors open, John. That has been the case with MANY nurseries here in the US for easily the past fifteen years. Michael's Premier, Amity Heritage, Spooner's Oregon Minis, Tiny Petals and a host of others, including Vintage, had to resort to generating the necessary outside cash flow to permit them to continue their passions. The reasons are legion, but most boil down to too few have too limited resources to support most businesses and products. Without becoming too political, I think we're all familiar with the underlying sins responsible for our shared current mess. I don't know what the figures are here currently, but by the late 90s, early 2000s, the basic wholesale cost to produce a quality, budded, unpatented bare root in any quantity was $2.25. That is what it cost Arena and Ashdown to produce budded, unpatented roses. Perhaps larger concerns could shave a few cents off that price due to quantities, but the labor cost was fairly standard across the industry for stock produced in Wasco, CA due to the unionized Irish Farms which supplied the majority of labor services to most in the area. Patented and "specialty" types (Austin, Poulsen, etc.) varieties had royalty costs added. We've had the "luxury" of "dumping" excess, unsold stock as well as the "culls", those which failed to develop into at least Grade 1.5 plants, to mass merchant suppliers who offered them as cheap, canned, bud and bloom plants. It has been common to find patented varieties identified as older, unpatented types so the inferior plants could be sold to recoup their costs without having to pay the required royalties. Then, there were the "schlock producers" who supplied the cheap market. Their offerings were available in fairly large numbers to wholesale growers at costs of roughly $1.80 (not what they cost them to produce, but what they SOLD them for) each, bare root. These are/were the mostly misnamed, unpatented, usually fairly badly virused canned plants, usually produced by companies employing unprotected, "farm worker" type labor, you could often pick up for $10 (sometimes less) for bud and bloom, 5 gallon plants. It was common to find several varieties of fairly similar appearance all labeled as the same variety. We still find them at big box home improvement stores, but their ilk has more recently given way to stock from the remaining suppliers who used to rely upon larger independent nurseries to move their products. At one time, you would NEVER see Monrovia stock at a Lowe's or Home Depot. Now, it is common in my area. Sad. Kim

I live in a college town and was just looking at some of the ads to see what they say here for decent housing. I think, rather than proof of employment, (you might get a full time student) you could say, "Must pass background and credit check." Also, "references exchanged" so they know they are getting into a "normal" situation. A few ads here use the term, "no drama household." along with the no drug/smoking/partying caveats. I also think you will limit female applicants by stating there is a shared bath. Most women are not going to want to share a bath with a strange man. You could leave that out and if you get a strong female applicant, you could tell her she can have a private bath (if she could). And then you could tell male applicants the bath is shared.

I found a beautiful arched porch that I thought I'd shop in for metromom. It's a nice option too. I really love that art, and I wish I could get a little more time to draw. I know that once I start this school junk, the drawing will just cease to exist for a number of years ...and the photoshopping. My love of money, however, will see me through these tough times!! : D The Swedish look really made me think "Mary Hartman". I think I'll shop her into one of your mock-ups. LOL

Yard man here today and had to find something more for him to do as the leaf blower is in for it's winter servicing. So, we continued with the clean-out. Today, was a lovely antique mahogany buffet that was once in my in--law's DR. We had no room for it in ours, but thought it might make the bottom of the steps in the basement look a lot better. Our basement is semi-finished but from the top of the steps and most of the way down, it looks finished. It is a great piece for storage of things (mainly silver) used far less often, but that I'm not yet ready to part with - thinking about those 4 grandchildren (who may or may not want any of it). Well, in addition to being good for storage, it is good/bad as it's a catch-all place. It's near the door into the basement garage, and things just end up "living" on this piece of furniture. I haven't seen the top in years! Things that need to go to Goodwill, upstairs, in the trash, be returned, put somewhere other than in the basement on this buffet. We started with the top and cleaned it off. Books went upstairs (God knows how I'm going to find space for them in my already over-loaded bookshelves, but I will!), lots of stuff to Goodwill (I won't make a special trip to the paint store to return the paint roller that was the wrong size and is still unopened - someone will get it for a bargain), paper trash - you name it, it was living on this buffet. We got it all cleared off and actually DUSTED! It's really very beautiful! Now, my portable oxygen and the charger for the extra battery, is at one end plus a basket to keep extra oxygen tubing and cannula, and shoulder strap for the carrier. The cordless phone is also there, next to a wall plug I had put in many years ago. At the other end is a small pile of things to return - I'll get enough money back to make it worth my while - only 4 things. A pretty green glass bowl is in the center. If it becomes a catchall, it will go below. A picture by a Vineyard artist that my late husband and I bought at the Cincinnati Antiques Show at least 15 years ago, is now hung - it's been propped there all these years. Yikes! I know my husband is pleased. Then we went through the 3 drawers - some stuff for Goodwill, mostly trash. Now organized and I know what's in them. There are two single cabinets underneath with doors, and one double one with two doors. Went through the two single ones - didn't throw much out, but I now remember what is in them. Center one is the silver - it will stay as it is and become my daughter's problem! We spent 3 hours doing this and I also had my yardman take the HUGE, very heavy bag of clothes from the clean-out in my late husband's closet (both his and my clothes that needed to go), to Goodwill for me. Altogether a productive 4 hours and worth the money I pay him! It will be late March/early April before he does much work outside, so this is my clean-out time with him. Onward and upward!