teeandcee - I am in SWMO too, and have a small collection of gallicas. I'd love to share info with you on all aspects of rose growing here in the Ozarks, as there isn't much discussion of roses on the Ozarks forum usually. Right now the only gallica I have with buds is Rush gallica (which, unfortunately, I don't believe to be in commerce anymore). It is supervigorous, but does tend to mildew for me a bit in early summer. But what a beauty - incomparably ethereal blued-out pastel magenta. Cardinal de Richelieu is my only other really early gallica. It will be in bud soon. It is also extraordinarily vigorous for me, and spotlessly clean. All things considered, it is probably the best rose in my garden. I do have Gloire de France, but it is not particularly early here. It is a slower grower, but suckers badly. It is also totally clean here in my garden. I can't remember the bloom times on my other mature gallicas well enough to give you much info, but I will try to come back with some of that info as things progress, if you'd be interested. One thing I will say about gallicas in SWMO is that I really appreciate their breaking dormancy so late. It ensures that they will have a good bloom when the time comes. Here's something else - if you recall the Easter freeze a few years ago, followed by another late freeze the next year...well, a lot of roses were hit badly by that. My bourbons, which almost all bud out early were really set back. Russelliana, my earliest bloomer, and Banshee didn't bloom at all those years when all their buds were killed. But the gallicas mostly set new buds and bloomed a few weeks later, albeit more lightly. An exception was Gloire de France, which refused to set new buds. CdR was spectacular in this regard. After having hundreds of buds killed by frost, it quickly recovered, and set only dozens and scores of new buds. A lot of bloom by any reckoning. One thing more - the main disease problem I've had with gallicas here is mildew. Most will mildew a little, some will do it badly. The only gallica I've suspected of blackspot is Charles de Mills. It might be what they call "damask crud," though, because it doesn't defoliate or yellow, and my Rose de Rescht gets it too. Still don't know what that is, really, but RdR is on it's way out because it's so bad. CdM, however, is still well worth it IMO. It is just unbelievably gorgeous with those huge, swirling, neon blooms. And the black stuff comes after it's awesome performance anyway. Mine is not own root, so maybe that's another problem. That's all I know for now. All in all, gallicas are probably one of the very best bets for SWMO. Good luck!

It was a bad winter here in tropical Minnesota also. We did not set any records for low temperatures, but a record or two for length of time of continuous below zero temperatures was broken. All of the roses except the near specie Rugosas and William Baffin suffered extensive damage. This was the first winter in my recollection that Morden Centennial, Hope for Humanity, and other hardy Canadian roses suffered more than tip damage. Quadra and Ramblin Red had to be trimmed down to about a foot of cane. Even though they were covered with wood chips, most of the modern roses had to be trimmed to the ground. The spring was cold and dry. I was almost two weeks behind on uncovering and pruning this year. The good news is that almost everything is now showing signs of life. I only definitely lost the two potted roses that I was trying to overwinter in the unattached garage as a test. However, there are more that have been in a slow decline for some time that will be first up on the cull list because there is probably not enough plant left for a decent recovery in this climate. It is still dry and cold here. I am going to have to water this week. That is almost never the case in May. Regards, Charles

Hi Tigerdunes: Thank you for your feedback. I live in North New Jersey. We heat both floors of our house using steam radiators (from a separate boiler in the basement). We also have a separate AC zone for our larger first floor. This system is for our second floor only. I think that our installer has sized us correctly for our (smaller) upstairs zone as I received several estimates and virtually all the bids included the same system (or Comfort systems). Your feedback helps as our installer shared that he thought that I was wasting money by even getting a Performance system, but I wanted to have some humidity control and a VS system. One follow-up question: I think that this system on his proposal has a single stage with a scroll compressor. Would I notice any difference between this system and a Performance system with 2 stages?

"Times may have changed since I was young, but men haven't" Sorry, but that simply isn't true. No, I am not male, but I three brothers and many male friends, and almost all of them feel the "man is supposed to make the moves" rule is unfair and puts too much pressure on them, and they are thrilled when a woman takes the initiative to call them. Of course, I mean a woman they're interested in, they're not anymore thrilled than I am to hear from someone they really don't want to see again. If he is interested, he'll probably like it that you called. If he's not interested, he's not gonna call you anyway, so you have nothing to lose by trying. I believe it's probably different in Blueheron and Daisy's age groups (you're both retired, right?), and certainly I have no experience with men of that age so I am not in a position to question them on that point, but in my generation (30's) and younger, men as well as women certainly have changed in their expectations. Sure, there are young people of both genders who still want the "traditional" gender roles, but for the most part that is no longer the case.