Mine are starting to flower again. Some are busting out of their pots, I am still trying to get help me repot, as now they are too heavy for me to lift. Even my large 6ft 2" fire chief friend can't lift many of them. Postage is so expensive for me right now I can't offer to send any at this time. Hint the near white ones will not live long without a host mother green plant or leaf attached, they will also need more sun, but not so much to burn them. The also may need to be grown very dry or they will rot, now I am writing from my own experience. I now have 350 of these plants and of course some are duplicates. If you take cutting off of any variegated off set be sure leave at least 4" or rhizome, or you will lose the variegation. Remember that they can break out of any pot you put them in so don't use expensive pots. I have had a lot of experience with this occuring. This time of the year I have cut down on watering , when it rains I water them, and then wait 10 days before I water again, if no rain is in sight I will water them. Mine are under cover so are protected and are dependent on me for water and food, heat, air, yes they need air like we do, a fan going will help them with the cold weather, that is what they use in the winter in England where I visited many green houses with snow on the ground. Now with this little game I play, it is okay for the leaves to wrinkle and if your not using Peat Moss for the soil to dry out a bit, however when you water the rhizomes will swell and this just may break the pot. Dried Peat Moss if hard to get wet again and will shrink away from the sides of the pot, and the water will go down the sides and the root ball will not get any water. This year we have had such screwy weather we don't know when to water or not. Putting my finger down an inch or soil will be of no use, I need to see how far down it is dry, and not just 2". So I use a pencil or chop stick and plunge it down into the center of the pot to check on how much water the soil is holding. I wish I could send instruction articles to you for a guide, and what I am saying here is only a general guide. I wouuld be foolish to tell you how much to water, for many reason. I can't name a plant from pictures, I need to touch it and examine all parts of the plant. The color of the outer skin of the rhizome is often the clue for identification. Enjoy your plants and watch for flowers, give them some love. Did not proof. Norma

As you can see in the block above my pink strips around it don't totally match up, I was in a hurry and did not make templates for them, but thankfully when you stand back from the quilt to look at it luckily it is not super noticeable. Grandma's quilt won't be perfect, but it is made with love! I like everything to be exact though, so for future quilts I am ordering custom made acrylic rotary rulers so that all my strips for 12" finished blocks will be accurately measured. So am ordering from a lady on the Quilting Haven (4.5" x 12.5") and (6.5" x 12.5") sized gridded rulers that way I can use them for strips in between blocks and for cutting borders for quilts. I had her make me an 18" x 22" fabric quarter rotary ruler several months back and am very happy with her work. Best to you, Sandra

Dear (Secret) Santa, **** favorite color - Purple (also blues and greens) **** least favorite color - Don't really have one, but a lot of neons make my head spin. **** favorite type of fabric - I like batiks, I like patterns (not too large). I'm not a big fan of the floral patterns though. I like astrological symbols and other symbolic patterns like that as well. Like animals. I like pretty much anything, I guess :) I even like seasonal fabrics (especially Halloween or Christmas/winter) as they always come in useful. **** do you have allergies to foods, flavors, smells, candles that type of thing - none that I know of! In fact, we love candles over here. **** Do you collect anything, besides fabric!! - Not specifically (although I might send PatelPatsy some of my dust bunnies, lol!). I collect heirloom tomato seeds I suppose, and peppers. Also, I seem to be starting a sunflower collection - vases with sumflowers on them, towels, kleenex box covers, etc . . . I do love my sunflowers (I grow a ton out in the garden, but they do seem to be moving inside as well). **** Pets? - We have one dog, mid size, mixed breed hunting dog that we got from the humane society several years ago. She had been beaten and was about to be put down. Now she's healthy and happy, although still very wary of men (any man) and quick movements around her head. She makes a great guard dog though and has become part of the family. ****. Books or authors I like to read: - Nicholas Sparks, Clive Cussler (Dirk Pitt) stories, I like mysteries or historical fiction, and especially like when the two combine. **** My hobbies, besides quilting: - Gardening, cooking. Also I'm learning how to knit (very slowly and poorly) and I want to learn in the next couple years how to make my own wine from the grapes that grow in our garden every year. **** My favorite sport(s) and teams: - Soccer (Hmmm, favorite teams would be Chelsea, Real Madrid, Inter Milan . . . Also Toronto FC of course) **** My favorite TV show(s): - Bones, Project Runway, food network, History channel, MASH reruns . . . I'm more of a movie person though! ****When I'm bored, I: - Fool around on the computer, design new quilt ideas, play some games, read these forums :) **** Chocolate or hard candy? - Chocolate, or sour candy. Not hard candy. **** Anything else you would like your partner to know about you. - I think this pretty much covers it - I am laid back and easy to please :) I should say that I am still fairly new to quilting and am still in the beginning stages of learning. I can make simple blocks and quilts, but tend to stay away from applique and paper piecing still. Also, I mostly hand quilt, although we do now have a machine, I am still learning how to use it properly and so I still do the majority of my work by hand right now.

For me, a good rose year (in addition to all of Moses' excellent points) is COLOR COLOR COLOR. Lots of it and lasting and profusions of it in June continuing into the season. Roses spilling out in every bed that draw the eye with lush green foliage behind them. Bushes that bloom at the same time as other bushes so it's not a small spot of color here and there all season. Mind you, this has only happened once in the last 10 years, but since I know it's possible I hanker for it. What seems to contribute to this, as far as I can tell: 1. Snow cover. You may take this for granted if you have reliable snow in cold zones, but I'm starting to be convinced that's what makes the difference between my roses and those of people like Rebecca in even colder zones whose CPM puts mine to shame. Doesn't apply in warmer zones, but you don't need it there. 2. Sufficiently cold weather that is accompanied by consistent snow cover. Yep, sounds ridiculous, but the one magical June flush in 2013 followed one of our coldest and snowiest winters in recent history, and it was CONSISTENT. So far this spring the roses are budding out rather well after our brutally cold January/February so indications are hopeful for a good year this year, like Stephen mentioned. 3. Plenty of regular moisture during leafing out and bloom season. That has been limited this spring for us, but we had such a darned cold April that the roses hovered without growing for a month so didn't need as much moisture. I watered for about 2 weeks in May and we just got some much needed soaking rain that has saved the day. 4. Enough sensible roses for zone 5 that the ridiculous zone pushing roses aren't left to wave their measly blooms on one-cane wonders all by themselves 5. Enough sunshine and heat to encourage the roses to put out buds, which this year hit all of a sudden at the end of April. We went from a month of 50 F to 90s almost overnight. We'll see if that fries the roses in the way it fried the tulips - no more than 2 weeks of tulips that usually stretch over 2 months. What doesn't seem to contribute much, as far as I can tell (in my yard): 1. Fertilizing. OK, I'm not very regular anyway, but I was faithful last year and even with a lot of surviving cane it was a very "meh" spring flush. Obviously surviving cane isn't enough, which is why the snow cover is my current theory. Alfalfa does make a notable difference in bushing out, but not in the kind of simultaneous spring flush I crave. 2. Winter protection. Yes, I faithfully stack filled leaf bags around the edges of all the beds and particularly the tea rose bed, but that's for survival, not for a good spring flush. I can't winter protect them into enthusiastic bloom I'm finding. 3. Spraying. OK I'm guessing about this as I'm no-spray and lazy, but our BS season doesn't really kick in till July so it shouldn't affect the June flush. 4. Bugs and other critters. I get the occasional rose slug leaf chewing or rabbit unexpected pruning, but with letting the roses duke it out themselves I really don't have pest problems for the most part. Haven't seen more than a few squishes of aphids in years and the bunnies get mildly discouraged from the new plantings with inverted bottomless pots so they only prune off the roses that can handle it. Japanese beetles are indeed becoming a pest, but again not usually for the first flush in June. Don't have deer or gophers (thank goodness) 5. Fussing and worrying. I mostly stopped that years ago, but I don't see that I've made any substantial improvement in the roses with fussing and I can definitely see that I've killed more than a few with too much attention. Having said all this, I really don't know what makes for a good rose year other than hope and a positive attitude to enjoy the roses that are and not lament the ones that aren't. Cynthia