Congratulations! For your housewarming, here's a virtual Loaf of fresh homemade bread so that you'll never go hungry; A bottle of good wine so that your new home and everything that goes on in it will be joyous; Salt so that there will always be spice in your life; A candle so that you will always have light; and Sugar to symbolize the hope for a sweet life in your new home. /tricia

Dinglehopp, I strongly suggest you email Pamela. Like I said, I don't remember now how I came up with her name, but she didn't have a Boule de Neige listed as being available. I just asked--do you by any chance have one? She answered that she had a small one going and thought she could send it to me in the later fall (I was writing in the early fall). I explained that in Kansas, we waited until spring to plant our new roses, and she wrote back that was even better and she could promise a good-sized one for sure for April. So that was all arranged through our emails--it was not part of a regular online order. Good luck! Kate

I just got some rose bands, most of them are old garden roses, some of them have to live in pots forever in my "ice garden": Gloire de Dijon, Secret Garden Musk, Souv de la Malmaison, Souv de la Malmaison Rouge, Grandma's Hat, Xiang Fen Lian, Sou.d' Elise Vardon, Vick's Caprice. I saw a lot of Julia Child at Home Depot today, $14.99 (1 gal) and $24.99 (3 gal).

Oakleaf hdrangeas are well known for having marcescent foliage. But it will typically change color, wither and dry a bit and some leaves do indeed fall off. But none of this has happened with my plant......it has not dropped a single leaf; there has been little to no change of color (a couple of browned edges is all), no withering or drying - the leaves are as succulent and pliable as they are in spring or summer. I have grown this plant for about 15 years and this is the very first time it has acted like there has been NO change in the seasons. Weird :-)) I should also add that all other oakleafs I see in my area are acting perfectly normal for this time of year, looking very much like previous photos upthread. Just not like my photo of Little Honey :-))