You need specific information from rose exhibitors in your neighborhood as to how they time their blooms for a show. I've done roses for three nieces' weddings and fall is easier to plan. Don't rely on one kind of rose; don't rely on one massive rose bush (Eden, which I planned to use for the bridal bouquet got the worst case of thrips in creation and brown edged roses don't do it. That bouquet ended up being noisettes and polyanthas) If you hear hot weather predicted, the roses will come faster, maybe as much as two weeks faster than normal. Line up refrigerators to hold buds and blooms that come to early. Test those refrigerators with max/min thermometers to find ones that the bud area doesn't get below 26F. Have rose friends nearby you can depend on. Have alternative flowers growing. Have a source for commercial roses as a back up. Consider using the cute blooming minis from Canada as Brides Maids bouquets. Let there be lots of alternatives and don't stress the small stuff....it's all small stuff....the wedding itself is the big stuff.

Bonny, that birdbath is plastic and been with me for 27 years. I used it for the birds till the winter of 2001-2002. That year we had a very warm Sept, Oct except for a few days and very warm early Nov., until the "rain storm" that was coming over night turned into 2 feet of snow. What a surprise we woke up to. There was no way to get the birdbath in the house from then on as it was frozen in the snow and full of ice. I figured it was better to take my chances with it in the snow, then try to dig it out and hope for the best. In the spring, well you can imagine the cracks in the bowl. Tried to duck tape it with white duck tape, but it wouldn't hold water. So moved it to between my 2 hydrangeas and started doing what my grandmother did with some of hers. Filled it with soil and put small plants in it ever since. It does come inside in the fall and gets a new "tape job" every spring. It's holding so far, but every year it gets a little more and more damaged. I wish I could get another one like it but have never seen one since I bought that one. Carrie, I've got small sickly looking 4 o'clocks too. For some reason I can never get them to grow well for me in the ground, so started putting them in pots filled with miracle grow potting mix and you see what the results are. When I was a kid, I remember by brother helping grandma plant her 4 o'clock seeds in the ground. OMG, she would have these huge, huge bushes of them all over the gardens and the scent would come in the house. We lived at the beach and she had a huge bucket filled with sand from the beach she used to make a bed of beach type plants. Well, my brother dropped a 4 o'clock seed in the sand and no one knew about it. One day there was a green seedling in it and she left the seedling to see if it would grow. Sure enough seedling was a 4 o'clock growing in pure sand that salt water washed over. That one got huge too, growing in a whiskey barrel. I can't get them to grow well in my gardens unless they are in pots, and she got them to grow in beach sand. I just wish the broken colors had a strong scent to go with the beautiful flowers. Even with a strong breeze there is no scent unless you put your nose right into the flowers. Fran

Ivamae - hope you are able to sign on to our room at Facebook. Jan - glad you checked in - I cracked up over your song choice LOL. Come join us on Facebook. It is so much easier than posting here. I will continue to check in here though. BJ - missing you. Suzanne - love the photo of the baby chicks - they are too cute. I don't think I knew you could get them through the mail until you talked about them arriving at work one day LOL. It has cooled down considerably around here and we even got some much needed rain today.

I started a quilt for the Bicentennial-1976!! Even tough I donated all of my boxes & boxes of fabric, patterns, misc stuff about 5 years ago - I couldn't part with this. I had not begun quilting in this new era yet~LOL. The portion of the quilt I have made was cut with scissors & templates made from cereal boxes - which I still had - and all the fabrics were Bicentennial Patriotic red white & blue. For some reason, I couldn't part with it. I don't recall if it was hand or machine stitched. Maybe I should make it the center medallion of a Quilt of Valor quilt and give it a worthy home. It may be a poly cotton blend as polyester was desirable for it's non wrinkle - drip dry properties.