Ann, it would be wonderful to see you and Larry there. Not only would it be nice to spend a little more time with you, perhaps you could be of some help. Some of the roses in the garden are lacking labels or mis-IDd. I've offered to help organize getting them identified, but don't know the roses well enough to really do much. Some added expertise would be very nice. I don't know about car things in the area. It's nice that Sacramento has the Towe museum, isn't it? There are a couple more rose attractions. There is a nice rose garden in Columbus, although it's mostly moderns. Last year, I went to Peter Schneider's open garden, too - he lives in Mantua, OH, which is a little more than an hour further north. He will have his first open garden day on Sunday the 14th. I'm not doing that this year, but it's still tempting. He has quite a few Lens HMs and other unusual roses. Some were for sale, an added attraction. Anita

Last year was my first year to get dirt under my nails in WCentral TX. - The most expensive mistake was planting a full afternoon sun front bed of approx 15 1-3g shrubs in the middle of June. I thought that watering them every day would help, so they either fried or I drowned them or a combo of both. - Not remembering that quite a few things were perennials and throwing them away once they started to fade - Not realizing what sq feet equals, I was still used to metric. So my little patch of wildflower seed I sowed in the fall really should've been spread out a bit more, okay a lot more. - Just because the garden center sells it, doesn't mean A) that it will 'work' here B) that it is the correct time to plant it

Sorry Dawn, didn't mean to ignore your question... I meant to answer, but must have got distracted... thanks Alessandro, for answering. The "rust" you see is just weathering of the plant skin... I have another that is just the same but a bit smaller. they are quite old plants for their size, and have been grown hard. They sat there in a sort of dormant state for a couple of years and hardly moved, but they certainly are looking okay now! I'm a patient man, I'm also growing Aztekium ritteri (2 of) on their own roots, they are about the size of peas, and are also quite a few years old... (maybe I should post a pic of them too). Thanks also Al, I do cherish these plants, I'm looking forward to their offerings. CP

I hit reply and paste the snopes link, and then hit send. Some people don't know about snopes, but I will send it everytime, otherwise it just doesn't stop. My sister will now ask(as its her friend that sends us these stupid emails) "Can you check if this is real?" and I will, would rather that than believing some fable. I haven't gotten any of this garbage in a while. Some of them are dangerous misinformation, like a coughing technique that could "save you" if you were having a heart attack. Its a real technique, but is rarely used (since aspirin and getting help ASAP is a LOT more effective) and only if it had been shown properly to you by a medical professional. Otherwise, this technique this email described could actually kill you if you were in fact having heart trouble. My father died from a cardiac arrest, so someone forwarding dangerous BS information like this REALLY ticked me off, and in this case I said, "This is a dangerous fallacy to be passing around" and then a link to the snopes site. If they're a friend you don't have to call them an idiot, but I would show them the real information whether they get offended or not, in some cases, ignorance can be dangerous.