My Marie Bugnet doesn't sucker but Frau Dagmar is a suckering fool. She suckers out into the lawn and comes up in cracks in our asphalt street. I dug up 15 from one bush this year and could do it again. Yes Henry Hudson does too but not quite as bad. The pavement series of rugosas sucker quite a bit also. Would I plant them as a hedge across the front of my yard? No!!! Frau Dagmar is taller than Marie in my yard when mature. It would look good the first year but soon you'd be fighting the suckers. The first thing I'd do would be to prepare the beds for next spring's planting. Unless you're going to remove those trees that shade the rest of your roses, I'd move them to the new beds so they at least get morning sunlight. Otherwise, except for the few that do get sunlight, you're going to lose the rest to shade or ground ivy. If kept deadheaded and pruned they should fill out and would make a nice show from the street. Have you raised them out of the holes yet?

I host the Raleigh Swaps and I've noticed that many gardening organizations in this area now do their plant exchanges in a similar manner. Back in the old days people organized swaps with all sorts of rules (bring a plant - get a plant or first come/first served). We don't do that. We try to keep rules to a minimum and chaos to a maximum. The one thing I have observed over the years with new swappers arriving at their first Raleigh Swap is that in the beginning it is quite intimidating. We get about 45 people, all with glazed over eyeballs and foam dripping from the corners of their mouths. These people simply love to spend the afternoon with a bunch of fellow gardeners, sharing advice, sharing ideas, sharing plants. I often have to explain that as a group the bulk of us only see each other twice a year (at the swaps). We may act like we see each other every weekend but that just isn't true. Some of us have been coming to the swaps for years and we know what others are looking for or what sort of gardening they do. More than once a special hard-to-find plant has been given to me by someone that read one of my posts. I think sometimes they actually went out and bought the plant just for me as a way of saying thank you. I cannot say why these afternoons are so much fun - they just are. When gardeners get to a certain level of expertise they enjoy propagating their plants so they are constantly looking for people to take away all those rooted cuttings. It isn't always about new or rare plants. Many times people are looking for more of something they already have, they just want more of it. Sometimes they just want something their grandmother grew. You never know. Bring what you have, what you are proud of,, someone will want it and I guarantee you'll have fun.

We're having a plant swap May 21 here in middle TN, on the beautiful Buffalo River, and anyone from anywhere is welcome...we've had people from Long Island NY, OK, KY, AL, MS, TN. Our swap does include anything-garden...like Lsmcw said... come even if you don't have anything to swap...usually at the end of the swap everyone is giving away what's left of what they brought...so they don't have to take it back home again. If you are really interested, email Jeff our secretary at jtoothmanindadj@comcast.net or myself and we will get you more info. If you will go to www.buffalocanoeing.com you can get directions from about anywhere in TN. It is being held at our campground, and there will be camping sites available for those wanting to camp, just email me about those details. Be glad to have you. "SEE YOU AT THE RIVER" Jan

I will check it out once I get back into gardening mode--I'll be starting seeds in a couple weeks! You can check out some of my pics of some of the 'maters & peppers I grow at the link below. I had thousands of pics but can't get one of my external hard drives to boot, will have to see if I still have them on my flash card. I haven't updated that page in about 4 years and the 2nd half that doesn't have links to pics, many of those I've since grown and photographed. The e-mail at the bottom is no longer valid. I have grown or have had seeds for over 500 tomato varieties and over 100 pepper varieties.