Nona,\Oh, I just know I missed you....you are probably on the road already! WEll, so how long does it take to drive from Florida to Indiana???? PAcked with frozen food? Does it stay frozen the entire way there??? Ah, it feels so refreshing to get out on a vacation like that. But your's is a "working" one. Working on the yard I bet. :-) Take care and write back when you get back to Florida. Love, Jules PS: My sons' (both of them) Kindergarten teacher taught that song (Happy Trails) to her classes. They'd sing it at the end of the day as they lined up to go to the gate to be picked up by parents. My sisters also were friends with Roy and Dales Granddaughter (who lived aroudn the corner from us). They actually were able to spend a weekend with their friend at Roy and Dales house back in the late 70's. Said they were a couple of normal people just like any of us.

I live close to the Cathedral in St. Paul, and today I thought it would be nice to walk downtown and do some research at the history center. On the way home--up hill--I was fighting the wind all the way and had to work on regaining balance several times. When I came home I noticed that my kitchen countertops felt kind of grainy. I was wondering, what did I spill? until I realized it was a solid layer of gritty dust that had blown in the windows. I guess that gritty layer is on everything in the house at the moment.

I have Dakota Sun here in central Michigan. Mr. Smith (he died a few years ago) bred his rose to be upper midwest hardy, and he succeeded with Dakota Sun. Kedem is the only propagator that I know of -- Kedem sells his roses both own root and grafted onto multiflora, so you will have to ask him which is used for the Dakotas. In the winter, he is keeps Sunday afternoon hours, and he is very pleasant and helpful. I have had DS here for over five years. I never spray it, nor do I consistently feed or water it. I do, however, keep a nice mulch around it all year. It grows about 36--42 inches high & has a nice and thick bush shape. No disease -- the leaves are beautiful, shiny and healthy. It blooms on and off all summer long -- very bright in the landscape! There is no scent -- but perhaps because of that and the fact the petals are rather thick, the Japanese beetles tend to leave the flowers alone. The rose was bred from Dr. Buck's Prairie Harvest X seedling. I wonder if the seedling had some Kordes in it, because I see a bit of Kordes' older rose "Sunsprite" in DS's color, but DS is way more vigorous, healthy and a much heavier bloomer. I like the rose enough to have ordered two more for this spring from Kedem, and I am also going to try Dakota Song this year. I highly recommend DS for the midwest! Here's the Help Me Find link: https://www.helpmefind.com/rose/l.php?l=2.39058.1 Here's to spring, Sunny

kitty How was the stem after you cut it? It may be good idea to take photos of what you doing for future reference (I forget very often too!) And if not sure, posting photos will help to get some helpful tips. "Hoping the black section under the leaves doesn’t spread further, it’s making pretty close contact with the soil." By black section, do you mean the leaf end? In last photo, it looks like just old leaf drying up. But in previous pic there are few and so many at the same time may be rot - I hope I am wrong ! Whenever you repot, make sure plants are not deep inside - Kara mentioned good reasons, and on top of that - it looks better :) Hope your plant makes it, pls. post update.