We caught it blooming one year, but it was early April. Here's a clue. The highways around Tucson have been widely landscaped with white and yellow banksia roses. If those are still blooming in Tucson, the Tombstone rose likely will be, as well. The weather makes a big difference. Southern California has had a long period of colder-than-normal, wetter-than-normal weather, so it's possible that the rose could be a little late this year. (Tho OUR banksias are blooming, regardless.) Jeri

Hi Paya! Your decorations look great! Unfortunately for me, my hubby doesn't get into holidays too much. :( So the best I have is the lighted window decorations. You'll have to let us see how the mummies turn out! Karen

I don't think we have a Dollar Tree, Minnie, but I'll look at our local dollar stores and see if I can find those cauldrens...sounds like a great little decoration. :-) Janet, we really don't have the tools to cut plywood yet - just moved into this house a month ago. So the simpler, the better... I was just thinking (again) that I could get gray garbage bags, stick cardboard forms in them, and then do the lettering in black pen. That would be realistic enough, I think, and still "weatherproof", if I used a laundry pen. :-) I can't really use candles to light them - highly unsafe with my uneven yard (it's sloped pretty steeply towards the street), and I'd be afraid of forgetting them once everyone is inside and starting a fire on the lawn. Too risky, but I *was* thinking I could get some really cheap little flashlights (black), and lay them on the ground in sets of two, with blue cellophane over the lense...just get batteries at Costco. ;-) Muchies - I was going to just do a "finger food buffet" of sorts, but DH is thinking pizza wouldn't be too bad. We could make it ahead of time with pepperoni in jack-o-lantern face shapes, and maybe dye the cheese red or something...still working on that, but you can see the post on the Cooking forum. :-)

Thank you, Marlorena, for this story. Since we didn't have anybody there to tell us the story, you made me curious :) Here is what I found: The Rose Tree Inn, one of the first adobe buildings constructed in Tombstone, was built by A.C. and Alice Robertson in 1880 for the use of offices and a boarding house for the Vizina Mining Company. In 1885, a newly married couple from Scotland, Henry and Mary Gee, lived in the boarding house. While Henry, a mining engineer was away at work, Mary spent her time mostly being homesick for her native Scotland. However, she did make one friend, the caretaker at the Rose Tree Inn, one Amelia Adamson When Henry and Mary built a permanent home, Mary’s family sent her a box of plant cuttings from her native home, including a white Lady Banksias Rose. After planting several in her yard, she gave a cutting of the rose to her friend Amelia at the Rose Tree Inn. Together, they planted the cutting on the patio and despite the desert heat, it began to thrive. When the Vizina Mine shut down, the building, with its rose bush in the back, became a hotel and in 1930, Ethel Macia, the daughter of original builders, A.C. and Alice Robertson took over the inn. By this time, the rose bush, so out of place in the Arizona desert, had grown to a "rose tree,” and was soon hailed as "The World's Largest Rose" by an entertaining Robert Ripley. Today, the building, still owned by the Macia family, serves as a small museum. In back, the Rose Tree now covers an area of over 8,000 square feet, and holds the title of the world’s largest rose tree in the Guinness Book Of World Records. The museum also holds a number of historic artifacts and mining displays. Mr. Devre (current owner) was born and raised in Tombstone and he and his family go all the way back to the beginning of the town. He is one of only two people still living that has first hand knowledge of the gun fight and the real truth about it, as well as the town’s rich and unbelievable history. His family knew the Earps, Clantons and the Mclaury’s. Mr. Devre’s is a Geologist by trade and is on the Tombstone historical society. The museum curator contends that all Lady Banks roses growing in the U.S. today are descendants of the Tombstone Rose. Who knows...