Hi again, Thanks all, for your input. I just wanted to come back and say I did cut down the Dr. Hueys. I basically pruned the rosebush as far to the ground as I could get. (It was really bushy, so it was hard to see!) Once I got the "bushiness" ut away, i was surprised to find that something has been digging at my rosebush. I can see the root ball. When I planted this rosebush (some 5 years ago ro thereabouts) I definitely planted it so the root ball was a good 10 inches below the surface. But now, I can see that something has been digging away at the base of my rosebush, and the root ball is, indeed, exposed. So you all were right on that pont! So now I ask you wise rosebush-caretakers, what do I do? There's still one very strong cane of the Billy's left (I can tell it's the Billy because the cane is woody and very thick - the Hueys were slim and bendy. Even the leaves were different.) so I left it intact. It's got a lot of green on it, and it's very strong, so I hesitate to cut it off, as it's the only cane remaining on the rosebush. However there are no buds on it (I think I see the *beginnings* of a couple of them, but I'm not 100% sure if they are buds or more leaves.) How would you all recommend I proceed? It's obviously still a healthy plant, and I'm 100% sure the "Billy" part of is is not dead (yet). But I don't want to dig it up unnecessarily (especially when, I believe next year, I will HAVE to dig it up, as we are putting in a deck exactly where it is now). The plant is only as high as my knees - would it be a good idea to dig it up and put it in a large container to overwinter inside? (and if I do, should I be sure to scrape off the Dr. Huey's completely, as previously recommended?) If I do that, do you think it would also be good to do it to the rosebush next to it? (The purple ones that the June bugs and caterpillars just adore?) perhaps putting them both in large, separate containers will help alleviate the issues they are having *now* so when I replant them after the deck is done, they'll grow stronger? Any advice you all can give would be greatly appreciated. Thank you!

Mari, one shouldn't try to get rid of it...it's harmless; some would even call it beneficial. It 'happens' because the conditions are right. This particular protist is almost always found on nice, fresh mulch. It will soon disappear on its own.

Valereee, the only thing that lifts the lid lock is the pressure inside the canner. So it came up because the water, steam, and air mixture inside the canner was heating up really fast. Heating the canner ahead of time would contribute to the starting temperature of the water, and covering the pot during heating would help retain heat to get the water hot faster. So the behavior of the lid lock while the lid is closed is a function of the pressure, which is determined by the qualities of the air/water mixture and its temperature (since volume is fixed). Of course then we try to get all the air out to make the temperature more predictable as a function of pressure. But yes, the amount of pre-heating, and whether you cover the water during heating, will affect the starting temperature, and therefore the rate of pressure change just after covering it. I've noticed some hysteresis in the lid lock behavior, by which I mean that it doesn't follow the same path during heating and cooling. This makes sense because, due to inertia, it's easier to hold the lock up than to raise it, so there is a point during heating at which the lock would stay up if you raised it yourself, but there's not quite enough pressure to get it raised. If you stay in this state too long you get more rattling with the lid lock. Then when it's cooling, the lock stays up at a lower pressure than what was needed to raise it originally, which is good for safety because it makes the processing time just a little bit longer. Someday if stoves are completely electronic and computers have even more processing power, it would be possible to write a modeling program that uses numerical methods to solve the differential equations determining the heat transfer through the jars. Of course you would need to calculate the heat properties of the product, so this is probably even farther off than electronic stoves. For now empirical methods are so much easier, so we will keep telling people not to make up their own recipes. Melissa

Thanks everyone for the replies. I have had it more than a few years, but don't remember how long. It was doing terribly in a previous location, hardly any growth or flowers, so moved it Feb. 2015 to the new location. It has been going nuts since then. jasminerose4u - I hope it doesn't turn into a 10 ft tree! LOL Jackie - thanks for poem. Don't think I have ever heard that one.