Just thought I'd respond to your wish list from another zone 5 roseaholic. I doubt that Duquesa de Peñaranda or Angèle Pernet would survive well in your yard, as I've had bad hardiness from the Pernetianas and Dot roses in my zone. I also have had Belle Epoque die on me, but only once so far (which means it has two more tries) and since Mike grows it in his Michigan yard it should be fine. Jocelyn's another notorious wimp that isn't likely to get another chance with me. Among the other ones, Black Lady is a sturdy rose that mostly laughs at winter - the blooms are small but that elusive dark red I seek out. Peggy Rockefeller doesn't bloom as often but her blooms are delicious dark red and larger, and she survives in my zone 4 pocket. Aloha is tall and narrow and just in its fourth year growing beyond the 6' pillar it has been - reliably hardy, healthy and well formed blooms. I have both Polarstern and Paloma Blanca in the same bed, and Polarstern is definitely hardier and taller. I'll have to try Paloma Blanca on a warmer side of the house. Savoy Hotel has been a reliable tall bloomer, very healthy, though not as much rebloom as I'd like. Scarlet Velvet blooms off and on in my HT back bed and isn't particularly memorable for me, but that also means it's trouble free. Chic is a nice blend of colors and relatively modest grower so far in its 3rd year. Roberto Capucci is just in his second year, but a friend in my zone swears by him for regular fragrant double blooms. I'll bet no one in your neighborhood but the rest of the rose fanatics has heard of any of these roses, so in that sense they all are "rare" roses, and worth bringing to broader circulation. The more we grow these roses, the more excitement we hope to build in your average gardener to try them for themselves. Cynthia

With a subject like this, I had to see what was posted! I am one that can "see" patterns in human behavior, church bibles, priests, and preachers, or should I say religious organizations? Obviously things are going in the wrong direction, but this was predicted a long time ago. I am sure we all know or have noticed the war, weather and natural disasters are getting a tad worse each year, with a few years of breaks between? If not, read your library magazines like Popular Science and such. I am not the only one that notices these things. Of course when so many bad things are going on and reported daily in the media, people tend to seek ways to avoid the danagers and possible disasters many are predicting. It is correct to say "your world" will end soon, but that is a word riddle about life and death of any and all human government (rule) types, and lifestyles. Among us here there has already been a few endings of "world", followed by a number of new beginnings (Genesis). Change is good, normally if it means coming away from dependency on human rulers, meaning generals, and merchants also. Doing so tends to make a person feel less like a victim, and more like a "self-reliant" individual. Call it survivalist if you like, but what we are seeking is a closer move towards our nomadic parent's lifestyle; totally free of human rulers of any kind, but also linked to the natural world in a very personal way, more like the animals that tend to survive disasters. Since humans are at the top of the food chain, and can stay there with knowledge and wisdom, our only real enemy is another person wanting to rule over us in some way instead of living as an equal. Living as equals is where the sharing idea came from, but hording and merchandizing came from the "settler" way of thinking, seeking to "profit" from others. This is why the church bibles are full of stories about nomads (Hebrews) not getting along with settler (Gentile) types, and the basic message was nomadic is the better choice for a number of reasons, including peace, even if some tent dwellers tended to be violent pirates. Not wanting to preach the "Hebrew" viewpoint all that much more, let me say "organic" is wise, and requires knowledge shared among equals since the merchants have another objective; dependancy. The reason the superstores have stuff so cheap is to enslave those without knowledge and the wisdom of self-reliance. "Heirloom" fruits and vegetables don't need seed packet salers either if you know how to keep your own seeds each year, so that is why the merchants only offer hybreds; the seeds tend to not reproduce faithfully by design. Wisdom and experience teaches hybred seeds and plants are self-destructive, and continues the city victim (settler) cycle. Your deep desire for self-reliance is based on wisdom from experience and an unexplainable lust to be less dependant on others, even if this is never fully possible over an entire life cycle. We call it an instinct that tends to show itself in powerful ways during various stages in life. Think "teenager", lol, as one example. So my advice is to continue to walk the new path towards more and more self-reliance and share your failures and successes for the benefit of others just getting on the same path. In my mind this is living as an equal knowing a time will come, as before (many times over), when times are going to be tuff for the survivors among us seeking a more nomadic freedom. Why these times come, and when they come are the messages of the "seers", and predictions, some call prophecy. That is a "time of sharing" for another day and subject title. Obviously many here know by instinct they need to be more self-reliant, but may have trouble explaining why, and what is in the back of their mind. Take encouragement from my words and keep walking away from being in a victimizing lifestyle. Tsavah

In 1965 my husband to be and I stayed two weeks in the Hotel Royal Bretagne at 11bis rue de la Gaîté in Paris. Years after I read in Simone de Beauvoir's memoirs that she'd stayed in this hotel for several months in 1937, commuting from her teaching post in Passy. She describes it as a very decent hotel and it still was in 1965 and also in 2000 when my husband was given a room there purely by chance when he attended a conference. A room then cost much more than the 17 francs we paid and was much improved. On this same visit we looked at the nearby Hotel Orfila in rue d'Assas where the Swedish author August Strindberg experienced the psychosis he described in his book Inferno. Another literary place I've actively sought out was Jane Austen's Chawton in Hampshire, on our way from Mottisfont Abbey. We arrived too late to see the inside but the outside loo was open, to our relief. The greatest disappointment was the long detour we made to Little House in the Big Woods near Pepin, Wisconsin, where we had hoped to show our children Laura Ingalls Wilder's childhood home. It was a shiny new replica with hardly a tree in sight. 29 years later it looks more weathered in internet photos.

Yep Janni, I will be teaching a workshop in your neck of the woods then so am looking forward to meeting you then and seeing your awesome build! CP, isn't there a connection with you and another GWer, your children know each other, or something? Yep. Both DLM's son and my daughter did a tour in Israel together and have remained good friends. We discovered we had the connection when my daughter decided to fly from our place in FL to Atlanta to meet up with her friend, drive back to Denver with him and then fly from Denver to LA where she lives. I knew my daughter's friend had been helping his parents build their house in NC but never made the connection. Halfway back, my daughter posted a pic of DLM's son on FB. DLM thanked my daughter for posting the pic and I then commented on the same thread on FB on what a fine son she has. I had met him when both kids got back from Israel and he stayed in NY for a few days. Two minutes after my posting on the FB post, I got a call from my daughter. "Mom, you know my friend's Mom through some website." I was confused as to where I might know his Mom. Then I got an email from DLM saying, "That's my son and your daughter traveling across the country together!" I immediately called DLM and we chatted for over an hour, much to the consternation of our kids. LOL. Talk about a small world.