I spent 12 years at the telephone company. I worked directory assistance,and then long distance, I also helped with keeping the directory up -to-date and with keeping track of the hours everyone worked. I stayed home for a couple of years and when DD started school. I was bored and started working at the University of Georgia part time. Eventually, had part-time hours and full time work so I went to full time. I worked for the Institute of Continuing Legal Education. We provided cont. Ed. seminars for attorneys. I was an Event Planner officially but didn't plan the events. (go figure). I got the programs after they were over. I was the person that everyone went to when they needed something done yesterday. I retired May 1, 2010 but did go back to work in Feb. & March to help out during their busy time. It was nice. I was just part-time again and just had to go do my job and go home. No responsibility! The money was nice too. Linda

I did that from my tablet. Long press on a word you want to copy, brackets pop up. Slide the brackets to encompass the phrase, when it's all in all brackets look up at the top of the page and there should be an option to copy or it might pop up on the page, it depends on the Android version, tap copy and it saves the text. Come to the reply box and long press a blank space you should see paste pop up on the page click on paste, it will insert the text you copied into the box.

Hey all just checking in. I happened to see info about African violets above. Back when my father was much younger he was quite the horticulturist and loved African violets especially. He still has a magic touch with them. Funny (but true) family story. My aunt (mother's sister and known/admitted black thumb) expressed her absolute glee over how beautiful my father's African violets were. She was explaining that she could never ever keep anything alive but had an especially difficult time with violets. At the next family get-together, my father brought my aunt a plastic potted African violet. He said, "this is one you can never kill; I guarantee it." He thought based on that, that she knew it was artificial. About a year later we were at her house and she had it in the middle of the kitchen table and said, "Look Rick, I have been caring for it for a year and it hasn't even dropped it's petals." When he looked at her quizically, she said "I water it every day and make sure to give it sun but not too much. You were right, I didn't kill it." My entire family erupted into laughter when he explained that it wasn't real. Though crestfallen at the time, it has become quite the family hoo haw.

Hybrid vigor (heterosis) is a measure of the degree that a hybrid plant will outperform the average performance of the 2 parental lines. The theory is that the more different the 2 lines are, the stronger the heterosis. In the case of roses, the heterosis may be expressed by growing more vigorously. It is not surprising that the Austin roses express strong vigor because he has been using very diverse materials in his breeding program, making crosses between roses of the various classes of old garden roses and modern roses, which are genetically unrelated. Most of the Austin roses that I grow are own root. I also prefer own root to grafted, as the plants will usually last longer. I have seen grafted roses begin to weaken around year 12 or so; I think it may have something to do with the breakdown of the cells of the plant right at the area of the graft. I have seen others make similar comments on this site. Several have mentioned the roses at Mission San Juan Bautista in CA that are way over 100 years old, are still growing very vigorously, which I have seen as well. If I am growing a grafted plant that I am very fond of and want to have more than say 10 years, I will root a new plant and replace the grafted version with it. I do know that, for whatever reason, some roses do not grow well on their own roots, (a long forgotten Austin rose, Ellen, comes to mind); Prospero also seems to do better for me grafted than own-rooted). Based on my experience, I think that percentage that don't do well on their own roots, may be 5% or less. Heirloom Roses has been selling own root roses for over 3 decades and there are not many really popular roses, that you can't get from them as an own root plant. But my observations in my part of CA, may not hold true in all areas, especially in some of the colder areas with completely different environmental conditions. Rachel: Regarding William Morris: I have one grafted and 5 own-rooted WM rose plants and they are all doing well. But I live in an area where most everything does well and grows quickly because of our very long growing season and very bright sunlight, a consequence of our arid summers. I am growing some own-root roses that were 'stuck' in November and some are already 3 feet high! WM is no longer on patent and is no longer in the DAR rose catalog. If you are interested in WM, I may be able to help you. Please email me at tomatobreeder@hotmail.com Susan Lyell tried in the summer of 2017, to root roses at her facility near Nashville, TN. She has a business selling cut flowers (including roses and other species) which I presume is doing well. She concluded that it would take too long for her to produce own root plants in a reasonable amount of time in her climate, but intends to continue her cut flower business. She found a cooperator in Santa Ynez, CA who is going to produce roses grafted to Rosa multiflora, which Susan said would not be available for 2-3 years. It is my understand that most commercial nurseries sell grafted roses that are 2 years.