mgleason, thanks for the heads-up/offer re. Papa Meilland. I'm planning on ordering for early spring. I've hearing such positive feedback about Northland Rosarium that I may order with them come January. But keep me posted about your PM plans. What do you expect to charge for PM? Re. Taboo/Barkarole and Black Beauty; Ceterum is right that I am favoring fragrant roses right now. So I'm not serious about Taboo at this point. I do expect to get a Black Beauty and/or Hocus Pocus in the future, but probably not in the next several months. It's at least a quite compact plant, so i figure I can squeeze it in somewhere. But I do already have a reverted Memphis Magic (was supposed to be striped Memphis Music). It is such a deep red its actually burgundy rather than red. Terrific color! That's tiding me over at the moment, as far as scentless dark reds goes. And I have the small deep red HT Deep Secret--awsome fragrance! Depending on weather, it varies from blood red to black-shaded red. Not the best flower form in the heat, but when I cut it in bud and bring it inside, it opens out beautifully and holds very well. Mgleason, I meant to ask you about UCDavis' program. How does one go about requesting cuttings from them? Is it a wholesale operation only? Can we get info regarding what vendors have gotten which VID plants from them? It would be great to be able to track their program. Sounds like you may have been doing just that for a while. Mike

I've read many times here on this forum that you cannot over water a hosta, unless it doesn't have any drainage. With your amended clay soil, your moisture retention will be better than someone with sandy soil. If you're willing to accept some crispy edges and signs of sunburn, you probably won't need to water established hostas much at all, just like the folks on this forum are saying. I rarely watered my garden before. However, I have changed my tune quite a bit...I got tired of coming home to a sunburned Sum & Substance. I do have some hostas in nearly full sun. They WILL get sunburned if I don't water them almost every day. I have a well, so don't have a water bill. I look forward to my hostas every year, and I don't like to see them distressed. This year, I plan to water a lot through the dog days of summer, then I will slow it down. I'm curious to see if my more generous watering will result in any faster growth than before, but that's not why I'm doing it. I just want them to look lush and happy. I think your hostas will train you...if you see them distressed and you don't like it, you will water more. You'll learn which areas need attention daily, and which might not even need attention weekly.

I had to laugh about the lawn mowing thing. I am the eldest of 3 girls. I had never, ever even dreamed of mowing the lawn or shoveling snow. The latter remains unexperienced. Mow!? Shovel!? "I don't think so," she replied disdainfully. However, never say never. When we moved out here, DH was still working 7 days a week, sometimes 16 hours a day. Waiting for him to mow was just plain (crazy) rude. We didn't have the $$ to pay someone for 3 hours' worth of mowing, so..... He once said that he had to call my mom with the weirdest thing he'd ever heard me say: "I'm going to mow the lawn, then I'm going to Wal-Mart." O. M. G. But my lawn's mowed, I have my seasonal bummy poision ivy, and it looks purty. My lawn, not my bummy. (You forget that ladies also don't spit, pick their noses [or bottoms] or teeth, have gas, burp, use the word "cheap" [unless in relation to another's look or behavior], swear, wear curlers in public, and many other elements of deportment. I guess admitting to mowing the lawn is something my mom has gotten over. Or, being a lady, is just chosing to ignore it. Out of sight...)

It might have really shallow roots or its in the early stages of underwatering