Elakazal, One time several of us on a rose group assembled a list of 'Paul's Scarlet' progeny. Most of them are reblooming Floribundas, and all are distinctly different from PS. Some, at least, are tetraploid. Fertility of triploids is at least partly related to crossover frequency. In some cases of rose triploids most gametes have 10 or 11 chromosomes, which doesn't work well. Remember, egg sacs and pollen tubes are multicellular organisms that rely on the "genes" contained in the chromosomes to function. Weird chromosome numbers can harm them. In other cases rose triploids give chromosome numbers approximating a multiple of 7, then discard the one or two extras. === I am not keen on Mendelism because it tells us nothing useful about what happens in wide crosses -- until after the fact. And then only to "explain". It lacks predictive power. There are instances of crosses within species, between geographical "races" that do not differ appreciably, that give considerable variation among the offspring. I won't run on about that just now -- it's 4:30AM. Besides, I'm continually annoyed by the dogma that Mendel discovered something by analyzing his data. This is nonsense. He was not a statistician. If he understood probability at all he would have raised more than 10 seedlings when he was trying to determine whether a plant was heterozygous for a recessive trait. This means that while his numbers look good, they actually contradict his assumption. He was getting too many heterozygotes and misidentifying some of them as homozygous dominants. Or he was very, very, very lucky. In the real world one must raise 24 seedlings in order to identify 999 heterozygotes out of 1000. === Fertile is as fertile does. You're quite right about the relativity involved. A rose hip might contain 100 seeds. But if a hybrid produces only 1-3 seeds per hip we call it weakly fertile or nearly sterile even though it is doing at least as well as a peach with its one seed per flower. 'Penelope' and 'Paul's Lemon Pillar' are a couple of fertile triploids that produce only one or a few seeds per hip. But the hips of 'Penelope' are a beatiful coral pink while those of 'PLP" are very large and yellow -- so conspicuous that we tend to think of the plants as fertile even before we start counting seeds. I got hooked on old journals back in my college days. They were there so I started reading them. Often there is a cummulative index covering a year or a decade, which helps a lot. But time and again I've looked up a specific article only to find something even more interesting in the same issue. The thrill of discovery offsets the drudgery and old book dust. When I visit a library I take a pocket full of change to make copies. Often I have something in mind, then find references in the articles that lead me off in a different direction. Then I walk out with half a ream of copied articles. It is important to look to the old stuff for what has been overlooked. Just last year, or the year before, someone discovered a "new" mechanism to insure crossing within a species. A ginger was found to have two morphs, each with perfect flowers. One morph released its pollen in the morning while keeping its style curved upwards and out of the way. In the afternoon the style bends downwards and the stigma became receptive. The other morph reverses the sequence, functioning as female in the morning, male in the afternoon. Pretty exciting stuff! Soon it was found that the same mechanism had been reported for an unrelated plant (filbert?) in the late 19th century, but no one paid attention to the discovery. These details have to be observed in living plants, by the way, because the differences wouldn't be noticed in herbarium specimens. And in the early 19th century a French hybridist was counting the male and female plants that came from gourd seeds, and noted that males and females had fairly definite locations within the fruit. Correns rediscovered the phenomenon in Lychnis (Melandrium) in the early 20th century, and DeVries discussed something similar in regards to double-flowered Stocks. By the way, DeVries and Correns were not as excited about Mendelism as one might assume, and Tschermak was only interested in the segregation -- not the magic numbers. In fact, Tschermak visited DeVries while both were conducting their experiments but neither brought up the subject. DeVries was far more interested in his studies of "mutations" and eversporting varieties. Correns then began studying "segregation distortion" while academics around the world were finding ways to doctor their data to get "good numbers". It's this magic number business that I regard as pointless. And the independent segregation doesn't always work out due to linkage -- something Mendel could not conceive. Thus, the ratios of segregation cannot be calculated in advance. When you get right down to it, there isn't much originality in Mendel's work after you sort out what he got from Naudin. And what was genuinely original is not very helpful to a practical breeder. Karl

I have one more question, my hell strip took a beating this summer and I let it go dormant/ possibly dead. the only seed I have on hand is Mazama KBG seed. My grass is a northern mix of mostly tttf some KBG and rye. Do you think I should seed it ( and spray a pgr to slow existing grass) or do a weekly spoon feeding of urea? I realize straight KBG will struggle growing with my existing lawn. thanks again!!

You did a good job on the chart. However, the cheap pH meters are basically useless. A soil test or using pH strips are more accurate. I would also apply the lime and incorporate it into the soil at the beginning to give it time to react. Tomatoes are pretty forgiving of low pH. The timing of planting on the seedlings will vary depending on location. In the far north or deep south, you would want to start your seedlings 6 to 8 weeks before last freeze. Then, if you have a late frost you can cover the tomatoes. If you wait 2 weeks past freeze date the heat will kill the tomatoes in the deep south and fall frost will kill them in the far north. The kind of fertilizer will vary. However, a 3:1:2 or 4:1:2 ratio of N,P,K is the plant will use. In most places phosphorous will not be needed.

"I can absolutely understand why Harry wanted to remove his family from a negative media circus if he could, proactively. Time will tell what kind of life he can carve out." He and Meghan need to head back to Monticeo and stop constantly putting themselves in the media. They create their own media circus. I'd feel some sympathy towards them if they walked their talk. We'll hear in a few days about all their grievances about their time spent in the U.K. if they really didn't want the media spotlight they'd do whatever necessary to stay out of it. Instead they put themselves right out there. They want the attention when they want it but any other time they accuse the media of invading their privacy. They want it both ways. 🙄