Hi Jenkins, In some ways Petrushka has a point. This plant is almost dead. It's gonna be awhile before you see any success and there is a chance that the plant will alternately die. This is really a matter of how badly do you want to save the plant. The question you need to ask yourself is whether this a plant has any emotional significance to it. If it's just a plant that you picked up at the grocery store and now it's not doing very well, I would be inclined to agree with Petrushka and suggest you throw it out. Then you can go to the store and get a nice African violet that you can enjoy right now. With the new plant I would be inclined to put it in a better soil though. On the other hand I've seen plants like this one survive. But you will need to make the changes that I suggested very quickly for it to have any chance at all. Oh, and I forgot one thing. After you re-pot it, put the whole thing in a plastic bag for about three weeks. This will give the root system and plant a chance to recover from the manhandling that it has had and will get when you re-pot it. DO NOT put the bag in direct sunlight! You will cook the plant. If you do buy a new plant and put the thing in better soil, I would suggest you do the following. Take the plant out of the pot and break off as much of the old soil as you can. Don't worry too much about losing some roots. Then make your soil as I have suggested above and re-pot your violet. Remember to use a pot 1/3 the diameter of the plant . Now the root system has been damaged by the soil change so you need to give it a chance to recover from that. Put the plant and pot in a plastic bag for 10 days. That will give the roots a chance to recover and multiply. When removing the bag do so over a period of three days. First day open the bag a little bit. The second day open it a little bit more and you can take it out of the bag on the third day. Many people don't bother with this step but the plant will like it. Larry

I started out years ago with handwritten markers next to the roses and a drawing of the garden bed with the roses marked on it. Then I gradually increased until I needed a looseleaf binder to hold a page for each rose I had planted, and finally I graduated to an Excel spread sheet. I still do the hand drawn map of each bed (there are now over a dozen distinct areas in my garden so that many maps) and I still have markers next to each rose although now I use a labeler to write out the name. I can identify from memory almost every one of my 200 roses. (But now and then I have brain fade and I have to bend down to check the marker, LOL!) The spreadsheet just helps me track where I bought the rose, own root or grafted, what year, fragrance, size, disease resistance and other info I might find useful.

Al, the "gallon" nomenclature is a nursery industry thing that does not really translate to literal gallons. For example, 3 gallon or 5 gallon pots are always significantly smaller than 3 or 5 actual gallons respectively. It's actually supposed to refer to the approximate size of the plants that are to be sold in those pots. Not helpful, I know. Pots can vary in depth and the angle of taper, so that would effect their actual volume. But in general, I have always considered standard 18 inch pots to be about equivalent to a 10 to 12 gallon nursery pot. I'm guessing 16 inch pots are about 6 nursery "gallons". I'm sure some others would calculate a little differently. The rule of thumb I try to follow for pots is to use the biggest pot possible assuming the plant can be expected to spread to at least the diameter of the pot. Roses grown on their own roots are fairly flexible when it comes to growth. Even minis, if given room may eventually fill a 22" pot with their roots, but they may also grow happily in a 12 or 14 inch pot if given a light root system pruning every few years. People get pots they can be comfortable with. For me that means ones not bigger than I can move. My hybrid teas are in 18 to 22 inch pots. My minis are mostly in 15 to 18 inch pots, with the very smallest being in 14 inches once mature. Oh yeah, best to use only potting "soil" that has no sand or loam or clay in it; in other words, no rock minerals; just light organics like peat moss, compost, ages manure, perlite or vermiculite, etc. Minerals in soils (which most "Garden" soils have, tends to get crusty and heavy in pots, making it harder for the fine feeder roots to develop as fully. (WARNING! Continuation of ramble slightly off-topic) OK, I have one Absolutely mini that is still happy in a 12 inch pot, but that's a compromise on my part, because my wife gave me this beautiful cobalt-blue glazed pot several years ago, and I wanted to use it. Pottery like that is actually not the best choice for roses, especially in hot or dry climates. They dry out too quickly and the roots can bake. I solved that by slipping a cheap black plastic nursery pot inside the decorative pot and filling the little space between the pots' walls with fine pine bark chips for heat insulation. It has worked great, even on the hot southern-exposed concrete steps where I have it sitting.

I no longer know a good source for premade potpourri, but if you can get good rose petals next season, look for recipes for moist rose potpourri. The moist potpourris are more highly scented and last for years. You keep them in a jar with a tight-fitting lid and just open it long enough to scent the room. Here's a typical recipe: http://www.care2.com/greenliving/three-potpourris-formula.html