I have seen the baby spiders hatch out and fly off into the great big world. In spring, one a warm sunny day when their is a nice breeze blowing, if you are lucky, you can see them hatch out all at once. There are hundreds, if not thousands of t-tintsy spiders, hardly more than a speck of dust to the naked eye. They shoot out thousands of silken threads and ride off on them in the wind. Birds and frogs gobble them up, but some live and grow and the next year, in late summer you will see them again in your garden - giants by comparison. ogrose, I have quite literally, but certainly by accident, stuck my head into their webs while gardening many times. The spider just scoots over and waits for me to exit. Never had one become aggressive with me. My children used to love them, giving them names. They were greatly influenced by Charlotte's Web. I always taught them to be curious about Nature, but cautious. Look but don't touch. Study it, observe and learn from other creatures. Of course, they often DID touch. :)

I have not heard of that rose. Very pretty - pink roses are my favorite. This past spring I was finally able to find "Eve" (climber) and have it growing up one side of an arbor. I bought it from Heirloom Roses and it was "own root". Now I do not do well with bare root, but after talking to the grower, I decided to try own root. So far it's doing great. It's grown a good bit the last couple of months. Very healthy looking. Of course, no fertilizing and no fungicides, etc. the first year. Can't wait till next spring when it should bloom!! Natal, per your rose and black spot, I'd keep a close watch on it. In my area, if you get black spot, it's almost a given that it has to be treated. I use a systemic product from Bayer. Inspect your canes thoroughly and make sure you don't see any bad places on them. Hopefully it is just minor and won't continue to be a problem. I've lost several roses myself to blackspot through the years. tina

I have a nice climbing pinkie in my backyard in full bloom right now. If anyone would like to come over and take cuttings you are welcome to do that. I'm sorry I don't have time right now to start cuttings myself, but you're welcome to take cuttings from that rose or any of my others.

Hi, Jim. I have similar looking fungus in my yard in the warm summer months. I have seen it in three areas of my yard where large water oaks used to grow. In two spots, we never had the stumps ground; in the other area we had the stump ground (which really just means to about 10" -12" under ground - the deeper parts remain to be broken down on their own). In this last area, we brought in an additional 10" of dirt to make a raised bed on the spot where the tree had been removed. We planted a crepe myrtle, a silver bell tree, a rose (Marie Daley) and various annuals and perennials. During the third summer after the oak was removed and the new bed was made, I began seeing this type of fungus in the bed. I looked at lots of fungus pictures on line (many types look very similar) and guessed it was probably some type that helps break down dead oak. I asked at the local garden store if some kind of fungicide would help stop the fungus, and they told me that it was probably just from the oak roots breaking down and that the process would continue (even if stopped temporarily with a fungicide) until the remaining oak roots had decayed. Now with the warm weather setting in for this year, it is starting to come back. I have gotten to where I just pick up the ones that grow on the ground, but some do grow adjacent to a plant and can encircle the plant if not picked up while small. My crepe myrtle gets it around the trunk every year (I know it is planted over some of the larger roots that remain under ground). I try to carefully break it off with a trowel, but have to repeat the process every month. Smaller plants that get encircled will just come up with the fungus, so I have to decide whether to lose the plant or keep the fungus(which will continue to grow in size). So far, none of the plants have seemed to be harmed by this fungus, except for the small ones that get accidentally pulled up with the fungus. Once the weather cools down in October, the fungus goes dormant until the following May or June when the weather really heats up again. Hopefully my experience will be helpful to you. Kathy