So much great advice! Thank you Ingrid and Michaelg! I know someone who goes to a feed store for horses. I will tell him to pick me up some 40lb bags of alfalfa and I can collect leaves from the local parks to mulch with. Checking Ashdown and Vintage for the sales, too. Thanks Diane_nj, Moroseaz, Silverkelt, Karl_bapst_rosenut, Predfern, Terryjean, Sammy, Jacqueline3, Roselvr and Canadian_rose for the wealth of info.!!! You all have made me realize that compost makes the garden world go 'round. Also thanks Hoovb and Particentral, for putting things in perspective. I suppose it's all relative and there are other hobbies that can be more expensive, but creating a gardening budget will help me get to the point of being wealthy enough to fly airplanes as a hobby, keep show grade koi and collect expensive art. Now, dealing with show dogs is not a hobby I would pursue. :) Juliet

I give away roses I don't want, unless they are clearly problem roses for my area. I give them away to friends, neighbors, fellow gardeners at a plant exchange, and once in a while to gardeners in this area through this forum. I am not willing to mail potted plants. That is too expensive. The recipient must be willing to pick them up, either at my house or at a mutually agreed place. There are many ARF members in the Bay Area. Why not post a list of your passalongs and see if anyone wants them? You may have just the rose someone is looking for. Rosefolly

There were roses everywhere when we bought this house, and we have been removing them one by one and giving them to friends. One friend lives on a street called Rose Circle, or something like that, and she has been good about taking the unwanted roses off our hands. I have been replacing the roses with drought tolerant plants, such as succulents and cacti, which I much prefer. Still, some roses still come back from roots that we were unable to remove, and so it is an ongoing process to get rid of them. We have kept one rose bush in the front yard that makes white flowers, and it seems to bloom all year, which is why we kept it. Also, the white flowers go better with our color schemes than the pink ones. We are trying to get rid of the pink that we inherited with the house. The first thing to go was an ornamental peach tree that attracted possums. We have replaced that with banana and heliconia - not drought tolerant plants, but they work with our existing watering system. I have a hard time throwing out orchid cuttings, but we have too many epidendrum in the back yard and no place to put all of them. I also have a bit of a hard time throwing out bromeliad cuttings, but I have no trouble at all throwing out roses, as the thorns are quite nasty. Some of the bromeliads are nasty also, and so I do not feel bad about throwing those out. If it pricks you, do not feel bad about throwing it out is my philosophy. It's nice when you can find homes for unwanted plants, but it is not nice to keep something that is getting in your way.

I could send you some cuttings in the spring, or I could root some for you and keep them until they're larger. Take a look at my list on my home page. Carla