I see my rose has been given to the Burke family. I had an English teacher named John Burke in junior high. He was bald. If any boys dared to mention it, he went into a lousy temper tantrum and dragged them out into the hall, threw them down the stairs and off to the principal's office. He was completely crazy about it. Usually one boy a week. I don't know why so many boys took up the challenge. One day we were reading a story, and I was reading. The character was old and bald. I looked up to see him turning purple, but he managed to suck it in. I thought I was a goner as I read the word "bald." Mr. Burke held on working, until he got his pension. Unfortunately, he had a heart attack soon after. I was disappointed that his freedom from bald jokes was so short lived. I had a soft spot for him. My rose came from the Roseraie at Bayfield, grafted. It started throwing suckers off the graft, and I have been planning to throw away the original plant for a couple years. Having a lot of land there's plenty of room for suckers around here. Another thing that will happen, is there's so much cane loss, that they make themselves a new copy every couple years. The White Rose of York gets about five feet here but will probably go higher for you. It looks lovely there already. It won't bloom here until the fourth of July. Thanks so much for the pictures. I was glad to contribute. Deb

Linda, thank's for posting. I hope you get alot of joy from Eden next season. I know what you mean about thrips. They just go for the pastel roses, big time. Thsnk's for the encouragement about having fun with things. Seil, yeah, Hoovb's pic probably did wonders for the sale of that rose. J&P should have given her 10% of the profits. Peachiekean, thank you for providing that pic of Brass Band. Your pic has been an inspiration. Those warm colors, that you captured in the photo are amazing. And I'm so glad you have great memories of PV. Cherrykist, I know what you mean. Photo's like these make you want to enjoy roses even more. Thank's for posting! Leslie, it is so good to hear from you. You are one of the rose gardeners, on this forum, whose pics stay with you. I always thought you add alot of beauty to this forum, with your rose photo's. And I never forgot your pic of Julie Link. Beautiful! Thank's for the kind words. Hope you are doing well. Robiniaquest, I know those green buds are special looking. And yes, Hoovb knows how to entice, does'nt she. Thank you for your post here. Aprille, I'm glad you are back and posting here. You have some unforgettable photo's and your Mary Rose is one of them. I'm so glad Bella is on that diet. I should try it for Jack. I'm being very careful nowadays, with what I get for him. Thank you for the kind words, too. Gardenfanatic, you are very sweet to say those nice things. I feel inspired by nature. And roses have always had a very special meaning in literature and art throughout history. Thank you for posting, Deanna. Pauline, I think you should be placing your photo's on valentine cards. I have said it before, but there is something very romantic going on with your pics. I just had to repost them. You give out a vibe of grace and good manners whenever I read what you post. Thank you for the use of your photo's.

My big zone push experiment is with Gooseberries and a Red Lake Currant. I discovered that the first two I planted are getting next to no sun, as soon as they go dormant, they are getting moved a couple of feet to where they can get some sun. The first gooseberry so far has grown but not set fruit but the currant had a few handfuls of tasty red berries this year. I have no expectations of huge crops, that handful made me happy. If I lived somewhere they grew I would probably be disappointed. Being in a zone they do not grow, I am happy. I think some times we have expectations that limit how much we will like a plant. If we are happy with a few blooms from a special rose, maybe it does not make a difference if we have to cover the ugly with companion plants. We might not want a garden filled with the ones that struggle. But if it is Mom's special rose, why not try it. As far as the garden and all the Austins, guessing those plants were all donated, Austin may hope that they do well and they can use that to sell more plants. Or if the first spring flush looks good, that is when they will sell tons of plants. If they later look rotten, chances are your average consumer is not going to take notes and they have already made the sales. I am going to order two plants I have been told will probably not like our garden. I figure it is a $25 lesson on garden zones and expectations. If they grow 1/3 of the typical size, I will be thrilled. I know that our lot has a variety of micro climates, so hoping they like the one I pick. Before I knew what rose it was, I moved a self rooted plant from a spot where it got a lot of radiated heat from a garage to what I thought should be a much better place. The other Iceberg roses loved it there, but this one plant turned in to a rusty mildew nasty looking thing....Guess that is the usual look for Simplicity, but the others are okay in that one special spot (not wonderful-but okay) Makes me wonder how many roses are considered great or bad depending on some minor micro-climate changes.

You already got terrific responses to your questions, but to summarize: 1. Cold zones bury the graft because we need winter survival. Warm zones don't bury it (that's where the advice comes from) because they don't worry about survival and don't want the rootstock to grow suckers if buried. In cold zones, if we don't bury the graft all we may have left is the rootstock surviving, so we don't really have a choice if we're growing fussy HTs and floribundas. 2. You find the best cool tips about things like alfalfa (spreading alfalfa hay around your bushes in spring really can boost cane growth) and other rose ideas here on GardenWeb. Seriously, that's a good reason to keep checking in here and we try to be helpful when we get questions. Paul Zimmerman also has some good tips on his website, though he's in zone 7 and occasionally some of his tips don't apply to colder zones (like pruning recommendations). 3. We only prune to the ground if we have to. If we have 8-12" of surviving healthy cane we throw a rose party nearby. The recommendations to prune a rose back to encourage new growth are also for warmer zones where they don't have significant cane death and need to prune out old growth to rejuvenate it. That is not an issue for 80-90% of my roses, but the few that always have surviving cane will get maybe a third of their canes pruned down to 2' or so every year or two to keep the canes active. As I say, this is almost never needed on HTs but instead shrubs. I wouldn't do that for a climber since you want the main canes to stay long, but you can prune back the laterals that branch off the main cane. A bottom line point to keep in mind as you filter rose advice is to take it from places that are similar to your climate. Warm zone advice doesn't translate well to cold zones, and dry zone advice may not translate well to damp climates. Cynthia