My husband & I are planning to be there first thing Friday morning too. He goes to the book store & I shop for plants. Last year I got a couple of Iris, Peony 'Sarah Bernhardt', Chaenomeles 'Cameo', & a couple of native azaleas which died because I put the pots under the big oak tree and forgot to water them. All total I spend about $40. I still want the native azaleas. Guess I need to make a shopping list of desired plants. We are big on lists these days, due to gas prices, we try to limit traveling, also we are getting a bit older. There is so much variety at this sale, it is worth the trip. Joyce

davidrt28, you're welcome! I hope someday you can visit the Botanical Gardens personally. It's really beautiful country and driving through Rt 128 where you see the old stumps of redwood logging is delightful (if a trifle hair-raising on some of those hairpin curves!). Your comment about their having some commercially extinct cultivars is interesting. I know that when we toured Filoli in Woodside, CA, we were told that they had some very rare specimens that had been brought to the US for planting in San Francisco's Golden Gate Park. Apparently the head gardener at Filoli was great friends with the head gardener at GGPark and **wink wink** some trees and shrubs "fell off the trucks" and rolled the 32 miles into the Filoli gardens! I believe at least one of the tree species is extinct in the wild now, but I don't recall which one it was (it's been a long time since that first tour).

The new research greenhouses are also quite amazing, with something like seven different climate zones, ceilings that open to the sky during nice weather, huge evaporative coolers, and misters that look like jet engines. The lilacs are great during April and May; they have many varieties, each with its own color and fragrance. The Holiday Train Show in the Conservatory at Christmastime, with model trains and miniature New York landmarks made out of plants, is also fun. On weekends Metro-North offers a special round-trip fare of about five dollars from Grand Central or Harlem/125 station.

Since you have sandy soil, BOTH own-root and grafted-on-Dr.Huey would be fantastic, but grafted-on-Dr.Huey needs to be buried at least 4 inch. below soil-level. For CLIMBERS or LARGE-AUSTIN-SHRUB I would lean toward own-roots. For roses that are listed as small shrub in Austin Catalog, I WOULD BUY AS GRAFTED. The new Austin catalog 2020 lists which ones are large bush vs. medium vs. small size. Few wimpy ones best as GRAFTED: Boscobel, Jude the Obscure, Princess Alexandra of Kent, Eglantyne. Re-post the info. from another thread why grafted-on-Dr.Huey is not best for heavy rain. The problem with zone 5 winter: we have 7 months of zero rain in winter, then flood in spring (3" of rain per day), then dry summer months alternate with heavy rain, esp. in fall. Roses on a DEEP & LONG Dr.Huey-rootstock can't handle being soaked in acidic rain water, pH 4.5. Dr. Huey was bred in dry & alkaline CA. Now I understand why Jim in PA, zone 6 only grow own-root roses, and he researched carefully on roses that can handle heavy rain & flood. About Tamora: it's best in alkaline & fast-draining soil. Nearby zone 5 rose park with alkaline clay had Tamora (grafted-on-Dr.Huey) ... it black spotted badly in heavy rain. Plus the myrrh scent is gone during heavy rain (more than 1" per day). Tamora and Queen Nefertiti (its child) are both thorny, and my experience with thorny roses: they like FAST-DRAINING SOIL, tend to black spot in slow-drainage clay and heavy rain. In contrast, LOW-THORN roses can tolerate flooding and soaking-wet & poor drainage clay better .. such as almost thornless Twilight zone, that can take tons of rain without diseases & compact & plus a wafting scent 4 feet away. Glossy foliage like Pat Austin also can take poor-drainage and flooding .. Pat is compact in my zone 5, amazing scent of mango and nectarine. Pat is a water-hog. Munstead Wood is also compact AS OWN-ROOT with wafting scent. Dr.Huey-rootstock (A LONG & DEEP STICK) needs fast drainage and doesn't like acidic rain in slow-drainage clay. Own-roots or multiflora-rootstock are more cluster-shallow root and can take flooding & heavy rain better. Also for compactness, own-root is best. My Jude the Obscure was 2' x 1' as own-root, versus rose park's Jude-grafted-on-Dr.Huey was over 7 feet tall & same with their Abraham Darby. Below is Tamora at rose park with alkaline clay ... I won't post the pic. of its dropping all leaves due to blackspots in our heavy rain (more than 1" per day): Twilight zone as 4th-year-own-root in my zone 5 garden, next to a rain spout & only 4 hrs. of sun, always healthy. Like Bolero, I can smell the old-rose scent many feet away: Below is 10-year-own-root Pat Austin, amazing mango and nectarine scent, loves tons of rain, bloom lots in only 4 hrs. of sun: Munstead Wood is very compact, with amazing scent that floats in the air (much stronger & better scent than Bolero). With winter-kill in zone 5, the bush is more slender & compact than below pic. as 6th-year-own-root.