Iowa is not the best either. I think we have every rose enemy, blackspot, powdery mildew, RRD, occasional spider mites, Japanese Beetles, crown gall, I am sure others too. Gardeners seem to admire someone who can grow clean looking roses, because most people can't do it. So if you are looking for a challenging environment, try Iowa. My parents are now in Arizona, and in the spring time their roses look great, and are tall with lots of flowers, and no diseases. They have a drip system for watering. My sister in Colorado Springs probably has an almost ideal environment. It is not humid. The summers are not as warm. They do not have disease issues like we do here. They might have critter issues, esp. deer. But you need to water, and she doesn't, and the roses I have seen there in mid-summer are disease free, and flower free. Regular watering would turn that around.

My brother ordered a small packet containing 100 seeds from Schumacher (sp) and he had high germination rates. All he did was place them on the moist paper towel in the flat plastic container and cover it with the lid. They started germinating within 2 days.

We could have a similar problem as on of our colleges is working with a college in Sask and the students could end up with 2 degrees. I am assuming the could work in ND and Canada This college has alot of students from Canada. Now sure how it works--tuition money.

Thank you all for your wonderful advice! Formerly LanaRoma, I'm lana_roma now. Apparently, my email address was lost during the move, but my old username still remained in their database, although I couldn't get it confirmed even after multiple attempts. I asked the GW/Houzz staff to restore my account but received no help from them. I gave up and got a new account to be able to use GW. Oh well. The point about looking for hand painted vs decal is a great one. Now I'll make sure to have a magnifying glass with me when looking at china. Made a list of brands that you suggested and Googled them. Mottahedeh looks fabulous and very high end. V&B Anmut is such a sophisticated choice! Royal Doulton looks lush and Victorian - wish I had a Queen Anne house to go with it. :-) Spode Stafford is lovely. Lenox, Limoges, Pickard, Wedgwood and Bernardaud are on my list too. There's a lot of Noritake and Mikasa china on CL, but my understanding now is that those are pretty much mid-range brands. I'm confused about Haviland. There are Haviland sets for sale on CL, but some ads say that not all the items in the ad are Haviland, although they all have the same design. For example, this set is lovely: The ad Haviland Set on CL says that some pieces are "Haviland France, some are marked Z.S., & Co. Bavaria, and one is marked Japan", although the pattern is identical. Am I right to doubt whether it's a quality set? I'm a little confused about bone china too. I have two cup and saucer sets of hand painted bone china made in St. Petersburg, Russia. The china is very thin, translucent and with fine detailing. I also have a cup and saucer set marked as bone china and made in England. It's a nice set, but not as fine as the Russian sets. Thicker, a bit clumsier in shape and doesn't look so refined. Funny, when I browsed the local CL today, there were two Mikasa Classic Flair sets for sale. I like my Classic Flair set because I'm partial to Art Nouveau styling, although it's definitely not everyone's thing. Tureens - I use my Noritake Belle Rose tureen to microwave rice pilaf that comes in boxes. Works great! But it's marked as Cook'n Serve. Also, is there a high demand for fine china overall? Some CL sellers ask such high prices for used china. Like $1500 for a Royal Worcester Evesham Gold set: Evesham on CL . This baffles me. I have an Evesham Gold serving dish ( a gift) and it isn't really that high end to me. It's pretty, but not more.