Thanks everyone for the comments so far. It seems crosses involving Twilight Zone or any of the mauves are heavily favored, and I don't blame you! Twilight Zone just came out this year but it is such a gorgeous rose, and definitely an improvement over Ebb Tide. Diane, in my opinion I think you have the right idea with using Ascot in breeding. Cynthia, there is no time like the present, and don't be intimidated by the numbers! When they say worth keeping they mean is having commercial and market value, and most of the fun in rose breeding isn't about money or finding americas next super-rose, it's the anticipation of what you might get. Also every breeder, like roses, is unique and has his or her own personality and I believe that is reflected in the roses each breeder comes up with. For example I bet when I mention the names Radler, Swim, Carruth, David Austin, Moore, Sproul, etc. a certain type of rose comes to mind. I'm not sure I have a defined "style" yet but rest assured I am determined to revolutionize roses in my own way. My dream/goal is is to create thornless fragrant shrub roses, in beautiful colors, high petal count, with the disease resistance of knock outs. Some people say well that's just the perfect rose but l believe there's no such thing and never will be since different people value certain traits more than others. Sure my goal is ambitious, but just watch, eventually I will succeed! :)

Heat must play a role here. If I can get to the flowers as they open in the early am, even if it is hot, above 87 degrees, they still will take, but not always set seed. It just swells up and then the flower will fall off. I think if it were not for the heat, that those swollen flowers would set seed. Almost any pollen I use early in the late spring, before the humidity sets in will take and produce seed pods. I like using the streaky seedlings that have been growing over winter because they flower very early, and I get a lot of streaked seedlings from my seedlings every year. Mary Ann, my named streakers did not flower this year well either. I think it was because they were moved last year, and I am hopeing for some bloom from them next season. If not, I am cutting back tree limbs for more sun. The only streaked seedlings I got were from Liberty Bell, a streaked NOID from Foxwillows, and my streaked seedlings from 05/06 winter seed starting.

This tends to be a design issue with apron-style tables. A larger apron provides more strength and stability, but unfortunately intrudes on leg space. Some tables will use an apron design that curves up in the middle to allow "leg crossing", others go with a smaller apron, and others make the user suffer! The dilemma is that if you make the whole table higher to compensate, then the tabletop is too high. If you want to keep the table and that's worth the tradeoff to you, then you can do a combination of shortening the chairs by a couple inches, and the raising the table by an inch with some rubber foot/floor protectors. I made my own table and made sure I could cross my legs while seated, but it was definitely a design and construction consideration. I ended up making the tabletop an inch or two higher than standard and also curving the aprons.

Yesterday, I stored my regular car in the garage and activated the Jeep Cherokee. It has full time 4 wheel drive. Bought a snow shovel today after I discovered my old ones were badly worn. Come on snowstorm. Bring it on! Now, I discover the Jeep isn't running well enough to be reliable. It runs ok most of the time but stumbles on occassion. I got a sinking feeling that I can't trust it to take me very far from the house and get me back. It may be that I have a bad load of gasoline. Tomorrow, I need to run it long enough to lower the fuel level and replace with new to see if that cures it - but this means that I may have to travel a little farther from home than I want to. What to do, what to do. Not ready for prime time snow after all.