Hi...I had the same problem on this forum but it didn't require the email address on another forum. Well..hope this will post now... Good morning.. Thanks to all for your good wishes for my DH. :-) We got out and walked again last night and it is starting to feel more comfortable. Holding my breath that I can continue along and make it a routine. I have tried this a number of times before and have had trouble with it. Martie, you are right, it was no hardship to bring home 'The Path'. There is very little that my DH would like that I wouldn't like just as much...lol. V..... So tell me, what are your favorite CDs that you recently uploaded to your IPOD? I have not been making the time to listen to music for way too long. I haven't had anything new that interests me in a long time, so maybe that's it. My daughter surprised me when just before Christmas she asked me to listen to a singer she is listening to a lot. Michael Buble. When I heard a few of his songs, I got a good chuckle, since he sounds so much like a lot of the old singers that I have tried on many occasions to interest the kids in. Frank Sinatra...being one. So evidently my efforts were not without effect. [g] Your last post gave me a good chuckle this morning. Have had that happen to me so often, that now I am in the habit of composing my posts in WordPad before copy/pasting to the forum. Hope you have a better day today. :-) Deanne...I just really loved that photo you posted of Chanticlear. Is that a large gardenia behind the bench? Whoever composed that little sitting area had a lot of talent. Understated and elegant. Those two abutilons are so exciting! So full, so healthy and something about the shape of the leaf and just a perfect balance of variegation for me. Thanks for posting that! Saucy.....I just noticed the photo of the Dixon that you posted. So fascinating that you served on a ship! Was that the navy or the coast guard? It has me wondering about when you became interested in gardening. Oh, I meant to ask you about this new ability to request copies of a deceased Social Security application. I tried starting to do some research for a family tree, but I had so little info to go on, I just had to let it go. So, you can request the copy but only if you have the Social Security number? Norma....Nice to see a post from you. :-) I pretty much decided not to overwinter plants too. This year I am keeping a few easy houseplants that will move out to the garden in the good weather. For a few years, I was trying to keep coleus going all winter and experimenting with overwintering annuals, but I found I was just too distracted with other things to give them the time. Maybe at some point I will try it again. For some reason I haven't seen any fungus knats this year. So you never did say how you are doing with your new guitar. You must be getting pretty good at it. Do you record any of your music? I also rarely get to see a sunrise or sunset, just because of the way our house is situated and how close neighboring trees are to the house. Really miss that too and appreciate it when I get to finally see the sky more. Really sorry to hear that Jake is frightened of storms. I had an aunt that was deathly afraid of storms and would hide in a closet. The only thing I ever heard about it was that her mother had been afraid of storms and would take out the rosary beads when there was a storm. So strange though that my mother, her sister was two years younger and never developed a fear of storms, but instead really enjoyed them. I hope he will be able to find a way to recover from his fear. Cynthia...I am so jealous that you have gotten rid of old computer equipment! I am planning a whole house purge this winter. I still have my first computer from 1995 that I just haven't had the time to figure out how to get some of the files transferred to my current computer and wipe the hard drive clean or figure out where you can dispose of them. Our town is pretty good about having ways to get rid of things and probably a call to town hall would answer that. I think I am going to be starting on all that very soon. Congratulations! Kathy...thanks for the advice re: Kalanchoes. Mine hasn't been looking as good as I thought it should and I think I have been watering it too much. Marian...I agree, sometimes it is a very small, simple thing that is at the root of our problems, but it is like searching for a needle in a haystack sometimes. [g] Looks like it's going to be a sunny day here.. pm2

Pam, I've been a bit worried about the cypresses regarding the drought. Do you think they'll be all right? Carol, the "studio" is a 900 square-foot structure with a bathroom that's filled with furniture and other stuff that didn't fit in our home when we combined households. Originally it was meant as a studio, but my husband has given up painting, although we do have quite a few of his things in the house. It's easier to call it the studio than "the small house filled with all our junk" and sounds just a bit classier. I'm thrilled that I turned you on to pink roses. There are so many different shades, not to mention differing shapes, that I at least never tire of pink roses. They also blend happily with many other colors, even my bright yellow irises. Ingrid

Of course climate makes all the difference, but I will share my observations on those in my old "extreme heat, extreme fire danger" climate. The only one I have grown in my new coastal-beach climate is Blue for You. Route 66 and Ebb Tide are both very weak with "compromised" foliage in that climate. Neither can withstand hours of direct, unrelenting sun and heat. Both demand protection from the hottest of both to be any good. I avoided Rhapsody in Blue because it was known in that area for having black spot issues. Again, something that is going to be quite variable due to the strains of the disease group existing in the area, but if I am going to breed with it, I want to use those proven to be as resistant where I am as possible. Jiminshermanoaks was a great friend, who lived eight miles east of me, about as far from the ocean as I was. He lived in the Sepulveda Pass, between West LA and the San Fernando Valley, so he had a great deal more of the marine influence, heavy fogs and ten to fifteen degrees cooler than where I lived in Encino. His experience with Rhapsody was that it flowered marvelously in the "coolth", as he described it, but it stopped flowering when it got hot there. He loved the color and scent, but not the climbing habit nor its refusal to flower when hot. Another friend, who lives in the Santa Clarita Valley and grows bazillians of roses in large pots on her massive patio, grows all three (and MANY more!). I worked her roses for most of a year and observed that even with filtered light through surrounding trees and her large patio cover, Route 66 and Ebb Tide were difficult and never developed in to the full bushes desired. She spends a great deal on very good soil; feeds regularly; sprays for diseases and insects; and waters copiously and she grows some spectacular plants and blooms. She's delighted with any and every flower that develops, but in those conditions, Ebb Tide and Route 66 are "also ran" types. Twilight Zone is significantly better for her that those two for health, quality of foliage, density of plant and plant architecture. Rhapsody in Blue is acceptably healthy for her and it definitely climbs. Its flower production also slows to a stop in the highest heat, and hers is heavily mitigated by the surrounding border of large trees which line her lot and defends it against the bordering streets. Her roses receive little reflected/radiated heat from the hard scape because her plants are large and the foliage mass is sufficiently dense to shade the concrete most of the time. My Blue for You is own root and trapped in a seven gallon can of MG moisture control potting soil. The soil prep, tree (and extreme root) removal and re grading have yet to be accomplished to permit planting anything in the ground. Yes, the flowers crisp in the worst of the too brilliant sun and UV and the higher heat spikes, though mine are significantly lower than yours as far as "heat", so far. But, you expect that. Flower petals are the most sensitive, tender and fleeting of all the tissues the plant produces. They are its "ovulation", meant to attract pollinators to perpetuate the species. Of course, they are the precise reason we grow all of them, but they aren't supposed to last long, only until something pollinates the bloom, or it pollinates itself. Even in my cooler, damper conditions, all of the roses demand some protection from the highest, brightest, hottest of the sun for their flowers to last any length of time. For many, I can't provide that as the area is too large and there are too many to protect. And, from what I have been observing for the past several years, it is increasing, getting worse.

where zre you.. big city name.. they are year around perennials for you .. you said: My head is telling me to cut my losses, take a few cuttings of the variegated foliage and start over ==>> of course.. why not ... but why do you have to get rid of the other.. while these spend a year maturing.. perhaps in pots .... though i am wondering.. if it might not be time to cut bait.. back in the day i grew all kinds of very cool plants.. but i eventually weeded them out.. because they became to problematic int he garden .. you will probably .. eventually.. come to the same conclusion ... you can only beat your head against the side of the house for so long.. before you realize... its kinda counter productive to having a happy .. headache free day .. lol .. ken