I am wanting to do a trade. I would LOVE to try your: SOLAR FLARE variety and only need about 5 seeds. I have these varieties that I did not notice on your list: Burgess Lemon (only 5 seeds from Wintersown and several years old) Hovarth (only 2 seeds left from Wintersown and several year old) Peacevine Cherry (10 seeds from Kenyon Organics, probably 2 years old) God Love (5 seeds from Kenyon Organics, probably 2 years old) Abe Lincoln (about 10 from Livingston Seed Co, less than year old) San Marzano (about 10 from Organic Ferry-Morse, less that year old) I am rather new to this forum and unsure how to proceed. Is there a way you can message me to exchange addresses? I can send a SASE.

My 2 yr. old, own root Grand Dame was not cane hardy this year, however, this was one of the worst winters we've had. She had black canes to the ground. I pruned her so severely (literally to the ground) that I wasn't expecting her to come back. It took awhile, but she's back, still small, but has buds and looks healthy - deep green, glossy, perfect foliage. I think with normal z5 winters, she will be fine. I will add that I usually lose hybrid teas to winter, but sometimes, you just gotta try. This is a rose I'm willing to pamper and coddle and do whatever it takes to make her happy. Carol, I've never seen a Grand Dame as perfectly shaped as yours. Desertgarden, those are magnificent blooms! It must be a challenge growing roses in Las Vegas.

Paula, FYI, a lot of those ornamental peppers reseed for me. That's one thing about them that I really like. Dody, That should be my slogan "So many choices, so little room", and I should cross stitch it onto a sampler to hang in my potting shed. Charlie, You're welcome. Ask and ye shall receive. Going through the list and researching all those varieties might take you a little while, but it is something to do in the "off season". Chandra, Oh, no, that's not the list of what I'm growing in 2011. It is just the list of my personal favorites. They've become favorites because they tolerate our weather and produce well. After I posted the list of OSU-recommended varieties, Charlie wanted to know what it is that people "really" plant though, so I posted the list so he'd know what I, for one, like to plant. I mean no disrespect towards the OSU-recommended varieties, or the varieties recomended by any other university, like Texas A&M, for example. Even when I lived in Texas, I looked at their list and then made my own choices. While the varieties recommended by the various universities for their areas have been researched, often the research is done more on hybrids than OPs, and often productivity or shelf life gets as much attention as flavor, for example. Remember that university research sometimes is geared more towards commercial farmers than home gardeners. So, I try to choose varieties for our specific home garden that tolerate our weather, produce a worthwhile yield and also, those whose flavor we prefer. Where to find them? Almost everything I listed should be available from one or two or more of the following online sources, or at least they have been in the past. In a couple of cases, there's only one or two sources, and I've listed it below. The websites are my best guess and if I'm off by a letter or two, you can find them by googling. Victory Seeds (victoryseed.com) Willhite Seed (willhiteseed.com) Southern Exposure Seed Exchange (southernexposure.com) Seed Savers Exchange (seedsavers.net) Baker Creek Rare Seeds (rareseeds.com) Totally Tomatoes (totallytomatoes.com) Tomato Growers Supply Company (tomatogrowers.com) Ramapo tomato is available directly from Rutgers/NJAES. Moreton is also available there. I believe Little Lucy okra is available from a couple of places, and one of them is Park Seed. Baby Bubba is available from Burpee. Moreton and Supersonic tomato seed are available from Harris Seed. I get seed potatoes locally, from organic grocery stores in the DFW metroplex and from Ronningers, which has a new website you can find by googling. I'm not sure the new website is completely functional yet. I get my onion plants from Dixondale Farms and recommend them highly. If you are in the OKC-Norman metro area or in the Tulsa metro area, you may find all those same varieties locally, but I can't find all of them here in southern OK. Almost all the tomato and pepper varieties I listed are available from either Tomato Growers Supply or Totally Tomatoes if you don't find them on the websites of the other seed companies. Biker Billy Jalapeno, though, is from Burpee so only available from Burpee and its sister companies. Dawn

I wonder. I have heard about "bad grafts" that just don't thrive. But some roses just take a while to get going. I do think the age of the rose and its location in the garden are two big factors. But I still think it has more to do with the variety. Some do better then others in Florida. Even grafted ones don't always thrive depending on the conditions. I have an easy does it (grafted) that did nothing for its first two years and now its hardly ever without bloom so age was a factor with her for sure. Maybe try moving it to another location? Maybe there's roots competing with her down below or something. I have Tamora as well but she's a tiny little own root thing. I got her from Rogue Valley Roses last spring and she was the worst one of the bunch when my order arrived. Her stems were yellow and within a few weeks she had lost all but the top few leaves. Somehow she bounced back however. I stuck her in the ground and she's given me 2-3 blooms. But she's still growing, albeit rather slowly. Keep in mind also that grafted roses usually don't have such bushy growth as own root since they are entirely growing from that one stem they are grafted on to. Maybe that's why she seems skimpy compared to your non grafted austins? I worry about growing them on their own roots down here (south fl), but you seem to have had luck with many of them. I have had success with Quietness and she's on her own roots. And Duchess de brabant too, own root. I had Clothilde Soupert but she died. I also have red cracker rose (2 years now) and shes pathetic. She's just three little branches, but she booms a bit even for her small size. I've been waiting for her to take off. She's older than quietness and quietness has towered over her. I got quietness from Chamblee. I like them alot. I also have a Dames de Chennonceau on her own roots that I put in the ground not too long ago and she sent out a monster basal cane that was like 5 feet tall, so I'm thinking she'll do ok. LOL You can always try rooting a cutting of Tamora. Maybe she'll be happier on her own roots. Mine isn't really doing anything so who knows. But worth a shot.