Buff, 'Adam' has very, very few thorns. Many of its canes have no thorns at all, but a few canes have a very light sprinkling of them. Would it fan out on a trellis? Yes, and then in a couple of years it would eat the trellis. I wouldn't even try it on a trellis long term. In my garden it was much too vigorous for that and it has a mind of its own as to where its long, arching canes want to go. It's basically a giant arching shrub. Giant. It's blooms never balled in this climate. Basye's Blueberry and Nur Mahal have very different plant habits. BB is fairly erect and its canes are not flexible at all. It naturally is an open plant. It reacts well to pruning however, and by pruning it can easily become a more full shrub than it normally would be. It's a beauty, I love it, and is 100% thornless and fragrant. So sad that mine had rose mosaic virus. A neighber two blocks from me has a BB and his has the virus too. I'll eventually order a new one and it will come from The Antique Rose Emporium, where I think I will have a better chance of having a virus-free plant. 'Nur Mahal' is an arching plant with fairly flexible canes. Mine is about 5 ft tall and about 7 feet wide. But it doesn't look bulky at all because it is very open in habit. I think it's a graceful looking plant. As much as I like BB, I like Nur Mahal even more. Both are totally thorn-free (at least mine are). Hamp, I give my purple coneflowers lots of water and they seen to really like it. I guess I'm not surprised that they would wilt in our furnace of a summer. Their blooms last a long time on the plant and in a vase, which is a nice trait. Hamp, I promise you, Red Yucca will not wilt on you :-) It's extremely drought and heat tolerant. All that it asks is well-draining soil. It is not a true yucca and therefore has no thorns or sharp points. It is said to be very cold-tolerant ... it can handles anything you would get during a Mississippi winter and then some. Randy

Everything is relative, Felix...there might be some 96 year old duffer out there who would agree with you...somewhere? Maybe? Okay, probably not. But that's all right. I had my Day In The Sun, waaaaaay back in my misspent youth (and I have the skin cancers to prove it!). I don't mind not being HOT that way any more. I just wish I weren't burning up miserable hot from the WEATHER all the time, is all. I want to be able to enjoy the outdoors all year long, and not just from October through March. *snivel, whine* Signed, The Burning Up, But Not So HOT, Marcia

Bren5kids, In our climate up to an inch of mulch will not harm your irises or prevent bloom. In fact it will help retain water. When I'm planting rhizomes late in the season I usually plant them deeper on purpose to prevent heave during the winter freeze/thaw cycles. I remove the excess so it is no more than 1' deep in early spring as soon as new growth starts (Feb/Mar). Also, our soils tend to be nitrogen deficient so it will benefit your iris to add any slow release nitrogen whether in the form of well rotted compost or something like Osmocote time released fertilizers. I often ammend with composted manure (a no-no in other climates) when dividing & replanting. That said we usually add fertilizers to the outside of the clump where feeder roots are. What causes rots here is uneven watering, like when we get thunder storms w/several inches of rain between long dry spells. Irises do absolutely fabulous here in CO. Hope you enjoy your blooms and that you'll post some photos. Here is a link that might be useful: my website

I loved summers. I didn't need a coat and I could go barefoot when I wanted. I did have leisure time, but it wasn't plentiful. There was plenty of work to do associated with gathering and processing food for winter. We has a large vegetable garden that needed to be weeded and the lawn was cut with reel type push mower - that was work. When the wild blackberries ripened, we were busy picking berries. We'd go out in the morning and pcik until our pails were full and then return to the house where mother would can the berries and make jam and jelly. That night, we be deviled by itching from chigger bites (actually eggs implanted under the skin). When the strawberries in the garden ripened, those were also picked and canned. The extras were made into strawberry jam. When peaches came in, my sister and I would have the job of peeling a couple bushels of peaches while Mom caned these. One of my jobs was to spit firewood to stoke the wood burning kitchen stove - wow - speak about heat in the kitchen on a hot summer day. All the doors in the house would be open and we hoped for a breeze. We did not have motor driven fans because electricity did not arrive at our farm until 1947. My sister and I did get to eat our fill of fresh berries and fruit while we helped Mom to process the food. My idle time was filled by building sand castles in the creek that flowed through our farm. I did fish in the pools of water that remained after the creek quit flowing. A river was only 1/4 mile from the house and a favored swimming hole nearby. Sometimes after a hot day of toiling, the family would go for a swim to wash off and cool down before supper and a bit later, to sleep. There were cows to milk. We made our butter and cottage cheese. Excess milk was fed to the pigs. On rainy days, outside work stopped and I could read a book or play with my Gilbert Erector Set. On Saturday night, my family of four might play card games. My parents, being staunch church attendees, forbade a standard deck of cards, the ones with kings, queens, and lokers. They supposed that type of cards was too closely allied with gambling, speak easys, and pool halls. Instead, we had a Rook deck. That was a deck with 4 color suits and 15 cards per suit. The cards were numbered 1 through 15 with a few wild cards. With a little thought, all the standard card games could be played with this deck. LOL. Late spring and early summer was kite building and flying time. Materials for building kites were whatever I could find. I found that last years woody, hollow weed stems gave the best strength to weight ratio and old newspaper was used for the covering. The kite frame would be made and strung with string from the "string saver" drawer. The paper covering was cut oversize and folded over the string and the flap pasted down. The paste was made with water and starch or flour. The tail came from scraps in the "rag bag". A simple T-kite could be made in 1/2 hour without spending a dime. If i did not have a ball of sting, kite string could be had by tying pieces together from the sting drawer. Fishing line worked well and when I was done with the kite, the fish line could be reeled in and used for fishing. Bows and arrows were made from wood scrounged from the forest nearby. At age 12, most of my summer play time was over. I began driving a tractor for my Dad and soon thereafter, I drove for another farmer as well, but getting to drive a tractor was 'fun' for me. I loved machinery and vehicles.