Henry, your statement "Is the pruning and cutting shears warning relevant to PNRSV in roses?" Response -- found in this paper: http://pub.jki.bund.de/index.php/JKA/article/download/605/1515 Pertinent statements from above paper quoted below: "PNRSV and ApMV transmission by seed, pollen, on cutting implements and by root grafting from infected plants to healthy plants has been reported and the results showed that root grafting is involved in the natural spread of the virus in roses (Golino et al., 2005)." Note "...and the results showed that root grafting is involved in the natural spread of the virus in roses." This means that claims of transmission via "cutting implements" were dismissed because of root grafting. Root grafting would require that roses are planted very close together, and results in contact more intimate than occurs via pruning equipment. Also: "Because the only proven means of transmission of RMD in roses is through vegetative propagation of infected buds, scion or root stocks, the use of clean and virus-tested production material is essential to improve productivity in gardens." When you pull up references that say what you want to say and post them in isolation, you are neglecting to acknowledge that those statements were later further evaluated and discounted. The paper I cited is from 2010. Any rebuttal of the above must therefore be more recent to be taken seriously. :-/ ~Christopher

Josh-- "I would love to try the Hydroton method, I just am not really sure where to buy it or the pots? I'm assuming online? Can you link me?" Sorry, no link, though I believe you can buy this stuff on Amazon. In fact I think many places sell it, but it becomes expensive to ship, especially with the USPS in its death-throes. Ha! But I can tell you that more and more places here in Colorado are selling it. Honestly, I think mostly because of Denver making pot legal. I personally do not partake in this type of gardening myself, though who am I to say what people can and cannot grow? Anyway, this has helped the hydroponics market here because of the high demand. In fact, once while in a hydro store, one of the fellow patrons asked me how I grow my plants and so I told him and he asked about my results-- when I told him how amazing my blooms were he was utterly confused. He thought I meant pot when really I was speaking on orchids. We all need our hobbies... So my suggestion to you is to call around. Search Google for a hydroponics supplier and if all those fail, there is Amazon and ebay. Buy a small bag and give it a try to decide if that's where you want to go with growing more plants this way. That's what I did. It started off with orchids and then I heard of the myriad of other plants people grew in this stuff and I gave it a whirl. As for the pot-- depends on what you want to grow it in. Easiest is plastic. Walmart has gallon-sized square storage containers-- in the isle where they have all their plastic food storage and lunch boxes etc. It's there "Main Stay" brand. Works perfectly for one hippie bulb (or one orchid, as the case may be). Below is a link on how to set up the rest. The creator of semi-hydroponics is Ray from First Rays Orchids in Pennsylvania, not far from my home town. Follow his instructions, but think "bigger" scale than the smaller containers he uses for orchids. Noni this goes for you too-- read Ray's page and let me know what questions you may have. His method is excellent but I've made adjustments according to my own growing environment. For instance, my reservoirs are deeper because at 10% relative humidity many times of the year plus windy conditions, the plants will use up a lot of their reservoir. As for fertilizer, I use Grow More's Phal fertilizer. I believe its something like 20-16-20 plus the micro nutrients-- I deliver the water via a hand-pumped pressurized tank that holds two gallons. I put at most a teaspoon of fertilizer in for those two gallons-- a weak solution but its given with every watering. I should mention though that the orchids get watered rarely. Each orchid goes through a freshwater flushing every few weeks. Hippies feed a bit heavier and get a flushing every few weeks and then some-- they don't seem to be bothered much by biproduct build up though during their growing season outside, they get flushed all the time by storms or by the garden hose. Orchids are much more sensitive to any mineral or fertilizer buildup. In general, if I see "crystals" forming on the hydroton, that pot gets flushed. Noni I never share water between plants, especially with the real possibility of viruses. I'm by no means an expert on this so please don't take anything I have to say to heart-- the only thing you can do is read up on the subject and figure it out for your conditions. With that said, I love this growing method and plan to keep on with it. ooooooooooooooook Gardenweb is totally lame and won't let me post the link.... so here it is in plain text, though I'm sure somewhere someone in Gardenweb is clenched and angry. Gawd this place has declined.... ok it won't even let me post it as plain text.... Isn't a forum supposed to be a place to learn and share and teach? If anyone is interested in this further, I urge you to go to the Landspro forum. Very disappointed, DR

Received my box from Vina yesterday and it was packed with a rainbow of flower seeds. Vina grouped them each in a color grouping to make a rainbow. Seeds to numerous to list but fantastic selections. She also included a mini shovel which will work great with transplanting seedlings and a frog that hangs on a planter. She also included a very nice rainbow poem. Thank you Vina for the great package. Was busy in the garden today. It was not an expected project because I didn't think the weather was going to be good for it. I started weeding and mulching the garden next to our garage. I usually start in the front of the house and this garden is the last one I get to so I decided to start there this year. I have a rough time with it because the soil isn't very good. After five years, it is finally starting to flourish so after weeding and mulching, it looks pretty good. I still have the roughest part to do. I let it go last year and a weed took over. It could be an invasive flower for all I know since I am always planting new things. I like the little white flower but hate the plant so have to pull it all out. It really hangs on when pulled. Will start back on it tomorrow. Margo

Great job, Leslie!! It’s very exciting!! I‘m sorry to hear about your mom, and I’ll also be praying for healing and a good visit. Keep us posted on your new baby! :-)