Renee, I agree with most people on here, especially about Roses Unlimited and Antique Rose Emporium. I had a 50+ rose garden in a limited space in Florida (high humidity), and grew a few Austins. They took a lot of care: regular spraying, well spaced apart, and lots of air flow. The blackspot battle during the worst of the humidity was a pain, but the scent of those roses was so well worth it. Belinda's Dream bought from Roses Unlimited was the spectacular show off in the garden, yielding over 300+ blooms for months and months in a row. It had a 10 month season, and smelled like cotton candy. I also recommend Outta the Blue, which had a black pepper/rose scent that I planted right at the edge of the walkway at the driveway. Tamora, Sharifa Asma, Fair Bianca, and other Austins whose names escape me now, were amazing! Pat at Roses Unlimited knew exactly which roses to recommend to me for my microclimate, so make sure to speak with her if you want the best and most successful roses. The Austins were NOT carefree, but I knew that before I bought them. I also had hybrid teas; lots of them, and again, Pat helped me select the least fussy ones. I mixed herbs, veggies, perennials and a few annuals among the garden, and lots of glass oddities. It was beautiful! Remember: did a million dollar hole, and that's half the battle.

hahaha. dilbert I just found this thread a few minutes ago. I read down the thread and kept asking myself how come they dont take a few flowers and not spray them and a few flowers and spray them and notice the difference if any. The only reason I can think of is that once a person spends big money on a tiny spray they have a vested interest in taking the position that they did the correct thing. therefore they are only interested in showing that their spending of the money was the correct decision. they are not interested in finding out the entire thing is a hoax. No one is going to get on this thread and say they spent $20 on a hoax. Now a true scientist will do that. but not a normal person. so dilbert you are going to have to run the experiment yourself. of course it would be better if it was a double blind. meaning you did not know what sprayers had the chemical. you would just do the job and report the results and then you would find out after which sprayers had the chemical. but that is difficult to do. I suspect that there is some improvement. but the real question is how much. for example if you spend $20 and spray your vegetables and get $10 more vegetables it was again not so good. but again that is very difficult to measure. there are other organic sprays like Serenade that will protect plants and the cost is very minor. well it can be minor if you buy concentrate. so again you might have to compare the cost of $20 in spray from one item to less than a $1 cost to spray with another product. again a tricky experiment. but you are correct. someone has to do the first simple experiment of spraying some and not spraying other plants to see what happens. trying to keep everything else identical. by the way simple things like alfalfa pellets make a great organic tea with lots of benefits. is messanger better than the alfalfa tea. I am not so sure. of course the alfalfa tea can be sprayed on but it is often used generously on the roots because it is so low cost less than 1 cent per gallon compared to some $3 per gallon. the alfalfa tea does contain the major item in Super Thrive. I suspect that ST is simply an alfalfa tea. Now you can purchase 50 pounds of alfalfa pellets for less than the cost of a tiny ounce or so bottle of Super Thrive.

Foxy, I dread the day I start counting..lol..and last night, I guess I was depressed, so ordered a 2-3' Olive tree from worldplants..LOL..I know I said no more plants, but did so anyway..also ordered a Chilean Guava from them. Both will grow into trees..I hope.. It'll take over an hour to count all my plants..mainly because I plan on writing each down on paper. We'll see though..LOL..Toni

It is not a fertilizer - it is technically listed as a "biopesticide". However, anecdotal evidence and field trials conducted by the developer seem to indicate a by-product of its use is increased growth and vigor. I wouldn't worry too much about not being a biochemist to understand this - even the researchers are a bit perplexed at why plants treated with this product seem to respond this way: "And as a bonus, researchers at Cornell were amazed to find, harpin makes plants grow faster and larger and discourages insects from living on a plant's surface. "It was a surprise and still is a mystery," Wei said. "It still is unknown how that happens."