Rosa pendulina, always the first, opened a week ago, a close second was its relative and lookalike, a Finnish species cross called Kempeleen kaunotar, the third was Fredrik Hellstrand, a hybrid rugosa bred by a friend, the fourth was Double White. But I am loosing count these days, all the early roses are about to flower. Here is a link that might be useful: Fredrik Hellstrand

Me. It was nice on Saturday, so I moved the whole lot out into the sun, including the starter flat - with lid on. It must have gotten way hot in there because when I checked a couple hours later the soil was parched and most of the seedlings fried. The Anaheims and Orange Manzanos did okay, possibly because they have deep roots. But I lost: all four 7 Pot Brain Strains and a Jonah F1, two Espelettes, three (four?) Chocolate Habs and Scotch Bonnets, one maybe two Twilights, a Black Cobra, a BJ, possibly a Poblano, 4 or 5 Scorpions and Douglahs, and a couple others I've blocked from my memory. Also a little Ch. Hab that grew up without cotyledons and had set a nice fat leaf. I almost named that one. True to form, the immortal BJ with no cots or roots is doing fine (assuming that it's truly alive at all...) Several have stood back up with watering, but the cots/leaves are crispy. I'll be amazed if they have the energy to set new leaves. We'll see. Fortunately, most everything that looked independently healthy had already been moved to pots, so many of these seedlings were weaklings. Darwin is rarely so just.

Tracy, your post had me snorting water through my nose! Thanks for making me LMAO...and welcome to the board. This is a very suportive environment and we're happy to have another friendly face. =) IMO, put the books down and start with MP first until you want to get more complicated. I originally wanted to do CP soap but like you, got a ton of conflicting information and psyched myself out of trying CP. Getting the chemicals and acids and fats calculation, etc, etc intimidated me and delayed my foray into soapmaking by 5 years. Take that FWIW, YMMV and it's all IMO...HTH! Andrea, who's in acronym hell right now =)

Thanks everyone! Beth, YES their buds are ready to pop and I can't wait. Sara, I'm very excited about Midas Touch, it's striking vivid color grabs all of the attention.