I like this thread, the stories were great to read! My most sentimental plant is an orange tree (or maybe a grapefruit tree, we don't remember...) that my mom planted from a seed the year before I was born. I'm an only child, and used to refer to the tree as my "big sibling tree". It is huge now, in a pot that must be close to 3 feet in diameter, and close to hitting the top of our apartment ceiling, but it is a huge part of our family, and every year, when it finally gets very warm, the three of us, my mom, dad, and I make a joint effort to heave the thing onto our small terrace to enjoy the summer sun. I love it dearly :). My parents also have a rubber tree that they've had for 35+ years, and it is huge - we cannot get it onto the terrace, it is bigger than the terrace is, and much wider than the door, so it has a permanent spot in our livingroom near a huge window, and likes to watch TV with us, haha. I'm quite attached to that one as well! Of my own personal plants, I have one of those "money trees" no idea what their real name is, but I got it when it was about six inches tall, and it is now well over 4feet and comes back and forth with me to college... (I know the strain of travel probably isn't great for it, but it actually never seems to be affected by the journey's, I only go to school three hours by car from my home, so it works out ok) anyway, just thought I'd share since I'm very sentimentally attached to my plants! haha

Sherry, best wishes on your quest for that rose! I think I understand Maryl's point that RMV is neither a guarantee of abysmal performance in a given rose, nor is virus-indexed source a "magic bullet." I've seen quite a few roses I knew were virused never thrive; others do fine initially but then decline. BUT, I agree there could be other factors in why a particular rose is not healthy. RMV just happens to be a good suspect. But like Maryl's example, I've also had a few roses I knew were virused (due to the tell-tale marbled pattern on occasional leaves) that nevertheless performed quite respectably. I've had specimens of Peace and Tiffany that did just fine. I only had mine less than 4 years, so how they would have done after 10 I don't know. If the research literature is correct though, a given RMV-infected specimen will still tend to do significantly worse over several years than that same specimen were it virus-free. Whatever the reason for your CI's failing to thrive, it seems a good chance that the stock is weak for whatever reason. If you replace them with a source that has received good reviews (like RU), I think you'll be happy. I hope they'll have some available soon. If not, you might consider ordering from Northland Rosarium in Washington State. You have to order it specifically for spring, but they have a very good reputation for quality own-root roses, and they do try to screen out RMV-infected stock. As for the potted vs. in-ground issue, I should have mentioned my roses are all potted. I have a suspician I can't prove that own-root roses are happiest when given a chance to develop for a while in a pot with good potting medium, rather than being planted in the ground as a little rooted cutting. Plus, if you're in central or southern Florida, you don't want to plant into the ground unless you're planting China rose varieties or roses grafted onto Fortuniana. Potting the roses and keeping the pot out of direct contact with the soil from the ground will help keep root-rot nematodes from invading the rose's root area. Mike

I think I was at that concert, gonzer! At any rate my gray matter is still floating around somewhere, and looking at these things doesn't help. I used to be an art student, but I quit when I came to the conclusion that even the simplest things in nature were far more complex and interesting than anything my fellow students and I were likely to turn out in our lifetime. The hybridizing thing is just my way of keeping one foot in both worlds. Yes, I'm sure that is Kawika's daddy, hdd. I don't know if that's the same "melanodonta" that Michael is selling, or where David got the plant from in the first place, but Ray picked up a pup from me and I'm sure he'll make good use of it. Slow growing bugga, though, and I've never seen it bloom. Vr. platynema variegata is one of the all-time greats, I agree. It actually has kind of a nice-looking flower too, at least when it's still in the buddy stage. Most of the foliage-type Vrieseas have fairly ugly flowers. It makes some nice hybrids, but I don't think any of them is really any better than the original, just different.

I put in three plants 2 summers ago, and last summer took out about 3/4 of the plants (dig down to 8" to get the roots) to get it back to 1 ft diameter area. What's coming up now?--about 3 times as much. It tends to spread downhill, so might be good for an ugly slope--I've got it in a sunny dry spot. But it makes a nice display, haven't had any bug problems, no weeds grow inbetween, and it's very hardy.