Man, I can't believe all the stuff you guys do to germinate these babies. I like my method of just sticking them in the starter greenhouse and setting it in the breezeway. I guess if you don't have a cold room or area like that to put them, it is necessary to refrigerate them. I'm just so excited about them popping up in the starter cells without any fuss. I see new seedlings popping up all the time. I had one whole section of the cells that I was afraid weren't going to do anything, but when I got home for lunch today, another new baby had begun to emerge in that section, finally! I filled up two more of those 72-cell starters last weekend, and I can't wait to see what they produce. My biggest baby already has split and is branching out in two directions!! I'll have a tiny rose "bush" soon!! That one is from ELSIE MELTON. My best germinator so far tho, seems to be LAVANDE. There are 6-7 of them! I can't wait to see how different each one will be. This is so much fun!!

Thanks, guys :-) Some mildly analytical stuff: 1. The containers that have sprouted are all part of a the ones I grouped together in big garbage bags...I guess that ups the temps a bit, having the big plastic around them. I put a lot of containers in the bags for easy transport and for dog protection (from picking up a container and running off with it...which has happened before). Not all the containers in the bags have sprouted (there's a whole lot more of them), but those on the list above have. 2. The sprouted containers are also with a group of containers that are in Southern exposure. ( I have other bags of containers on my porch, in Northern exposure). This proves why it could be bad to have them in Southern exposure, because now, I'm more inclined to worry, since we now have snow and it's going to be in the 20s or lower tonight. But then, the ouotdoor temps have been in the low to mid 20s every night for the past two weeks and that didn't keep them from sprouting. ..but I'm not looking at those containers or opening them up...not for a few days, at least. Whatever will be will be...and I have a feeling a lot of those sprouts will be just fine. --I think I do need to slip a thermometer inside one of those bags of containers, though. I'm curious as to how much warmer it is in there. Linda

It's so good to see your excitement. It makes me remember my first bloom of the season and they are always something! Your photos are beautiful. May this be the first of many for you this year. Enjoy the day, Mona

When you first posted this I was still in the middle of making my crosses. Today I'm about 3/4 of the way through collecting pods. I have around 500 seeds collected so far and still quite a number of pods out there. 'Brown Witch' x 'Milk Chocolate' turned out to be a bust. I had lots of pods set but both plants aborted all of their pods early. I tried other pollen too and they did the same thing. I did get one to mature on BW x MC that gave me 3 seeds. I guess the plants just need to settle in better. It is a real mystery why they aborted. I asked Margo and she said that BW did not come out of MC so they should not be THAT closely related to cause a self-pollination block and BW is very pod fertile for her. 'Desperado Love' was a great parent both ways. DL x 'Cleopatra's Jewel' gave me 45 seeds in 4 pods. Looking forward to seeing those babies. 'Wild Horses' was another fantastic parent both ways. And I was successful using frozen pollen from this one (yippee, another process I must have done right). I have a pod on 'Sear's Tower' from it that I'm anxious to see ripen before frost. I also have some WH crossed with 'Cleopatra's Jewel' that should be as interesting as DL x CJ. My best diploid pod setter was of course (Murphy's Law) that NOID yellow though I thing Fairy Tale Pink will surpass it next year when FTP is settled & has more flowers. The NOID looks exactly like 'Mary Todd', even has her fragrance, but it only accepted diploid pollen so I'm calling it a dip. I started out just trying to see which ploidy this plant was to help with ID but then look at how it set! It does have some nice branching & bud count so I guess that's fine to have so many babies from it. Some of the pods were really full of seed. NOID 'Yel' x 'Royal Kaleidoscope' 52 seeds in 3 pods. NOID 'Yel' x 'Persian Pattern' 40 seeds in 2 pods NOID 'Yel' x 'Brown Witch' 15 seeds in 1 pod NOID 'Yel' x 'Milk Chocolate' 45 seeds in 2 pods Lots of others but these are what I'm most excited about.