Mine have been lost to galls mostly but I did almost lose Paul's Early Blush to being shaded and overrun by fast moving Charles Lawson. I was able to save him and split him into two and so now I have an extra just in case. You never know when something will happen. I've started double planting the HTF kinds. I used to move my roses around more, but after losing a few that I really loved, I am being very careful about it now. Quatre Saisons layed down on poor Louise Odier and she is just now bouncing back. I let my Reine Victoria get so tall that I didn't see Louise getting smothered.

When I look at an African violet plant, the first thing I notice are the blooms if there are any. The next thing I look at is the shape of the plant. Knowing that a symmetrical rosette is the ideal, I try to see if that is somewhere in the plant. One night in Fay Wagman's growing room, sitting on a bucket of dirt, I watched her repot some plants. She looks at the plant from above, says 'there is a perfect plant in here somewhere' and then proceeds to remove outer leaves until she has that symmetrical plant. I was in awe! Some people will use sheets of paper, laying them over leaves to get them 'out of the picture' so they can see the symmetry, or at least as close as possible. Some people use their hands to gently cover the leaves. Sometimes, especially on a younger plant, you won't have a 'round' symmetry, but a triangular result. Leaves come out in threes, generally spaced equidistant on the plant. The next set of three will be offset from the first, and so on, until the plant is mature enough to appear round. No, I don't show, but I go to shows whenever I can. The Bay State show is next Saturday and Sunday, and I'll be there to work, observe, dream, lust, shop, make new friends and greet old ones. I have ONE more plant to repot, and I will have completed repotting all my plants. I am pretty ruthless when I repot, and rarely move plants up into a larger pot because of the leaves I remove. I also 'culled' my collection somewhat, tossing out some that just never did very well. Now I'm down to 133 that are 'independent living' on wicks and reservoirs. (I have probably another 100 that are under humidity domes for a couple of weeks, and about 20 trays of stuff that needs to be separated.) I should have taken some pictures of befores and afters, for there were some amazing transformations from butt ugly to absolutely perfect. For me, I can get absolutely weepy when I see that perfect symmetry. And sometimes, you just have to live with an out of kilter plant for a while....... Barbara

Good luck to you Patrick. I am pleasantly surprised to see a young person as yourself wanting to get started in roses. When I was your age I had a small vegetable garden and just a few roses--mainly Peace rose bushes--that I grew with some advice and help from my mother. I had a ball with them. If you can avoid the tree roots, your roses would probably do better planted in ground, but realistically they can do really well if done right and grown in containers especially if you grow mini's, mini-floras', and most of the floribundas on the market. Try to avoid buying any roses from the super centers like Sam's and Costco and the like. Those roses are notoriously unhealthy, virused body bag almost dead roses that have not been winter stored properly and so you end up with unhealthy, improperly labeled roses that you may even inadvertantly plant wrong--too deep. Your local reputable flower nursery with a good rosarian on staff can be a very big help in your attempt at growing good roses. Even check out the on-line vendors as suggested above about Chamblees good roses. Good luck and soak up all the info you can here. John

Wow. You guys are great! Thank you all so much for the kind words and encouragement. It helps a lot. And I see I'm not the only one in this boat! I do know that things will get better, and I can always plant new roses, etc. But it's just the loss of the rare roses that pisses me off. Why couldn't it be the more common ones that are easily replaced? Of course that's not the way it goes, altho there were a few of those too! And it's my fault for planting the tiny own-root bands in this crappy soil of ours before they've grown to a decent size. And it's my fault for not keeping on top of the sprinklers to be sure they are covering the entire beds, and my fault for not getting the most invasive weeds and underplantings pulled out when they were smaller. But... that's because I've been so busy, and overly obsessed and buying waaaay too many roses. I'm not growing and cultivating them, I'm collecting them. That's what I do. I collect things. It's sad. It's a sickness I guess. I know that in the coming seasons I will get all the beds done. And Bluegirl, yes I am doing what you said. I plant a rose, or weed part of a bed. In this heat, that's all I can do. It's slow going, but it's nice when I do get something done. Right now tho, I also am now dealing with the death of my 98yr old mom. We've been expecting it for sometime, but it's kind of surreal now that it has finally happened. My brother just flew out from Upstate NY and my sister is coming up from SoCal, so we will be dealing with all the estate and stuff over the next two weeks. I'm not going to get much done in the yard for awhile, except watering. Which is ok, since it's been too darn hot to work out there. By then it will be cooler and easier to do stuff outside. The only drawback now is the days are getting shorter, so I won't have as much daylight to get things done. Oh well, it'll get done when it gets done. LOL My life will be so different now. I'll have more time and less stress. Not that Mom was stressful. It was my niece who is my partner in the shop, and who lived with her. She's got mental issues and was a nightmare to deal with regarding Mom. Our lives revolved around her needs and wants, and my younger son and I had to go stay with Mom whenever she wanted to have time off. Now I have freedom, and so does Mom! She was trapped in her bed in a body that didn't work and a mind that was basically gone. I will miss her, but I will not miss the ordeals we went thru with my niece. And I will think of Mom when I'm out there working in the garden. Being out there will help me get over her passing. Judith, your chickens sound wonderful. We only have room for a few. (In fact we're not supposed to have more than 2... which is totally ludicrous... why bother?) Anyway.... we built a decent little shack for the girls and have a run that's 8'x24', but we're going to add another 10-12' in length and use our old satellite dish to put over part of it. It's going to be a fun and funky set-up for them. And next yr... I want some of those Blue Laced Red Wyandottes and Brahmas. Can't wait! Oh and I also am using weed barrier under some of my potted roses. Saves on weeds that's for sure. Altho they still get in the pots. But now I am sort of cultivating some weeds. Those are the goodies for the chickens! They love it when I bring them their "greens!"