Hello, I have buck roses to trade. I am especially looking for cuttings from old garden roses. I will email you a list of my bucks. Thanks, Sue

Carol, In my garden Neptune is amazing both as a plant and the color. The scent is nowhere near as strong as Blue Moon but pleasant. You know I spent years only buying blackspot resistant roses and most had little scent. But now, everything I thought I knew about roses and black spot I just chucked out the window. IMO there are just too many variables and here in Southern PA cool nights and warms days are common in Spring. So, blackspot on some anyway. And I wondered why Aloha which should be very disease resistant and vigorous rose despite being own root looked pathetic and had black spot. I figured out it is because it is on an arch near a mature Colorado Blue Spruce and apparently those are water hogs. So I guess what I am saying is that we can talk about which roses are blackspot resistant, but placement on your property matters so much I am not sure that it matters. I never thought about what plants were within their own root zone and what THEIR water needs are. Mission for 2017: to be a better keeper. I will keep diseased leaves cut daily and removed. And fortify the roses with the fish emulsion + seaweed I just bought from Amazon.com as well as enriching the soil and adding manure when my new load finally rots down. I will keep to a better watering schedule weekly or more in Summer. I will battle Japanese Beetles as best I can and not let that keep me inside. And I am going to buy bushy roses that are first and foremost extremely fragrant and secondly hold in a vase. If they are supposed to be blackspot resistant, too, so much the better. This year I am making a commitment to enjoy my roses more, blackspot, Japanese Beetles or not. While I have placed my order for this year, next year I am going to find a place for Gertrude Jekyll. English /cottage gardens are my thing I guess and she was voted the #1 rose in Britain. That one is a no brainer.

Can take cuttings of the following fruit trees (limited as they are only 2-3 year old trees): Ashmead's Kernel apple Williams Pride apple Red Boskoop apple Empire apple Also, Harglow Apricot Stanley Plum Stella Cherry Also can offer cuttings of Endless Summer and Annabelle hydrangeas Other: Apple Blossom orchid division (will send 5 pseudobulbs with leaves) lots of yellow daylilies and tiger lilies Lily of the valley Hosta (unknown variety, probably Lancifolia) periwinkle spiderwort (pink, white, and purple) aloe kalanchoe christmas cactus Capron Musk strawberry various aquatic plants ( cabomba, water spangle, bacopa) Hoping for the following cuttings/young plants/divisions: Eden climbing rose Hudson Golden Gem apple (used to have one but landscaper destroyed it!) Korean pear (giant) Peonies Dahlias Beautyberry (Callicarpa) Lingonberries Lilacs (unusual varieties)

I don't know if you'd consider antique roses, but a standout performer in my east San Diego County garden was Souvenir de la Malmaison. It bloomed ten months out of the year, was always healthy and had really beautiful flowers. It's good in the heat and long-lasting as a cut flower, and of course it's fragrant.