Chelcass, living in Phoenix, I don't have to worry about winters with my totems. And it seldom rains. But when it does, then the next day I make sure all the standing water is out of any totems. I have 17 right now, so it would not take me a "minimum amount of time" to clean them like you do yours! LOL. Plus I guess I'm lazy, its bad enough to have to wash dishes inside without washing a bunch outside. ;o) I've been using Mr Clean Magic Eraser, or SOS, on my outside ones when just the hose doesn't do good enough. I love those Magic Erasers for cleaning all kinds of stuff. Great little product! I have to be careful where I sit some of my totems cause when the sprinklers come on, several times a week pretty much year round here, the cobalt ones sure show water spots badly afterwards. Phoenix duststorms aren't my favorite thing to deal with either. Luckily just have those late summer mostly. Granny if you want that cobalt rabbit for your totem topper, I eon't bid against you and will wait for another one to come along. hugs, Karen

You're welcome! Thank you. No, it is not illegal to plant seeds from patented roses. If the plant is patented, that protection only applies to reproducing that plant asexually (budding grafting, rooting, etc.), not "sexually", through the use of pollen (sperm) or seed. The difference is when you encounter a rose containing patented GENES. Applause, the gene spliced "blue rose", contains a gene artificially inserted into the plant. That gene is patented and it contains "markers" which make it possible for the owner to test for and prove whether their patented property is contained in the questioned plant. If it is, you have broken the law and owe them royalties, plus any penalties a court would find you liable for. But for standard garden roses, no, you are free to plant their seed and use their pollen. This patented gene issue is at the heart of the Monsanto GMO crops issues. The only "purple and yellow striped" rose I've come across, I've never seen photos of. There was an Indian mutation of the old Pigalle, Tata Centenary, which was described in Modern Roses as purple and yellow stripes. The description entered into Help Me Find-Roses states red with yellow. There have been reddish purple with yellowish reverese, though neither color remained very stable and degraded into other tones. I don't know if it would be possible to create that combination. I would imagine the best possibility would be from a spontaneous mutation of the purple with yellow reverse. The easiest combination appears to be pink/white and red/white. Getting a fairly stable yellow with red took many tries and required many seedlings. Ralph Moore is the gentleman responsible for bringing stripes into modern roses. Prior to his decades of working toward that goal, stripes were usually mutations of solid colors. He wanted to create striped minis. The only rose he could find which wasn't known to be a striped mutation was Ferdinand Pichard, which had no stated parentage. Of any possibilities, he theorized this stood the greatest chance of being the source for what he sought. I was blessed to have known and visited with him for many years and asked him why he chose such a disease ridden rose to base his entire breeding on. He said it seemed the only possibly successful route. He was right. He crossed Little Darling with Ferdinand Pichard and raised the seedlings. Only a few showed any striping at all. and all only on one or two petals. He continued working with the mildewy, leggy results until he obtained flowers with fully striped flowers. The early ones were pretty much short climbers due to the HP and Little Darling's leggy characters. He continued crossing the striped results into the miniatures and produced Pinstripe, what he felt was one of the best striped plants. Sam McGredy wanted Pinstripe for breeding, but Mr. Moore wasn't finished with it yet, so he gave Mr. McGredy Stars'n'Stripes and suggested he could obtain a more dwarf, bushy plant by raising self seedlings from it to fix the bush form before breeding with it. Obviously, from the leggy, semi climbing character of McGredy's early striped large roses, he didn't take the advice. I have never found any evidence of anyone else discovering a source for striped roses other than Mr. Moore's striped minis. I think it very safe to say that all the modern striped roses which aren't stated to be sports, resulted from his striped mini line and its descendants. All of today's modern moss roses; striped roses; crested moss hybrids; even the modern Hulthemia hybrids (particularly the American results), go back to Mr. Moore's work bringing those traits into modern roses through miniatures. It's been MANY years since I've messed with Purple Tiger at all. Nothing that ever resulted from its pollen was healthy enough to live long or maintain for further observation. It just doesn't contain good genes and isn't strong on its own. That's the issue when you have a rose selected solely for its flower, the "pretty face". It's like selecting a dog from a breeding line which only considers markings or form while it ignores disposition and health. It may be beautiful, but at what cost? Any good dog breeder (and rose!) will tell you, "Recessives are forever". Once a weak or bad gene becomes homogenized it's virtually impossible to get rid of. Congratulations on your seedlings! You were fortunate to hit on the right combination of variables to have that kind of success right off the bat. The ovaries can vary greatly in size from one variety to the next. That's another genetically determined variable. Some don't make large ovaries, but can produce good seed. Others can make huge ovaries with little to nothing to show for them. That would be the rose version of a "seedless fruit" variety. When you consider the "hip" as a piece of fruit, it's easy to extrapolate what you see on the plant to what you know about other fruit. Roses which don't set hips are like fruitless, flowering peaches, pears and cherries. Those which set few to no seeds are like seedless oranges, etc. When creating fruit varieties, they seek large "hips" with few to no seeds. We're going a different route in hopes of creating good seeds containing desirable genes. A great deal of that is determined by what you select as parents. Another good percentage depends upon appropriate selection of the results with probably as great a percentage depending upon LUCK. J&P stated in the seventies they raised hundreds of thousands of seedlings a year. You see what they obtained from those kinds of numbers. Then you have the fortunate few "amateurs" who have raised just a few seedlings and obtained really quite good roses which have gone on to be large commercial successes in many countries. I don't think you can say luck wasn't involved when you can obtain a rose like Sheila's Perfume from raising some seedlings on your kitchen window sill. The odd colors (browns, greys, greens, even mauves and darker purples) resulted from a fairly similar "recipe". Edward LeGrice, who created the first modern 'Coffee Roses', stated that recipe in his Breeding for Unusual Colors article. Paul Barden archived it at the link below. You should notice the red/yellow bicolor figures in nearly all of them. Ketchup and Mustard IS the modern day ancestor of R. Foetida bicolor. It's also vigorous, healthy, productive and holds great promise for something quite interesting. If I was searching for odder colored striped results, I would definitely consider pressing K&M into service with the stripes and any other healthy roses in my garden. If you're serious about obtaining real improvements in your seedlings, you honestly should consider buying a Premium Membership to Help Me Find-Roses. It costs $24 a year and it affords you the ability to research the parentage of all the roses which are contained in the database. It's the largest, most complete database of roses there is. Just as you don't want to inbreed animals, you should desire not to inbreed roses, for the same reasons. If you want better chances for health and vigor, you should research what made the roses you want to use and keep the common ancestors to a minimum. Inbreeding can help to stabilize a characteristic you want to isolate, but it also homogenizes bad ones, too. Remember, "recessives are forever"! Once you have a line of roses which shed all their foliage after flowering, it's very difficult to massage the line to drop that trait. Kim Here is a link that might be useful: Unusual Colors in Roses

HI Jake, I have the QuadraFire 1200i. It's going on its 5th year and has been a fine stove. We have it hooked up to a digital thermostat so it sets back at night, yet is warm and cheery when we wake up. Neither stove will thoroughly heat your house in your climate if the house is not tightly insulated with good windows. If it is really cold outside and blowing hard, then it is likely that your furnace may come on while the pellet stove is running. But the furnace will shut off much more quickly than if it was trying to heat the house alone. Chimney height is not an issue, the exhaust is presurized and will need it's own 3" pipe inside of the existing stack. The Quad and the Harmon are both good stoves. I think the Quad is easier for maintenance, but I don't think you would go wrong either way. If you're having trouble buying locally, consider buying from a NW dealer and have it shipped. They're made in WA so I would expect freight to be approx $400.

I would stick with the white windows to better coordinate with the rest of your house. Are you leaving all the windows in the back bare? You may not need anything on the ones under the patio cover. If you do need some light control, use simple pull down solar shades. They allow you to still see out but they reduce the glare and heat.