Here are some of the roses that have died on me. I am in zone 5a (not 4). I figure that if roses are hardy to zone 4 then they might survive here. This is getting expensive. I bought several Buck roses from Sam Kedem a few years back when he was still doing mail order. Most died the first winter. Maybe it was a combination of weak plants and rabbit damage. Country Song Rural Rhythm (both have Austin The Yeoman in their background) Choral Prairie Harvest Prairie Sunrise (survived for a few years, then suddenly died over the winter) Gentle Persuasion Queen Bee Prairie Star (died this year, from RU, protected from rabbits) Austins that have died (mostly from Roses Unlimited) A Shropshire Lad William Shakespeare 2000 Eglantyne Tamora Heritage (walmart own root) Molineux (walmart own root) Graham Thomas (walmart own root) The Prince Golden Celebration Romanticas that have died on me (Bolero survived without protection!) Peter Mayle Liv Tyler Rouge Royale Yves Piaget Frederic Mistral Delbard that died Madam Figaro Notes: I am very impressed with Evelyn. Most of my Generosa roses survived the winter. Honeysweet, you go girl!

You may wish to contact them by email, regarding this. In the catalog, it mentions 'Heritage' at 7 feet, when allowed to grow taller. As I don't really know which you have, as it is actually offered in Climbing form, and since they offer it as such, its only a matter of which form you have & if you have the shrub form, then just a matter of pruning it, to keep it at the desired height, by following their own instructions to remove 18" in warm climates & repeating it through the season, to encourage more compact growth. (While leaving a few inches to allow it to produce fresh new shoots, to repeat flowering...) But, it would seem to follow, that the non-climber form of' Heritage' may require a slightly greater amount of pruning of at minimum, several extra inches, to keep it closer to 5 ft. than some others may require.

Hi again, everyone, Update on the above info, offered by my friend the accountant whom I first met at the investment group about 5 years or more ago. The guy who retired last year, without a pension, and who now borrows at about 6% (interest deductible when used for investment) and puts it out to earn about 12% (much of current return at low tax rate, some of it deferred, to be taxed at low rate when withdrawn). He says that the amount of current income that that can be obtained free of tax is closer to $50,000.00. Same provisos as outlined above - with possibility of bumping up the amount that is received free of tax given some of the situations as mentioned. Sorry that the situation applies only to Canadian residents, folks. Good wishes to you and yours. ole joyful P.S. We had a visitor/new member at our investment group last week, who said that she felt rather at sea, among such skilled investors. We told her not to feel bad - that in the investment game, there are no stupid questions. That she should ask any of us to explain various terms or situations that were unfamiliar to her. Each of us learns as we go, a step at a time. Compensation usually increases commensurate with increased knowledge! o j

All the talk about the "one percenters" has become a cliche. Think about it - whether everyone is rich, or everyone is poor, or everyone is exactly the same in the middle, there's always a top 1%. A bottom 10 percent too, and every percentile strata in-between. It's meaningless. But while where here, nothing that the most wealthy do or don't do is going to influence anyone's life. Unless you're talking about Bill Gates-type people who try to do good with what they have. But as with him and the others, you can really ignore them, most people have more important and interesting things to think about. To your comment, neither are unions inherently good. As a segment of society, probably none other has been more corrupt and law-breaking nor had more self-focused leaders in the past century. If you want to give that segment a big hug, go ahead. Hedge and private equity funds have put a lot of wealth in the pockets of little guys. Think about it, when they do a buyout, all selling shareholders benefit. People who have their own investments, or who have an interest in pension funds, are the ones who bank the profits. Yes, along with institutions too. So what, always plenty to go around. Those investment funds that your bad guys run are investing funds that come from university endowments, pension funds, and lots of other monies of nonprofit entities. They don't always hit home runs with their investments, far from it. Sears is a good example, it is a business from yesteryear that will die in the modern world. Wrong business, wrong place, wrong time. Not the investors' vault. They made a bet and picked the wrong horse, that's how it works. I agree with your last paragraph. The US has never had a robust system for trade education, and there's less now in most places than before. A good model to follow is Germany, with well defined (and funded) programs for those having other than an academic bent. The rules require businesses to hire a certain quota of interns and apprentices depending on their size. The larger the company, the more they need to hire and train. It works.