Our first attempt at grafting was a test of faith! We made a big mistake, and grafted our purchased apple scionwood onto purchased rootstocks only a week ago. They were stored and packed in a cooler outside, yet, life got too busy and when I checked on them, the scionwood had all swelling green buds with some already getting little leaves. Some of the 21 larger rootstock also had broke dormancy, but my husband and I grafted anyway. At lleast we got some practice at bench grafting, cleft grafting and W and T, The trees were potted up, and put on the shady side of the porch as if they are in the ICU of a plant hospital. All of the rootstocks are sprouting and showing life, but the scionwood buds that were once green, are now a little shriveled. Any hope?? Should we wait longer?

Adrienne, I'm taking an extra foot of grass out and putting more roses in the front of my large rose garden. No chance to hide it from my DH. I just kind of told him, BTW, when the cement border guy comes on Monday, I'm moving the border out because I want more roses:) They're small plants so you just kind of put them here and there and he won't notice, much... Nice selection you got too, I think Rainforest will always have very pretty colors for you with your cooler temps. I don't know where you're going to put this one, but you might think of a small trellis with it and grow it as a small climber. Leslie

The UFL chart has the last date for central as Feburary and the southern as January. I would give it a shot if you are in the northern part of 10A, as long as you have spare room to experiment. I was shopping for potato seed last fall and found that the big outfits have no idea when we should plant. They all want to ship way to late and they are not too good at special order shipping. I found left over 2012 seed that was available for immediate shipment from Natural Gardening. They were clearing them, so those are all gone now. I kept them in the fridg until last week. I will plant next week if my foot heals up enough to dig. They are starting to sprout quite nicely. I think that you could hold the seed until you fall planting time, but your fridg is meant for short term food storage rather than long term seed holding. They may not make it to September. You might try an internet search for seed potato and look up some smaller organic outfits. You might get them to ship early, or hold back some seed for fall planting. I've had fantastic luck dealing with organic family farms. They have been genuinely interested in the oddball planting times we have this far South. Larry

Perma: Yes, an antique rose is much more than just a rose. It's history, it's romance, it's beauty, it's fragrance, it's science, it's life, it's culture, it's poetry, it's magic. It's a reason to get out of bed in the morning--to look around excitedly to see what bloomed. Like you this is basically my only indulgence. I've been frugal by necessity for decades. This is really the only thing I've done for myself and I don't feel guilty for spending the money. What's stopping me now is I have no sunny space left to put them and I am really pushing it on shade tolerance with many of them already. Ingrid: I agree. I think the future will be worse than those forecasts. Jin: Yes, with money just about anything in the garden is possible. I could spend thousands easily in the garden. Every year! I want to fix my paths and get some flowering plants that are shade tolerant. Maybe a bunch of encore azaleas for starters. I'm eventually going to have to shift my focus to shade gardening because for every square foot of sun I have about 200 square feet in shade. I really wish I could get as worked up over shade plants as I am for antique roses. As an aside, my crape myrtles are all blooming now and they are really beautiful but they do not make my heart go pitter patter like my roses do.