Thanks, guys ... I love to share my garden, and in winter I have to do it via photos. Ever since I was in my teens (which was a long time ago) I have carried a camera with me just about everywhere I go. I have evolved through from a Yashica rangefinder, to a Canon A-1 when I was serious about film work, to a Nikon autofocus as my near-vision began to leave. Now I'm exclusively digital -- I have a Canon SD750 in my purse to use for general stuff, but my portrait shots are taken with my digital SLR. I have found that the key to taking good garden photos is to experiment in different light. Bright daylight is rarely good. Light overcast is best for most colors, except white -- it makes white look dingy. White photographs nicely in dappled sunlight. Don't be afraid to manipulate the flower to get it turned into the light, if you can ... that's what I did with Snowbird to get that effect in the center of the flower. (I always check to make sure that my hand isn't in the frame.) Here's some more white ... even though it's now Thursday. :) Innocence. Connie

Hi Connie, Glad to know theres others out there with the same mind frame. Have fun ordering your other three babies. OK Miss Northern Enabler, a.k.a. TJ, it sounds so adorable doesn't it. I do want to do it bad but I was so trying not to order any more roses and start filling in more with other perennials. waaaaaaaa! If only I had tons of sunny space to work with but I don't. waaaaaaa!!!! Anyways, I was wanting some more english roses so I will probably hold off for a while anyways. Hope you are doing well! Tootles, Judy

Hi Laura, I live maybe 15 minutes from you, in Washington, MI. I would be interested in your rose hybrid tea roses and shrub roses. I have hostas, though unnamed but you could always stop by and visit my gardens and see what you like. I have lots of perennials. I could possibly even get you some blood grass. Let me know. Debbie

For me Grandmother's Hat is a nice rose but not one of my most frequent bloomers. She only blooms in small flushes and no more than others of my HPs. HPs in general do well here as do Bourbons. Mme Pierre Oger is a monster (from Vintage who obtained a virus cleaned clone so maybe that accounts for some of the robustness???) Bourbon, healthy as can be and blooms repeatedly. Souvenir de la Malmaison is more demure in size but also a very healthy Bourbon with very good repeat. I can't remember whether she has many thorns. However, my HP Reine des Violettes is thornless and repeats about as much as Grandmother's Hat. Another HP I have is Comtesse O'Gorman, she is quite healthy and has few thorns. GH, RdV, and COG all seem to have very flexible canes, not twiggy/stiff like what I think of as HT habit. The HP that has bloomed the most for me is Baronne Prevost. She has also never shown any disease and has flexible canes. I have an HP from Eurodesert that came misidentified as Symphony but Cliff said it clearly wasn't. It's very pretty and healthy but quite strange. Grows in a very narrow, elegant, upright shape. I don't have a single rose that has that particular growth habit. Some canes are bristley while others are entirely smooth. I wonder how many of the found roses aren't any particular historic rose but rather seedlings of them. We know that in France back in the old days if you ordered a rose with a certain name you just might get a seedling. So what do we know about very old American nurseries? What were their practices? Did they always sell the actual variety or were seedlings sent? I really don't know but am curious about it. In addition, it seems modern day roses can easily get mixed up in commerce, so I have to wonder how many times that happened in the past, and we just don't know about it. Or if someone, way back got a seedling and that rose did really, really well, it might have been passed on to friends and spread because it was such a good plant. It won't match precisely a famous antique variety because it isn't. But should be treasured because of garden merit. With roses at Sangerhausen, I wish someone or a group would visit and discuss, in depth, the ID's of roses such as Cornet and Mrs. R. Sharman-Crawford with staff. How certain is Sangerhausen that these roses are correct in their garden? Do they have documentation that helps in the ID, and can this be viewed? Were these plants growing in parts of the garden that were bombed to heck during war, or in areas that came through unscathed? Then it would be nice if DNA of GH, Cornet, and MSC could be compared to see if they are related or are any of them identical.