I love the mauve/purple/lavendar colored roses. Unfortunately I live in the BS capital of the U.S., although that doesn't stop me :-> I'm such a glutton for the mauves that I ordered a Barbara Steisand for this spring even though I've heard nothing but criticism about her. Here are my best survivors (note, they ALL get blackspot at one point or the other but the following survive in spit of this): - Stainless Steel - Lagerfeld - Enchanted Evening - Fragrant Plum - Wild Blue Yonder As I said before, down here in South Florida there is no such thing as a BS proof mauve rose, but the aformentioned have been fighters in my yard. A few of the lovelies that I wouldn't try again are: - Blue Girl - Heriloom - Melody Parfume (I still have two but they are a struggle to keep alive for all the BS) - Lavendar Simplicity (couldn't keep those leaves on for anything) - Stephen's Big Purple (died at the starting gate) - Purple Heart - Cool Water - Blue Skys - Angel Face - Simply Marvelous As with all advice, mine is completely subjective to my climate. You might want to weigh advice from people close to your area higher than those farther away. Good Luck! Adrian.

There are times when plain old Common Sense has to come into play, and this is one of them - and you are on the right track. The idea of the plastic cloche is to create heat and humidity - but if you've already got both in abundance, then why bother with the cloche? The cloche acts as a hot-house. Hot houses are usually very large and they have a LOT of space to ensure that plants don't touch the hot sides and tops. If you create a miniature hot-house with a plastic cloche, it needs to be several times larger than the pot under it. Yes? And of course, it helps to keep the temperature inside even. As long as you don't get large fluctuations in the temperature during a 24-hour period, your cuttings should strike well. Keep in mind that hot-houses exist even in the hot and steamy tropics. In this situation, they enable EVEN and CONTROLLED amount of heat, water and air-circulation, as required - ie not dependant on outside conditions. Or to put it another way - a hot-house is an attempt at providing plants with their preferred PERFECT conditions.

Carla, LP is a good rose. Mine doesn't bloom as much as I'd like, but it's in a section of the oddball bed that needs some amending. The plant is still not very big, even tho I've had it for quite a few yrs (it's own-root). When it blooms, they're very pretty, and open up kind of loose and "sloppy" but look kind of "Victorian." Here's a few more pics:

Any suggestions? The root systems of the helichrysum cuttings are quickly filling up in the perlite and I'm not sure what to do next. And I really need to get some more lavender cuttings started asap but I don't want them to mold and rot again. One more thing, my grow light seriously needs to be unplugged and put away. It's quite large and takes up a lot of space so it would be great if I could root cuttings outdoors, in the sun instead. I just need to know if I can do that or if the cuttings need that light. Any help would be greatly appreciated:)