I'm glad Jeri mentioned Vineyard Song and Sweet Chariot HATE alkaline water/soil. Both have Violette (multiflora) as their parents. For the gang of mauve almost thornless: Ebb Tide, Outta the Blue, Love Potion, and Old Port - I checked on the parentage. Ebb Tide has the most multiflora (double-dose parentages of Sweet Chariot & Stephen's Big Purple). Outta the Blue (not sure here). Love Potion and Old Port, recommended by SteveinAustralia for almost thornless, would be safe-bet since Australia has a good portion of alkaline clay. If you cut roses for the vase like me, almost thornless is nice. Last summer I had tons of prickles stuck in my fingers. It was annoying, I had to prick myself with needles to get them out. They poked holes through my thick rubber gloves, so I had to wear deer-skin gloves to cut roses for vase. We have heavy alkaline clay, and alkaline tap water, pH of 8 like Jeri's. My neighbor told me that a few of her roses don't bloom at all. I have one, "Easy Elegance" Grandma's Blessings, developed in Minnesota for hardiness. However, Minnesota is mostly acidic soil, and that rose's parentage is heavy on multiflora. It gave me 3 blooms in 6 months! In contrast, the Singing-in-the-Rain Floribunda, or Spek's Centennial, originated from McGredy, New Zealand (1991) is branded "repeats freely" by "Encyclopedia of Roses". This is a blooming wonder at the alkaline rose park. It beats Julia Child, Knock-outs, and Care-free series in blooming non-stop. It is fragrant and almost thornless. McGredy, New Zealand also developed "New Zealand" rose, another low-thorn non-stop blooming - but it's more suited for dry & warm climate. The rain here beat up that one badly. New Zealand, like Southern France have alkaline soil.

"Real Preserving," (not the crush-fruit-throw-in-some-pectin-stash-in-the-freezer-stuff) is very mindful. May I go so far as to say an art? In time you learn to read the preserves and you'll get a good sense of the various stages of the process, when you're getting close to the jell point. You do have some hard-boiling time, though of course it takes a while to get up to heat and during that time the preserves are still cooking. So yes, you do want boiling for evaporation, which is why a good heavy wide pan is so helpful. Otherwise you're cooking too slow and over-cooking or fighting the tendency to scorch because of all the sugar. The jell point is 8 degrees above boiling (varies by altitude) or another way to think about it is, to reach the jell point a preserve needs to be about 65% sugar concentration (sometimes 68%). That includes the sugar in the fruit and the sugar you add. So if your fruit is riper, you don't need to add as much other sugar. You're boiling the water out to hit that magical 65% point. The sugar concentration at that point is high enough that it attracts the remaining water to itself. That leaves the pectin molecules to bond to each other. They form a "net" or interlocking mesh and then you have, Eureka! a preserve that's set. Enough science. Enjoy the Zen of it. Carol

Marian, That's quite the haul you made. Congratulations! There is one more membership I strongly recommend for you. For a nomimal annual fee, you can access the searchable, online registration database of the AIS. The database contains all of the information (exclusive of photos) required for registry of non-bulbous irises - name, hybridizer, dates of registration and introduction, bloom period, bloom height, classification/type, description, awards. The database is an incredibly useful tool for acquiring all of this data on your irises and for confirming accurate spellings of their names. If you don't wish to pay the online database access fee, you can acquire some of the information for free by downloading the four checklists available at the bottom of the page linked below. Laurie Here is a link that might be useful: AIS searchable registration database

palmbob, Just to clarify, the beagle photo IS a sample of ringworm for comparison. Now, in response to your comment about vets and all the opposition. I don't have a problem with the profession per say, the problem is finding one who is on top of their game, truly engaged and good at diagnosing. For example, since July of last year, our 3 year old Lab has had lots of issues with gas and tummy pain. Gastritis was an obvious diagnosis, but once she was diagnosed, she immediately was put on some CRAPPY and expensive Royal Canine for gas dog food, reglan, and allergy medications; there was zero interest about her current diet or what may have actually been causing the issue. Neither the change in food or the drugs helped her feel better and shortly afterwards, she also started having issues with incontinence, so back we went. This time we were told it must be the spay, common problem, happens all the time. Again, with just an assumption and no real worry about the cause, the vet put our girl on a pretty potent drug to help control urine leaks. She was just 3, the whole thing made no sense to me and regretfully I went along with it. Now she's gassy, vomiting, unable to control her urine and not one of the medications or that crappy food were working. We were at the vets all the time for months with the same problems and an expense in the thousands, but our dog was getting sicker, not better. Obviously something wasn't right so I started doing my own research. With in a pretty short time, I came to understand that the original problem, gastritis was actually just the result of the beans added as a protein booster in her high quality Acana dog food. The vomiting and sick tummy was due to her eating too fast and air from drinking a lot of water. And I found lots of feedback from other owners who's dogs had also experienced incontinence after their dogs were put on the Royal Canine prescription food; which by the way has nothing in it to require that it be a prescription, its just a way to charge more for the food since it is sold via the vet. Don't believe me? Research it yourself, IT IS A COMPLETE SCAM! While you're at it, read what is in it and where it is sourced from. It is questionable that Vets even agree to sell it or Hills, both of which are very low quality foods. Without a moments hesitation, I immediately took our girl off every freaking pill they had ever put her on and changed her food to Holistic Select. It's the only Grain Free food (without beans) available that is also made in the USA and locally sourced. I also raised her water dish and bought a slow go food dish to keep her from eating too fast. The difference in her health was almost immediate and its now been 2.5 months without one problem! The food is amazing and with no thanks to any of the vets she saw, she is happy, healthy and has the softest shiniest coat I have ever seen on a lab. No more gas, no more sick stomach, no more incontinence. Why couldn't the Vet have initially just asked about her diet is beyond me (cha-ching!) but it really irks me. We trusted them with a beloved member of our family and paid thousands for one misdiagnosis after another. At least when that plumber comes to fix a broken pipe, I know when he is done, the pipe will be fixed and I didn't waste my money. Since these days most of the kibble foods now have beans in them as a cheaper protein source, I just wonder how many other dogs are experiencing similar issues with gas and are also misdiagnosed. Shame on the Vets who say they are not nutritionists and therefore only treat the symptoms as opposed to actually trying to figure out the cause! This is the bowl I use now, its a bit more pricy but worth every penny because it works!