Thanks again everyone for letting me brag. I never thought it was possible to get an award on something that is so highly awarded. Mike I had trouble getting my g/h light levels down to grow my phals properly. High light plants are much easier for me than low light and cool growing plants. Stitz I deliberately left the FCC and CCE awards for you so feel free to thank me, profusely, when you win them :>) Harvey you're good. Those are indeed the parents. Judy out of flask would take 10-15 years to get this plant to this size so no, I bought it three years ago in a 5" pot. I have two Laelia out of flask seedlings going now and hope at my age I live long enough to see them bloom! Brooke

Well, thank for the compliment. I didn't realise that some people might think I was 'talking down' to them. That has never been my intention. Rather, I'm a person who likes to keep things simple (something I learned as a teacher of ballroom dancing, actually! But I've been a tutor/teacher in other areas, too, and 'keeping it simple' is a very effective teaching tool.). Why go into heavy scientific lingo when it can be explained more easily? It's also why I often use the 'human/plant' analogy - that was a valuable lesson to me, long ago, and one worth passing on, IMO. It made understanding plants much less complicated for me, anyway. To be honest, herbs are my only true interest in the garden, though I also have some interest in Australian native plants (with a heavy leaning on the native herbs and bushtucker - wild foods!). Ornamentals, as a rule, don't appeal to me at all, though I can appreciate their beauty in someone else's garden. I have a 'practical' tendency, I'm afraid. I tend to count fruit and veges as herbs, too, in the broadest sense. You see, 'herbs' (to me) are much more than 'flavourings' - they can be culinary, medicinal, cosmetic, insecticidal and many more things besides. Fruits and veges come into the 'herb' category far more often than you'd think at first. As for the books - well!! I can't really give you a list, because most of my books are packed in boxes, and I'm very ill (have been for several months, with a long way to go) and can't get to them. I have an impressive collection, and of course some I think are better than others. I started collecting indiscriminately at first - if there was 'herb' in the title, book or magazine or newspaper article, I bought it! That wasn't a bad thing, really. Some were at very basic level, some were more comprehensive, and over time I learned to be more selective. I also learned that I don't need to buy books when there is a local library to browse through. I can borrow books and make notes from them, then take them back. That way I don't have to dust them and find space for them! And in my life, I've moved house 37 times, so I also don't have to lug them around with me. It's not just books I've read, but I've spent many a long hour in university libraries, and the libraries of assorted agricultural research places browsing through scientific research papers and the like. Some of it very heavy going, but quite productive. Since the advent of the Internet, that has made life easier in some ways, but more difficult in others - I rarely take Internet information as gospel, but have had to learn to sort the wheat from the chaff. When researching something in particular, I make sure to check out at least a dozen different sites, to compare notes. Any site which has poor spelling, or which puts a capital letter on the second part of a botanical name, I automatically dismiss! That's just my personal Thing (bias?) - if they can't get the name right, and they can't spell, my theory is that they probably can't get anything else right, either! I also tend to avoid sites which have complex layouts, lots of flashy graphics, and music. These tend to detract from the information provided, I've found. (Makes it look good, but short on accuracy and information!) I think, in books, illustrations are useful for identification purposes, but they are of secondary importance to me when looking for information. If I'm looking at a book which gives a broad overview - it becomes a handy reference without going into too much detail. But if it says that such-and-such a herb is used for this-or-that medical condition, and it doesn't mention the parts of the herb which are used, then I don't consider it a good book. I really hate it when I see 'X herb is good for Y condition' - and that's it. It's just a useless tease. I found that in every herb book, 'something' was always missing, some little piece of vital information. So I decided to try to fix the problem, and wrote my own book! I kept it as simple as possible, while giving as much information as possible. It's extracts of this book from which many of my replies are derived. No, the book is not published, but I hope one day it will be (if only I learn to stop adding to it!). It's odd, in view of your comments, that I have found that there will always be some little snippet of information I hadn't known before will pop up in every book I've read, even though at first glance I might think 'they're all the same'. In my book, I've tried to include all those useful little snippets, as well as the more basic information. So I've got a brief description of the plant, how to grow it, how and when to harvest it, culinary uses, medicinal uses, recommended dosages, medicinal actions, 'other uses', and folkore information, and, of course, Warnings. All as succinct as I could make it - very little embellishment. I've had to limit myself to around 400 herbs - I would like to have all 20000 known herbs in my book, but it simply isn't practical to do this, and I haven't enough time left! These days, I exercise as much Won't Power as possible when browsing through a book-shop (or worse, a garage sale!). Temptation is always there, but I have limited space and can't get EVERY herb book ever published! I have my favourites, of course. Any by Leslie Bremness I can thoroughly recommend. Some are more detailed than others, but she's done her homework, and she makes it interesting - and simple, and informative. Another one I like is 'The Healing Powers of Nature' with text by Antonin Prihoda, originally published in Czechoslovaka, and now by Blitz Editions in English. The Encycolpedia of Medicinal Plants' by Andrew Chevallier is another goodie. Another is 'The Complete Illustrated Holistic Herbal' (part of a set of 3 volumes) by David Hoffman isn't bad, either. 'The Penguin Modern Australasian Herbal' by Kim Fletcher is a goodie, too. There are numerous others I have, but these are the only ones readily accessible at present. As to remembering things! Well, some things are stuck indelibly in my head, but most of it is remembered by my computer, and I just copy and paste! In a forum like this, questions tend to be repetitive, so it's easier to remember the answers to the commonly-asked questions. If somebody asks about more unusual herbs like, say, Thuja or Usnea, my memory-bank is challenged somewhat, and the 'Search' button on the computer comes into play quicksmart. (The old grey mare ain't what she used to be! LOL) I do have many other 'general gardening' books - how to make compost, and how to grow veges and that sort of thing, but they don't get looked at too often! I'm an avid reader of other things like history (ancient and modern), novels (mostly classics), biographies etc, and have a collection of my textbooks from my 10 years at university (linquistics, psychology, anthropology, education etc) as well to which I refer from time to time. I also collect recipes and recipe books, and have put together several of my own for personal use. I have a vague interest in the paranormal and forensic science, animal behaviour, and many other things as well. I'll watch a TV documentary on just about anything. It's surprising how much information about herbs you can find in the oddest places - like in a murder/mystery novel, for instance, or in a book about the findings of archeologists, or the culture of some obscure tribe or other. I think you will have realised by now that I'm not a young person - have had many decades in which to do my reading and learning. Don't be put off by the amount I've read and learned - we all had to start somewhere - I've just had more time to do it than you! In recent years, I've had more opportunity and freedom to increase the time to pursue my interests - the kids left home many years ago, I'm now alone, and with disabilities my time is my own, and I enjoy sharing my interests with others in a way that helps to stop my brain from going soggy!

Lou, it's just like when they passed the bill that saltwater fishing now requires a permit. That was one of the VERY FEW activities that poor people could afford, take the family out on a pier or on the shallows and fish. Now they can't afford to do that. MOST people - especially people who take the kids - catch and release or most of the time only catch one or two fish TOPS. I wrote Gov. Crist about this, who signed the bill, and his peeps sent me back a reply that I should contact the state legislature who created the bill in the first place. Families are hard-pressed to find activities now that don't cost so much they have to take out a loan, I just can't understand why this was necessary. It's a different world now, that's for sure. I love nature and don't want to decimate the species but give me a break on the occasional fisherman out there just trying to enjoy nature and get out of the rat-race and enjoy a simple pastime - that's not what is going to adversely affect the fish population.

Summer Romance spotted at Home Depot in the Seattle area for $12.98 in 1.5 gallon pots, nice sized, probably own root. I planted Summer Romance last fall as a young plant from Roses Unlimited. This spring the plant has grown nicely and is starting to bloom in my Pacific Northwest garden. The scent is incredible. The blooms are beautiful. The bush is really healthy and beautiful. Love this rose.