Baronne Prevost: "Meant to be a California girl," or "West Coast girl," oh please. But it's good to know that she repeats and behaves well somewhere. What are the British books that dissed BP? I see that David Austin writes in The Rose: "Baronne Prevost has magnificent, perfectly formed blooms and strong upright growth." (p. 69 with a whole page photograph). Botanica's Roses, 2nd ed 1999, which is largely a British (Peter Harkness, Peter Beales, David Austin, John Mattock et al) plus Commonwealth production, notes on Baronne Prevost: "Extremely popular for many years, this early Hybrid Perpetual retains the shape of the Old Rose form. Large, globular buds open to full, fat, quartered, pink blooms that fade with age and make most attractive cut flowers. The stiff, stout canes are covered with attractive foliage and short red prickles. This tough, compact shrub blooms in summer with an occasional autumn repeat and is best placed at the back of the border. It likes sun and rich soil. ..." (p. 105) Now, of perhaps more interest to the OP, David Austin on Paul Neyron (from The Rose, p. 72): "In the past this rose was regarded as having the largest flowers of all roses, and I suspect that this may not be far from true today. It is in every way a very large shrub, with large leaves and strong upright growth. Unfortunately with size comes clumsiness, as is so often the case, but of the flowers are cut and mixed with an arrangement of other flowers they can be very effective. Their color is a deep rose-pink flushed with lilac; they're cupped in shape and have a light fragrance. ..." Botanica's entry does not add anything (other than a bit of PN's history) to this. My *North Carolinian* experience with HPs in general, notwithstanding a few very notable exceptions, is that they are not good rebloomers and throw out very long canes after their first (which is often pretty much the last) flush. I now grow more HPs here in England mostly because they rebloom and behave a bit better here. However, mind you that, despite their family name, Hybrid Perpetuals are generally known not to be all that perpetual. And regarding location, location, location, Virginia is in most respects probably closer to North Carolina than to England or California, and its, uhm, girls. Andrea

cjmones - Well, as a matter of fact I AM MOVING WEST! but only 10 minutes west. Soooo lets just say it is a tiny baby step closer to Charlotte. Every county in every state has gardeners that are willing to share and learn. The problem is finding them. GardenWeb does a great job of putting like minds together. I think that Raleigh and the "triangle" is blessed because some world class horticultural things are happening, all within an hour of each other. Some of this might be because of NCState being an Ag school? because of Plant Delights? because of the late JC Raulston and Elizabeth Lawrence?? I don't know. I consider myself just an enthusiastic gardener that is always willing to try new things and tell the world about it. Truthfully I believe my gift is not my skill at gardening, it is that I work in advertising where I edit ad text all day long so I have a way of putting the "knowledge" down on paper - its not what I'm saying, but how I'm saying it. About Mycelium Running - I haven't looked for this book yet. I have a friend in South Dakota doing a ton of research work on mycelium and it all looked interesting when I was last up there visiting. BUT, some of the truly great minds in horticulture are saying that if you amend your soil properly the proper myceliae will spread into your garden without any help at all and that there is no benefit to buying spore and innoculating your garden. But I did see a report from some guy doing research and he had set up a company that sells all sorts of fungi that you simply water in and it will solve a number of problems. The coolest part was that you sent him money and he sent you a package that was really just a thick paper brochure about what you were buying. But the brochure was the media, it was impregnated with the spore! you simply soak the paper and lay it on the ground and the fungi myceliae do their thang - how simple is that! He had fungi that attack ants or termites, so you could treat the area right around your foundation and eventually end all wood destroying insects. He was working on fungi to eat dangerous waste from our trash. It was all fascinating... maybe I really want this book.

These are the places our fabricator gave us to go to pick out slabs. I don't know if any have soapstone, but might be worth a call if you can't find what you're looking for. Midwest Tile, Marble and Granite, Inc: 3181 Dodd Road, Eagan, MN 55121 PH 651-405-0707 *Prefer Appointments www.midwesttile.com Cold Spring Granite: 915 Blue Gentian Road, Ste 12, Eagan, MN 55121 PH 651-686-9192 www.coldspringgranite.com Stoneholding: 633 Prosper Drive, Waite Park, MN 56387 PH 800-341-1540 www.stoneholding.com I picked out our slabs at Midwest Tile, but I've always questioned whether the slabs I chose were the ones I actually got. This is a picture of the one I chose: And this is our installed slab. I've always felt that the backsplash and the slabs they installed never quite looked right together, but they were perfect with the slab I picked out. I had taken a dear friend with me when I picked out the slabs, and when she saw the installed slabs, she commented that they weren't what I had picked out. Both Midwest Tile and our fabricator assured me they were my slabs, but I've always felt unsure.

Well, Braverichard, if you have a mite that is carrying rrd and it has already infected a rose, don't you still want to kill it so it won't infect another rose? Even if you just cut down some on populations seems like it would lessen the risk to other plants. Here is something from an Oklahoma State article: "Miticides to control mite vectors in home gardens are not entirely effective. Monthly applications of horticultural oil may slow the spread of the disease. Commercial landscapers and nursery professionals have a wider selection of miticides that are effective in reducing eriophyid mite populations. In areas where RRD has been a problem, roses should be heavily pruned in late winter or early spring before new buds break. Do not prune too early or winter injury may occur. Debris should be removed by hand and a leaf blower should not be employed since this may blow mites onto other roses in the area. Foliage should be discarded in a sealed bag and disposed of off-site. Since the mites overwinter primarily in old blooms, many mites will be removed by heavy pruning. Following winter pruning, plants should be treated with dormant oil to reduce the population of remaining mites. " So it sounds like mites do overwinter. I have read elsewhere that they overwinter in other places than just old blooms. Another possible good effect of spraying with oil is that the plant might seem like a non rose to a drifting mite. Maybe it would be a repellent, I don't know. Sorry to just speculate. I think some rrd experts have speculated the same thing. But dormant oil is shown to kill off a number of pests including fungi.