I think I understand now. You were trying to simply push the barbs into the poly pipe. With 1/2 or 3/4 pipe I myself am BARELY strong enough to do this, and I will often break barbs attempting to do so. There is a tool that pokes a hole first, then the barb pops right in. If you're strong enough to 'squish' that poly pipe, you're strength is clearly not the issue. You need to poke a hole first next time, but NOT TOO BIG, or it will leak. Like i say, there IS a tool, but you can use a small nail too. "Understanding the concepts makes you an amateur. Knowing 'the tricks' is what makes you a pro."

Not that it matters in the slightest because donn and jean001 already covered the important parts, but I'm 98.0007% sure they're oleander aphids. Just a fun fact I suppose.

Msgirl asked very good questions that I always learn from her. Sam, thank you for the reply. Looking at Hawaii's rose park: vivid & deep color, indicative of DEEP & fertile soil rich in volcanic ash. Plus roses in public parks are GRAFTED on Dr. Huey which can reach deep below for nutrients. Chicago Botanical Gardens' hybrid-tea roses are grafted. Even with their loamy fluffy soil: their Old Garden Roses (most are own-roots) can't go down deep ... and their blooms become 1/2 size in our record-rain this year, due to calcium & nutrients leaching. It's worse in my heavy clay, only 1 foot of top soil, below is ICKY sub-clay that no plants can grow, not even weeds. With wimpy own-roots, really tiny like alfalfa sprouts, in 1-foot-soil, and 40 inch. of rain, plus 32 inch. of snow per year ... that will leach out nutrients UNLESS solid stuff is added on top. I see own-roots like babies: if they are really tiny like Jude the Obscure, they can't handle solids, and have to be spoon-fed constantly with tiny, diluted amount of SOLUBLE fertilizer ... tiny roots can't hold much at one time, and die if too much is given. That's why slow-released organics, low NPK 2-1-2 & low-salt like alfalfa works well with own-roots. Re-mineralization on top works for own-roots, since they can't reach deep down. Even with aggressive own-roots like Romantica French roses: it's thick & woody surface roots, rather than a straight stick down like Dr. Huey. Frederic Mistral died after many years in my garden, when I dug that up, thick & woody, but within the top 6" of soil ... I put 1 bag of sand, 1 bag of organics, and 2 bags of top soil. The soil is deep & fluffy & loamy soil ... it's just the nature of the root expanding across, rather than a straight stick down like Dr. Huey. Mirandy is known to survive zone 5a for decades, when I killed it on purpose, the root was a straight-stick deep down, very much like Dr. Huey. Dr. Huey is a huge & woody straight-down stick. He doesn't need to be fed nor watered that often. Dr. Huey is so aggressive that within one month of planting, it reached deep down to the sub-clay beneath, I broke 1/4 of Dr. Huey when I dug up Pink Peace ... but the rose was perky after I re-planted. So re-mineralization is NOT needed for Dr. Huey, he can extend 4 feet across to steal water and nutrients from elsewhere. I spent 1 and 1/2 hour killing Dr.Huey rootstock. Yes, the root extended that far: 4 feet across, and at least 2 feet deep. Someone in Colorado reported killing Dr. Huey, and 5-years later, it sprouted again. My neighbor spent $$$ to have a tree chopped down, but they did not dig up all the roots. Few years later, I saw a bunch of shoots where the tree was chopped off. My zone 5a is infested with ugly, tall Dr. Huey take-overs . Homeowners don't have the time to kill Dr. Huey.

Yep. I once spent a couple years asking everyone who supposedly knew things about container media...professors who taugjt courses on container growing, people who sell custom blended mixes, anyone really... I asked them why you'd blend a mix with lava rock used as a perlite replacement. No one realky knew. It took a couple years, but i figured it out. Lava rock weighs more than perlite and doesn't float like perlite can. Simple. I still use perlite, as a media for rooting cuttings. In all of my container blends, i use lava rock crushed to pass a 1/2 inch screen. When i started doing this, i could find 1/2 inxh bagged lava fairly readoly...now, not saying it doesn't exist, just i can't find it where i am, so i'd be all over that. Easiest way i've found to break up the stuff...get a tamper, 8 or 1o inch square, put the stuff in a single layer on a solid surface...think concrete pad. Pound away. I'll pound a bit, till the bunch a dumped looks pretty good, scoop it up, put it through a screen, and what doesn't pass, i'll do again. I tried the sledge...works, but slow. The tamper is faster, less fatigue. I suppose i could get a crusher...but i don't do that much to go through the hassle.