WE LOVE EGGPLANT! I am so glad I found this thread. Great recipe idea's. I have grown Black Beauty and Ichiban. This year I am growing Iciban and something similar in white (not sure of the name....sorry)......I like to make eggplant parmesan with the big fruits and we grill Ichiban with salt and olive oil until soft. Then sprinkle with parmesan cheese.YUMMMY!!! That is our favorite use. I also use the recipe from "Fannie Farmer" called Eggplant caviar. Also very tasty. I have used eggplant in ratatouille also...prefer grilled. This year my eggplant have not been so productive but are covered with ants. If I lift a leaf, there are many insects and ants...lots of ants. I am not certain of the other insects because they are so small but I assume they are aphids but they are underneath the leaf. Not sure if I zhould worry....suggestions will be appreciated. I sprayed Safer but they are still there a couple days later.

I live in England too. My late husband bought me this rose some years ago . I love I,t so much I tried to buy it with no luck. My.blocal Rose grower Seale nurseries near Farnham Surrey, made some bushes for me. I supplied him with a flowering stem with a faded rose , about 18 inches long, in June 2015. He budded roses from this and created 6 plants of which I bought 3 bushes from him in July 2016 . It cost me £30 for the roses to be budded and then about £30 for 3 bushes. He still had 3 bushes and I hope he has been able to bud more stock, so that this lovely rose can be available once more. i know I am writing this in 2016 and the original enquirer was in 2013 but hopefully someone will see this and finds it helpful. thank you to Seale Roses who made this possible. Janice Clark

SoFLRose, I just saw your post and question :) I have Jude the Obscure as well. It is grafted on Doc Huey and in a pot. It is growing very slowly here. The blooms smell heavenly but don't last long in the heat. I moved it to a little more shade and it quit blooming lol. It did not bloom that well in the heat here. It is starting to perk up and grow a little more now that it is cooling off. I am going to move it to more sun again and see how it does. Great fragrance but I am not liking it as much as I thought I would, so far. I am glad you listed the ones that do well for you here in FL. I will definitely look into them. My best performers during the hot summer were Pat (of course), PAoK (Omg she's a bloom machine. I have 2 of them by our back door and they bloomed all summer long). Lichfield Angel, Abe Darby, Teasing Georgia, Munstead Wood (she did really well and she is in full sun here. The blooms didn't fry at all but they were more on the hot pink side than the deep purpley red. Now that it is cooling off at night, I am getting the deeper coloring on it. She smells soooo good!) Lilian Austin did great in the heat too. She is close to 5 ft and it was a small band this spring. She is fragrant and always has bees on it. Most of my Austins are on Doc Huey but some were purchased as own root bands and are too young to really judge yet. Shropshire Lad was bought as a small band this spring. It is 5 ft and hasn't bloomed. I need to move it into full sun. Tess is also own root and 4ft tall. bloomed well during spring but not so much all summer. It is young tho. I have Sharifa Asma which I got as a band. She is about 3 ft now and didn't bloom much during the worst of the heat. She has some buds again now. She smells amazing when she's blooming. Her foliage also stays nice. She is still a baby so I'm not judging her too harshly :) irisgal, MY Lady of Shalott got huge but it is grafted on Doc Huey. It blooms better when it is a little cooler than what our summer was. It did bloom in the summer just not as much as spring and fall. It might stay smaller on own root in a cooler climate. You could easily train her to climb to save on space. Maybe wrap her around a pillar. nanadoll, I must get Collette! Your photos of her are sumptuous! The front of your house looks like it belongs in a Fairytale *sigh* There are so many amazing Austin photos here. So very very tempting lol. I really want to try William Shakespeare 2000. I love the form of those blooms! Anyone grow that one in a hot humid place? I have Falstaff that is grafted. I didn't plan to get that one because people said it was a stingy bloomer but I got it for Mother's Day last May. It has actually been a decent bloomer here, even during the summer. I still need to move it to a larger pot and give it a pillar. It wants to climb!! ~SJN

Me Too!! 1) The same two cold, forgotten bedrooms with bath in a strange house that is mine. 2) A huge space in my unknown house with numerous beds, like a dorm or camp, but only accessible via a scary , weird opening near the ceiling . Its very awkward and tight access chills my somewhat claustrophobic nature to the bone. I attempted it once or twice, but no more...thank goodness . 3) A similar difficult to access area in a previous home...not scary, just frustrating as it would allow better ocean views. 4) An imagined house in a town we lived in years ago that I’d longed for. It becomes available and we , now more affluent, buy it. Im sad because I love the dream home we now live in...but ends with our not moving. Whew! Those reoccurring dreams have about faded away.