In the fall, when it's time to put the veg garden to bed, I find it really depressing. I try to let as many things die on their own, but comes a time. It's more of a realization that the season is over and winter is upon us than anything else. Especially after all the work and worry. But the look of my garden, clean, mulched, fertilized, and ready for next year is a consolation. This fall I tore out one whole perennial border. It had something that came with the house. I gave it two years, but it just didn't do it for me soooo, rip. There are some volunteer native Monarda in one section and next spring I'll move my Jacob Kline over and get some white and pink and hopefully some dotted horsemint and it will be a beautiful splay of Monardas in their jester caps, in all the colors and beset by humming birds. I have two night blooming cerrius that are about 160 years old, a vine thats 37, and two geraniums that are 35, so I try not to inadvertently kill too many things of value.

I work in a high-tech company where most everyone is in their 20s and 30s. I'm a good 15 years older than anyone in my graphics team, including my manager. Ouch. As such, I really try not to dress in anything that might draw attention to my age. I try to be current without being trendy. And because I work closely with the officers and upper management of the company I have to look professional at all times. This means sensible tops, jackets, jewelry, slacks and pumps except on Casual Fridays when I wear a nice pair of jeans and a sweater or comfortable top. T-shirts are not allowed in our group, even though we are considered the "artsy, creative" kind who often throw caution to the wind when it comes to fashion. Jodi-

I'm with catsrose - "I rarely shovel prune anyone still alive". I anthropomorphize my roses - they are like pets. If they get sick, I worry about them and try to make them get better. I also love to just observe what they do - roses do the most amazing things, especially old rose varieties. I am fine with waiting 4-5 years for a climber to get going - is is wonderful how a rose which has not done much for 4 years suddenly sends out thick, huge, climbing canes which go up like an elevator to 8-10 feet in one jump! Some of my roses are still surviving which were planted by my DH's grandparents and even great grandparents, so they are family heirlooms which I feel responsible for taking care of. I have new plants rooted from all of the very old ones (many of the originals have died, but they were 100+ years old), so I will not lose them. I figure the ones which survived so long (with very little care) did so because they like our climate, soil, etc. So, I plant more clones of those, as well as getting others of the same type (such as old tea roses). To my astonishment, two of my roses turned out to be very rare - one was "lost" in North America, although surviving in Australia & Europe. The other one we think may be "lost" all over the world. They have both gone back into commerce from my garden. So fun! So, the bottom line is that I am a caretaker, and a collector. The only time I shovel prune anyone is if they have some sort of horrible disease that the others might catch - this has only happened once, and it was traumatic. We only have 1/3rd of an acre, and much of that is taken up by the house, garage, and long driveway. Also we have many huge old trees, so the sunny places for roses are limited. Oh, we also have deer. However, I have found that my "expectations" - that my roses will enchant and delight me - are always met. Jackie

Bella mine have done pretty well for me here. I don't know the answer to own root vs grafted. Some of mine were new last year so too early to say much, although Christopher Marlow, Princess Alexandra of Kent, and Sharifa did really well for first year roses. Some that I've had for a while are GT, GC, Munstead Wood, Olivia Rose, Mary Rose, Scepter, Queen of Sweden. Of those, I think the best performers for me have been Scepter, Olivia, Mary, and MW. They pretty much all die to the ground over winter, but I don't do much in the way of winter protection. I really hope Christopher winters well, I got 2 and they had blooms pretty much all the time.