Hi Christopher,

Don't know whether you remember me? We exchanged some emails last year through HMF regarding care for Bermuda Spice in NJ? I found this post last night. What an awesome project you are carrying out! Would you like a Tuscany Superb sucker? I have a few that came out toward the end of last year, and they all overwintered nicely. If you would like it/them, I will send you an email at your address above to continue this discussion. I'm in central NJ (Union County). I think I'm only about 40 min away from you so can drive the sucker(s) to you if you would like.

--Lin

Vaporvac and Plumeria Girl -- here are the books I got from Amazon and was reading over Winter:

The Rose Garden: In Two Divisions

Roses: Old Roses and Species Roses

American Horticultural Society Plant Propagation

Rosa Gallica

Landscapes and Gardens for Historic Buildings

Rescuing Eden: Preserving America's Historic Gardens

Restoring American Gardens: An Encyclopedia of Heirloom Ornamental Plants, 1640-1940

American Gardens of the Nineteenth Century: For Comfort and Affluence

Plus several Plant Lover's Guides to:

Asters

Hardy Geraniums

Sedums

Clematis

Salvias

And also The Layered Garden: Design Lessons for Year-Round Beauty from Brandywine Cottage

Anne-Cecelia and Lin -- thank you very much for your offer, but I already have both of those.

And to everyone -- moving forward, I think I'm going to try budding as my main means of acquiring stock for the cemetery. Suckers are great and all, but I realize that they're a bit of a pain for people to dig up and send, whereas cuttings for budwood (or rooting directly) are much easier. If anyone is still willing and able to send them, I certainly won't say "no" to anything I don't already have, and will either reimburse for shipping, or send back an equal number of roses I propagate here (starting after the first flush).

I've already acquired a bunch of suckers, and it's deceiving to see such little top-growth when there's a massive root below needing potting-up. Right now, they're almost all in 5gal containers, or 20" or 22" resin barrels (for the big ones from Belmont a couple years ago), and I'm starting to wonder how I'm going to effectively get them all to the cemetery, and move them to where I want to put them in the ground. I think that having a bunch of rooted pieces of 'Pink Clouds' in 1gal containers, waiting to be budded, would be more space-conserving and easily transportable for me. And I know how annoyed I'd be with myself if someone sent me cuttings of some rare oldie and I couldn't get them rooted, then having to ask again for more. Once I have some practice doing it with my own roses, I think that's how I'll be asking for material. At the cemetery, I'll plant them deeply so they (hopefully) go own-root, anyway, but for a project this big, I think this would be the faster and more efficient way to go.

I very much appreciate everyone's enthusiasm, support, and sharing. Hopefully, after a couple years, I'll have something worthy of a visit to the cemetery for anyone close enough to make the trip.

:-)

~Christopher

Thank you. That was above and beyond to include the links.

Tonight I gave away my dinner shift, so I got to leave when there was actual daylight -- a rare treat this time of year at my job. I decided to go to the cemetery and start visualizing some of the spaces Eleanor and I talked about, and lo and behold, she was right there outside as I pulled in. She walked me over to a couple other areas she'd like to eventually tackle, and we talked about that. But in the end of my visit, she showed me a gorgeous old beech tree that's been causing some problems for the ground below -- far too dark for turf, and roots at the soil line causing issues for the mowers. We decided on a large outline -- basically following the tree's drip line -- to mulch over, and add some plants as a bed around the tree, but leaving the rest just mulched for walking upon, rather than trying-and-failing with grass. We decided on some Hostas for the base of the tree, with some Japanese painted ferns and Lamium spreading outward from there -- a simple planting that would be much better than what's there now. And this is how the garden will proceed -- she'll point to a "problem area" for grass, and we'll discuss what can go there, and then she'll have a load of mulch dropped by when I'm ready to make the bed. I said I'd keep plants here in my yard through the Summer, since it's easier to water them here than in most areas there, and we'll wait until the end of August before they go in the ground.

On the topic of Hostas, she mentioned that recently three deer have found the cemetery, but that she has the plants sprayed with deterrents -- and that they seem to work. However, they will hit Hostas hard if they get to them before the spraying, and so I mentioned that those Hostas with H. plantaginea in their ancestry will usually maintain that species' trait of continuing to produce new leaves through the growing season -- which means that they'd rebound if a deer hit them, unlike other Hostas that produce all their leaves in Spring and then stop making more for the season. I said that by looking for fragrant Hostas, one would find those with H. plantaginea ancestry, since that's also the only fragrant species.

Well, it just so happens that I have two mature clumps -- one each of Hosta 'Fragrant Bouquet' and 'Stained Glass' -- from which I can easily remove pieces for this spot. They're two within a family of sports (of sports of sports...), so other than leaf coloration and pattern, they're otherwise identical, and would blend well without drawing the eye too much, as if they were contrasting more. This spot isn't really meant to draw the eye, so I wanted to keep the theme simple -- subtle variations in variegation.

I also asked if it'd be OK if I started scouting high-limbed trees that aren't so shady at their base for planting some of the suckering once-blooming oldies, and she said that any would be fine. The only thing she'd have to check in her records is if I wanted to plant by a stone -- generally, if there are still living family members, permission would be needed, but the really old and "forgotten" stones would be fair-game. So these spots would be built around an old rose (or two, if I put one to climb the tree as well), and a few companion perennials that don't need much tending through the growing season -- like Iris, Hemerocallis, Salvia, etc. Basically, one or two or three things blooming at a time, with the neighbors taking their turns before or after.

There are some other areas where she'd like me to figure out larger beds, but I want to first start clearing space in my back yard by getting those potted roses out and planted there. Oh, and while I'm still waiting to hear from that woman who mentioned she'd like to help out, I also ran into a former coworker yesterday who wants to help as well. I think she may me more of the "tending" rather than "digging" type of help, but she does know gardening, so that's a good thing.

In the meantime, I'm getting email notifications of end-of-season plant sales, and nabbing a few more "one of each" selections which I'll keep potted in 5gal containers here for propagation material to use there. For example, I nabbed one of each of Bluestone Perennials' full Aster and Boltonia collection while they were half-off, because I know they are easy to propagate and would definitely be used there. And I just saw that Select Seeds marked down the last of their plants to $5, so I nabbed a few more date-appropriate things to use for propagation material. I'm making sure that I'm not buying anything as a plant that's available as a seed-strain, since that's how I'll be raising the majority of the perennials for there. Eleanor said she'd be able to reimburse me for things, and I'll save all receipts, but for now I'm proceeding as if I'm getting things for my own garden. Mine here is now basically full, except for bedding annuals every year, so it's not as much fun if I can't buy plants for SOMEWHERE, right?

Oh, and I'll begin propagating roses in a few weeks, when the flush starts coming to an end.

Anyway, that's my little update.

:-)

~Christopher

Oh, one more thing -- if anyone in the area is interested in coming to see the cemetery -- you don't have to commit to actually helping with it, but I'd really love more gardeners' advice -- please message me, and we could meet up over there. It's really a lovely spot with so much potential for something wonderful. If you can't message me here on the forum, message me via my "incognito" email address below, and I'll reply with my "proper" email address.

moschata619@gmail.com

Of course, if you also want to swing by and walk through my tiny garden, that's ok as well. My "weekend" is Mon-Tue.

:-)

~Christopher

I started prepping the first area today, but it's not for roses. I began cutting an outline, but then Mark -- one of the groundskeepers -- came by and offered to bring some mulch. So I switched to laying cardboard, and kept going until Mark was ready to go home. These pics were taken just now -- I'm still here for a bit longer.

P.S.

Since I'm on my phone, only one pic per post is permitted.

:-)

~Christopher

Don't see pictures, but houzz has been acting up.

Looks great!

Still going at it.....but starting to wear down.

:-)

~Christopher

That already looks amazing!

Looks great . Thank you for putting the books up. I will be looking at them this weekend and I bookmarked it too.

Chris, that is a lot you did in a day. How is your back ?

So, I figure that you are going to put roses in the border, right ? You can see the huge difference. I can imagine the roses in them and growing big. It will add colour, beauty and peace.

Jin

This will be beautiful!

Jin -- my back's ok, and I did do that in one day, but I didn't get there as early as I'd have liked. I had a few more things to do in my own garden this morning, and didn't get to the cemetery until about 1pm. Then it took a bit of figuring out how to begin, and I stopped sometime around 5:30ish. I'm not putting roses in this area -- the beech tree casts too much shade. I'm using two Hostas -- 'Fragrant Bouquet' and one of its sports-of-sports 'Stained Glass' -- for accents around the tree, with some Japanese painted ferns dotted about, and Lamium as a groundcover in spots that wouldn't be walked upon. I'm tooling around with the idea of Spring-blooming bulbs under there, and, again, a simple mix. Before the tree leafs-out, the area gets a lot of sun, so I'm thinking about some Eranthis with something blue or purple that also blooms early, then some Narcissus, maybe some Autumn-blooming Cyclamen....but those would all go in AFTER the Hostas, ferns, and Lamium, since they'd be planted in the spaces between them.

There are other areas with more sun that will also be prepped similarly. In those spots will go non-suckering roses, plus perennials and other plants. The suckering once-blooming oldies will be in isolated spots, such as in beds around the bases of high-limbed trees, or in "aisles" between the back-to-back rows of headstones, or in a corner spot in the grass where the path curves, etc.

Tomorrow (Wednesday), I'm heading back there after work with some more cardboard. Mark will drop a few more scoops of mulch there during the day, and I'll spread that out over another round of cardboard. I should have this area finished after one full day -- today was really just four hours, and a bit of that was spent figuring out how to start.

:-)

~Christopher

Christopher, have you considered experimenting with grafting roses? If you could learn how to do it, you would not have the problem of aggressive spreaders. I'm thinking that multiflora rootstock would do well in your area, and since it can be seed grown, I believe it would be virus-free. I don't know how to do it myself, but surely with some practice on commonly available roses, it could be learned.

Rosefolly

Yes, I mentioned a few posts back that I'm going to try budding things from my garden onto 'Pink Clouds' as an experiment, and that moving forward, I'll ask for budwood-cuttings rather than suckers. I appreciate the effort, but I'm starting to think it's a bit much to ask to dig things up, whereas asking for pieces snipped off of canes is a lot easier. Plus, I have a feeling I'll be wanting things that are notoriously hard to root. In that case, I'd bud as a back-up while trying to get cuttings to root.

:-)

~Christopher

I got an extra day off today, so I came back again. I finished the edge, and did more cardboard and mulch. Now I'm out of boxes, so I'll just neaten the edge and spread the mulch before I call it a day.

:-)

~Christopher

One more, then back to finishing up.

:-)

~Christopher

I'm about halfway done with cleaning up the edge, then I'm done for the day.

:-)

~Christopher

And one more...

I'll snap some more before I leave.

:-)

~Christopher

I wish you were over here. You really get the job done, Christopher.

OK, these pics were taken when I was finished cleaning up the edge, and just before leaving for home -- which is only a few blocks away.

I did a rough measurement, using my feet as "feet" -- if I recall correctly, my garden crocs are 12" long -- and this bed is about 32 feet by 35 feet. Beds like this -- with headstones within -- will just have "accent plants" rather than being densely planted, because I need to leave room for walking through them.

Once this spot is mulched, I move on to the next area -- which, if I recall correctly, is a railed-in family section in more sun, which means I will get to plan for roses there. For what I have so far -- the suckering once-blooming oldies -- I'm scouting spots. Eleanor mentioned that where I see plot markers together -- like the three in the back corner of this bed -- that means the space within belongs to the cemetery, and so an isolated rose could go there. Also, there are "aisles" between stones with their backs facing each other that could be planted. She's still gathering information to make a list of which older spots are not in perpetual care, which means they'd be "free" for me to plant. But for now, I just want to finish this bed. Perhaps, as people start seeing these yet-to-be-planted beds, I can get interested people to "adopt" beds. What I'm planning for this one will be very basic, and certainly leave room for further layers that can be added -- by me, or someone else.

I'll be back there again Monday and/or Tuesday, with a lot more cardboard boxes.

:-)

~Christopher

The first bed is all but done -- I needed just one, maybe two, more mulch drops to finish the bed, but Mark the groundskeeper had to go off on another project. The pics below are since the last ones I posted here, continuing through until today.

This is as far as I got on June 11th.

Wow! That's phenomenal, Christopher. There's always one dish that won't fit in the dishwasher, a couple of towels that would overfill the washing machine, a few too many weeds to tackle before the sun sets and almost but not quite enough mulch to cover the last bed. It's Murphy's Law. :-) Carol

Thanks! I'll keep updating here, but word of warning -- I'm shifting over to the "other forum", and posted a condensed version of this thread there. If you haven't already checked it out, please do so. To me, it's a much more comfortable forum style, and it was put together by the "Dave" who formerly ran "His Garden", if you know what I mean. I don't know if mentioning that website by name still kicks people off the island, so.....

I'll still be checking in for a while for the rest of this year...and maybe longer, when the dust settles.

:-)

~Christopher

Thanks for the heads up, Christopher! Good to know. I wish the "other" forum were visited by all the Antique Rose Forum's international participants and US regulars. The "other" forum has a different feel that I'm not sure is a best fit for me. Carol

I think that part of that "feel" is just different people, and also that it's a combined rose forum. The general rose forum here has a lot of the same questions and posts I see there. I think that new gardeners trying roses go to a general rose forum, and the specialized rose forums attract people a little more advanced in their experience. While I said on there that I'm fine either way, I do predict that if enough of the people here go there, that forum will likely add a sub-forum for Antique Roses. But, on the other hand, I am seeing some interest in the things I've been posting, so perhaps those members simply aren't as aware of the old roses. Some seem very interested to learn more.

:-)

~Christopher

You teach them Christopher, then have them all come over to Antique Roses! You may have our only parrot.

I'm trying to like it over there, but so far the right feeling has eluded me. I will try to give it a fair trial.

This forum has had its ups and downs and I pretty well gave up on it a while back, and was very glad to find some of my old friends here when I returned. It's not the vital spot that it once was, but it's so nice to be part of this group. I especially love it when I meet people in the Sacramento cemetery who I've only known through this site, which happened to me twice this year and still makes me smile. I hope that you keep posting here, Christopher, because this is such a long-term spot for old rose lovers.

I find the cutesy emojis all a turnoff on the other site. The icons in the upper right corner are annoying. The reddit site looked lovely, but the picture loading sounded multiple stepped. Neither site would have the years of archives. I sadly have a low tolerance for cutesy. I couldn't stand it when I was cutesy. I don't like the acorns or the points. I want to read a forum like a book, or correspondence with an adult. I don't mean to offend anyone.

Anita and Sheila, I think you have both captured a spark of what I see in this particular forum. I hope Jeri and Paul, as well as Virginia and John Fig, can tolerate a return visit now and again.

I was an ARF forum lurker years before I mustered up the courage to post. I followed all sorts of members, learning from the variety of experiences and recommendations as I read a "real time" garden book's worth of memoirs and how-tos. Antique rose lovers and cultivators, preservationists and historians, educators, designers and the rose breeders who appreciate both the value of old roses and the importance of thoughtful, passionate creative hybrids are a very special and unique subset of rose gardeners. There is an intellectual aspect to this forum which appeals to me as well as a community oriented one. This forum attracts a very thoughtful, very caring and compassionate set of human beings who all love roses, especially historical ones.

I wish that, like you Anita, I had had more opportunities in the past to get out and about into the various rose communities. Enjoying the company of face to face friends on the forum is one of the loveliest of ways to expand those friendships and remain in touch in between rose society meetings and visits. Various obstacles over the years have precluded those face to face connections for me, but through this forum, I have made worldwide internet friendships as well as the ones just across town and state that are now my face to face friendships. I am becoming more determined than ever, obstacles be darned, to make live connections around the Pacific NW and beyond. I have joined the Heritage Roses Group. I have also been trying repeatedly to join the PNW subgroup on Yahoo as well...if my technology will just cooperate--sound familiar? :-) Claire is a wonderful ambassador and one of the most generous of people on the planet.

Christopher, I will just chime in that I hope you can at least check in now and again. I would miss your presence here more than I can say. Our connection across the miles after you reached out about an Indigo-DFLED2 swap was a big step for me, as I bumbled my various emailed exchanges of personal and rosey shares. You were one of my first "outside connections" from this forum. You hold a special place in my heart, and I follow all your ambitious rose adventures with great interest and encouragement. You are truly one in a million!

Just as I have begun to dive deeper into forum relationships, Houzz has gone kablooey! Really, Houzz? Without this forum, I would never have developed some of my most treasured connections, relationships which radiate through and beyond the forum. Without this forum, I would lose access to those members that I am currently in touch with daily or weekly, and I would lose the unfolding opportunities for future online and offline relationships with the passionate, analytical, generous, determined and diverse set of international rose lovers that occupy this space. I hope everyone can muddle through this mountainous bump in the forum's journey! Carol

I think I may copy and paste a portion of the above reply into a new thread, a sort of formal check in to see who is still here. The personal pieces were written in response to particular comments from members in this thread, but since various responsibilities and time constraints preclude the possibility of my typing another multi paragraph post, please forgive the redundancy as I copy and paste, and please do not be offended that I have lifted my sincerely typed words from your thread, Christopher. Thank you in advance! Carol

It seems much improved today.

Christopher, this is such an exciting project! I look forward to following your progress here and/or on the other forum, which I'll eventually join, I'm sure. I'll add that I'm a native of the beautiful Garden State (though living in the S.F. Bay Area for many years). I hope that I'll have a chance to visit the Elmwood Cemetery Rose Garden and meet you whenever I make another visit back east.

And Anita -- we met and chatted a good while at the Albany Celebration recently. I am hoping to make another drive out to the Sacramento Historic Cemetery soon, and I would love to be able to tour it with you, if possible. As I'd told you, I went there for the first time in May, and it was probably the highlight of my year -- I spent two afternoons wandering around there for hours and I want to get back there again soon. I added my name to your contact list -- I hope I'll be informed of any more classes or special events to come? I wasn't able to make it to the open garden, sadly.

Best to all the rosy people.

Sheba (in S.F.)

A little update -- I started the second bed, which is larger
than the first. This is also under some shade, but not as dense, and has
some sunny patches, so roses can go in here. I started this one two
weeks ago, but last week's heat wave kept me away from it except for
four hours on the 4th, when it was "only" 95F at the hottest.

The bed is built around two railed-in family plots that touch at one
corner and face opposite ways. I looped the perimeter a bit beyond,
curving where it meets the "road" -- which is really just one of a
series of grassy paths intersecting the cemetery, as seen in the old map
in my first post. There are a bunch of other railed-in family plots,
and these will be my next beds to prepare. They vary from being in
all-day full-sun to dappled shade at midday, all the way to bright shade
with no direct sun. I'm nudging them to let me do the sunny ones first,
but in the end, the order doesn't really matter much, since they'll
eventually all get done and be planted.

I took these pics as I walked clockwise around the bed. You can make out
the edge dug out of the grass, and where the mulch pile sits on a blue
tarp -- I cleared away the mulch lying over the edge, so the bed has the
same curve as in that pile.

Not much else to say about this, but I thought I'd update you all. I'm going to hold-off on asking for roses until I know what I'm planting in each bed -- and I realize I should have done it that way from the beginning to prevent my back yard from becoming a potted-plant traffic jam.

Oh,
and if any of you live close enough to want to jump in and help, let me
know. Even if it's just sitting there pulling tape off cardboard boxes,
offering advice, or even as far as moving buckets of mulch from the
piles -- all help is welcome and appreciated.

OK, I'm having Houzz issues, and I'm not going to keep trying. If you want to see all the pics, see my identical post on the Garden-dot-Org website linked below.

https://garden.org/thread/view/84470/How-to-start-a-bed-at-a-cemetery-in-pictures/

Or, if you're on Facebook, see my album for the cemetery linked below.

https://www.facebook.com/AquaEyes76/media_set?set=a.10155580608737285.1073741833.534437284&type=3

:-/

~Christopher

If I was nearby, I’d love to help out—what an amazing project! :-)

Today I was off again -- my work-week now is Thursday through Sunday,
but I still hit overtime -- but I was also out of cardboard. Typically, I
gather it from my job when I'm there, and use it all on Monday when I'm
off. Then, before I go home, I head to the center of town and gather
more cardboard from outside the stores -- every Monday night it's put
out for recycling pick-up the next morning. That gets me through
mulching on Tuesday, but then I'm out again. So since I'm off three days
beginning this month, I'll use Wednesdays to scout the next areas to be
planted and cut the borders.

Today I did the next two family plot beds with railing borders on my "do
these first" list Eleanor wrote for me. The first was the Lippincott
bed, which gets early morning sun, dappled shade from about 11am until
about 2pm, then mostly sun until sunset.

~Christopher

Really impressive, Christopher!

Continuing...........

This plot contains two very young girls -- a one-year-old and a two-year-old -- and a twelve-year-old boy. I told Eleanor previously that an idea I had -- thanks to Jeri Jennings -- was to use some type of date-appropriate miniature rose for those cases. So, in this plot, I've decided on "Lindee" for the little girl who died in the early 1900s, "Dolly Dudley" for the little girl who died in the mid-19th Century, and "Oakington Ruby" for the twelve-year-old boy. I already have the first two, and I'm not happy with where they are in my garden, so I'll just transplant them to the cemetery. I'll have to get "Oakington Ruby" for the little boy. Other thoughts for this bed are possibly trying 'Mme Alfred Carierre' for the tree, a long-caned Bourbon behind the front right (when facing the front of the plot) corner and pegged to the railing, 'Gloire des Rosomanes' somewhere.....but I'll need more time to let that simmer.

For the Lippincott bed, I have some ideas as well, but which way they go will depend on if I can get a couple of tree branches removed first. Eleanor was already in agreement about removing one limb from a tree in another plot, but I didn't get to ask about this plot.

So, here are the rest of the pics of the Staat plot.

Edit -- once again, trying to make a second post with pics is causing problems, and once again I'm giving up on trying to get them through. And, once again again, if you would like to see the rest of the pics, please see my thread at "the other site" and scroll down to the bottom.

Ugh.....are you all sure you like Houzz better than Garden-dot-org? The only reason I keep putting up with Houzz is because it's my only way to keep some of you updated on this, and I don't want to lose touch with those of you not on Facebook and not on the Garden-dot-org site. I'll keep trying for a while, but in the end, I'll likely end up just posting a note to check out my thread over there.

:-/

~Christopher

Georgia Drennan has suggestions for roses to plant in cemeteries in her Everblooming Roses book. She is a New Orleans writer so some of the suggestions aren't great for colder climates, but one that I remember is Marie Pavie for a little girl's grave. Marechal Niel for a military man is another one....

I have 'Marie Pavie', and was planning to use it anyway somewhere, so I'll keep that in mind. This bed, however, wouldn't be the best fit. The stones for the little girls are only about 12" tall, with information on the top edge rather than the front. So that meant either something tall behind -- but which wouldn't spill over onto the information on the top edge -- or something very short in front. I went with the latter, because they're at the back of the bed, and there really wasn't room for something behind their stones without going beyond the railing, which is where I'd rather something taller than 'Marie Pavie'. And I'll have to pick up that book. Thanks once again, Anita!

Oh, and after I actually have something in the ground, I'll write something up for you. At this point, I feel like it's showing someone a recipe rather than presenting a cake.

:-)

~Christopher

Ingrid says do your word post first in one post, then put the photos in the next comment area and they go in. Works for me.

The first post worked fine for me, with the pics. The second post kept freezing when I tried adding the second pic. And to avoid the possibility of losing my text altogether, I always post at the "other site" first, and copy and paste here. Frankly, I don't see the merit in trying to keep dealing with something determined not to work, especially when there's an alternative site which functions better. The only reason I keep coming back is because there's a handful of people here whom I enjoy, and who are neither there nor Facebook.

:-/

~Christopher

I haven't taken pics at the cemetery until I was finishing up today, so I wanted to post a little update. Unfortunately, posting with lots of pictures here has been "difficult" to say the least, so to save myself the aggravation, here's a link to the "other forum" where I posted all the information and pics.

https://garden.org/thread/view/84470/How-to-start-a-bed-at-a-cemetery-in-pictures/

Or, if you prefer Facebook, the comments in the pics are basically the same as what I wrote in my post. The whole album is here. Or, if you'd rather skip ahead to today's update, the first of today's pics is here.

:-)

~Christopher

As the season is coming to an end, I'm finishing up at the cemetery. I've been going down there on every day off, save for the handful of days when rain kept me inside. On the one hand, I wish I could keep going, but on the other, I'm looking forward to getting some rest, and taking care of things around the house. Since I seem to have difficulty posting pictures here without the page freezing, I'll simply update at "the other site" and reference it here. So take a look at my most recent post in the thread linked below.

https://garden.org/thread/view/84470/How-to-start-a-bed-at-a-cemetery-in-pictures/

There's so much more I have to do, and didn't get done, and much of my at-home rooting efforts failed due to lack of attention and proper equipment, but I'll be trying something different in the early Spring. So to anyone whom I've promised roses in trade, I'll be getting things back to you, probably budded onto seedling Multiflora, or 'Pink Clouds'. That's how, moving forward, I intend to gather things for the cemetery. Though I've ordered quite a bit for Spring, that was for getting things started with (I hope) volunteers coming for a "planting day". I've purposely steered my choices to things I thought wouldn't be easily obtained from others as budwood -- unless they were on-sale.

Anyway, sorry for my rare and random appearances, but I've been so busy.

:-)

~Christopher