Fungicide spraying is preventative, not curative. You have to spray BEFORE it gets bad. After about ten years of growing GC, I would note the following: 1. GC is quite vulnerable to black spot, as mine gets it here where black spot is pretty uncommon and mild, while 95% of my other roses never show a spot. 2. GC doesn't like hard pruning, so take off as little as you can. It forms a nicely shaped plant without much correction needed, just deadhead to keep it blooming. 3. GC has truly nasty prickles--I never go near it without gloves.

Crown-Castle Ltd is (was) out of Stanford, CT. They sold nice reproductions. I have a small catalog from the 70's with your plates on the front cover. I purchased 1776 repro flatware, which I have and am still very happy with. If you would like to share your email address, I can forward you a picture of the front of the brochure advertising your plates. The are not pewter, they are pewtalloy metal and sold for $22.95 fir a 16 piece set.

trilobite I have this mantra when I still get really stuck on tossing something I know I should, I tell myself "it's just stuff" and that helps me see it differently without all the guilt and emotional attachments (and it was hard work getting to this point and it sounds like you've been on your own journey). But the way I try to look at things now is it is all just stuff, some of it is useful, some of it is not, some is just passed its use-by date (that's the category I'd put these toys in) but it doesn't define who we are or our past or our relationships. honestly, whenever I give something away I let it go, if the person uses it, sells it, gets rid of it i dont care because by giving it away I dont control it anymore, so just like your mother giving these things to you, does not mean you have to keep them for her sake if they arent useful to you, that's not fair on you and your house is not a dumping ground for old hoarded items. If you mother asks "where are those toys I gave you for the baby?" just tell her you put them through the wash and they fell apart or something like that, no ones feelings get hurt and it's done but sometimes that's the only way to deal with guilt trips.

Of those, the only one I have is Sharifa Asma, and she is too little for me to have tried as a cut flower. I'm probably not the best person to ask regarding cut flowers since I rarely do so. There have been other discussions on the forum regarding vase life for Austins, here's one: Fragrant Austins with longest vase life. I remember there being a thread where someone listed the days of vase life for each of their Austins which was impressive accounting. Oh, here it is: Which David Austin Roses last longest in the vase? I've also read about cutting them in fairly tight bud and refrigerating them overnight to help them last longer. I did that once and Evelyn lasted about a week. Bishop's Castle does have thin stems and the flowers nod a bit, which is one of the reasons I'm fond of this rose. The flowers don't have bamboo-like stiff ramrod stems that florist roses have, so if that is an issue you might want to choose another rose. In the public rose garden, QOS does have stiffly upright stems. If you are looking for good cutting stems like florist roses but with English rose flowers, you might also try Charlene de Monaco, or some of the Romanticas, and some of the new Kordes roses have some of the English rose look. On the other hand, I think that the nodding flowers make for a beautiful bouquet. Here's one I made in September: Bishop's Castle is on the far left if I remember correctly (others are Abraham Darby, Bolero, Marie Pavie, Falstaff, Sonia Rykiel). For this type of bouquet you will ideally use a thorn stripper and florist foam.