Hope you don't mind if I join in on this message thread with a little "tip"... it's my first time on the roses forum..... A word of intro.... I live in Howard Co MD - I used to have a beautiful rose garden back in the '90's. Mostly hybrid teas. In 1998 I moved away for several years, came back and the rose garden was gone. The tenants dug it out and used the hole for burning trash! This is the first year I've returned that I will have the opportunity to replant new roses. I kept a list of my favorites from before, and will look it up and post it here later today --- from what you've listed in your message, I think some are ones you might like. Want to mention that since some of you are in Maryland, too, that there is a rose garden nearby that is worth the effort of visiting.... it's the Bishop's Garden at the National Cathedral in Bethesda. I last visited it in July 2006 - in the middle of an extreme heat wave, and their roses were FAN-TAS-TIC!!! Full, healthy plants.... healthy blooms, healthy leaves --- NO JUNE BUGS!! They have a wonderful variety, and all are posted as to what kind they are. I was so very impressed!! I would've gone over to the little garden center they have on the grounds and asked what their care program is, but I was with out of state visitors, and it wasn't the best time. Just thought I'd mention this for you Maryland folks.... it's worth the trip to the National Cathedral in the middle of a hot summer to see THEIR ROSES..... it's truly an inspiration and learning experience. Miss Mary One of my roses was Chicago Peace. Is that one still around?? I can't remember, but there is "something" people don't like about it.... maybe disease prone? Whatever... it is gorgeous.

It was rough for a few years. I would get my period every 4 months or so but it would last for 2 weeks and was so heavy I couldn't leave the house. My last period I absolutely thought I was going to die. It lasted almost 3 months and was so heavy I could barely go to the store. Then there were a couple of times I couldn't even go to sleep because the heavy bleeding and clots would not stop. After a couple nights of that I got very very weak and could barely go up one flight of stairs. I made a doctors appointment but before I went I realized the blood was causing severe anemia. I started taking iron and vitamin c and I felt the weakness start to lessen in a couple of days and at the same time the bleeding slowed down. The weakness was totally gone in about 6 weeks, as I continued the iron and vitamin c every day. I still had a light period for about 2-3 more weeks then nothing. And it has been nothing for 8 months. I so hope that was it.

I have been hearing a lot latley about Abulation. (spelling is probably wrong) they go in and do something to your uterus, so you stop having periods, however, unlike a hysterectomy you still have your parts, so you don't go into "early" menopause. I just spent 7 weeks working at a temp job, and 5 of the ladies there said they had it, and were all very happy with their results. I'm thinking about speaking to my doc about it at my next checkup. Ellie

I guess I have to add some more of my Tillandsia's. So, I was keeping them outside in the notches of my lilac tree. They got some dunkings in my pond and the occasional rain. They were putting out new growth and everything. Life seemed all good and happy full of rainbows and puppies untill the day of August 9th. So, my plan was to attach them to a peice of Driftwood I found at my cabin but that wasn't enough for me so I had to add moss and lichen to the wood to make it look more interesting. There's non of that here, only at my cabin so I brought them and the wood with me for a 7 hour car ride. I put them in a zip loc bag (open) like I've done several times in the past. So I've got 7 Tillandsias in a zip loc bag in the truck. We got to my cabin and it was 34 degrees Celsius there and we also havnt been there for 2 months. So I always have to do the usual walk around to check things out and stuff. Back in May we planted a vegetable garden from seed and I was pretty surprised how huge it got. I'm talking 9ft foot corn stalks. Anyway, I saw that there were a ton of zucchinis everywhere and got completely distracted. So 4 hours went by of the sun beating directly down on the truck in 34 degree weather that happend to have a bag of Tillandsias in it. When I remembered I went out there and the bag was full of water and they looked awful. I made a post in the Bromeliad forum asking if they're was any hope in them pushing through but yeah no. They were such a sickly looking green brown. 5 out of the 7 died. 2 were defently dead right away but the others took a few days to show anything. The two I was left with still got badly sunburned so I had to give them some haircuts. My 'big' Tillandsia got about 90% of its leaves removed and my Juncea's tips were all dried out. So I was left with two broken ugly looking things to mount on my Driftwood. Anyways, I got 6? More and decorated my Driftwood with the moss and lichens. It's not done yet but shoukd be soon. My 2 survivors are gonna be on rehab for a while but yeah. That's my Sad tale of whoa. It was so stupid too. Anyways, 2 of the zucchinis made 12 loafs of zucchini bread...