My chameleon is Martha Gonzales. My aunt & I both grew this rose from ARE for many years. In the coastal zone 9 climate it was hot & humid, the water was somewhat alkaline & hard, the soil was rich black "gumbo" clay. Cuttings rooted from both plants matured to resemble the mother plants. It grew as a typical China, but the flowers were especially small. Bright red, just a bit more than single, quilled petals, white centers with occasional white petal streak, very little scent, lots of blooms, constantly. You could tell MG all over town from the distinctive little starry bright red, white-centered flowers. And even big mature plants tended to have dainty little smooth leaves. I hauled up 2 young plants I personally rooted from cuttings. This is a deserty area, alkaline limestone & caliche soil, alkaline water. Cool nights most of the year. One MG is throwing cupped near double blooms this year, much bluer color & they have a fair fragrance. Last year she threw the big, near-single, flat open, cherry red MG blooms you see in most photos. So did the 2nd plant. Both have "normal" sized rose leaves, not the little ones typical of the old zone. This year the other plant has scores of dark--more bluish blooms. Nearly single, but so dark you'd think this is a Dr. Huey. The petals stay a bit cupped, not the flat-open blooms of last year. Mild to no fragrance, still see a bit of white petal streaking but the white eye is very reduced. Nether plant quills its petals, which was so distinctive in the old climate. The two bushes look like different varieties, now--neither resembling the original plants grown for so long in hot sultry zone 9. I asked Michael Shoup about it & he said they noticed some variation especially in cool night areas. It surprised me because I am SURE of the provenance of both plants, they are planted in the same area, were planted within a very short time of each other, and I had grown the mother plants of both for many years in a very different climate & soil.

Klem1, Thanks for the reply. Few comments: -Fin direction did have an effect. As did the location. I have had no grill on for like 2 years and this did not pull the doors closed anymore. The fin direction was slanted back to the bedroom and I guess it was pulling with higher force from down the hall in that direction. Being that the hallway is narrow, its a tighter channel/volume of air. Without the grill, the airhandler is then pulling air straight up and is probably taken from either side and the doors can be open a crack and not be pulled closed. Once the return is further down the hallway, closer to the stairs, it then can pull air from a bigger area (Downstairs, adjacent hallway landing, etc). -I wasn't concerned about the seeing the grill but rather seeing the silver return duct through the slats. I was able to still see that when the fins were facing the opposite direction down the hallway. I guess I could try an spray paint the inside of the return duct white but not sure if that will work/adhere. -I do not have a filter in the 20x30 return box. There is an Aprilaire filter attached to my handler, between the return 16" flex and the airhandler. - I know duct length should be short. However, I have read that for a return, at least 2 90 degree turns if not more are ideal to prevent noise. Longer flex run would help with that as well, but eve if I moved the airhandler further back in the attic, we are talking like 15-20' max of flex duct, plus the elbow length.

Question 1 - I was really blown away by how deep and big the taproot is growing on these trees. It's like most of the energy is going to create this big root. It's thicker than the trunks in every case, and the roots are easily twice to sometimes 3x as long as the seedling itself. So on on of them, I cut back the taproot a little bit... I took about a half an inch. I had read Al mentioning that slowly cutting back a taproot over time can help spur the tree to grow more roots higher up. I hope I didn't take it out of context. The first day the lowest leaf of that seedling, which has started to go brown on the rim, became pale and collapsed on one side of the leaf. Then yesterday it went dry. Today there has been no further progress of the leaf's collapse and no further signs of stress. The seedling seems strong... Was I wrong to try and trim it back just a little bit? Or did I do alright? Is this seedling out of the woods for now do you think? Young plants are nearly all dynamic mass, and as such, have a very strong "will to live". If your plant is currently doing well, there is no reason it will take a turn unless something cultural forces a change in course. Bonsai practitioners have learned that lifting seedlings as soon as the first set of true leaves emerge and removing the seed radicle immediately below the root to shoot transition zone and treating the top as a cutting eliminated taproot issues entirely in most plants. In stubborn plants with a hard tendency toward vertical roots, you'll need to regularly remove all first order roots (attached to main stem) growing downward from the root to shoot transition zone as well as all second order roots growing up or down off the first order roots. Question 2 - related to question 1, regarding the other seedling I root pruned a little. This one I took a little more off of because of root rot. I know I had to take it off, and I also took off a bit of taproot for this one too. The seedling itself seems fine. The uppermost leaf - which is fairly new and thin yet - went limp the first day, but has become stronger and greener these last two days. I know I had to take off the bad roots, but I was worried I went too far. I'm hoping I'm seeing indications that I didn't? Only way to tell is by putting a waiting period behind you during which the plant retains its turgidity throughout the daylight hours. Stomata close at night and slow water loss, so unhealthy plants have opportunity to recover from low internal water pressure and wilting. No wilt during the day is a good indication to bet on full recovery. Question 3 - When I was done, I investigated the 5 'dead' seedlings. Two of them looked like some of Al's bare-root pictures. The main part of the taproot was healthy, seemed alive, and had small alive roots still growing from it. but the end of the root was truncated in mush, much of which fell off into the soil. I washed them as clean as I could in a mist spray and cut off the mushy end to clean root. Then I potted those in 5:1:1 too. I'm hoping against hope that I might be able to save them. The top id dead back to the twiggy stump... Any thoughts if they might come back? Anything special I might do for them to give them the best shot - for instance a special fertilizer or watering strategy? Withhold fertilizer until the plant recovers. DAMP or MOIST are the operative words. If the fungal infection has gummed up the plumbing such that a vascular connection between roots and shoots isn't in the offing, it's a goner. If the infection isn't systemic, the possibility of retaining viability is still on the table. What kills cuttings is the inability to make that plumbing connection due to rot, or the cutting having an inadequate energy reserve. If the plant/cutting/seedling runs out of reserve energy while it still a net user of energy instead of a net producer of energy, it's over. 4: I have 5 I have not yet repotted. They seem to be okay... though 3 aren't doing much of anything, they're just existing and may have some first sign of browning on lowest leaves, but I might be looking too hard too... One is finishing it's fall flush of leaves, and one is start starting it's fall flush... I'm not sure if I should repot them so close to winter or if I should let them be until spring, since they seem okay right now. I especially am not sure I should mess with the one putting out new leaves. But on the other hand, what if I really am seeing some warning signs and some suddenly start taking a down turn in the next week or month? Wouldn't it be better to do it early, now, rather than later? The only reason I re-potted the ones I did was because I was sure they wouldn't make it through winter... I am not sure on these ones. If they were your plants, what would you do? A dearth of mobile nutrients, over-watering, root congestion, soil compaction, can all lead to loss of lower leaves. I'll ask you to spare me from having to do the research by telling me if these plants would normally enter a predictive dormancy during the fall to winter transition? If yes, then waiot until spring but guard against over-watering. If no, repot only if you suspect strongly that the plants will no longer be viable come late spring (June). 5: Fungus gnats. =( I manage to get rid of them for a while, but they always come back. Of course, I was always using compost mixes, particularly organic ones, and they're usually lousy with them no matter how much a brand claims they pasteurize/sterilize for pests. Do non-mineral soil media mixes have the same ability to attract and support these and other soil-borne pests? If yes, which ones to watch for? If you don't already have a good understanding of what constitutes the comparative degrees of container media (as in unusable, practically unusable, just plain poor, ok, better, and the variations of better from 'sort of better' to 'really a whole lot better'), making that a priority will almost certainly propel your advancement farther/faster than anything else you might apply yourself to in the near term. If you need the info that can tie soils up into a neat little conceptualization, I'll be really glad to help, but I think trying to do it in a thread that covers so many topics isn't the best format. Are you familiar with and understand the concept discussed here? Which brings my follow-up: If it can support pests that spent part or all of their life cycle in soil, then it should be able to support their predators too, right? I prefer to combat pests with their predators, like nematodes, predatory mites, aphid lions, etc. Would this be doable if needed? How about we work toward providing a home for roots that doesn't provide creature comforts? In the immediate, mosquito dunks and a restrained hand on the watering can are potential remedies. 6: For the future of these little babies of mine, what would a good strategy be for keeping them happy growing in a container? You'll find an outline here that will provide a plan for maintaining woody material in containers and in good health indefinitely. I know I need to keep them smaller than if they were in the landscape, and that means eventually removing the taproot. I also understand that taproot removal usually starts after a year. But these trees don't actually seem to have much besides taproot... smaller roots branch off of it, and a few have some smaller roots that come from the trunk matrix but not most from what I've seen. Would the best bet be to gradually prune the tap root back over a few years in an attempt to get the trees to put out more roots higher up? Or should I go for broke and just cut it way back and defoliate? Or is it possible that the poor media I have been growing in so far as not encouraged growth at the higher and mid root range and drove the roots downwards looking for air? I'm sorry I haven't taken any pictures to share to give you a better idea. If I end up re-potting any of the others, I will take some. I think I covered these questions above, but if not, ask again. Al

What your hvac guy said sound;s reasonable and prices are in line. I'm a fan of high merv filters for all homes and don't subscribe to the idea they harm effeciency. What you are allergic to will determine if light is necessary. Even without another vent,a return near tv coupled with existing vent on other end will turn over(exchange)air much faster resulting in more comfort. Need an extra nudge? The filter will cut down on amount of dust landing on furniture. I can add only one thing. If he hasn't already,have them inspect coils while installing filter to see if they need cleaning. Supply duct cleaning isn't worth what it cost and will progressively get cleaner with better filter. Return may or may not benefit from cleaning,filter installer's call.