A wonderful show. I was surprised by the enormous amount of unmechanized work. It will be interesting to see what kind of roses are developed when rose genes can be chosen for specific characteristics. Perhaps someday anyone will be able to order a rose tailored to their specs.

Thank you Mia & Karen for checking on me,I had to borrow my DD's computer I couldn't post on mine everytime I wrote a message the clicked on the post, my computer went off. after being up till 3am friday standing in line it seemed like forever. I got my DD her lap for Christmas, for $48.00 off. so she agreed to let me use it until I have mine optomised. that way I can post again Elizabeth

I think those were probably "walking iris". Did they have a white blossom with a blue/brown center about the size of a silver dollar? I have these "coming out my ears" so to speak and if you e-mail me, I'll send you a few. I have to bring them inside for the winter and I'm in 6/7 so you may have to experiment with one or two out and one or two in. Marian

Just a quick update. We've been to the vet. He did an Xray to confirm heart problems and said that Ginger is Stage 3. According to the vet, this is not too late for medication to give her a good quality of life, although it certainly can't cure the problem. He put her on three medications. One to strengthen her heart. One to lower her blood pressure. One which is a diuretic and she is taking a fairly high dose for several days, and if her coughing goes away he will slowly reduce the amount until it seems right. The medication caused diarrhea the first night. She is still having the spells where her legs give out and they are worse than they were at the beginning. We haven't even taken her outdoors lately. I put puppy pads by her bed, and sometimes just the effort of climbing out of the bed to use the pad will bring on a spell. The vet seems to think that will improve. I hope so because it scares her when it happens. It scares us too, but it's her we're worried about, not us. We hate to see her frightened like this. We are holding on to hope for a little bit, but we won't put her through this indefinitely. Only a little while, as the vet seems to think there is hope and says today's meds are really good. He did say that her tongue is nice and pink and that is a good sign, compared to when the tongue turns bluish for lack of oxygen. Of course, he also reminded us that at 15 1/2 years of age, she is quite elderly and medicine is not expected to keep her feeling good (even if it gets her that way at all) indefinitely. My heart breaks for her. I will let you know how she is doing again later on.