Maman Cochet and all her gang are among my favorite roses; bulletproof to grow and blooms to die for. In addition to the bush forms, I have 2 climbing forms: Maman Cochet and Cl White Maman Cochet. Both are great and when they bloom, those gorgeous blooms hanging from my pergola, well, it just doesnt' get any better. I also really really like Niles Cochet; great rose.

Take a look at this article by Shannon Berch; An image of the species of truffle is avaiable at BCTruffles.ca Two exciting new truffle finds on Vancouver Island In October, my husband Hoke and I were redoing a garden bed in back to expand our hardy fuchsia planting. At about drip-line of a planted willow, we dug up about 10 small white truffles. I confirmed that they were truffles (i.e. species of the scientific genus Tuber) and not one of the myriad other truffle-like hypogeous fungi by examining the spores under the microscope. I figured that they were one or other of the Oregon white truffles (Tuber oregonense or Tuber gibbosum) but using the identification key that a colleague went me, was unable with confidence to call them either species. So, I asked my colleague Dr. Mary Berbee at UBC to sequence the DNA of the collection and compare it to other Tuber species. She graciously did this and told me that the fungus was Tuber rapaeodorum. Greg Bonito, PhD candidate at Duke University in Tuber taxonomy, tells me "this is a European species, but has been found all over the world including NE & NW USA, and New Zealand. It is the most widespread Tuber, and most common "unidentified Tuber" in GenBank. It likely has been introduced to these regions unintentionally via horticulture. It tends to be small in size, and pale, similar to Tuber maculatum." I believe that we must have introduced it on the willow we bought from a local nursery, but who really knows. Then, about a month later, I found a couple of specimens of Hydnangium carneum at the drip line of the big Eucalyptus growing at Glendale Garden and Woodlands in Saanich. According to the North American Truffling Society (http://www.natruffling.org/): "Hydnangium carneum associates exclusively with Eucalyptus trees. It is native to Australia but hitch-hiked to North America on the roots of imported ornamentals." I believe that both of these finds constitute new reports of these fungi for Canada. ________________________________________ By Shannon Berch: 15 Jan 2009 From the Truffle Association of BC website www.bctruffles.ca

I'm not sure what to make of those lyrics, witchy. Did you have a bad night with some deer repellent spray? I've had that stuff blow back at me straight in the face so many times--the oil of peppermint makes my lips numb. That's an ingredient in Deer Out. Carol, you nut! Maria Callas was a bigger diva that Babs. Good luck with that rose. By the way, my 18 year old granddaughter, Jemma, had a solo voice recital tonight, and we have a future Callas on our hands. She killed it, but she has a lovelier voice than Callas in my unbiased opinion. It was a rare time out for me and so much fun (I'm still in quarantine). Are you stuck at home, too? I brought rose bouquets to the table, and made a bouquet of Ascot for Jemma's teacher. Oh, I reread your post, and you went out to buy Callas, you lucky dog. Boise's numbers are going up, and we had to go back to level 3 opening up. All the bars had to close because the young people couldn't stay out of them and all tested positive. Diane

I love the name Ragged Robin! There are quite a few roses which were once used for rootstock which are very good roses themselves. When I first got into roses, I was told that: "A rose may have a sucker which comes up from the base and always has red blooms. These are EVIL and must be gotten rid of as soon as possible. The always have 7 leaflets - that's how you tell they are suckers, along with the color of the blooms" I walked away thinking that a "sucker" was some sort of disease! All, all, wrong, of course. Yet I was told this by several people. As I learned more about roses (and what a sucker was actually, as well as what rootstock was) I was amazed at the ignorance of most people who thought they knew a lot about roses. Canard is a good word to describe these sorts of statements - I like that word. No bad intentions on anyones part - they were just parroting something they had been told, but got offended when I doubted it. Also, of course, all sorts of other "rules" about what must be done, what should never be done, etc. My most unfavorite statement is along the lines of "all old roses only bloom once", which I am still also seeing in articles (and even some speeches) by people who should know better. I even I still see some of this in some articles in the ARS magazine - it is so amazing to me. End of rant, and I apologize that my comments have nothing to do with Ragged Robin, which is a lovely re-blooming old rose which was once used for rootstock, and luckily was thus spread all around, and discovered all over, as it was healthier and more persistent than whatever scions it was grafted to. Jackie