De-lurking here to say it's not just you! We had a strange spring with wild weather swings (up to 40F from daytime to night), and I have to say...this is the crappiest rose season I've had in 8 years. Very abundant number of buds--probably the most ever--but the quality of the individual flowers just stinks. Like the worst thrips damage ever, but each and every rose has it. Some roses had stunted/balled/withered buds, others had blackened petal edges, still others didn't bother with blooms. My Queen Elizabeths, easily the most prolific roses in my garden, haven't bloomed yet. There are some old, established bushes that hardly went beyond their pruned size and only spewed a few deformed buds. Thrips are normally a problem on my light colored roses, but this blight is affecting every color. The later developing buds are better--if on the small side. It's the roses that developed first (late April to early May, which is quite late for us) that were the worst. Surprisingly, the roses that seemed to shrug it off best were some of my David Austins--Jude, the Dark Lady, and a few others. But some of the DA's (Abraham Darby) and other shrub roses and climbers (like Sombreuil) were just horrific. My mom came over and said "you know, if you just look at the roses from the house, they're not so bad." Sigh. And we had such a lovely, rainy winter (for us) that I was sure the rose flush was going to be awesome. And the numbers were truly impressive--hundreds of buds on some of my small (3 ft) bushes, which is the best I've seen. But again, the actual quality of the buds was the worst I've ever seen. Some tried and true winners from my garden were hard pruned just because I couldn't bear to look at their browned/blackened/crinkly/balled horrible little blooms. These included: memorial Day, Queen Elizabeth, Sheer Bliss, Peace (sob), Marilyn Monroe, Daybreaker, New Zealand, Just Joey, blue Nile, Evelyn, Abe Darby, Charles Darwin, Autumn Sunset, Golden Something(normally gorgeous downturned sunny yellow blooms, but this time they didn't even open!),Chicago Peace, Tamora, Pink Peace, Mirandy, Mary Rose, Secret (double sob), McCartney Rose, Tiffany....I could go on, but I'm feeling kind of nauseous. To put it in different terms: I have over 160 rose bushes with few repeats, and this year I have only brought six cut blooms into the house. SIX. But who can really blame the poor roses? Last week we hit 100 degrees on Monday, and on Thursday the high was 54 with rain (snow in Flagstaff, poor buggers). What is a plant to do in these conditions? Apparently, they sulk. Now it's getting to be blistering hot again, with humidity in the single digits. Spider Mite season. I won't likely see a good bloom until September, and then the deer and javelinas will be moving in for their Autumn feast. I'm thinking of getting into daffodils. At least the lilies, Shasta daisies, coreopsis, and cannas are doing well. And the glads look like they might actually open this year (last year they were all duds). I'm off to sulk myself. Heather

Hi extremely patient GW virtual decorators, I took rosewindÂs advice and found a few inspirational bathrooms and/or powder rooms. I love the last two bathrooms the best!! I found them on Rate My Space and what I like about them is their simplicity and clean lines. I included bathrooms with pedestal sinks and/or bead board with the same clean lines. This is my dilemma, aesthetically speaking, should your home be decorated in a cohesive manner? Can I paint and decorate this room as a separate entity of its own or should it blend with the rest of my home? What IÂd like to do is paint it either grayish blue or grayish green so that the molding and baseboards pop. IÂd then paint the mirror frame metallic silver and change the toilet paper dispenser and towel ring to match the mirror. IÂm still not sure what to use to store extra toilet paper. IÂve included pictures of my entry, dining and living room since theyÂre the rooms surrounding this one. The powder room is to the left of the stairs if youÂre facing it from the outside. All this trouble for one teeny tiny room. Thanks

I go there just now and see that "someone liked your comment at Houzz." So I click and get the name of that person and a link. Sue, I think you might be clicking on the wrong link in your email. I get an email with subject line... Someone liked your comment on Houzz!‏ When I open it, it says canyonwind liked your comment on discussion: Garden Web messaging is back without having to follow one another! See Comment When I click on the See Comment it will take me to the very comment that canyonwind 'liked' I just 'liked' your post above, so you might (if you have it set up) have an email that says Someone liked your post. I think it will say liked post, if you are the OP (Original Poster) of the thread. I think it will say liked comment if it is your reply in a thread. Go check your email, and see if you have one for me 'liking' your post. (the other) Sue Say Goodnight Irene

SOP's fine to go down on damp grass, and you can do it now if you want. Really, you're barely off-cycle for an app I scheduled for October 15th. Always read my dates as "somewhere kind of around this date if that's convenient for you." We can always revise the schedule if things really get off-track. Bermuda doesn't require heavy synthetic winterization and the process can actually cause damage the following spring and summer. Greening's unlikely at this point if growth has slowed significantly. However, I don't recommend keeping soybean meal (or any grain) around over the winter as the stuff is a beacon to mice and other less-pleasant rodents. Lighter organic winterization practices won't harm Bermuda, so I'd put it down. If you have shrubs, gardens, or trees, this stuff would also be very good for them at this point in the season as well. I dropped my last organics on October first (in Pennsylvania), being very certain to strike the Thuja, lilacs, trees, and other shrubs with the stuff pretty heavily.