Thank you Christina! I have loved Mr. Lincoln for at least 20 years. I didn't think he would be happy here, but I am going to give him a try. I'm going to plant the own root clone from RU, and also a grafted plant, tend to them, and see how they do. Fredrick Mistral looks amazing, I hope he's happy here also. Others grow JtO successfully in the area, and other Austins do well here. I look forward to the fragrance! I read about Jadis here, looked her up on Help-me-Find, and fell in love. I seem to have a preponderance of pink roses, and decided that it's time to start bringing in other colors. Golden celebration seems to be loved by many people here, and is so pretty, I can't resist. The good Dr. Jumain is such a luscious color, and is growing at least one full zone colder semi locally. What a beautiful rose he is, sigh.. I could go on and on, and I'm sure that it seems I already have, lol. I'm just very excited to be adding these, and other roses in the future. I've been growing OGR's, various rugosa hybrids, and a few modern shrub roses for quite a while, and I just began trying modern roses last year. They seem to be thriving here. Some where a little rough last year, but look great this summer. I'm learning that attentive and regular watering makes a huge difference, as well as various organic amendments and smallish amounts of organic ferts. I love cutting roses and bringing them in the house, this is the first year I've done this, and cannot imagine what took me so long! Thanks for posting, it's so much fun to read what other people think about roses. :)

Hey Songbird, I found a great resource online a few years ago for seed starting. Some seeds need darkness to sprout (like when they're buried in the ground) and some need light (like they're laying on top of the ground). Some need warmth and some need coolness. So I found several websites that had copied a document Thompson and Morgan used to print, with a long table of plant species and what their light and temp requirements are. One version of it is at the link below. Also, I started sprouting my seeds by putting them between two moist paper towels and sealing them in a ziploc bag. Sometimes they sprout overnight this way! But of course, some take longer. If they need warmth, I pile several ziplocs on top of a heating pad (usually set on low, but put a thermometer on it to make sure it doesn't get too hot!). If they need dark, I put them in a drawer. You have to watch them every day, because if they sprout fast and you don't plant them right away, their little roots can start to penetrate the paper towels and will break when you pull them out (that doesn't necessarily kill them -- depends on how much broke off). Actually, I have a long post on this at my personal garden blog. It has photos, too. Here is a link that might be useful: Seed sprouting lists

may 27th at about 1230am i lost a really good friend. and ive been searching for answers everywhere as to why. i found this forum and wanted to share my story. his name was oreo and he was only 5 yrs old. i came home that evening,to him sitting near his food bowl empty. got him the food. went back into the kitchen to find him do a little scurry across the floor. i wasnt really worried at first until i bent down to pet him to see what the problem was and ran into my living room then laid down on his side stretch out all his legs and let out a loud moan meow then it looked like he had trouble breathing and that he was having a siezure. i though he may have been choking i didnt know how to react so i stuck my fingers in his mouth and there was nothing. then his tongue was out of his mouth and i looked at his chest and saw he wasnt breathing anymore. my other cat nudged him with her head then walked away. for some reason i thought more could be done i took him to the emergency vet. but i knew he was already gone. i didnt know that autopsy could be done on animals they didnt offer it to me. does any one have a similar story and know what might have caused this to happen? i can't get this out of my head i relive it everyday and just wonder.

Jinx - I'm sorry to have to deal with that. I saw your post too. I find it hard still with those going on about it being all the media etc. and saying it is a conspiracy to get the president etc. Fortunately these are not close friends at this point, but it really gets me especially since I have several friends in Europe who are seeing with their own eyes what is going on as many work in healthcare. I try to move on and skip it and hope we are ahead of things by starting social distancing earlier than many of the European countries did. Unfortunately I don't feel like looking at China is a good option since they have a way of controlling their citizens that isn't there in the same way in the Western world. We can learn from what happened to different age groups with their population, but as to control I don't think it is the same as they use ways that wouldn't work in the Western cultures until it is really bad to control things.