Sorry I know this is old but still a lot of valuable information. I was researching butterfly bushes. I've tried a couple of the newer sterile varieties and they've been disappointing as far as attracting butterflies. I'm not sure they're worth the space. So I started wondering if the older varieties might be hard to find now. It would be a shame if they get lost over time like some plants do. I plan to watch for a couple next spring. Many years ago I had a few of the old varieties that reseed. Kind of a pain but at least they attracted butterflies. My mistake was planting them in a mixed perennial bed where the seeds had a great place to sprout. I think I could control one much easier if I plant it by itself where I can mow up to and around it. If I remember right, the seeds didn't travel far (for me anyway). They mostly just rain down. I've never seen a butterfly bush growing along a roadside here in Missouri so I'm going to try again. Hoping I can find a Black Knight (op called it Dark Knight) or Attraction. Zinnias are great for attracting butterflies if you get the right ones but I'm having trouble with disease (alternaria blight I think). On a side note - I looked at the UK study that said Lilliput zinnias were the best but the study seemed a bit lame to me. They only tested four varieties and they were mostly counting little butterflies like skippers. I think that's why some people are saying they're not that great.

A couple more things I have seen recently: The first has to fo with the Beautyberry bush, Callicarpa americana. I have read in quite a few books and online articles that while this plant will attract birds, it isn't until mid- to late-winter when all other food sources are depleted that birds will turn to the purple berries. But over the past couple of weeks I have watched as Mockingbirds visit my bushes in the mornings and evenings to pick off a few berries. They aren't hungrily gobbling down all the berries, just picking off a few here and there for a snack. So apparently in the case of Mockingbirds, at least, it doesn't have to be the dead of winter for the Beautyberry to 'work'. Though, with the globes of purple mixed in with all the compact foliage (grown in full sun), mine are 'working' even when not attracting birds. Second has to do with a Blue Jay I saw yesterday. I have also read that Blue Jays can be bullies or practical jokers, scaring off other birds from feeders with hawk-like calls and I had seen this behavior around the birdbath. Well yesterday I heard a couple of Red-Shouldered Hawks calling back and forth. One was circling overhead and the other was hiding in an oak behind my house. I was having a hard time spotting the one in the oak, which was odd since the oak is either diseased or stressed and not as fully leaved as others in the area. As I tried moving for different angles to find this hawk, I saw a Blue Jay quickly dart from the oak to another nearby that had more foliage. I smirked a bit and thought, "Now who is scared?" But as I continued to scan for the second hawk, I heard it call again, but now from the other oak. Then the Blue Jay flew from that oak to a pine. And the Red-Shouldered Hawk call followed it. This Blue Jay wasn't just making hawk-like calls, it was perfectly mimicing the call of the Red-Shouldered Hawk which kept the actual hawk circling overhead until it got over searching for the hawk that was encroaching on its territory and flew off. I had to laugh that this Joker Jay had intentionally messed with the hawk. Which it kept doing until a Red-Tailed call came in the distance, at which time the Jay promptly shut up.

Nicholas' book was dated 1937. This is the HMF reference to an abreviated version of the reference. A Rose Odyssey EDIT Book (1937) Page(s) 14. Several years ago there was a discussion in American Rose Society circles about the genuineness of the American stock of General Jacqueminot. I studied the question abroad and found at Reymond's a line of magnificent everblooming General Jacqueminot, descendants of the original stock he had inherited from his Uncle Roussel, the originator. These had been improved almost to the status of a Hybrid Tea (sic) in floriferousness. We acquired enough plants from Reymond to rejuvenate our stock and the General Jacqueminot stock of Jackson and Perkins is of authentic French origin He stated in the book, through propagation in the US, the variety (and many other HPs) ran to rampant, blind growth. Think Dr. Huey suckers with little bloom.

I grew Autumn Damask briefly many years ago, so don't remember much beyond the "old rose/Damask" scent. The ones I have now are damask perpetuals, and those are much more double with fewer stamens. What you say makes sense because I feel like there is a generic "old rose" base, but the overall scent can differ according to the variety. Some smell sweeter or "drier" than others. I've noticed the same thing with different varieties of Gardenia. Some varieties smell more "coconut suntan lotiony sweet" and others more spicy. Carnation/Clove is one of my favorite scents in flowers. I'm jealous that you can grow Dianthus. I gave them up a long time ago. Too hot here. The only one that did well for me was Rainbow Loveliness, but that has more a powdery floral scent, no clove. I've smelled clove in Dainty Bess and Blush Noisette, though. But it's never enough.