You should join the California Coastal Rose Society, which meets in Carlsbad. I live in San Juan Capistrano and that's my "base" rose society (although I officially belong to several of them). That group takes care of the Magee Rose Garden in Carlsbad in exchange for the free use of its meeting space --- the garden care group meets on assorted Saturday mornings to deadhead, prune, train or whatever is needed. The next care dates are June 27, July 18, August 1, August 22 and September 5. Sessions start at 9 and last 90 minutes or so. All hands are welcome. Bring clippers. The garden is at the corner of Beech Avenue and Garfield Street in Carlsbad. Also, I know the AARS test garden in Carlsbad is also looking for a few helping hands. I can put you in touch with them, or you can call the Armstrong nursery in front of the garden and they can probably direct you to the proper folk. Kathy

I'd probably hesitate a moment or two if the rose name evoked a negative reaction. And the marketers are aware of this. They don't want to have a namesake which most people would avoid. For example, years ago there was a cute lil' rose bush named after someone in the royal British family. "Fergie" to be exact. Welllll, soon after the introduction of that rose the real Fergie was photographed poolside while having her toes sucked by someone (not her husband). Needless to say this created a hubbub in the news and a somewhat negative association with the rose shrub. The marketers quickly changed the name of the shrub to "Sunseeker". That cracks me up every time I think of it. But while we have grown accustomed to the names of our roses, non-rose fanatics are simply unaware and my friends find it wildly amusing when I say something like, "That's George Burns! Isn't he looking good this year?" What IS in a name anyway? My last name is Butcher and it's prevented me from seeking employment as a baby sitter, veterinarian or even a medical examiner. But it is a great name for a hockey player.

I live in Northwestern WI. The USDA Hardiness zone map for the division of 3 & 4 runs right through my area. But I am also on a small strip of land on a hill between two lakes, surrounded by trees. I've easily killed zone 4 plants that were suppose to be indestructable. The electric company cleared out quite a few trees, so it might be closer to six hours now of sun, but it is definitely part shade. The intesity of the few hours of direct sun have killed shade plants (I lost a brunerra and a really cool looking geranium[cranesbill]). The lack of sun also decreased the pallet of my garden to pastels. Lots of pinks and purples and yellows. That New Dawn might just be the trick. It's lovely, and the pale color at that higher field of vision should play well with my other lower plants. I still like the Dr. Henry Upshall. It was cultivated by Hortico in 1993 according to Google. Still not sure if it can handle the lack of lots of sun though. I won't put anything new into the garden until Mother's Day, so I still have lots of time to research. Will be putting the Godkids to work in April on hardscaping after the frost finally heaves. Dr. says I can garden in April, but I doubt that means I can haul rock.LOL

You understood me exactly right, four. It would be better for palamedes swallowtails if they'd lay at least part of their eggs on sassafras, which, so far, hasn't suffered from the red bay disease. The two cats in the picture both ate a LOT of sassafras, pupated, and made perfect palamedes swallowtails, one male and one female. I've known for a long time that palamedes cats would gladly eat sassafras, but I've never found any palamedes eggs or cats on sassafras, so the females apparently don't consider it for egg laying, at least so far. Unfortunately, I've seen very few palamedes swallowtail adults since those two emerged. I saw one a couple of weeks ago, and I think I saw one crossing the road today. I've looked on the redbay regrowth at the base of the dead trees and haven't found any eggs or cats. I found a spicebush cat on some sassafras in my garden, but it's definitely a spicebush cat. Sherry