I'd probably get it from Heirloom roses. It will start smaller but theirs should be virus free which is important in these older roses. Palatine's version will be a lot bigger at the start though and will likely grow faster. As for grafted vs own root - I haven't found it to matter much in my garden. It's more that Palatine's roses start out so much bigger that makes a difference, so if a rose is iffy here then I'll get it from Palatine so it has the best chance at getting established and getting through the winter. But the advantage in buying from Heirloom is that they try to make sure their roses are virus free. So if you're buying a rose that has a very high chance of being virused it can be worth it to get a clean version that will start out healthier. My Double Delight is own root, from either Roses Unlimited or Heirloom (I don't remember which) and it has been a very good plant; a bit slow the first year but very nice the second year.

I've been having the same question batting around inside my head since small plants were delivered last week from another source. The poor little things are rootbound in what I consider to be too small 2" pots and it's a bear to try and maintain correct moisture level. Since I don't have beds completely amended I can't plant everything now and the little plants will get trampled as I work in gardens. Scored a load of shipping pots and trays from Home Depot on Thursday. They were just sitting tossed here and there in the outdoor garden section. Asked the cashier if they save them and she said they just collect them at the end of the day and toss. Let me take as many as I could fit in car with all other stuff I bought. Bleached everything, going to reduce excessive drainage holes and use to pot up tiny rootbound plants until I find them permanent home. Took me over a week to figure out I can't hold them over in their present containers and there wasn't enough time before they're damaged too far that I won't have to worry about planting them when beds are ready. Buckets of rain soaked clay soil and haven't been able to work on amending beds for improved drainage. Got email yesterday about Bluestone's sale and was sorely tempted. Think I'll go for some affordable one quarts or gallons at local nurseries so I don't have to face this situation again. Moving them in and out to harden off, trying to maintain proper moisture and worrying about rootbound state isn't something I have extra time for at this point in gardening season. Everything seems to need close attention this time of year! I don't even know "what I don't know yet" about all this gardening stuff...LOL.

Well, you can buy a pH meter at Lowe's for under $20. (Probably Home Depot also sells it, so does every Farmer's supply store). I wasn't sure that this cheapo pH meter worked so I postponed buying it but after MichaelG said (and if I remember Mike Rivers confirmed) that this cheap stuff worked well, I did buy one. It is useful because even in the same garden there are spots that could be different. My soil is about average 6.5 but in one spot I measured under 6, to be exact, 5.5 and in another spot around 7. The second spot I guessed to be high - I tried to grow Mediterranean herbs there and I limed that area heavily. In any case, I had someone coming over with a very fancy and very expensive professional pH meter; I asked him to test the same areas and he got the same reading. So this cheap pH meter works, you just have to make a bit of mud where you measure the soil. One more thing. We planted multiflora grafted roses from Pickering in a garden where the soil was 6.9, so close to neutral (7.00) and they performed beautifully. Just in case we sprinkled a bit of sulfur around, so by now the soil is 6.6 but the roses did extremely well even before the sulfur had a chance "to work". So IMHO, you do not need very acidic soil for multiflora to work, it just may cause problem if your soil is very alkaline (I guess, over 8, or 8.5 - southern California gardeners can tell you better than I can what is the 'cutting' point for multiflora).

If your current washer has been repaired and is working, why replace it now? You've already invested in the repair, I'd suggest continuing to use the machine until it develops another problem. Payback on energy/water savings depends on individual usage characteristics and local utility costs. Payback time at average of four loads per week likely will be longer than you expect, unless your utility costs are very high. Keep in mind that just because a frontloader (or any washer for that matter) has an exceptionally large capacity doesn't mean all your laundry should be bundled together so as to always run the largest load possible. Sorting according to color, soil level, fabric type, and special care items is still important, and even moreso with the newer HE-type low-water and high-spin-speed machines that are less forgiving at mismatching the cycle selection and load type. The wrinkle-prevent (or wrinkle guard, finish guard, wrinkle free, etc.) feature on dryers sometimes lead to misunderstanding of what exactly it does. It's intended for situations in which no one is present to immediately unload the dryer when a cycle ends. What it does is instead of the machine shutting off and sitting there with the clothes crumpled in the drum, it runs an unheated tumble for an additional period of time (either intermittently or continuously) to keep the items moving and fluffed-up. If you normally unload immediately when the cycle ends, the wrinkle-prevent function won't really do much for you.