You've gotten some great ideas about handling blackspot from folks. As you discovered, pruning doesn't make a difference and the bush tends to prefer to keep its canes so it has the stored resources in the canes to regrow new leaves. Some roses will blackspot badly only in some conditions then regrow leaves that are mostly OK in other parts of the season. Others are chronic, and which roses blackspot more in your zone will vary from other folks. It always helps to post where you're from so we can give advice pertinent to your area. The flip side of the picture is that blackspot doesn't usually kill an otherwise healthy rose. It saps some energy from a rose to regrow those leaves, and not get the "food" from the leaves in the meantime, but a robust rose can put out new leaves and recover reasonably well. Wimpy roses can't handle this and may decline over time, but a lot of us (like me) don't spray anything and just tolerate the blackspot. We find the roses that aren't wimps and learn to overlook the spots. Over time, roses tend to build up some degree of resistance to blackspot in your area if you let them fend for themselves, but plenty of roses in my yard still blackspot every year for a while under some conditions. It's up to you what do do. The Bayer product Charleney mentioned is the one most folks on here recommend to handle the blackspot and if it bugs you that's the way to go. If you're a lazy gardener like me, or don't like the spraying process, or want an experiment, you could try letting it go and see how things progress. I have a lot of roses and they handle no spray well, but my relatively dry climate helps me get away with that approach better than in some places. Regardless, sit back and enjoy your inherited roses. They don't really take as much work as people seem to think, and you may find they "grow" on you and you want more. When that happens, come back to us and we'll help enable you into more roses. Cynthia

So much for working out while they're playing video games, LOL. Plus I ate right along with them: Taco Bell and pizza. I must have lost during the week because I managed to eat all that and at this morning's weigh-in, I stayed exactly the same as last week. BUT (and that's a big but, LOL), the holidays are over and now I am going to buckle down and really get a consistent workout program going. Before you know it, spring will be here and I plan on being at my goal weight by then!

This has been a wonderful place to share thoughts and concerns, mostly about quilting. I seldom interact with other women locally, let alone quilters, so this gave me a connection via computer at all hours of the day to women with like minds. I'd drop in just to see what was going on and hear what was accomplished. It makes a wonderful, trusting connection. I'm grateful for the lessons and support and consider you all friends, some even more so as I've met them in person. Cindy, the retreat is open to any or all of you on this forum and is in October at a YMCA camp in North Carolina. It is a way for any who can come to meet up face to face with people they read messages from all year long. Room and board is cheap and you bring your own projects. We help each other, eat, talk about quilting and share experiences. This year it will be Oct. 7-10 and you can google Camp Cheerio in NC to see the venue. You'll hear more about it toward summer and we'd love to see you. Jennifer in VA is unofficial chairperson and she'll send out a notice.

There are always flowers for those who want to see them. Henri Matisse Derive happiness in oneself from a good day's work, from illuminating the fog that surrounds us. Henri Matisse What I dream of is an art of balance, of purity and serenity devoid of troubling or depressing subject matter - a soothing, calming influence on the mind, rather like a good armchair which provides relaxation from physical fatigue. Henri Matisse Drawing is like making an expressive gesture with the advantage of permanence. Henri Matisse An artist must never be a prisoner. Prisoner? An artist should never be a prisoner of himself, prisoner of style, prisoner of reputation, prisoner of success, etc. Henri Matisse He who loves, flies, runs, and rejoices; he is free and nothing holds him back. Henri Matisse With color one obtains an energy that seems to stem from witchcraft. Henri Matisse Creativity takes courage. - Henri Matisse Creativity takes courage. Henri Matisse There is nothing more difficult for a truly creative painter than to paint a rose, because before he can do so he has first to forget all the roses that were ever painted. Henri Matisse It has bothered me all my life that I do not paint like everybody else. Henri Matisse Exactitude is not truth. Henri Matisse I don't paint things. I only paint the difference between things. Henri Matisse It is only after years of preparation that the young artist should touch color - not color used descriptively, that is, but as a means of personal expression. Henri Matisse I do not literally paint that table, but the emotion it produces upon me. Henri Matisse An artist must possess Nature. He must identify himself with her rhythm, by efforts that will prepare the mastery which will later enable him to express himself in his own language. Henri Matisse Impressionism is the newspaper of the soul. Henri Matisse Time extracts various values from a painter's work. When these values are exhausted the pictures are forgotten, and the more a picture has to give, the greater it is. Henri Matisse You study, you learn, but you guard the original naivete. It has to be within you, as desire for drink is within the drunkard or love is within the lover. Henri Matisse A picture must possess a real power to generate light and for a long time now I've been conscious of expressing myself through light or rather in light. Henri Matisse I wouldn't mind turning into a vermilion goldfish. Henri Matisse I have been no more than a medium, as it were. Henri Matisse In love, the one who runs away is the winner. Henri Matisse Work cures everything. Henri Matisse My curves are not crazy. Henri Matisse Jazz is rhythm and meaning. Henri Matisse I'm growing old, I delight in the past. Henri Matisse Biography Nationality: French Type: Artist Born: December 31, 1869 Died: November 3, 1954