I let the top 3/4 dry out and then bottom water until the top glistens. I would not keep the soil damp or always spray when the top drys out. The top of my soil will dry out in a day or so, but I wait until the top 3/4 is dry before giving them a drink. Are you using Peat moss jeffy pellets? Keriann~ You could also search 'watering' here, there are many posts about this.

Could be either. If the plant has all the resources necessary to push new growth, including buds to push, or enough resources to remain alive until existing buds can be matured or new growth containing buds is produced, it should regrow. If the plant is so stressed and starved for resources, like an old one can wonder, it will probably die. If it's a budded plant and the actual bud union is removed, you'll likely stimulate growth of the under stock. It may not seem like it, but roses WANT to grow. If there is any way for it to survive, it most often will. I've experimented propagating cuttings 'they said' would not root. Supposedly, you can't root the flowering sprays from polys and climbers because they don't contain growth buds. Except, they root the easiest of any cuttings from polys and climbers for me. I rooted one flowering cluster from Annie Laurie McDowell with NO growth buds. It rooted. It lived and it shot up a basal growth from the roots, not from the original cutting. As long as they have the minimum of what they need, they grow. Kim

well hey, thanks Michael and Kim - there is nothing nicer than seeing some validation of one's fiddling around. I first noticed the stem slitting method while idly perusing an ancient dracaena in my bathroom. Without thinking, I dug my thumbnail in the naked stem (there had been no new growth for years and it had great long, twisty, bare limbs) and thought no more about it until a few weeks later, a brand new shoot appeared out of the slit I had made. Months later, I came across the exact same principle, elaborated by a breeder I much admire (Chris Warner). As for shoot bending, the papers you pointed me to were fascinating - I love to learn new things but once you have got the basics of horticulture tucked under your belt, it is a frustrating search for innovative ideas for amateurs such as myself - which is why forums such as this are so brilliant. I like to mess around with little trials of this and that (you wouldn't believe my latest fad but it involves phyto-remediation, sorting out rose replant syndrome by using zeolite - I have persuaded a mate with access to amazing university facilities to participate, using loads of Sommerwind (cos it is a cakewalk to propagate)and zeolite, a naturally occuring mineral with astonishing uses. Then there was the inosculation fad - still growing a circle of hornbeam for approach grafting them into a living arbour......and so on and on. Keep up the search for new and interesting stuff - we are hungry and avid for information.

-Sararock, Lol! I'm always calling myself a slacker when it comes to weeding and doing things I don't like in the garden! But moving plants is kind of fun so I don't mind doing that ;-) Technically, fall and spring are the best times to move things around. The cooler and usually wetter conditions make it easier for the plant to recover and re-establish itself than if it were moved in the full heat of summer. But I've never been one to follow rules ;-) It was last summer that I became fully annoyed with how the garden was looking, so decided to get things moved around right then and there! Of course, it was hot out and after I moved everything they started to wilt terribly and look as if they were on the brink of croaking. I was left scrambling to keep everything hydrated and even got out a big beach umbrella to shade a few plants, lol. But it felt good to get it all accomplished and everything came back nicely this spring. CMK