Ratdogheads - my Henri Matisse stays between around 3-4 feet in a mostly sunny spot, but might be a little larger in a full hot sun location. Suffice to say that planting it behind my Champagne Moment was not one of my brighter ideas, and it involves some judicious pruning to make both of them visible. Redwolfdoc - welcome to the fun of rose growing, and always feel free to start a new thread on a topic where it might get more response. I checked the website HelpMeFind, a TERRIFIC website for roses and well worth the optional membership fee, to look up Blue Angel. Both the regular and climbing versions of Blue Angel appear to be on the edge of reported hardiness for our zone, but those are default ratings so not anything to discourage you. If that rose has survived your winters, that's already a good start. Blue Angel cl. is reported to only bloom on old wood, which means that it won't bloom well if it has to regrow from dying back to its roots or graft each year, which is typical of some types of climbers that survive but don't thrive in our zones. Still, 3 seasons is still way too soon to make a judgment about a climber. They tend to spend more time than non-climbing forms in putting down roots and preparing to make their moves, so if it grows some or is at least green and healthy-looking in the active seasons, you might give it some more time. In my world, alfalfa hay or pellets is always a good thing to add to a rose to boost its production a bit in spring. To give you perspective, my Madame Isaac Periere - that is definitely hardy in my zone - was unexciting and unremarkable for 3-4 years while it was putting down roots. Then last spring in its fifth (?) year, it absolutely ate up every rose near it and was stunning in the spring. There's a standard rose wisdom that for roses, first year sleep, second year creep, third year leap. For climbers, you have to give them another year or two of creeping or sleeping before you get leap years. Hope this helps, and welcome to GW! Cynthia

Glad now that I brought this subject up...sounds like you have interesting views and questions as well. Veilchen-what you're saying about the shorter the canes, the more damage possibility...good point. That is what I was wondering about. Harry-interesting idea about increased hardiness over the years...sounds plausible Digger-had never thought of that (insects on larger bushes). I just know I would love to start with a little bigger plants in April than I usually do. Donna-I forgot, where in NYS are you!? All I know is that it was kinda nice not to spend time I didn't have anyway last fall, cutting down and carrying away all that extra growth...if I knew I'd be doing it all in April anyway. We haven't had that many ice storms (big one about 8 years ago), but yesterday the ice was AWFUL. I FELL down HARD coming out of my house...very thankful I didn't break my wrist as it slammed backwards in Abe Darby's rose bed!! And to think, I was on my way to the doctor's office anyway. LOL :0) Phyl

I realize it is often frustrating to not be able to ID a plant but in this case your plant is still too juvenile to make out the detailed features that are used for that purpose. It looks very much like a variety of forms of Colocasia esculenta but there are over 100 known forms so to offer an opinion would be little more than a guess. I am posting the scientific description of the species so you can file it and as the plant matures begin to check the features against the plant. The chances are high you will have to wait for the plant to grow fairly large to be certain. You may want to invest in a descent botanical dictionary to be able to understand some of the terms used in botanist Pete Boyce description. Again, I am sorry not to be able to give you more assistance but attempting to ID most juvenile plants often results in a bad ID. Steve Colocasia gigantea (Blume) J. D. Hooker, Fl. Brit. India 6: ´óðÃó da ye yu Herbs, large to gigantic, evergreen, with massive, stout epigeal stem. Leaves very large; petiole pale green, strikingly pruinose, to 2.5 m, proximal half sheathing; leaf blade white pruinose abaxially, especially when immature, green or pale green adaxially, ovate-cordate, 25¨C250 ¡à 17¨C150 cm, membranous,base cordate, peltate, margin undulate, apex shortly acuminate. Inflorescences 5¨C13 arising from leaf axil (actually terminal on shoot and displaced by new shoot); peduncle pruinose, cylindric, 30¨C80 ¡à 1¨C2 cm, each with a membranous cataphyllnearly equaling length of peduncle. Spathe 12¨C24 cm; tube green, ellipsoid, 3¨C6 ¡à 1.5¨C2 cm; limb erect, white, oblongboat- shaped, distinctly constricted, 8¨C19 ¡à 2¨C3 cm. Spadix 9¨C 20 cm; female zone white or cream-colored, conic; sterile zone 3¨C4.5 cm, slender; male zone 5¨C14 cm; appendix very short, 1¨C5 mm, apex acute. Berry oblong, ca. 5 mm. Seeds many, fusiform, with many distinct longitudinal striations. Fl. Apr¨CJun, fr. Sep. 2n = 28. Valley forests, limestone-associated, usually on moist but welldrained sites, also cultivated; 100¨C700 m. Fujian, Guangdong, Guangxi, Jiangxi, Yunnan; cultivated in Anhui, Guizhou, Hunan, Sichuan, and Zhejiang [Cambodia, Laos, Malaysia (Peninsular), Myanmar, Thailand, Vietnam; widely cultivated in SE Asia]. The link below may help. Here is a link that might be useful: Colocoasia esculenta

Yes, I'm rather broken-hearted regarding the new Sturbridge policy regarding herb sales. I used to acquire two or three new herbs each year by stopping by there on my way to or from the Boston area. IMO it was one of their more significant contributions. So far they are continuing their line of traditional seeds, but when I bought some in June they were totally out of all their bean varieties. They also seem to be trying to gradually block public access to their herb garden, which until now was accessible to members of the non-tourist public that patronized their gift and book shop. Their herb garden is very interesting and instructive, and well worth the trip to the RT 84 exit from the Mass Pike, from which Sturbridge is easily accessed. It is terraced on three or four levels, and always has a nice variety of herbs, with some of the old roses on the top level. There are some old wooden benches to rest on under a nice, shady tree about half way up, which is a definite boon on hot days. I had an interesting encounter with a chipmunk there this summer; it was happy to ignore me while it checked for seed pods on one of the herbs. They usually have several nice books on herbs in their book shop, too, If hops doesn't deter you motherwort probably won't, either, but in some situations it can definitely be worse than lemon balm. You will probably want to keep an eye on it once it begins to set seed. In the clay soil in my area, I have had much better success overwintering sage and thyme outside in pots rather than in the ground, as that provides the "sharp drainage" they prefer. The only herbs that have really done well as "perennials" for me here are the ones that reseed or spread by runners, though--lemon balm, black peppermint, sage, thyme, motherwort, oregano--imo most herbs are only short lived perennials in my area unless frequently divided and replanted. I admire people that keep their herbs going by rooting and etc., but I have broadened my herbal interests to include things like forsythia buds and honeysuckle blossoms from plants that truly perennialize in our area, to salve my disappointment over not having neat little rows of all the common kitchen herbs coming back each year. So many of them just don't, without really skilled handling. ..or, at least, the full sun that I simply can't give them. Ah, well; even my walnut tree's leaves have herbal uses....