Annie Laurie McDowell as a gracious, vivacious (and terribly funny!) lady who came to Los Angeles in the mid to late 1940s from Colorado to "become an actress". She studied and performed at The Pasadena Playhouse, was "discovered" and became the nightly personality on KTLA Channel 5, our oldest, earliest television station. It was her job to introduce the nightly guests and present the commercials. The station felt her name was too 'stilted', so they changed it to Candy McDowell. She and her producer fell in love and eventually married, with Candy 'retiring' to raise their family. She had quite a few fun, interesting stories about her years at Channel 5, with Dean filling in from his forty years at NBC. After retiring, they moved to Chatsworth, buying a condo adjacent to Chatsworth Park South and discovered The Homestead Acre there. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minnie_Hill_Palmer_House She, and her wonderful husband, Dean, joined the Historical Society and took on the restoration of the gardens at "The Acre", as their retirement project. It was there, I met them in 1983 at one of their open gardens, which were held monthly. Rather quickly, they had me joining them, volunteering at The Huntington Library in their rose gardens. My earliest 'funny colored roses' came through Candy, primarily from Peter Schneider (American Rose Rambler editor) who imported many and dedicated his rose, Eden Ellen, in remembrance of their daughter who was killed by a drunk driver. John MacGregor, Clair Martin's predecessor at The Huntington, donated a number of old and rare roses to help jump start the garden restoration. Several were already growing in the garden when Candy and Dean began their efforts. The Acre hosted an annual Rose Festival, featuring old, rare and unusual roses Annie Laurie propagated. It wasn't long until their festivals also included roses which had passed through my Newhall garden which were decent roses, but not exactly what I had thought, or hoped they would be, with cutting grown and seedling roses added to the mix. They spent "winter" here in the San Fernando Valley, escaping the summer heat at her grandfather's "cabin" in Beulah, Colorado. Each return brought something new and exciting for the garden from their summer exploits. The rose, 'Pike's Peak' was one find. The Pike's Peak seedling, 'Beulah Belle' was my 'thank you' to the member of The Belles who supplied the cuttings. The Beulah Belles was their ladies civic organization, though the self proclaimed purpose was to "get together monthly to celebrate birthdays and get sloshed". R. Arkansana "Peppermint", the stippled Arkansana, was another. Many came from Denver Botanical and most still grace my garden. There were many shared dinners, garden tours and visits and much local exploration over the years. Roses and a lot of laughter were the main themes. I'll let the entry in Comments section I posted to Help Me Find pick it up here. A number of years ago, Mel Hulse, of the San Jose Heritage Rose Garden, along with others from that garden, visited my garden in Southern California to obtain cuttings of my collection for their garden. One rose Mel was particularly struck by was Annie Laurie McDowell. At that time, it was simply referred to as Renae Seedling. Mel and others in San Jose began referring to it as "Super Renae" and Mel continued singing its praises. Along the way, I lost the original seedling to flat head apple borers. Mel maintained Annie Laurie McDowell and two or three other Renae seedlings he had collected from my garden. I wanted to name a rose for a very dear friend who was responsible for introducing me to The Huntington Gardens and Library and encouraging me to become a volunteer there. Super Renae was the obvious choice. I emailed Mel and asked if he could bring me as many cuttings and bloom spires as possible as we were to meet in Visalia at Sequoia Nursery to film a documentary about Ralph Moore. Being the kind gentleman he was and the loyal friend I'd grown to love, he not only brought me cuttings, but a large, foam ice chest FULL of blooming material! All were carefully wrapped and placed in ice to maintain them for the four days it would require before they could be taken to their potential namesake. We spent the time at Sequoia and accomplished our mission. I brought the ice chest home and called my dear friend, who invited me to join her for breakfast the following morning. I brought the ice chest and spent well over an hour cleaning and recutting the stems under water while she prepared our breakfast. When all stems were finished, I'd filled a large antique water pitcher with many dozens of bloom clusters in prime condition. The pitcher was her grandfather's, and we placed it on her grandfather's secretary desk. He was a doctor and the case was full of his instruments and medical books. We enjoyed our breakfast while admiring the pitcher full of Annie Laurie McDowell sitting on her grandfather's desk. At that time, Annie Laurie was about 71, so you have an idea of the age of the desk, equipment, books and pitcher and water bowl. Annie Laurie had sought the old Hybrid Tea, Annie Laurie, for years. It was an early Twentieth Century sport of Ophelia. The rose is extinct. Had it not been for the keen eye, dedication and kindness of this fine gentleman and loyal friend, Annie Laurie McDowell would have become extinct years before finally accepting the name of my dear friend. And, Annie Laurie wouldn't have had a rose she loved bear her name in her last years of life. I sincerely miss them both.

Hi again everyone, Thankyou all for your feedback & I assure you I am not a fake houzzer our whatever it is you think I am. I am sort of new to houzz I think it was in 2015 when I joined & I only post 'infrequently' now & then, mostly to ask occasional questions, try to help others with feedback if I can & see what other people are doing with their kitchens. We plan to reno our kitchen this year & I love to look at & save tons of inspiration photos. I may have marked the things I save 'private' when I joined houzz if that is possible to do I don't even remember, I'll have to check & see if that's what I did. I'm not very techy & don't 100% understand how to use this website efficiently yet, or my computer either for that matter lol. I had no idea I would hit such a 'nerve' when posting on this topic or I probably wouldn't have posted about it had know it would lead to people testing my integrity lol. I must say I am impressed by the depth of knowledge people have about radon in rocks etc.! I wasn't expecting answers quite so deep! As for my dog-son, he eats antibiotic/hormone free raw meat food with organic veg {Primal Freeze dried Raw} & drinks spring water. He is titered instead of vaccinated for distemper-Parvo {I'm not sure how to spell titering}. {to my understanding titering tests to see if the levels of vaccine which are already present in the blood from the previous vaccination are still protecting the animal enough to not require re-vaccinating. This is done yearly to check the levels. If the levels fall he gets re vaccinated.} I believe titering is better than over vaccinating dogs which many holistic vets also suspect and or believe can cause cancer in pets.} As for moving my dogs sleeping spot, it's a very good idea but I spoke to him and he told me he would not like to move his spot lol! He has slept there since day one, it's 'his' corner of the room.I truly am concerned about my dog & not trying to stir anyone's pot. P.S. In actuality I really love/want Marble anyway {like 100 million other's out there} not granite, but am trying to 'convince myself' to get granite or engineered quartz because many say it holds up better and doesn't stain/scratch etc. as easily. But that is a whole other discussion & probably a whole other pot lol!

More times than not, but that isn't to say 'always', when I ask a question of an employee at a nursery, greenhouse, or plant store, I get an answer so off the wall I instantly recognize it would be futile to respond with anything but a thank you and a hasty retreat. That sort of encounter is a bit like calling a fireman because you're stuck on a burning roof and when he arrives he tosses you one end of the rope he's holding and tells you to jump. You just KNOW you're pretty much on your own. Repotting includes bare rooting, root pruning, and a change of soil, so it's much more extensive than potting up. Potting up is a half measure that ensures your plant will forever be limited by the root congestion inherent in plantings only potted up, while repotting ensures the planting will be free of those limitations until the approximate point in time when the root/soil mass can be lifted from the pot intact. As your plants grow, you can avoid the need to repot often by potting up before they reach that stage of congestion where the root/soil mass can be lifted from the pot intact, but at some point you'll need to start repotting (or dividing if more appropriate) if you want your plantings to be free of limitations due to root congestion. Soils run the gamut from unusable/poor to superlative/almost perfect. If there is a useful point of delineation that determines good from bad soils, it would almost necessarily be soils you can water to beyond the point of saturation (so you can flush the soil of accumulating salts at will) w/o the plant paying a tax levied by prolonged periods of saturation. That arrangement can sap a huge fraction of your plants' genetic potential. If only for the fact they will fight the grower tooth and nail for control of a planting's vitality, they should be avoided at nearly any cost. Media that provide appropriate structure and long term structural integrity, which are key elements of a good container medium, make your growing experience soo much more rewarding; still, they are not easy to find on the shelf. I used to recommend any of 3 formulas of Fafard brand media, all of which were based on chunky material (pine bark), but Fafard was acquired by Sunshine and the bark they are using is quite fine and quite advanced in stage of breakdown due to composting. It's unlikely you'll find a medium on the shelf that is as good as you can make for half the price, if you can find a source of pine bark that is appropriate in size from the bag, or can readily be screened to an appropriate size w/o significant loss of volume. I've always been lucky enough to be able to find appropriate. Witness the products at 3, 6, and 9 o'clock from 3 different packagers. All are or are very close to ideal for use in container media: I use a 5:1:1 ratio of 5 pine bark (ratio varies slightly with the size gradient of the bark) to 1 peat to 1 perlite + dolomite garden lime. It produces a superb medium that works for you instead of against you. You can also make an extremely productive medium from mostly inert ingredients. Who would think that you could grow well in a medium that provides almost nothing in the way of nutrition? Lots of little rocks and a bit of pine bark, all of which are screened to a size range that ensures the medium holds no excess water. In Frisco, you should be able to find fir bark prescreened to 1/8-1/4" easily. Ewing Irrigation has Turface MVP (tan particles), and you can use Manna Pro Poultry Grit in place of the white particles. That's what I grow all my trees in (around 250-275 in pots at last count. Al

Many on the KT are retirees. I suggest you join or start a program to volunteer in your local school. High school today is not what you remember. At the least you will see that reality. You may discover that you are challenged, energized and encouraged by the work. DH is a member of Grand Times, a 100-member pool of *vetted* retirees who can be called upon by teachers in this 2000-population high school. This is not 'sit and smile' volunteerism. My DH and another volunteer currently aid one teacher in two classes 90 minutes a day, two to three days a week. He's been doing this for five years, in classes of freshman-sophomore English. This high school has risen to the challenge of serving a changing population. About 25% of students are immigrant background -- most of whom are the unmotivated kids Mrs. Pete described above. Rather than mourn the loss of the school's former top-five status, the district has risen is working to educate all who come. (Noble, in the face of the profiteering 'charter schools' prescribed by the current White House.) The North Shore of Chicago is affluent. Retirees come from highly skilled professions. Some are not content to 'do lunch' with fellow board members or play golf 24/7. These seniors have lived advantaged lives and have so much to offer. All this goes to waste because nobody will step up to find out what schools need, and to organize, vet, and run a group like Grand Times. Volunteers provide insights that *teachers* cannot. My favorite quote from a student to his teacher is, "Are the real people coming in today?"