Since then I've been reading about cold hardiness. It's not simple: Trigger the dormancy process. Some plants do this on temperature, some on daylight. Both have slop, and are themselves multigene operations. A plant in Virginia may have 2 months more nice weather at the fall equinox, where here in Alberta, the first killing frost has probably already happened. Water removal from tissues. While you want the plant as a whole to go into winter well hydrated, many plants winterize by pulling water from their cells. This leaves a stronger solution in the protoplasm that has a lower freezing point. This confers 10-20 degrees of frost protection. Antifreeze in the tissues. Some plants mak alcohols and glycols. These further lower the freezing point, and interfere with the creation of ice crystals. Protection of buds. Not only is winter cold, but long. Buds can dehydrate to the point of being non-viable. Sunny days just below freezing are the worst for this. The roots can't supply water that warmer temps pull out. This does in cedars, particularly ones on the south side of the hosue. My feel is that you can probably breed 2-3 zones colder with patience and interspecies cross breeds. But if you can find a member of the genus that has the trait you want, and will produce a non-sterile hybrid you have cut a job of centuries down to mere decades. The creation of northern apples is one such story. U Saskatchewan's work with hardy sour cherry is another. The cold tolerance comes from a mongolian pea cherry with tiny fruit that taste awful. Cross it with a decent cherry. Cross the off spring. Select for cold hardiness and taste. Repeat.

I liked being an owner and the intense joy that my incredibly loyal following enjoyed from my hard work. I had many people who just stopping by my garden center could revisit the feelings they had when they walked in their grandmothers garden. Some came as a form of therapy. Others came at night when I advertised in advance about the opening of the Night Blooming Cereus. Still others loved the fragrances, oh how I loved finding new and aromatic plants. Hummingbirds loved my place for they knew dozens and dozens of tasty plants awaited them in all sorts of colors not just red. For some I was the home greenhouse they wanted but could enjoy none the less. The joy I felt in treating the poorest customer just like I did the customer who (literally) was a millionaire and founder of a NYSE listed company. Being in the greenhouse in the quiet of January and feeling warm and seeing beauty all around me. Working harder than I knew I could work and feeling pride and fulfillment. Sharing moments of excitement with a customer who for the first time saw an American Goldfinch or Red Breasted Nuthatch at a feeder I sold them with the correct food to attract them. Being well known in a 6 parish area(county for those of you not from Louisiana) for the fantastic diversity and quality of the plants I sold. I had the pleasure of dining with the late J.C. Raulston of North Carolina. Knowing the late Dr. John Griffin of Louisiana Tech University, a man who made you feel like the most important person in the world,at least to him, every time you visited with him. It was about me but it was also about connecting with all kinds of people.I have been out of the business as an owner for 7 years and I miss the people the most.

Austinkisses, I have had a bunch of roses that got RRD over time, and I had to get rid of most of them. I have, however, had 3 survivors. These 3 plants have not shown any symptoms for several years now. I did cut out the affected parts and continue to use my spray mix as normal. The three varieties that appear to be survivors or are at least asymptomatic are Blythe Spirit (Austin's), Pat Austin, and White Lightnin', the grandiflora. I had another one that put up a valiant fight, General Cavaignac, but ultimately it lost out. I gave it the regular spray treatments and cut out the bad parts, and for a while it seemed to be doing okay, but eventually the rosette would reappear. This went on for a few years. It always seemed to be worse in years when we had a bad, late freeze which would knock out the disease resistance. I finally had to get rid of it which was a shame. I have a second plant of it, but it is in a part of the yard that isn't as good. I hated to lose that rose even though it was a blackspot magnet because it did bloom quite a bit when it got going and repeated well. So, I am not sure what I can or cannot claim except that using the harpin and aspirin appeared to help some, but not most. It does help general disease resistance if the plants do not get clobbered by these late winter-spring transition freezes where the plants are trying to grow. All I can do is report what I did and what I saw as the results.

Comcast seems to have wireless (wifi) set top boxes, it sounds like that's what you have. I seem to think I had a discussion before with someone who mentioned signal problems and some equipment that may have been set up wrong, that made it sound like there may have been interference and conflicts arising from the equipment that was in a house. That person said they were going to have their son check it out. Was that you? What remains is to work it through with Comcast and if they're not successful, hire a home PC/networking technician to review and test your equipment. I hope they're successful. Good luck.