1. Favorite RED / MAGENTA - Maggie. I especially like the flatish (not high-centered) form that looks like nothing so much as a dancer's full array of bright rosy skirts. Even though it's a Bourbon, it's extremely healthy and easy to grow. Low in thorns, large in bloom size. The blooms last a long time in the vase, and you can stare at it forever without tiring of appreciating its beauty. 2. Favorite ORANGE / APRICOT - We don't have this color yet that I've seen, though tiny Crepuscle (noisette), when it gets large enough to bloom, will be a faint shade of this. Maybe. That's a low-thorns healthy rose with large blooms too. 3. Favorite YELLOW - Julia Child. I like its butter yellow color, but even in the summer when it fades some, you can still tell that it's a yellow, not a white. 4. Favorite PINK - General Schablikine. Often called a red, it has always been a dusty deep pink here, regardless of season. We've had it from two different nurseries and the color was a dusty pink in both cases. It's a beautiful, beautiful color that contrasts nicely with the lighter pinks that we have a good many of. Its form is flatish and full-petaled. Fairly low in thorns, good-sized flowers that keep on going late into the fall. Evergreen in North Carolina. 5. Favorite PURPLE / VIOLET / MAUVE / LAVENDER - Reine des Violettes, assuming it's going to eventually get around to blooming here. (I've read that sometimes it takes awhile to establish.) Low/no thorns, and so far the picture of health here. 6. Favorite BICOLOR (Example - Double Delight) - Cinco De Mayo. This is a party rose, pure party rose. If you plant Cinco De Mayo, you must prepare to take a bloom in the house, clinch it between your teeth, put on your dancing shoes and dance all over in a big ruffled skirt. (Guys can wear kilts, I suppose...) The rose's only negative is that it's a bit thorny. Otherwise, it's amazingly healthy, and beautiful in its combination of colors with ruffly edges. It blooms less once it loses much of its sunlight, but it never gets a bit of any kind of disease (grown organically, at least). 7. Favorite WHITE - Lion's Fairy Tale. Healthy, healthy, and will take a bit of shade and still bloom well. Large blooms. 8. Favorite CLIMBER - Madame Alfred Carriere. We don't have it yet, but I'm figuring on ordering it this fall. 9. Favorite FLORIBUNDA - Gruss An Aachen. It's simply a perfectly beautiful rose, and it smells wonderful too if you get it in just the right temperature. 10. Favorite GRANDIFLORA - Eutin. The pictures at Help Me Find are so heavy with the numbers of blooms in its bloom clusters that you'd swear they must have been Photoshopped, but no, those huge numbers of bright red blooms are actually what we're seeing here... growing next to our pergola in far, far too much shade. It is getting a little powdery mildew in all that shade, but a hard spray with the hose once in awhile gets rid of it instantly. If shade is your problem, this is your rose. A little bit thorny, but you can't always have everything, and its interesting foliage looks good in the landscape. Evergreen in North Carolina. 11. Favorite HYBRID TEA - We don't have a hybrid tea, but we've had two pinks (tossed due to Rose Rosette Disease) that show a lot of hybrid tea parentage and we'll buy those two again soon: Belinda's Dream and a tiny very attractive small shrub with a bloom that looks like a tiny version of another Belinda's Dream: Rose Rosette. 12. Favorite Old English, Rugosa, Romantica, or David Austin - David Austin's Mortimer Sackler, hands down. The blooms here have looked exactly like those featured on David Austin's website, and this rose is healthy, healthy, healthy. Beautifully delicate looking and lovely to sniff, too. 13. Favorite LANDSCAPE ROSE OF THE YEAR award (I just made this one up because there's no list that ought to leave out this rose!) - Mrs. Dudley Cross. If you can only have one rose, this one is it. It's luminous creamy colored blooms are breathtakingly beautiful and they're eyecatchers in any vase too. Give yourself a gold star if you buy this one, because you made the right decision! And add a second star if you can also buy General Schablikine to plant beside it; the pink of General Schablikine perfectly reflects the faint dusty pink edging of Mrs. Dudley Cross in cooler weather. They look splendid together in a vase. Quite healthy if grown organically. Evergreen in North Carolina. Ours is a no-spray anywhere any time yard and all these roses are suitable for growing that way, at least in warm and humid blackspot-prone North Carolina. Best wishes, Mary Here is a link that might be useful: Mrs. Dudley Cross

Thanks for the encouragement everyone, I'm going to try it. Just got back from a trip to my local nursery's open house. Attended a workshop on containers...pretty, pretty, pretty! Lots of good ideas to try. After I got home my neighbor girl, Karen, the young lady I helped winter sow yesterday, came over. She wanted to go "recycle pickin'" so we took off with an empty trash bag. Came back with it full of milk jugs. She is all excited about winter sowing more seeds. I think she is going to be a winter sowing convert! Wait until she sees sprouts! Just think, if everyone of us took a youngster under our wing and taught them to WS we could have a whole new generation of winter sowers. I have helped Karen, Max, Foster and Evan this spring and they are all excited about the outcome. Tina or trowelgal

Hey Alamo5000, Just checking to see if you figured out what was causing your plants to twist and curl. I'm having the same problem with my plants, but they haven't been outside at all. Did you take pics yet? I'd love to compare. I, like you, have several tomato plants. I have 400 tomatoes and 400 peppers to be exact. No, I don't put them all in my gardens. I grow them and give them to everyone else. I'm leaning towards too much fertilizer. I just can't find any pictures on the web describing the leathery texture and curling of my plant leaves. They are kept in my furnace room so it's not the cold temps.

Sorry all I have is the Sinbun Recipe ( Cinnamon Bunns or Sticky Bunns ) Lous Cinnamon Buns ------ SS Pan ,9 ½ in by 12 in by 2 ½ in deep Or Pyrex baking dish 3/4 stick of butter and 1 tablesp. Of Vegetable oil Pancake syrup , Brown Sugar and a little granulated sugar Cinnamon and Raisins Melt the butter in the pan and let it cool ( put it in the refrig. a few minutes) Level it across the pan and back into the refrig to harden. Take it out and Sprinkle very little oil and move it around with the back of a spoon. Dribble some pancake syrup all around the pan , then a little gran. Sugar Then lay in some brown sugar . Dont be chincey , leave some lumps. Last sprinkle ( good bit ) of Cinnamon and Raisins. You can also add some walnuts, If you want to. If you dont want to , dont do it but dont blame me , if you didnt Do and wish you had done , etc. Take half + of the recipe of the Braided Bread dough and roll it out to about 3/16 in thick ( 3 pennies ) You can do the dough in 2 pieces if it is easier. Try to roll them out to at least 16 in long. x 12 in. Sprinkle some pancake syrup, Sugar and cinnamon on the dough , then some raisins. Roll the dough up loosely, Making a 12 in. long Roll and cut into 1 in. pieces. Mark the roll ,at half way and half again before cutting., into 8 pieces. Do the same to the other piece of dough Place these pieces in the pan that you prepared , leaving spaces in between , because the dough will grow. Push them around with your fingers, to fill the pan evenly. When the dough is doubled , bake in a 320 degree oven , on a shelf near the top, for about 25 to 35 minutes or golden brown. You can Baste , with an egg milk mix, while baking. When it is removed from the oven , place a piece of aluminum foil over it and a large cutting board or cookie tin and then flip it over and remove the pan. If some of the goodies stay in the pan take them out right away and patch the Buns while the goo is still hot. WARNING !!!! Get away from them until they cool. !!!!!!!! You will burn your lips Now you can see if you used enough brown sugar and gooey stuff. . Braided Bread Everyone has their own way to do this, which is better. But! I like to cook and bake using easier ways, long as the end results are the same. I've used this recipe since I got out of the Army, a very long time ago and converted it from Army Baking (Large amounts )to Home Baking. It wasn't easy going from 4 Quarts to 4 cups , etc. But I worked it out. I got the results that I wanted and I'm passing it on to everyone . Here is the recipe: Luigis - - - Braided, Plaited Bread or Dough for Cinnamon Buns , Bagels, Etc. 2 cups of milk, (warm ) - - Sometimes I sub Powdered Milk 1 1/3 cup of Sugar 3 large eggs- beaten (save ½ egg w. a little milk for basting ) 1 tablesp.+ of Vanilla - - ½ cup + of oil - - ½ teasp. Salt 2 packs of Fleischmans Active dry yeast AP Flour - 3 cups to start ( probably about 6 total ) enough to knead into a soft ball that doesnt stick to your hands. I now substitute a cup of WW Flour. Makes it more tender. Stir the yeast in a 1/3 cup of warm water w. ½ spoon of sugar, to test it for raising. In a large mixing bowl, or (KA mixer) place the warm milk ( not hot ) add the sugar ,vanilla , salt & eggs Beat until the sugar is dissolved and add the Yeast and mix well. Add 1 cup of WW flour and 3 cups of AP flour and mix with mixer a few minutes. Add flour until you make a " soft " Ball of dough that doesnt stick to your hands. Dont make it too stiff , try to keep it a "soft dough." On the Work Top, Sprinkle some flour under the ball and Knead it until smooth. Place it in a large bowl, Rub some oil on top. Cover with a damp towel and place in a warm spot ( until double.) I usually turn my oven on for a few minutes to warm and shut it. Place a pan of hot water on the bottom shelf. Then place the dough bowl in the oven to rise. When ( doubled ) deflate and put it out of the bowl onto a floured worktop. Punch it down and knead the dough again. Then cut into 2 pieces ( 2 loaves ). Divide each piece into 3. Roll each of these 3 pieces into the shape of a sweet potato ( about 12 in long ). With the basting ( egg ) mixture and wet the tips of the 3 pieces and stick them together at one end . Then spread the other end the shape of an arrow While keeping the stuck ends down and away from you , twist each piece clockwise about 8 times and lay them down so you can Platt or Braid them and stick the other ends together There are other ways to Braid ( 6 Strands ) but I take the fast easy way to do things. Place the 2 shaped loaves on lightly oiled cookie tins, or in loaf pans. Preheat the oven to 400 deg. Spray some Pam on the loaves or brush with oil. This will keep them from drying while raising. When doubled in size (about 20 min.) place in the oven , top shelf and bake until slightly tan. Baste them with the egg mix and rotate them back into the oven and ( Turn temperature down to 325 deg.) Baste again when they are a dark tan. Cook till a rich brown, mahogany color. Take them out of the pans onto a rack to cool. Control yourself !!!! Let them cool !!! This sounds like a lot to do but it is easy and should take only 10 minutes to mix and shape. The most time is in the waiting for the dough to rise and for the bread to cool . But it do look great !!! & Professional This dough can also be used for Cinnamon Buns . I use it for Bagels too. I like the Hardly Noticeable, sweet taste.