I thought I'd post a progress report. I have now taken out 39 roses, with the tops cut off 3 more. They are the last ones I plan to remove, at least this year. I may do a modest version of this in three or four years when I see how some very young roses recently planted turn out. I am a gardener, not a true collector, so only well performing roses get to stay. Since my roses are planted in gopher baskets, digging the root up is no trivial task. When that is done (tomorrow or sometime this weekend) there will be 99 roses in the ground with one in a pot waiting to be planted when it gets a bit bigger, or 100 roses. Since I grow a number of duplicates, my HelpMeFind listing shows fewer than this. Also, I have 4 roses on order that I expect to receive later in the spring. That will bring the total up to 104, still more manageable than the 146 it would have been. Do I have any regrets? No, not one. Instead there is a sensation of relief. Most of the roses I removed were either poor performers or difficult to manage. I expect I'll get more pleasure out of my garden this way, and I hope to have less work; in fact, 30% less. And maybe it is just the clean, sculptural look of a freshly pruned and weeded garden, but it seems to me that the garden actually looks better. In any case, I am happy. I'm also seriously considering converting from spray irrigation to drip irrigation unless we get an amazing rainfall in March. I prefer spray for a number of reasons, but it is true that drip uses less water. Better to water less ideally than not to be able to water at all. Rosefolly

lynxe, I think Tanya called every seller on the net and managed to find a 2 fan plant. Even Karol Emmerich told her good luck finding one available! The Maples came from South Carolina. Our friends there have had them so long that these are "volunteers" from their seed. We went to the Trimmer's, Floyd Cove that Guy now owns, Lambertson's, Dixon's in Georgia and Jordan's in South Carolina...where we ran out of room. Photos from our trip for the curious. Believe it or not most of our photos are of the viewing gardens with the beds dressed up instead of blooms. Now we only take photos of blooms that really tickle our fancy. Here are the interesting to us seedlings we saw. You need to realize that maybe at the most 1/4 of Floyd Cove, 1/3 of Trimmer's and 1/10 of Lambertsons's seedlings were in bloom. we sure wish we could talk Mom into coming home 2 weeks later. The first 2 are Floyd Cove Seedlings. The first has ridge of petal rising up along the midrib. We're suckers for Pastel colors; hence us liking the 2nd one. The next 2 are Lambertson Seedlings. The first seems like it's going to be a poly and have such an interesting pattern. Of the 5 blooms open that day all were poly's. The Dip is just 1 of the 3 we thought were different. Love the veining and pattern. The DIP Bruce and Tanya

You guys are all wonderful. You enthusiasm is catching. I'm going to head back to BM tomorrow and get some samples of some of your suggestions. I'm a blue person. I can't seem to get away from it! I love all shades of blue. But I would like to think I could try something different and love it. Thank you for your lovely compliments about the paneling. 26 years ago we had a house fire here. We had loving restored this home on a young couple budget, raising 3 children, which means very little money!!so we started over in our early 30's putting our home back together again. When we got to our bedroom my husband said "what do you want for paneling in here?" I took a piece of chalk and drew on the sheathing boards the design I wanted and he built it for me! He even built the doors. Every board is hand planed,it was built in the room in one piece and stood up. Not one single nail holding it all together. I love this little house.

Ooh, there are some twisty, turny, narrow roads in Tennessee and Northern Alabama. Stunningly beautiful, though. I know that you'll be glad to be home.