Thank for the input. Since adding a foot of soil would make the bed a bit high, I decided to tilt the soil slightly. I scraped off the very top bit of the soil along with weed, and then dump a mix of 50% compost / 50% top soil, about half a foot. I dug a hole and filled it with water and sprinkled some mycorrhiza before planting the plants, since disturbing the soil supposedly destroys mycorrhiza. I planted some beebalm and New England Aster. Both are pretty tough plants and should do well in full sun, though half the things I planted there hasn't done well. I am beginning to think that the place is cursed. Paul

Bob Walsh covers Mimi's egg-rooting method in his book on "How to grow plumeria-frangipani anytime anywhere", btw. Still miss the "Aloha Plumeria" forum though...and Mimi, too. I hope she's happy in her life, and stress-free. I'm currently rooting a bonus plumeria with an egg, and an Oahu Star cutting w/o one, -since I only had one egg available when potting them up. The bonus cutting is showing tip changes on it, already, but I can't consider this a fair test, as the Oahu Star cutting was considerably thicker than the mystery (gift) cutting was, when I rec'd them. To do a fair comparative test, I think I'd have to use 2 cuttings from the same source and root them the same way, (except for placing an egg under only one of them).

Hi Lux, where to start... Tea roses have been infamous for their sterility issues. Some have shown themselves to be decent parents, while others have no offspring, probably due to the fact they are terrible seed and/or pollen parents. For instance, Mrs. Dudley Cross has only one offspring and it is a sport, not a seedling. Surprising such a pretty, decent rose was never used for breeding, isn't it? Mme. Lombard has quite a few offspring, some of which are sports, others not. You can check whether there are known offspring from each on Help Me Find. The older European Garden Roses may require some cold stratification, while most Teas, Chinas, minis and moderns don't really need it. I only use it to delay germination until usually this time of the year when it's safer to plant. Traditionally, by now (Thanksgiving) the rains should have started (presuming we are going to have rains) and the heat is over, which helps foster better germination. Otherwise, in the years I've harvested late and immediately planted, germination was good. But, then, some years germination sucks, then others, it's great. No reason, just works that way. Few get great germination every year, no matter what they do, or don't do. I've honestly found I get as good (or bad) germination by not doing all the hocus pocus stuff to "insure better germination". I simply shell the seed and rub off all the extra fibers and hip tissue with my fingers, then put the seeds in small zip lock bags with a plastic label with the cross written in #2 pencil, then pop that into a larger plastic bag to hold in the fridge until it's cooler and wetter. No fungicides, no hydrogen peroxide washes, no nothing. When the time is right, I plant outdoors in my seed tables and keep them watered. Of course, you can be as "scientific" and elaborate as you wish, but you don't HAVE to. So, yes, some roses are simply sterile or otherwise reluctant parents. Others are "weeds", rabbits. They generate many seeds and every one seems to germinate into multiple seedlings. If you've succeeded in germinating rose seeds previously, so you know your planting method works, I'd chalk up the failure to either bad parents or just a bad year. I wouldn't give up on trying, though. You might browse HMF for your list of potential seed parents to see which have proven themselves decent "mothers" to get a feel for what might be worth planting. I've done the "nobody has a reported result from THIS one" routine and found it's usually because "this one" is a dud. Try the difficult ones if you wish, you might come up with something...or not. But, I would check the list to see what has created results and start with them. Good luck! Kim

For the non-organic folks Daconil has always been the go to protectant for fungal diseases. Ami ***** And for some of us who DO grow organically as well when faced with exceptional conditions such as losing all of our plants to Late Blight. I don't want to turn this thread into a dicussion about Daconil, far from it, b'c I know what happens when something like it is raised as a topic here. Having researched it a lot all I can say is that there are many many links online about it and if the link is to a site that is mainly organic it will be condemned and at other sites not. But for anyone interested in a non-biased review I suggest you go to EXTOXNET, via Google, and take a look. EXTOXNET is a consortium of Universities that have pooled their resources and have info about all manner of herbicides, pesticides, miticides, anti-fungals and on and on. You can also look at the MSDS sheet for chlorothalonil. As I said above, I don't discount all products that are synthetic nor all products that are organic, my main concern being toxicity as I posted above. But I'm not the only one who WILL use relativiely low toxic products, be they organic or not, when faced with loss of ALL of my tomato plants and I grow in an area in Upstate NY where last year there was a very serious problem with Late Blight such that many commercial farmers were wiped out completely as well as many home growers. I respect the right of anyone to use whatever products they might wish to use and in return I would hope that others would respect my right and the rights of others to use a product that we wouldn't normally use in the absence of this special situation with Late Blight. And if someone wants to use Daconil every season to prevent fungal foliage diseases I also respect the right of that person to do so. As long as someone has fully researched a product and knows the possible consequences, either plus or negative, be that an organic or non-organic product, it's my opinion that that person should not be chastised for his or her choice. I also am someone who does not like to bring politics into such discussions when companies such as Monsanto, Syngentea, Dow and others are mentioned. I am fully aware of those companies and what they do and I'm also someone who is in general against GMO's but recognizes that there's lots of hunger in the world and for folks in some countries use of GMO crops may be the difference between nourishment and hunger. Right now I'm dealing with a situation where quite a few folks refuse to buy seeds for Early Girl F1 b/c they say it's a Monsanto product. Some of you may know that Monsanto bought out Seminis Seeds several years ago and one of the compenies of Seminis, Petoseed, is said to be the culprit b'c they developed it and also produce the F1 seed. The fact is that it was bred in France, Petoseed acquired it and for the first three years exclusive rights to sell seed went to Burpee. In recognition of that I was recently able to acquire quite a few seeds of PSR-37 which is an OP version of Early Girl F1 and have been making a free seed offer for it, I pay postage, at another message site, but I have few seeds left right now b'c there's been a large demand for those seeds. it's so easy to comdemn others for the choices they make, but I prefer to not condemn, but rather to respect the rights of others to make their own choices. Thank You. Carolyn