I got to enjoy a nice, warm day to melt the foot of snow and try to evaluate my roses, too. I have two own-root roses that will have to grow from the roots because all the canes are brown, dry and terrible looking. I hope they do 'resprout'! They are the ones I put off ordering from Vintage for years and finally got last season :( They are both climbers, so hopefully they have some natural vigor. Then I have one grafted Austin that has all its canes lost except possibly for a big fat woody cane that just looks woody. I'm hoping that fat one can regrow something green, too. That one is replaceable at least! I take it very cold temperatures for an extended time can make it look like the plants have never been watered, lol? My dead branches look quite shrivelled. I know we had enough moisture this winter, so it must be the cold (or cold winds?). I'm not used to winter damage, so it's freaky. We only got to 4 or 5 F, but the wind chills were lower. Usually under 15 is pretty rare and doesn't last days.

I just checked the NWS Public Information Statement. According to this, I should have much more snow. Now I'm afraid to go out of my neighborhood. Claire Public Information Statement Statement as of 11:50 am EST on December 20, 2008 The following are unofficial observations are for the snow storm that hit southern New England during the afternoon of Dec 19th... to the mid morning hours of Dec 20th 2008. Appreciation is extended to NWS cooperative... Skywarn spotters and media for these reports. This summary is also available on our home Page at weather.Gov/Boston ********************storm total snowfall******************** Location storm total time/date comments snowfall of (inches) measurement Connecticut ... Hartford County... Unionville 10.0 930 PM 12/19 spotter East Farmington 9.0 852 PM 12/19 spotter Granby 9.0 1102 PM 12/19 NWS employee Manchester 9.0 930 PM 12/19 ham radio South Windsor 9.0 930 PM 12/19 ham radio West Suffield 9.0 1100 PM 12/19 ham radio Burlington 9.0 839 am 12/20 spotter North Granby 8.8 855 PM 12/19 spotter West Hartford 8.6 1100 PM 12/19 ham radio Windsor Locks 8.4 1155 PM 12/20 Bradley Airport ... Tolland County... Tolland 10.0 620 am 12/20 spotter Hebron 9.7 930 PM 12/19 ham radio Bolton 9.0 650 PM 12/19 ham radio Staffordville 9.0 919 PM 12/19 NWS coop Vernon 9.0 1100 PM 12/19 ham radio Somers 8.5 930 PM 12/19 ham radio Storrs 8.5 755 PM 12/19 spotter ... Windham County... Moosup 10.5 530 am 12/20 spotter Woodstock 10.0 951 PM 12/19 spotter Danielson 9.3 1000 PM 12/19 spotter Hampton 9.0 953 PM 12/19 coop Killingly 8.5 650 PM 12/19 ham radio Ashford 8.0 809 PM 12/19 spotter Thompson 8.0 1116 PM 12/19 spotter Massachusetts ... Barnstable County... East Sandwich 10.2 1035 PM 12/19 NWS employee Buzzards Bay 9.5 830 PM 12/19 ham radio Bourne 8.8 1100 PM 12/19 ham radio Marstons Mills 8.5 300 am 12/20 NWS employee Sandwich 8.1 1128 PM 12/19 spotter East Falmouth 8.0 600 am 12/20 ham radio Centerville 8.0 700 am 12/20 spotter Brewster 5.8 830 am 12/20 spotter ... Bristol County... Swansea 11.0 825 am 12/20 spotter Rehoboth 10.0 920 am 12/20 NWS employee Taunton NWS 9.6 100 am 12/20 NWS office Acushnet 9.3 830 PM 12/19 ham radio Attleboro 9.2 1155 PM 12/19 NWS employee Mansfield 9.1 1015 PM 12/19 spotter New Bedford 9.1 400 am 12/20 ham radio ... Dukes County... West Tisbury 6.0 830 PM 12/19 ham radio ... Essex County... Salem 12.0 1040 am 12/20 spotter Manchester 11.3 900 am 12/20 ham Lawrence 10.5 206 am 12/20 spotter Topsfield 10.5 617 am 12/20 spotter Nahant 10.0 905 PM 12/19 spotter Methuen 10.0 830 am 12/20 spotter Ipswich 9.8 805 am 12/20 spotter Lawrence 9.5 817 am 12/20 NWS coop Newburyport 8.0 800 am 12/20 NWS coop ... Franklin County... Ashfield 10.5 903 PM 12/19 spotter East Charlemont 9.0 1030 am 12/20 spotter Sunderland 7.2 700 am 12/20 NWS coop Orange 7.0 600 PM 12/19 ham radio Leverett 7.0 855 PM 12/19 spotter ... Hampden County... Westfield 10.5 715 am 12/20 spotter Blandford 10.0 930 PM 12/19 ham radio Southwick 9.5 930 PM 12/19 spotter Agawam 9.0 1100 PM 12/19 ham radio Westfield 9.0 915 PM 12/19 spotter Longmeadow 8.8 820 PM 12/19 spotter Montgomery 8.8 1147 PM 12/19 ham radio Chicopee 8.5 730 am 12/20 spotter ... Hampshire County... Goshen 10.0 845 am 12/20 spotter West Hampton 8.1 730 am 12/20 spotter Worthington 8.1 700 am 12/20 NWS coop Ware 8.0 1100 PM 12/19 ham radio Chesterfield 7.8 930 PM 12/19 ham radio ... Middlesex County... Lowell 11.0 1130 PM 12/19 spotter Wilmington 10.0 1128 PM 12/19 media Natick 10.0 700 am 12/20 NWS coop Methuen 10.0 700 am 12/20 spotter reading 9.7 1100 PM 12/19 ham radio Wakefield 9.5 820 am 12/20 spotter Framingham 9.5 1030 am 12/20 spotter Stoneham 9.0 700 am 12/20 spotter Melrose 8.6 700 am 12/20 spotter Billerica 8.5 1045 PM 12/19 spotter North Woburn 8.5 1205 am 12/20 spotter Arlington Heights 8.3 1159 PM 12/19 spotter Dracut 8.2 1236 am 12/20 spotter ... Nantucket County... Nantucket 2.3 830 PM 12/19 ham radio ... Norfolk County... Norwood 9.8 955 am 12/20 NWS employee Wellesley 9.5 1100 PM 12/19 ham radio Franklin 9.0 1100 PM 12/19 ham radio Milton 9.0 700 am 12/20 Blue Hill ob Brookline 8.5 140 am 12/20 spotter Braintree 7.5 1000 PM 12/19 spotter Foxboro 7.5 730 am 12/20 spotter ... Plymouth County... Rochester 11.0 800 am 12/20 NWS coop South Plymouth 10.0 600 am 12/20 ham radio Marshfield 9.5 950 am 12/20 NWS employee Hingham 9.0 1040 PM 12/19 spotter Hanover 9.0 600 am 12/20 spotter ... Suffolk County... Boston 10.5 700 am 12/20 Logan Airport West Roxbury 9.2 1000 am 12/20 spotter ... Worcester County... Worcester 11.6 700 am 12/20 orh Airport Hopedale 9.3 1005 PM 12/19 spotter Warren 8.5 940 PM 12/19 spotter Auburn 8.3 1114 PM 12/19 spotter Brookfield 8.0 800 PM 12/19 spotter North Grafton 8.0 955 PM 12/19 spotter Boylston 7.6 1000 am 12/20 spotter Ashburnham 7.3 700 am 12/20 NWS coop New Hampshire ... Cheshire County... Keene 10.0 625 am 12/20 NWS coop Walpole 8.0 700 am 12/20 NWS coop Marlow 6.0 700 am 12/20 NWS coop ... Hillsborough County... Bedford 8.3 900 am 12/20 spotter Goffstown 8.0 700 am 12/20 spotter Merrimack 7.5 836 am 12/20 spotter Hudson 6.4 830 am 12/20 NWS coop Rhode Island ... Bristol County... Barrington 6.7 636 PM 12/19 public ... Kent County... Coventry 11.5 1146 PM 12/19 spotter West Warwick 11.0 1055 PM 12/19 spotter Warwick 11.0 1040 PM 12/19 spotter Warwick 8.0 1155 PM 12/19 tf Green Airport ... Newport County... Tiverton 11.0 1100 PM 12/19 ham radio Portsmouth 10.5 1100 PM 12/19 ham radio Tiverton 10.0 905 PM 12/19 coop ... Providence County... Cumberland 11.0 815 am 12/20 NWS employee Burrillville 10.5 929 PM 12/19 public Lincoln 10.2 1015 PM 12/19 NWS employee North Foster 10.2 1045 PM 12/19 coop North Providence 10.0 1022 PM 12/19 spotter Scituate 10.0 1036 PM 12/19 media North Scituate 10.0 1100 PM 12/19 ham radio Woonsocket 9.5 708 am 12/20 spotter Pawtucket 9.5 931 PM 12/19 spotter ... Washington County... South Kingstown 10.0 1030 PM 12/19 spotter North Kingstown 9.5 1100 PM 12/19 spotter Charlestown 9.0 1100 PM 12/19 ham radio

Sara, Ion beat me to it and gave you some good advice. I'll offer a bit more clarification on some questions you may have. It is a little difficult, as it's hard to discern how much knowledge you have in this area. I don't want to offer information which would be redundant to you. "1) Grounding of the furnace My generator's ground is connect to the ground prone of three prone plug(other two prone are not connected) through a 12 gauge wire and plug into an outside wall outlet. Is this good enough grounding for the generator? if I plug the furnace wire into generator, is this good enough grounding for the furnance?" Assuming you are simply using a pigtail on your furnace, as Ion mentions, do not connect your generator to any of your house wiring system. I would treat the system as simply a portable generator system for NEC purposes. Namely, simply plug your three prong pigtail into a three prong extension cord and plug your three prong extension cord into your three prong recep on your generator. No ground rod is required. Lastly, make sure the neutral in your generator is bonded to the equipment ground and the generator frame. Most generators are set up this way, but some aren't. It should say in your generator manual, but also do a check to make sure. You should see a wire bonding the generator to its frame. You should also see a jumper bonding the neutral to the equipment ground, but you may have to take off a cover to observe this. Your generator should have GFCI for the 120V receptacles. You don't need any other ground protection than this. Remember it's really the neutral that protects one against most faults which could cause electrocution. What most people call the "ground" is really a case ground (or equipment ground) which is ultimately "bonded" or connected to the neutral at some point. It's the "bond" of the neutral and case ground which really provides the fault protection when voltage leaks to the case. A ground rod doesn't really provide any protection in this sense. Let me give a real world example (I hope I'm not offering info. redundant to you here.) Decades ago, before case grounds (or equipment grounds) were installed on refrigerators, people were sometimes electrocuted from them. What happened was this. The refrigerator had a two prong plug - one for the lead, and one for the neutral (i.e. return current). The refrigerator would get old, wires would fray, or the motor would start leaking voltage. A lead wire would touch the case, or the motor would leak enough voltage the case/housing of the refrigerator would become energized. Maybe from time to time one of the family members might notice the refrigerator would "shock" them. It wasn't a bad shock, because the impedance was too high for the return path from the case through the persons body to the neutral. In other words, the path of electricity wasn't a good connection. They had shoes insulating them, etc. One day one of the family members, while getting some milk out of the refrigerator, spills some on the floor. It's early in the morning, so they're in their bare feet. They mop the milk up, but the floor is still wet. They grab the handle to put the milk back, but now the impedance is much lower (the combination of a wet floor and bare feet make a much better path for electricity). The current flowing through the person causes a constriction of the hand muscles. They can't let go of the handle. They can feel they are being electrocuted, but there is nothing they can do about it (by themselves). After a few moments, the same current causing constriction of the hand muscles makes the heart labor to keep it's rhythmic beat. After a short period, it stops beating altogether. By installing a case/housing ground (i.e. the third prong on the plug) a low impedance grounding conductor provides a direct short in the circuit if there is a lead fault in the refrigerator housing. The path would be from the lead, shorted to the case, through the case ground wire, back the the main panel, where in the main panel, the neutral and the case ground buses are bonded (connected). This direct short will "pop" the breaker, or blow the fuse. So long as the third prong on your pigtail is grounded to the case of the furnace, and the neutral and case ground are bonded on your generator, you won't be electrocuted from your furnace. You could still be electrocuted from your extension cord lying in a water puddle, or wet from rain if the outlet on your generator isn't gfci, but all newer generators are supposed to have gfci receps. "Why all this precaution when it comes to wiring the furnace, like separate circuit?" NEC requires all stationary appliances to be on their own circuit. So the main answer to your question is that it's code. The reason for the code requirement is to avoid people putting a lot of appliances on one circuit, causing the breaker to trip. Let's say you have your refrigerator, deep freeze and furnace on one circuit. One day the breaker trips rendering all three appliances dead. It normally happens when you are on vacation, so you come back to your house with all your food spoiled and your pipes frozen/broken. As a bonus, the water thawed enough to run for three days, flooding your house. NEC code allows an exception for any associated furnace equipment (humidifier, condensation pump) to be included on the same dedicated circuit as the furnace. "Olpea mentioned electricity generated by generator is of poor quality and can damage furnace. a 20 amp surge protector can prevent the damage to furnace from happening, right?" Unfortunately surge protectors really do very little in this regard (I'm referring to the surge power strips). A good one will prevent a major surges until the material inside is "consumed". This can happen with one surge. They won't prevent voltage drops. They also do nothing to correct sine wave distortion and frequency stability, which are also hard on electronics. My main point was not to try to talk you into a new generator but to keep your generator lightly loaded if you need to run electronics like your furnace. That will at least provide more stable voltage. Re: Inverter generators When I mentioned inverter generators, I was thinking of high quality Yamaha or Honda inverters, which are pure sine wave inverters and known for producing the cleanest power. Ion is correct, cheap inverters produce a poor waveform (as do cheap non-inverter generators). I disagree with Ion that electronics are not sensitive to power quality. I believe the opposite to be true. This post is a lot longer than I intended. Didn't mean to write a book.

Hi Denis, seems I'm not the only nightowl here :-) My parcel came from Renaat (my facebook hosta friend). He's the one with the specials. I know not many of the ones he is recommending, but they are always beautiful. Will get another order from him near fall... Finally I have my Jade Cascade :-) and some other very nice plants came along with it...it will be interesting to watch Setsurei and Doctor Fu Manchu grow, but what am I saying? It is interesting with all of them, old and new in the collection...I spend more time in the garden than ever. Only the weather could be nicer...one sunny day a week is not enough, for plants and me both... Yesterday I had to repot a lot of plants because I discovered that the coconut earth I used last year was not good to make the potting mix fit for hostas. It clumped together with the growmix and the poor things started to die away. But I think I came just in time to save them. This is a long journey of learning how to grow and then, if you think you know all, mother nature knows better...:-) Hope you have meanwhile better weather out there? Frisian Elegance looks as if she had no long journey at all... Karin