Ease up guys, Gregg hasn't closed yet and may not. We should all support his nursery, buy roses for a friend, buy his rose book for a friend. Don't have any friends? Offer a stranger a band from Vintage, then you'll have a friend. If you are angry and depressed, why not take it out on the public gardens who have lost interest in growing and displaying his roses and old garden roses in general? Some of our most famous collections ( I can only speak for the current status of east coast collections) need a kick in the ***. They are letting the rose collections fall into the hands of the "Knockout" queens. Write your local botanic garden president. If you believe in Gregg, he will appreciate this support as well. stephen

There does not seem to be any website with pictures or additional information. The book Remarkable Trees of South Africa by author Neels Esterhuyse is the best book I know. It is avilable from Briza Publication at www://briza.co.za at ZAR169.95 (ie about $25) plus shipping charges probably. (Hope I dont get busted for free advertising!)

This thread began as a means to discuss the issue of Sunset zones. The secondary motive was for me to try to explore the notion that elevation is a factor to RMG but not the only factor. Over the course of looking at climate data, I discovered that annual precipitation and the time of its occurrence may be a defining feature for the RMG region. Aridity cannot be the only determinate or wed all be over in the Southwest Gardening forum. Previous and somewhat naively, I had thought that these evergreen mountains here and there indicated that there were areas with rather high rainfall amounts - what hadn't quite sunk in was that while that is true, these areas were all at elevations where gardening becomes impossible. I began wondering if a particular native plant species was representative of the broad RMG region. I'm no expert on native plants so this was a fun exercise even if it doesn't appear to be absolutely successful (perhaps, an impossibility). It seemed to me that the Arrowleaf Balsamroot was most broadly representative. I'm hoping that other gardeners are giving this some thought and will comment. By way of encouragement, my question now is - what the heck is this plant whose image is used here on GardenWeb to represent Rocky Mountain Gardening: Steve

How long until the land is reinfested with the same weeds after chemical treatment. I am sure the birds and other wild life will transport seeds to accomidate the invasion of weeds. If the ecosystem were not disturbed in the beginning then perhaps certain species of invasive weeds would have never gotten out of hand, but then how can one farm with out effecting the land and disturbing its ecosystem? Sounds like we are in for a life long relationship of using chemicals to accomidate our desires. As a owner of four goats....I would use my goats for control before I would ever use a chemical application. I havent purchased any chemicals in over 8 years in my gardens...I use diversity and lots of healthy organic matter, such as seaweed and compost which I have made myself. I dont really use my goats for any control except to help groom the rosa rugosas back. I think that chemicals are a great way for a chemical company to create a dependency/addiction and that possibly migrant farmers and or other alternatives are no longer an option to be entertained due to instant and quick decisions to solve a problem immediately. I would like to see patterns on forest growth and development over the past 100 years and the effects of ecosystems being disturbed and interupted due to imposed situations...damming, redirecting water, developments, chemical applications, etc.., my point being that the chemicals is just a quick fix with an unknown consequence which seems to be of no concern as the results end when the weed dies and the costumer gets what he pays for. SO who is responsible for the addictive nature of chemical applications and the dependency to use it. I guess, with so many toxins in other areas of life being distributed at the same time that the culprit to toxicity can be a difficult thing to determine. Perhaps, I should just take out stock in all the chem companies and take advantage of all the addicts and their compulsive NEED to use it. With the money I make grow my own organic garden and refuse to join in on all the modern uses of applying elements in unnatural formations where food that will nourish a living being would grow. Lets find what chemicals are being use and do a bit of research and see what we could expect out of land treated in such a fashion. It may end up being nothing more than like vitamins added to the soil and everyone is just missing the boat here.