To: "North American Fruit Explorers" <nafex@lists.ibiblio.org>
Subject: Re: [NAFEX] Setting the Record Straight
Date: Fri, 23 Mar 2007 09:20:01 -0500
Doreen,
I'd like to see the article as it originally ran, thanks. I don't care
about the photos. I wrote a couple of articles on old roses last year for a
local freebie paper, as I'd aided and abetted a local nurseryman in his
quest for old roses to sell, and they weren't selling very well. I felt
guilty, so this was a way to help him out. Plus, so few people succeed with
roses here, I'd like to make a few gardeners happy too.
I've spent about $100 on roses, maybe a little more. Mostly I've gotten
cuttings from other people, taken them to the nursery, and gotten plants a
year or two later. Our big problem here I think is the hot droughty
weather. (I read that roses are becoming less popular in England as the
climate changes to hotter and drier there. Roses really do want their inch
of water a week.) I know a gardener in town with a garden hose who has
lovely roses. Mine spend their time after the spring flush waiting for the
fall rains. That's all I really wanted anyway, as the Jap beetles are so
bad, but some releaf and try to bloom too late. With La Nina back in the
picture, we are probably shit out of luck for the whole garden year. We
are going into it with low water table and a spring drought. It's now 22
years since the beginning of the drought in the 80's, and there's supposed
to be a 22 yr drought cycle.
But back to roses. The Kordes 'Illusion' is probably my best rose, and
the extremely tacky 'Westerland' looks like it will be as good. You can get
the yellow sport, 'Autumn Sunset' I think is the name, Ashdown Roses has it.
'Westerland' will probably blend ok with my apricot tea-noisettes, and my
husband pointed out that it blends VERY WELL with bright orange marking
tape. Unfortunately it is next to the equally bright 'Nur Mahal', which
also has finally gotten growing well so I don't dare move either one with
drought coming. On the Gardenweb antique rose group, Jim in NY swears by
Kordesii roses for his climate, kinda Z4-5 I think. I have been extremely
impressed by the two I have, they never lose a leaf to anything.
I take it you have settled down for good this time? The hotshot
troubleshooter husband found something staid to do? I have to say I often
think of you when I encounter our president Alfred E. Newman in video,
audio, or print. I tend to avoid such encounters because the voice and face
are so grating. Sort of like a friend who cannot endure the voice of Neil
Diamond, to her it is like fingernails on a blackboard. I came across an
article by Molly Ivins about Nixon becoming rather psychotic. Do you think
there is a pattern here with the Republicans? One paranoid, one Alzheimers,
one disassociated schizophrenic semi-retard. Was Bush Sr resistant to the
disease, or was it the medication he was on that kept him under control?
Seriously though, I was very surprised that the Democrats actually took both
houses, I thought there were ways to prevent that sort of thing these days.
Actually it worried me a bit, I only hope they don't do something stupid,
like the Labor party on a roll in England. I prefer government gridlock,
the less they accomplish, the better off we all are. Donna