lms wrote:

let me tell you something I mind. I mind having 7 rows of spinach
and 3 rows of lettuce one day and no rows period the next. Happened
last year too, just poof!, I'm mystified.

Have you rounded up all the usual suspects?

I need chemicals.

Have some more coffee. Better yet, tea. Tea is chockfull of good
chemicals ...

Seriously, I have seen the phenomenon you are describing with vegetable
seedlings here, and it has always been due to earwigs. I catch 'em by
tossing around crumpled balls of newspaper which for some reason they
like to crawl into, and then dispose off in the garbage container. I am
not sure if earwigs exist in your climate, but it sure sounds like the
same kind of damage. And they always prefer spinach and lettuce to kale
and arugula. Nothing bitter, oh no, they don't like that, the bloody
earwigs.

Sheer Bliss, star rose.

Absolutely. My seven-year old Sheer Bliss is putting on a great
show this year.

slashing a long story Sheer Bliss remains an honest bush, has no real
good reason for being so. it's as hard as...nails. they've been
checking out of that general vicinity for half a dozen years or more.
I moved one of them, Michele Meilland, in 96, it's now living the
good life. Michele was one of my first snotty roses, only last year
learnt how to pronounce it. And now I've forgotten.

It is one tough rose. I have not pruned mine nor taken care of it in
anyway other than water and dead-head for the last three years and it is
looking spectacular.

Am not sure if SdSA will survive in your climate, ...

have fastidiously avoided that rose, its clonemama checked out
quickly.

Interesting; too bad. This morning, SdSA has its first stunning
blossom of the year. Pure poetry. Same as Sheer Bliss, pure poetry.


that rose is pretty enuf, I've before given it a second thought, but
then I think of those balled blooms.

Which? Souvenir de la Malmaison balls galore, but its clonedaughter
Souvenir de St. Anne's has far fewer petals and opens its heart fully,
never balls. Really. Honest Injun g.

it's like Royal Highness, I wouldn't buy anything closely related to
it, skipped on Bride's Dream--grew Lady Vera and it was an immediate
checkout. royal highness was the first rose I felt scammed over.
wasn't warned, ball city. In a dozen years I never saw anything but.

It is all in the number of petals, isn't it. Whomever heard of Altissimo
balling, for example? If you want to see balling, you have got to look
at Auguste Renoir. Wants the temps to be above 90 in order to see its
innards. Tough. I don't want it to be above 90, no.

"Windows NT crashed. I am the Blue Screen of Death No one hears
your screams."

I have this screensaver which mimics Win2000's blue screen, complete
with rotating exceptions, hit any key, 'reboot', etc. Win2000 was
insisted upon and jammed into my new laptop, I've never seen it
crash, but it always treats me like the enemy, I can't stand it.

Windows XP appears to be worse than Win2000. The other guy in this house
is stuck with XP / Linux combo on his laptop, and refuses to use XP
unless he absolutely has to do this. Internet Explorer explodes the
machine on XP, everytime, even when all he is trying to do is download
Mozilla. So, I usually get the Mozilla for his Windows XP on my machine,
and he takes it up from here on the local network.

I don't mind pulling out grass or whatever once a year, that's parta
the deal, I just can't handle it on a regular basis. on this side of
the ditch it's never been a problem, not even the bermuda, but on the
other side, which is largely full sun and irrigated, and is where
almost all new roses go, a rose had best rise quickly above the
threats, the dangers. At this point, the complainers have come and
gone and 'all' the gaps are filled with the willing. All things
considered there are just not many places to put a rose anymore.
Lengthy procrastination is just no longer part of the agenda.

Sigh ... I do know what you mean. Really.

--
Radika
California
USDA 9 / Sunset 15