I never once called Americans "you people" when I said that I was talking collectively about everyone who posted. I have never been rude at all. I have never called anyone names or put down Americans. I only refuted claims made against me. It's others who have taken my words and twisted them to their own purpose. It seems Canadians are nice people as long as they agree with what was said, but don't dare disagree or you are put down and called names. I've had it with the whole bunch of you. You wouldn't know what being polite was if you fell over it.

The pump was put in two weekends ago, and the waterfall has been sounding just so lovely. Before that I had the little skimmer pump moving the water around while we did water changes. All our fish survived, the only casualty of the winter was Bubba, the big frog. So now Wannabe is going to be called Bubba, and Waldo will be Wannabe, and any one of the smaller ones will be Waldo. They all look the same to me except for relative size... The goldfish are jumping out of the water, and our lone big koi is cruisin'. The had cheerios for a while in April, then spring/autumn food. Today the water temp was over 60, and I gave them summer food - mostly because I'm almost out of spring food... I have to order some. They sure didn't mind. The day the ice melted from the pond surface, was the day that the first lily leaf poked its head up. There are many lily leaves now and the pickerels and grassy marginals are all starting up. They all need repotting - but, no rush... We took the sediment filters apart last fall, they were working well but too large and unwieldy when wet. And the screws had rusted through. So we have to design a lighter weight version now. Meanwhile the double settling chamber is helping a lot even without the filters. Maybe we'll get that done this weekend. Weekends without ponding are hardly worth staying home for! :) Mary

Gracin, Hybrid musks will do well, so I'd say yes to Belinda, Buff Beauty and Prosperity. I'd guess also that any of the polyanthas will do well, so yes to Caldwell Pink, Marie Pavie and Mountain Mignonette. I'd think that Peggy Martin might do well; it seems to me to be a multiflora rose so probably will do well, but that's totally conjecture on my part. The teas and tea noisettes might have a harder time here because of the lower sun and heat conditions. If I were going to bet on one of them, I'd try the Monsieur Tillier. Jeannie, south of me in 7b, does grow a more teas than I do; maybe she'll see this and comment. I think her land is a lot sunnier than mine - so it kind of depends on the sun exposure of the garden. I have several teas, but they grow slowly here and have a lot more disease than mine did in the south. I don't have good luck with chinas here, but again Jeannie or others might have a different opinion of Old Blush's chances. I recently shovel pruned 'Spice' the Bermuda mystery rose. I've just started trying to grow some noisettes here so I don't know how they do yet for me. If the person likes that look, Natchitoches Noisette would be great one to try. It's sure a good rose in the south, isn't it? Tausendschon should be great here, as it's a hybrid multiflora. That leaves Belinda's Dream and Rosarium Uetersen. My personal opinion is that BD needs more sun than what we have here, but again, I think Jeannie grows it and it does well. I am not sure. I don't know about RU; I don't know anything about it. Chestnut Rose? - well, I don't know, but I'd send cuttings just to try if the person likes species roses. I hope your friend enjoys the cuttings, Gracin, whatever you send.

I can't believe this didn't carry over from GardenWeb. It seems to be missing from all former posts. I've completed it in the new (lousy) system. Let's see if it works. Edited to add: Yes it appears to work. GardenWeb system seemed so much better but the picture limit could be a pain. Edited AGAIN: The zone WAS there. It disappeared when I edited the post! Guess they have a bug to fix. Edited a Third Time: Adding it in "About Me" shows it also. I now have my zone in the zone section as shown above by Jean001 and in the "about me" section as mentioned by Tom from Nebraska. That makes it stay there after edits! Maybe my zone info is there twice on a post that is not edited. Better twice than not at all.