H O W D Y ~~~ DO ! ? ! TO YA'LL ! ! ! ~~~~~ I've missed Ya'll toooooo Thanks Karen.... Yes...Kirk is busy...with school... after all that BIG SNOW and stuff... he had Spring Break and HE Had TEACHER/Parent Conferences ! ! ! Ms Faith has had some Conferences and Talks on Butterflies & Garden stuff! ! ! Use2Bcapecodder~~ Sandy has a new computer and is busy~~ Busy ~~~ B U S Y !!!!! and Me..... I have Missed everyone so very very much... But I have kept Ya'll ALL in my prayers!!! as Karen says... I am sorting, packing, giving away~~~ and just de- cluttering and throwing out trash and Doing the unthinkable....DOWNSIZING ! ! ! Have to PART with some TREASURES! ! ! boohoo!!!! It is So hard... I should be use to it....I've had to do it SEVERAL TIMES B-4 ! ! ! but it is still NOT EASY ! ! ! I am trying to pass on to others.... some garden treasures.... SO THAT MAKES IT EASIER>>> It is just that EVERYONE does 'NOT' SEE the Treasures in the same way ! ! ! But I W I L L S U R V I V E and I Am going back to my roots..... My Beloved Texas ! ! ! I will miss be Ms LLF (Kathy) neighbor !!& CountryGirl and being close to Ms JeannieSpines and TOOOO Much Glass!! I will miss Lake Michigan.....but not ROCK RIVER! ! ! But... My Hubby's family lives here... so I will always be around Milwaukee...Chicago ~~~ Wisconsin & Illinois.... BUT TEXAS Is My Home... and My DD and Grandbaby will be there and YOU KNOW I WILL BE CLOSE ! ! ! ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ You know I was missing in action... because I took a couple of nasty falls.... and My Right Arm is hurt and hard to type... and I just had another fall on Sunday...re\-hurt the same injuries.. and added some more... BUT >>>>> You know what they say.... IT's HARD TO KEEP A GOOD Junker DOWN! ! ! So L@@K Out ! ! ! !! I'm Back ! ! ! Thanks for caring ! Thanks for being my friends! Thanks for Sharing A L L the WONDERFUL Pictures!!! and Thanks for Sharing ALL the FANTASTIC IDEAS ! ! ! ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ God Bless ! Your Friend, SusieSunShine

We've lost members over the years, to my sorrow. We've honored them elsewhere, and I hope this is a thread of happy memories, not a sad one. Many new members have joined us since then despite the fact that old roses are not currently as fashionable as once they were. Native plants, vegetables, and succulents are currently getting the majority of people's garden attention just now, and indeed some of my own. If old roses are to be available the next time the pendulum swings this way it will be through the efforts of those of us who already love them. I look forward to seeing the excitement rekindle in my lifetime as it did when? - the 80's? the 90's? Francis Lester and his nursery Roses of Yesterday kept many old varieties going through the mid-20th century. His work was carried on by a few serious collectors (Vintage being one) and also by the rose rustlers who gathered and preserved after him. Most of the neglected corners where heirloom roses survived in the last period of neglect have received the unkind attention of bulldozers, developers, and RoundUp. It is left to us to keep our favorite roses going in our gardens. The few fine public gardens that preserve old roses cannot do this all on their own. Okay, off my soap box now. Rosefolly

The heat lately has been horrible! It was supposed to get up to 100 degrees today - the highest reading on my thermometer was 99 degrees briefly, but it may have reached 100 when I wasn't looking. I watered my garden again, and when I went to wash off the bat poop there wasn't any. I noticed for the past several days that there was less and less poop, so I'm guessing they're "hanging out" in the woods, where it's cooler. I sure hope I get overwhelmed with pipevine eggs, Dan! The beautiful male was in the garden again today, nectaring on my Ellen's Blue butterfly bush. I made a lot of pictures of him again, all of which were blurry, again - they fly so fast! - but I decided to load this one to Photobucket and say it's impressionism. So here's my Monet pipevine swallowtail - Sherry

Ginny, I agree very much. I'm sorry not to have been a contributor for a while -- I've been away on unexpected and extended 'medical leave' for about a year, but have recently begun to ease back into my former Gardenweb habits via the Landscape Design forum. I'love to see an active discussion here as well. Many will remember that there was quite a discussion, if not controversy, at the time this forum was created concerning what it should be called and what topics it should encompass. I don't want to necessarily rehearse that here, but my suggestion at this point would be to rename the forum "Garden History and Restoration." I think this would increase the number of visitors from people who search the internet for "garden history" links, while still leaving room to discuss the type of practical rejuvenation and restoration issues of interest to people who are dealing with old or overgrown gardens but may not be aiming for a historic restoration or not. A similar alternative would be "Garden History and Rejuvenation." As previous posts on this topic have suggested, there are a number of people interested in learning about garden history, but to have a good discussion, you need to draw in people with expertise and experience, in addition to we novices. I think adding "History" to the title stands a chance of doing this. As I recall, at one point, ginger_nh, the exuberant person who started this forum, contacted the former webmaster about a possible title change, but his view was to stick with the title that had been agreeed upon. In the interim, though, more time has passed, and Gardenweb has passed over to new management, who might be more amenable to such a request. But the important question is, what do others think? Any alternative proposals? Ginger, in particular, are you still out there? I'm willing to try to contact the mgmt folks if others support such a change. Best to all -- Kate