Deer were a terrible problem in Morehead, a town about 50 miles east of here in a valley in the foothills of the Appalachians. The town and the interstate had cut off a section of national forest where the deer population was way beyond what that limited acreage of woods could support. They were brazen, I would see herds of them in front yards right in town. They would often sample plants considered deer safe, even conifers. It was sad, they looked skinny and had dull coats. I lived out in the woods when I lived in Morehead, where the forest was green and the deer were healthy (several miles from the area cut off by town and the interstate). They rarely bothered my garden there because they had plenty of food.

Here's something interesting. I'm cleaning out some files and I ran into a 2003 bill from Wayside Gardens. It shows that I paid $2.00 for New Dawn and $2.60 each for Dainty Bess, Gruss an Aachen, Charlotte, Tamora, and Johann Strauss. Granted, the bill's dated May 2003, so it must have been an end-of-season sale, but here's the interesting part: The bill runs on for 3 pages and includes a bunch of different plants. Some of the plants cost a lot more than the roses (an Azalea for $6.50 and a hydrangea for $6.00, for example). There are 24 plants listed in all. Everything is gone now but the 6 roses, and all 6 still look great! Roses, therefore, are a good investment.

$2.00 for a rose ??? Was it growing in a thimble ? LOL

Totally off topic here, but where is Toni (Skykitty) these days ?
She's been MIA for a while.

@Calsurf73

Mike, she has been occupied, but is doing okay.

Thanks, Debra !

Calsurf73 said:$2.00 for a rose ??? Was it growing in a thimble ? LOL

As I recall, they were great big, beautiful, bare-root grafted roses. The price could go even lower. If Wayside had any left over at the end of the season, they used to sell them through a website called Krazy Keith's Garden Shed, which sometimes charged only $1.00 per rose. I have many roses in my garden from Krazy Keith's.

Incidentally, Krazy Keith's closed down in 2005, but it's still listed as a current business in Garden Watchdog. DG certainly makes no effort to keep up with the times.

I'd forgotten about Krazy Keith's ! I got in on some of those deals too, that's where my Grus an Aachen came from.

DG seems like a ghost town these days, especially since all the format changes, but I had re-subscribed a few months ago to reconnect with a couple of friends I found were still posting there and found so many previously active forums had gone quiet.

After that closure may have been when Wayside started selling on ebay under Plant Delights? I bought a dozen or more Roses from them at $0.99 each, and promptly lost half due to ignorance and neglect.

Don't beat yourself up Debra, those sales were pretty late in the season when it was getting too warm here for optimal planting, so I imagine it was getting downright hot there.

I bought the Wayside bargains on ebay too. MANY of my plants came from those deals! They were shockingly healthy. The packaging alone had to cost more than what I paid. If anyone sees a deal like that again, be sure to let us know!

We're supposed to get a few warm days this week, so I'm going to try to plant the bulbs I didn't get to in October. I know it's really really late, but I think they'll have a better chance in the ground than in a bag in my garage.

I've done that several times with bulbs. I buy them, put them in the garage and forget I have them !

Your bulbs should still be fine, especially if the garage is cool. A friend of mine had daffodil bulbs in the trunk of her car from October till March and then planted them. Most lived and a few bloomed, and I'm sure this year they'll be blooming properly.

I plant a lot of bulbs most years and have trays of bulbs laying everywhere, each tray for designated beds/ areas. As orders arrive I separate them out and have such fun inspecting every bag! It's a big production, LOL, so none of those are ever forgotten, but those I dug and divided that have been hanging in onion bags all summer- those are what I'll forget! Something I've seen for so long, I no longer see it. This past fall I found pineapple lily bulbs I'd overlooked in spring.

Neal, the plants were in good condition. I was in my third year of home ownership and knew virtually NOTHING about gardening! Definitely my non-doing that caused them to fail.


Crazy, crazy winter. From this morning:

No ID given to me by a departing neighbor.


Red Drift

Is your noid fragrant? It looks like it should be. I love velvety looking roses.

Strong, gorgeous fragrance, Neal.

The first delivery of this year's new roses has arrived from Regan Nursery.



Left to right, they are Yabba Dabba Doo, Raspberry Kiss, and Betty Boop.

I need to start buying from them !
You totally scored !

They have a great selection and they rarely disappoint me. Two Austin roses I bought about five years ago failed to thrive, but they get their bare-root Austins from David Austin Roses Ltd., so I'm more inclined to blame the supplier for those two.