Neal, I'll hold your hand and jump down that rabbit hole with you!
I ordered from WI Roses last year and royally screwed up a few of them, but one, Hot Princess, did grow into a wonderful rosebush. (I actually think I cut off the wrong part somehow, even after watching his videos several times.
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This year I ordered 3 more from him, AND I ordered the budding tape and knife off Amazon. I kept the rootstock from the WIRoses that I messed up, so maybe I can use it for my experimental budding. There's plenty of multiflora roses growing wild near me so I could dig those up to use.
I have noticed that the roses I buy that are budded on multiflora grow much better than the Huey roses, and the best part is, I have yet to see a sucker from a rose on multiflora. Supposedly my alkaline soil is all wrong for multiflora but my roses aren't reading those rules, I guess.
We had another big earthquake here this morning. It was 4.7, which isn't much by California standards, but it was enough to shake the house, rattle glasses and scare the dog!!! Amazing how much noise wine glasses can make when they are getting bounced around! It even woke my husband and he sleeps through the worst hail and thunderstorms. Our earthquakes are 3 miles deep which makes them travel further and be felt over a bigger distance. The epicenter was 106 miles from us. Mother Nature does not like fracking! The poor dog did not want to leave our bed after that happened. The 2 older dogs didn't seem to care. Maybe they have gotten used to it by now. Not me...
