Glad to hear from you, Jerome. It's so admirable of the Catholic church to sell the old abbey to a group working with the homeless. This reminds me to send a donation to Mother Teresa's Missionaries of Charity in Chicago. These nuns serve the homeless single-moms with children.

The best thing I did was to combine my hobby of roses with charity. I rooted out-of-patent roses and gave to friends & family and they chipped in the money in donation to charities.

Own-root consumes so much less water than grafted-on-Dr.Huey, plus the out-of-patent rootings can be shared among friends. This spring I mailed a box of Duchess de Rohan suckers to a friend, and it costed me only $12 of postage and 15 min. of digging the suckers.

I still buy from own-root nurseries, and the ladies of Burlington Roses, Roses Unlimited, and LongAgoRoses do so much to cheer us with the gift of roses. I also ordered from High Country Roses & Chamblee's & Antique Rose Forum & Regan nursery .. and God bless these nurseries for bringing so much happiness and enjoyment in life to countless people.

It's pure excitement to open a box of roses (with blooms) from own-root nurseries. And sniffing Princess Charlene de Monaco was a tremendous comfort when I coped with my Mom passing away. Below bouquet reminds me that God is good, and life can still be enjoyable despite tragedies.

Fr Jerome, it's so good to hear from you. I've tried three times to post a message here, so hopefully third time is charm (it keeps telling me I'm not signed in). There were no replies when I first started typing, and now Straw has had time to post a long message, if that tells you anything, lol. We all have missed you. Your name comes up quite often when we talk about absent members. You're one less to worry about now ;) Please bless us with your presence when you can, regardless of the maturity of the gardens. We want to watch them grow with you.

John

It’s wonderful to hear from you and to read about the new Abbey! Thank you for the update, (Father) Jerome. Carol

Good to hear from you again, Jerome! Good to hear, too, about your experience with Austins and different microclimates. Austins planted in my garden, with few exceptions, do very badly, so maybe it's not just "me" :-).

It will be great to see photos down the road, Jerome. It is true that Tea roses improve with age here too. I hope all of yours settle in. That is great you have the younger generation involved.

It's so good to hear from you Fr. Jerome. I'm a newer rose gardener, and have been planting roses and on this forum only since the summer of 2020. Although you don't know me, I have learned so much from people on this forum, including you! When I was researching roses to plant I came across several of your older posts with beautiful pictures. Thank you for sharing with us! I look forward to seeing your new garden mature. I'm glad you have a younger generation to help by doing he hard work.

I'm another who has missed your posts and photos of your beautiful Teas. It's heartening to hear that the younger generation are so enthusiastic. I remember the size of some of those plants and am amazed at their energy. Let's hope more of the bushes make it.