I went to The Huntington last weekend to spend a few pleasant hours and see the rose garden and had a nice talk with one of the volunteers. She was very enthusiastic about Tom Carruth joining The Huntington as director of the rose gardens last year and thought that a great deal of progress had already been made. I commented on the large amount of wood debris mulch that had been piled around the roses and she said that Tom believed in mulch. She also said that they were concerned that grafted roses don't last in Tom's opinion more than about 15 years and they were starting a propagating program to replace their older impossible to find roses. Wow I thought, Tom Carruth thinks like I do so the garden is in good hands. One more thing though. Because of the water emergency they are being cut back at least 30 percent. I commented that their arial system wastes as much as 90 percent of the water and that they should have a surface system that gets 100 percent of the water where it is needed. She agreed. I said that I know all about this having installed and used such systems for over 20 years. Anyway, I have a lot of ideas for them and Tom Carruth sounds like a good man so I filled out their detailed application form to become an unpaid volunteer. And while I'm at it, my wife and I joined the Pacific Rose Society and will try to make the meeting next week. Hopefully we will see some of you there.