'Belinda's Dream' is a very nice bright pink with a lot of fragrance. It gets a lot of wonderful reviews from people in the rose forums. It is a gorgeous rose. On my list to get next year. There is also the old stand-by 'Queen Elizabeth', mine is in it's Fall flush right now and looks beautiful. It is a very bright pink as well as a vigorous rose that is pretty easy to care for. Nice fragrance too. 'Queen Elizabeth' will be available to buy easily bare-root in Jan, 'Belinda's Dream' will be a little harder to find. You may have to mail order that one, but it is worth it! (Try Sequoia Nursery in CA, they have it.) Good luck with your search for the perfect pink rose. It is very special that you are planning a memorial garden! :o) Queen Elizabeth Here is a link that might be useful: Belinda's Dream at HMF

Hello, I can't believe with all the thousands of roses people can identify them. - Secret and Moonstone look so close. Thank you Northspruce. I will take more pictures of this one to try and narrow it down. I am going to make a point of taking more detailed pictures of all the roses this year. Since I have pruned them, composted them, fertilized them and mulched with bark - they are all doing so much better this year. I have about 30 or so planted along the fence and I don't have name for any of them. It would be nice to have a stake alongside each noting the name as I am sure people will be asking what the varieties are. I believe most are hybrid teas. I did transplant three next to the house to complete the fenceline planting. I also planted one Angel Face climber - but the blossom is so pale I am not sure it is correct - since it faces west I am wondering if it is fading due to sunlight. I will have to take a picture of this one too to submit to all of you experts. thanks again. Linda

Coloradobird, I've never grown 'Red Plume', but the pictures sure look nice. Since it's an annual, unless a local nursery has it for sale in the spring, you probably will have to start it from seed. I never grew from seed much, until I discovered wintersowing a couple of years ago. It's not a foolproof method, but it's a lot easier than babysitting a bunch of sprouts indoors. I'd guess my success rate has been somewhere between 65% - 75% using that method, and a whole lot cheaper than paying for full sized plants. As far as 'Burgandy' goes, I had five of them, two of which I wintersowed, but just this week I lost one in a windstorm. All of mine made it through their first winter just fine though. My only issue with them, is that they are a bit floppy, like the full sized Gaillardia grandiflora. I prefer the neater look of the compact varieties like 'Goblin'. Maybe someone will come out with a compact 'Burgandy' one day. Bonnie

Jim, I think you might as well cross Marie Daly off your list. I'm about two towns south of you on the Peninsula so my conditions are similar to yours, including the alkaline soil. I grow Marie Pavie here. While it is a wonderful plant in many ways, it does get mild chlorosis. It also wants to be about 5 feet tall and 4 feet wide, so it is a bigger plant than you have in mind. From what I understand, Marie Daly is just like its sport parent except in color. I also suggest that you stick to annual rather than perennial salvias as your filler plants. The perennials ones will be more difficult to remove once your roses get some size on them. I went down that same path a few years ago. There are a number of lovely drought tolerant annuals that will fill in nicely for you, and can be eliminated later once you no longer need them. Short lived perennials like lavenders and thyme can work, too. I'd keep away from aggressive selfseeders. They can become weeds. An example is nigella, love-in-the-mist, which self sews aggressively all over the place here. And beware artemisias. Some are thugs that spread by underground roots.