Adrienne, I'm taking an extra foot of grass out and putting more roses in the front of my large rose garden. No chance to hide it from my DH. I just kind of told him, BTW, when the cement border guy comes on Monday, I'm moving the border out because I want more roses:) They're small plants so you just kind of put them here and there and he won't notice, much... Nice selection you got too, I think Rainforest will always have very pretty colors for you with your cooler temps. I don't know where you're going to put this one, but you might think of a small trellis with it and grow it as a small climber. Leslie

Hi Trilliumway, Rick here. Here are 3 great places: The Country Garden, 3712 Consaul Rd., Schenectady, NY, near Mohawk Commons Glenville Gardens, 20 Pine St., Glenville, NY 518-393-0905 GlenvilleGardens@aol.com (e-mail for plant list) Glenbrook Farm, Glen NY See website at www.glenbrookplants.com Country Garden has 75-100 or so varieties, very nice plants, good prices, lots of other plants too. Normal business hours for a garden center. Glenville Gardens is the small operation of a hosta fanatic, Dave Jennings. I've been buying from him for 5 years or so. He carries around 150 for sale and has around 400 growing on his property. He is open by appointment in the evenings or when he has Open Houses on weekends. Well worth the trip to see his garden. You can see what the plants look like when they mature. E-mail him for more info. Glenville is across the river from Schenectady. Glenbrook Farm is a large mail-order hosta nursery near Canajoharie and the Mohawk River. There website has a link on the Hosta Library webpage. www.glenbrookplants.com You would also need to contact them for an appointment to go in person instead of mail-order, but they welcome and enjoy customers at the farm, which is way out in the country. The owner gave me an extended tour when I showed some interest and knowledge of hosta. They have over 500 varities for sale on the website. I'll plug a few mail-order favorites while I'm at it. I've gotten good plants from White Oak as you did; also from Kuk's Forest, the Hosta Farm, Walden West, Wade Gardens, and New Hampshire Hosta. Enjoy your garden! Mine is starting to look great this year, now that I've had 5-6 years in the same shady backyard.

Kentucky - I have been trying to figure out how to make some raised beds- or raised pots for the front yard landscaping. I don't want the look of basic garden vegetable beds for around the front of the house though. I thought maybe I could dig 2 ft hole and put a 2 ft raised planter on top of it, that night work. I iam also thinking about making very big planters (they are ridiculously expensive to buy. I am not sure about the aestetic for my front landscaping, but after considering many materials and my craftsmanship capabilities I have a plan. I will just have to try it and see how it looks. It could sit above ground, part in ground or in ground. My design is 2"x2" wood frame cube (or taller) dark cedar stained (ECO friendly and plant safe). Side and bottom panels of 1" hardware cloth. Inner lining of natural burlap. It would sit on 8" concrete blocks (in ground) with the hole side up foradditional drainage. Inside bottom filled with river rocks then another lining of burlap to contain the soil and the plant and finally mulch on top, of course. It would have to be big enough to allow 3'x3' space for the roots to grow in the soil area. Again, the aestetic is the probelm (aside form all the hard work and digging). I think it wold look descent but odd. To build a retaining wall for the space under the front window of the house would not look right eiterh at the height I need it to be. I think the real solution is to pay for a backhoe to come in here and excavate the clay and then have new soil put in - way too expensive for me right now. I do have one narrow strip on the west side of the front yard that I am lining with concrete blocks to build up that soil area. I plan on very tall trellises lining that hill (all my land is hilly) and covering them with rose and jasmine vines as a privacy fence. The probelm is the area is part shade - never sunny and that is not goo for any of the plants I like. I bought the Charles Darrow Hybrid Musk for that location as it is reported by others to grow and bloom very well in shade. I also have some varieties of Jasmine that might do in that spot. I am also thinking of Camelias and Sky Pencil Holly. My Hollies are about 1ft tall now. It will be years before they grow big enough.

UPDATE for 2024: High Country Roses add lots of Autin own-roots to their inventory (sold out to those who ordered early): Jude the Obscure, The Prince, Ambridge Rose, Abraham Darby, W.S. 2000, Othello, Carding Mill, Sophy's Rose, Evelyn, The Dark Lady, Wise Portia, Charles Darwin, Emanuel, Sharifa Asma, Charles Austin, Eglantyne, Lucettta, Molineux, Graham Thomas, Tamora, Noble Antony, Benjamin Britten, Gertrude Jekyll, Mary Rose, Heritage, Tess of d'Urberville and many others. I got my W.S. 2000 from High Country Roses back in 2011. I should had ordered from High Country Roses back in Nov. 2023, it's only $23.95 per own-root Austin. High Country Roses in CO now ships roses to Canada.