WinterCat, Thanks for the poem! I've never run across that one before, and it's beautiful as well as botanical. I'm moderately interested in the history of rose hybridization, and plant discovery and development in general, but the lives of the people who happened to get roses named after them as a rule leave me cold. I've never cared for celebrity gossip. And, perhaps because of a minimalist element in my aesthetic composition, I don't collect plant-themed objects, or anything else, except for the plants themselves, and books. But my goal, or dream, is a very large, very complex garden filled with a tremendous variety of plants all in the place that's right for them. Much as I love both literature and gardening, I don't find a great deal of connection between them. Maybe it's like, oh, kittens: they're absolutely delightful in real life, but perhaps too charming to make good subjects for artistic interpretation. For years I've had a vague idea in the back of my mind of a garden poem, long, full, complex, rich, beautiful, like the garden of my dreams. I'm not going to write the poem, as I'm not a poet, and I haven't found that anyone else has written it, though I don't read much poetry, either. I don't believe that Dickens, that pre-eminently urban author, is commonly regarded as a notable writer of landscape description, but have recently become conscious of his sensitivity to the beauty of the countryside and his ability to describe it. From Nicholas Nickleby: [after a night of drinking and riot, ending in a quarrel] "They...emerged upon the open road,... Fields, trees, gardens, hedges, everything looked very beautiful; the young man scarcely seemed to have noticed them before, though he had passed the same objects a thousand times. There was a peace and serenity upon them all strangely at variance with the bewilderment and confusion of his own half-sobered thoughts, and yet impressive and welcome." And from Bleak House: [on a trip to visit a friend in the country] "It was delightful weather. The green corn waved so beautifully, the larks sang so joyfully, the hedges were so full of wild flowers, the trees were so thickly out in leaf, the bean-fields, with a light wind blowing over them, filled the air with such a delicious fragrance! [and the friend's garden] But indeed, everything about the place wore an aspect of maturity and abundance. The old lime-tree walk was like green cloisters, the very shadows of the cherry-trees and apple-trees were heavy with fruit, the gooseberry-bushes were so laden that their branches arched and rested on the earth, the strawberries and raspberries grew in like profusion, and the peaches basked by the hundred on the wall. Tumbled about among the spread nets and the glass frames sparkling and winking in the sun, there were such heaps of drooping pods, and marrows, and cucumbers, that every foot of ground appeared a vegetable treasury, while the smell of sweet herbs and all kinds of wholesome growth (to say nothing of the neighboring meadows where the hay was carrying) made the whole air a great nosegay." Melissa, with the help of Charles Dickens

Anyone going to the garden tours in Westport on June 6th?

I wouldn't be without a double knockout even if I have to grow it as an annual. Mine bloomed profusely from late May to October last year. It only took a small break for a few weeks early July to put out new red growth. The best part of that was that the JBs didn't seem to like the red growth. We were hit so hard with JBs last year that they skeletonized maples and hydrangeas which they never really touched in the past. They just didn't happen to like the KO's new red leaves. The color of the blooms works well with Maiden Pinks Dianthus and lavender. The shape of the blooms is lovely. I don't care for the outher KO's. Double is much prettier! The only problem I had, and this is a big one, is that it over winters horribly. I lightly protected it, and it was ravaged with canker by spring. =( None of my other roses suffered anything like that though some were wrapped/covered much heavier than KO. I'll try not protecting it this winter, but I suspect it will just die all the way back to the ground. I don't like to spend a lot of money on plants, but I don't have a problem with the idea of shelling out $25 every May for a new DBL KO. I think the plant is worth it. Good luck!

Thanks to the suggestions on this board, I ordered the following from Regan: Laguna Fiji Earth Angel Olivia Austin Pretty in Pink Eden Repeating Cecile Bruner CI Regan’s site says the Cecile Bruner is the repeat blooming kind and I sure hope it’s true! I am only looking for one more this year: a white climber with pink bud, just like Mme Alfred Carriere, but hardy for zone 6. My best friend from childhood had one on her family’s fence and I still remember the sweet fragrance. Their house has been replaced by a high rise and her mother has passed away years ago but I always remember their beautiful little garden and her lovely family. I guess this is why white climbing roses will always have a special place in my heart.