Congratulations, Anne, you lucky thing :) Thank you, Melissa. That is definitely my tree. What a pretty word -- liquidambar -- and what a mess those prickly balls are. Harbor Rose, how I LOVED Ramona Quimby. Jeezus, Beezus! Thanks for reminding me of that prickly crown!! Kim, thanks again for your input. I've always been a solitary gardener and am just now finding out how helpful different perspectives can be. Lastly, I throw this out there... for what's it worth... just in case... someone is interested. In Garden Open Today by Beverly Nichols there is a section about his copper beech and how he wants to plant rhododendrons beneath it. He digs a trench all the way around it (six feet out) and lines it with concrete blocks. Then he replenishes the "outer" soil with peat and plants the shrubs. Yes, he acknowledges, the roots will creep underneath eventually but that is easily solved: cut them off. He finishes by inviting the reader to come out and see for himself how both the copper beech and the rhododendrons are flourishing. I am not familiar with the varying details of root systems of different trees. Maybe there is something about the copper beech that makes this workable for it but not for all trees. (He does later say he helped other people use this practice in other gardens on other trees.) But it might be something to consider. It doesn't seem too awful of a chore to take a sharp shovel around the outside of the constructed barrier and sever the young roots a couple times a season. That may be a hopelessly naive statement. And Beverly Nichols was, I think, known to exaggerate. Like I said, for what it's worth, for those who don't want to take no for an answer :) This post was edited by Sidos-House on Mon, Feb 11, 13 at 11:23

Thanks everyone for the information! You all have been really helpful! I planted a star jasmine at another home, and I do remember that being a nice plant. There is a family-owned nursery less than a mile from my house. They are really great with plants that do well only in this area. I will definitely talk to them!! They don't seem to carry very many varieties of roses. (There is another larger family-owned nursery across town that has a great website that I have visited. ) That's why I posted to this forum. Obviously, I don't have much experience with roses!! Basically knock-out roses is all I have, and do well wherever!! Harrborrose -- I'm a bit confused about my zone. To register for this site, I googled "find my garden zone" and went to garden.org and entered my zip code. It says my zone is 7B. The map looks to change right near my area. Thanks everyone! I have previously heavily relied on 3 books that I have for DFW gardening. But was just hoping that something different would work. Sounds like this is not the place for that!!

I have Paul's Himalayan Musk Climber on his way up a mulberry tree at the end of the driveway by the garage. He shows the ability to have this tree completely swallowed in a few years ... it's the look I'm after, fortunately. American Pillar is planted on the fence by the Rose Field, and I intend to encourage it to take over a cedar tree. I haven't been too successful, yet, because the canes keep getting blown out of the tree. This rose is WAY to vigorous for a crabapple tree, IMO. How about Gardenia? It blooms once, but it lives to climb trees. It will scale your tree and spill out the other side, with pale yellow-fading-to-white flowers in clusters. Beautiful. Some opinions of the others that have already been mentioned, since I'm in your area: Madame Alfred Carriere tends to grow straight up around here, then form an 'afro' on top. May be a possibility, but it doesn't 'hang' very well. Susan Louise probably won't survive here. I want this rose very, very badly ... but it's probably too tender. Mermaid? Way, way too vigorous once it gets going. Alberic Barbier, though once blooming, is a wonderful rose. The canes are very flexible, so it would hang nicely off a tree. It will go 15' in a season, easy. A possible deterrant ... the wichuriana ramblers make lots of basal canes, which would need to be trained up the tree every year. My AB made at least 12 new canes this year ... no lie. The multiflora ramblers may be a better choice, if you are considering once-blooming roses. Veilchenblau is my favorite of these. I don't grow it, yet, but it will stop traffic at Robert's house when it's in bloom in his holly tree. or Tausenschoen? For re-bloomers, maybe one of the hardier tea-noisettes ... Reve d'Or or Lamarque, perhaps? Photos? You asked. Alberic Barbier Leontine Gervais (another beautiful, stringy Wichuriana rambler) Paul Transon (wichuriana) Gardenia Veilchenblau That should be enough for this morning. As you can see, depending on the effect you're after, the choices are practically endless. Just avoid the really tender ones. HTH, Connie

There are no rules, and all references disagree, as is usual for any question regarding roses. Since you are in a warm zone, my actual experience in my garden may be of assistance - I have Madame Alfred Carriere (tea noisette) planted about 2 feet from the trunk of a large old plum tree. MAC has grown up the tree and also expanded horizontally - it is about 15 feet wide at the top, which is about 20 feet off the ground. Has been growing there happily for over 20 years. No care whatever. Blooms 10-12 months of the year. I planted 2 Fortune's Double Yellow roses about 12 inches away from the 4 ft wide trunk of a huge scarlet oak tree 3 years ago. To my astonishment, they have both grown 3-4 feet up the trunk so far, and bloom every Spring. Waiting to see... Here is a picture of Dawson's Apple Blossom, which as you can see is growing up our crabapple tree. It has been there for we estimate over 70 years. Its base is about 3 feet from the trunk (the crabapple trunk is hard to see in this pic - the enormous trunk you can see through the rose is actually the aforementioned oak tree. Also other roses are growing just as close to that tree. So, the answer is that I would try it - I would try some sort of climbing rose. I think they have DNA which allows for having less light at the beginning of their growing, because they are programmed to climb up to where there is more light.