Actually, Empire Mine is a lot later than Sacramento - depending on how early or late the season is, could be late May or even early June. If you can only do one week, maybe the first week in May would be the best of all worlds, although the cemetery will be past its glory by then.Certainly, going to Gregg's garden would be wonderful. There is a fence around Santa Clara University (near San Jose) with climbing roses - a HALF MILE of climbing roses - that is not to be missed. I'll email you and we can talk some more. You (and any GW person who makes it to Sacramento) are welcome to see my home rose garden, not that it's particularly spectacular, and I would love to personally show you around the cemetery. Anita

There are several satellite TV forums where you can ask your question. I don't know about HD, but in a lot of cases Directv (and Dish) will use an antenna at their Local Receive Facility to pick up the stations. These LRF's are usually at one of the local TV stations. According to Direct'v web site, the one in San Francisco is located at 185 Berry Street. And then probably fiber optic from the Local Receive Facility to Directv's up link to the satellite, one of which is in Long Beach. The link given below is a good one to ask your question. Here is a link that might be useful: Directv Forum

Wow - your space looks perfect for roses - lots of sun! If I were you I would do some more investigating before buying any roses. Going to your local nursery and buying grafted roses (the "bare root" ones you spoke of) is not what I would do. My reason is that grafted roses are actually 2 roses - one is the top (called the "scion"), and the other is the roots (called the "rootstock"). They are grafted together at the soil level, in a lumpy thing called the "bud union". In our warm climate, my experience has been that the usual rootstock on roses sold here is one called 'Dr. Huey'. The problem here is that Dr. Huey likes our climate so much that it decides to take over the entire bush, and puts up its own canes within 2-3 years, and can then take over and kill the scion. Dr. Huey is a once blooming climbing rose with medium sized red flowers (if you look around at neglected gardens near you, you will see LOTS of unintended Dr. Huey bushes!), which in our climate gets horrible powdery mildew all over it. To prevent Dr. Huey from taking over you have to continuously recognize and tear off the emerging Dr. Huey canes, which is a pain, especially if you have roses in a hedge - OWE! What I would recommend is that you purchase "own root" roses, which are grown on their own roots - there is only one rose, not two. This means that any new cane that shows up is good news, as it is part of the rose you want. Own root roses are becoming available at local nurseries, but the best selection is from mail order nurseries. I order my roses from "Heirloom Roses" and "Rogue Valley Roses" - both are in Oregon. You can google them. They both have lovely catalogues in addition to their web sites (personally I like to look at catalogues). They both sell old and new roses. Another nursery I love is the "Antique Rose Emporium", which is in Texas. You can easily get catalogues from these nurseries, and then you can see all of the different kinds of roses which are available. Many times these nurseries will ship you roses in "bands", which are very small pots. These are just as good (and probably better) roses than you can buy locally. They just need some time to get bigger before you plant them in your garden. What most folks do is to plant them immediately into a one gallon pot, and let them grow in it (out side only!) for 6-12 months, at which point they are big enough to plant. In our climate, you can actually plant roses 12 months of the year. The only conditions I would avoid planting in is if it has been so rainy that the soil is completely saturated (I will be SO HAPPY if that happens this Fall/WInter!)- wait until it has had time to drain and dry out a bit. The types of re-blooming (as opposed to once blooming) roses which do best in my garden (contrary to what "they" will tell you, roses are VERY climate specific) are old tea roses, china roses, hybrid musk roses, and polyanthas. Look at the catalogues - once you have found some roses you think you would like, look them up on the website "Help Me Find/roses". A couple of things to keep in mind: 1) The higher the climate "zone" numbers at the bottom for a rose, the better it will like our warm climate (I, and I think you, are zone 9). 2) The sizes they say the roses will grow on HMF are smaller than they really get in our climate. After you get a list of roses you think you would like, I would post it on here and as about people in the Bay Area who actually grow those roses what they think about them - that is the best way to find out, next to growing them in your own garden. Lastly, you are lucky re where you live! There is a thing in the Spring called the "Celebration of Old Roses". It is in El Cerrito - very close to you. There are roses for purchasing there, and also an immense display of all kinds of roses - thousands of them laid out by type - cut blooms in little glasses. There are also 2 local fabulous roses gardens where you can go and look at various types of roses growing - one is the San Jose Heritage Rose Garden, and the other is the Historic Rose Garden in the Sacramento Historic Cemetery. I would go see these in Oct, when they will have lots of roses blooming, or of course next Spring. Sorry to be so long, but I can tell by looking at your garden that you are a gardener, and just need some encouragement! (BTW, if I had your garden I would plant a huge climbing rose like, say Madame Alfred Carriere, on that fence way in the back, and start it up that huge fir tree - it would go up to the top!). Hope the above is helpful. Jackie

Hi Cori Ann -- I checked websites of nurseries near me in the north bay but didn't see Lyda Rose. I did find this website of nurseries in Sonoma county that you might want to check out. It lists Vintage Gardens which means the list hasn't been updated in awhile but you might get lucky. Sonoma County Nurseries I would encourage you to get Lyda Rose. Mine is about three years old and lives mostly in partial shade. Despite the fact that I love the multi-petaled, old fashioned look of DA-type roses, this single rose is one of my favorites. I believe I'll always have a Lyda Rose in my garden. She had her best year last spring. Your Lyda Rose might do better than mine if given a bit more sun. It blooms almost continuously, even into late fall. I just cut the Podacarpus shrub to the left of Lyda Rose by about 60% so she and other roses will get more morning sun this year. Looking forward to seeing some improvement in this section of the garden. Ann