Thank you for your thoughts. I had never seen a MO until I moved into this house. I took branches from the shrub and a picture of the one flower from last year, which was on the top of the bush, to the county extension office and to a nearby nursery. You should have seen me getting the picture, leaning out of the 2nd floor master bath window, holding a 300mm zoom lens camera way over to the side... The neighbors do remember the bushes flowering years ago and both afore mentioned sources identified them as MO. And you are correct- my husband says I overstated the height of the bushes by some 5'. OOPS! So, I am quite convinced that we do have MO of some variety. I lopped them all down to ground level on Sunday, watered deeply, and today have 2-4 new shoots on each bush.

We have a Lemon Meringe, a sport of Westerland, that does well planted against a furnace chimney (warmest spot in our yard.) It puts out a great spring flush, and repeats at the top of its new canes later in the year. Then, the following year, we pull the canes horizontal, so we get blooms along the laterals. Here is a link that might be useful: Weeks web page on Lemon Meringue

Thanks, Alison. A two inch bloom is on the cusp of a "miniature". Many miniatures grow a lot larger than the two foot upper range, but might be encouraged to remain smaller because of your climate. You could be looking at landscape or ground cover or miniature, even mini flora types to get the sort of plant you seek. Perhaps the landscape and ground cover classifications would provide potentially healthier, hardier types for your situation. The other classifications have slightly different selection criteria, skewed more toward the flower than care free plant. Those selected for landscape use would tend to have less emphasis placed on the individual flower and more on the more maintenance free plant type. Good luck! Kim

You're welcome, Sophia. The placement looks about right, unless you can sink the umbrella a few inches lower so the crown of the plant is about even or slightly above the top so it rests on it instead of having to grow up in to it. You probably also want to invest in a couple of heavy metal pipes, driven well into the ground around the trunk of the umbrella then tied securely to it. Once the roses begin growing into weepers, they create an amazingly effective "sail" and will catch any breeze that passes them. Strengthening the upright stability as much as possible now will prevent you from having to stand them up and fight with them in the wind. Our SoCal winds are legendary and weepers are severe issues here. I learned this the hard way, and with an umbrella just like the ones you have. I thought one strong metal pipe, not a "stake", but a rigid metal water pipe, would suffice, but it finally required three, driven two feet into the ground, as close to the central trunk of the umbrella then all wired tightly together, to keep the structure upright in the winds. Yours may not be as severe, but you know you are going to eventually experience something similar. Securing them well now will prevent hours of totally wicked fighting and potential plant (and YOU) damage later. Plus, you have three of them to worry about. You need rigid, unbendable, rust resistant material such as galvanized water pipes, probably 8' long, driven in as far as you can to anchor the umbrellas. This is definitely a job you want to do ONCE. Good luck!