Hi Nadia, I have Leonardo da Vinci and love it. Mine came from Eurodesert (Morongo Valley, CA) in 2011 when that nursery was closing, and it was a big, full-sized plant. I'm not sure where Eurodesert got it, possibly from Palatine, but I can ask Cliff Orent. Funny story how I came to get this rose. I was wandering the aisles at Eurodesert in a daze (which is a typical reaction on seeing the thousands of roses growing on that property) actually.;) I'd tried to organize my buying into purposeful trips. On that visit I was looking for yellow roses. However, I'd spotted this one rose in an earlier trip in the floribunda beds with the most attractive and unusual foliage (dense all the way down the canes to the ground) and peppered down the canes in old-fashioned pink flowers packed with petals. It drew my attention again--what IS that rose??? The combination was unique so I bought this pink rose on my yellow rose shopping trip! And LdV he is a big one. I had a chance at last year's Great Rosarians program at the Huntington to talk to a representative from Star Roses which markets LdV in this country. He told me they were planning on re-releasing it since he agreed with me that it was a very fine rose--however he thought it would do better if marketed as a climber than a floribunda as it gets much larger than what people expect of a floribunda and wants to climb. Blooms profusely and for months on end. No disease here nor did he have any at Eurodesert (which really is in a desert location). Mine is in full sun as he was at Eurodesert. Thrives in the blasting heat of the summer! Melissa

Some other local nurseries with a good selection of plants would include The Dry Garden Nursery on Shattuck Ave in Oakland,(right on the Berkeley/Oakland border), the Ace Garden Center Nursery on Grand Ave in Oakland, Yabusaki Nursery on Dwight in Berkeley, Magic Gardens in Berkeley, and East Bay Nursery in Berkeley. Your daughter should also make a trip out to Annie's Annuals in Richmond, which sells very interesting plants,(not just annuals) in mostly 4 inch sizes, and has an especially good selection of rarer plants at this time of year. They also have a web site. If you wanted to accompany your daughter on a shopping/info nursery trip, you might also find it entertaining to visit Orchard Nursery in Lafayette, just over the hills inland from Oakland. This nursery would emphasize plants that might be more familiar to an east coaster, as they are abit colder in winter there and have more winter deciduous perennials and shrubs to select from, as well as catering to a more conservative/east coast garden design mentality as compared to the bay side of the hills, where it is really anything goes, and hortisexuality has taken a firm hold of the gardening public... For quick screen plantings, clumping bamboos would certainly work, and depending on the height wanted, the species selected would vary. Tree Dahlias or Tree Daisies, (Dahlia imperialis or Montonoa grandiflora) could also be used as quick growing vertical screens with fall into winter blooms for such screening. The fall sales at both the local botanic gardens will be happening in September/October, and are great opportunities to get really interesting plants that nurseries don't always have, and could emphasize rarer plants that do well here in the SF Bay Area from the Berkeley/San Francisco/UC Santa Cruz Botanic Gardens. Any of these nurseries could also recommend people who do consultations to give your daughter advice. There are tons of qualified people around who do this locally, but expect to pay at least $75/hour and up...

Capturing and integrating strays and ferals into an existing family structure is something with which I have waaaaaaay too much experience. My family pride currently numbers 13 (I recently lost one of my boys to CRF), the last 8 of which showed up uninvited here on my farm. Of those, 4 were completely tame (2 adult intact toms, 1 adult intact queen, and 1 adult spayed female), 2 were semi-feral (both adult intact toms), and 2 were completely feral (both adult intact toms). All are now happy couch potatoes here in my home ... but it wasn't easy putting this family together. I'm all for capturing the neighborhood strays and rehoming them or taking them to your local shelter if they'll accept them, and you might just find one who captures your heart and wants to be Jasper's buddy. Before you decide to go that route, though, you might find it helpful to read through the integration story of my Three Mouseketeers on my website linked below (be prepared for a looooong read). They posed a lot of challenges for me, many of which are fairly common among stray and feral cats. I wish you the best of luck in whatever you decide to do. Laurie Here is a link that might be useful: The Three Mouseketeers

@dsg2015 -- I had the exact same choice 1-1/2 years ago. I did switch in the end and it has been an excellent decision for me. Our girls always touted Apple to us. I stubbornly stuck to PC and Android. Then we had to get DH an iMac for the accessible features -- he has low vision and it was recommended by the Lighthouse. So I had to learn to use it in order to adjust it for him. It's been excellent. So when my last PC started wearing down, I went to Apple. I like a desktop as I do a lot of photo editing. I got an iMac with a fusion drive which means it boots up super quickly and is very fast. It is, hands down, the best desktop ever. I did need to reorganize things and I do have my quibbles. But overall there is no comparison. Plus I don't need to keep spending money updating software and adding internet protection -- those are included! I did have an iPad in advance of the desktop and loved it. Didn't put much focus on the ability of those to synch up but it's come in very handy. So when I went to get a new phone at the end of '14 I took a hard look at the Iphone 6+ vs the Samsung. Everyone I spoke to with the 6+ loved it. I went for it. Like the desktop, it is by far the best phone I've every had. Easiest to use, 0 audio issues, almost no dropped calls. If I take photos with the phone they transfer over to the desktop library. So now I'm a convert. I still have a PC laptop that's been lightly used. It should have many good years as it's not used all that much. But when it goes, I'll get a Mac. Sure, Apple support varies from store to store. But it's worlds better than the nightmare overseas non-English, nonsense support I experienced in the past.