I wish I did. This was before digital cameras and all my film negatives have been lost. Our old dome rotted away some time ago and I had to cut my Felecia back. One big old cane survives and is well branched forming a parasol shape. Currently it is laying on my redwood picnic table. I let it sprawl like that and it touched down on the ground and has rooted. I'm planning to do like you are and put up a support for the new rooted plant and also add to it to form an L shape for the old parasol shaped plant. Together they should look pretty good. The new little one has made 3 good 5 foot canes in a year's time on it's own roots with some help from the mother plant. The mother plant has had flowers well into January. I don't know if it's usual for the canes to be almost thorn free but this one is. I have grown at least 6 of the hybrid musks and Felicia is my favorite.

Wow, I've culled out some of them and now I've got more to contemplate. Thank you, I'M NOT COMPLAINING HERE :).... At this time of year for my area, is it better to 1/ get it as a potted rose since bare root season here has come and gone OR...2/Order it as a bareroot? Assuming I can get EXACTLY what I want potted up (but maybe that is not possible, I don't know enuf at the moment how the rose industry works). QUESTION: I just got D.Austin's catalog in the mail (swoon)but after reading some other posts etc. I'm not sure about them,,,I noticed that every description says "repeat bloomer" and I'm finding posts that contradict their catalog so I'm relaying on you "my friends" for tried and true climbers for my area and have been rewarded by your wonderful info and suggestions for specific roses to meet my needs. Since I really want a repeat bloomer, as I enjoy being out in my yard year round, is it more of a grower thing, as to how well they have propagated their roses to repeat bloom or just the genetics of that rose, that determines how well it repeat blooms, or is it a location thing of where you plant the rose? I know, I drive my own self crazy, being a 'thinker' personality isn't always a plus. Leads one to ask the 'WHO IS A CREDIBLE/exceptional GROWER' question? Should one go with overall info on that particular rose (to make final decisions) or rely on how that one particular grower has developed their particular rose and pick that way? I'd like to avoid paying huge amounts for shipping but paying extra for a really good rose now, is money well spent in enjoying the rose in the future.

I live near Escondido in a much drier and higher-elevation area than you. Reve d'Or, although still young, has done quite well for me and is a good bloomer. I haven't had any disease issues with it and mine is planted against an east-facing house wall. Its colors are variable, but basically light to darker apricot, and the blooms are semidouble to double. I will soon be planting Climbing Lady Hillingdon, a yellow Tea climber, further along the same wall. It's another rose that I love for its beautiful foliage and lovely apricot yellow flowers that bloom much of the year. Ingrid

HI Sophia Glad to be helpful, and you did indeed do a great job of picking roses that have a good reputation for relatively easy care. They'll still need occasional pruning and deadheading like any rose, but the mix of Kordes and Austin and other shrub roses should work well for you. Incidentally, there's no need to move those two free roses to another area unless you prefer the look of those blooms separate from the ones you have above. I have Garden Delight near Tuscan Sun in the "modern" section of my yard (hot colors), and they make quite a combined statement together. Most of us freely mix hybrid teas, floribundas, and shrub roses together, and a more important consideration for how you place them is their growth habit. For instance, many of your Austin roses (like The Alnwick Rose, Pomponella, Princess Alexandra of Kent, and Munstead Wood) are technically also shrub roses, and they're already in the mix you planned. However, these roses grow differently and need that considered mostly in how you plant. For instance, Munstead Wood tends to be shorter even in warm climates, so it would be toward the front of the bed, while the other larger Austins could go toward the back of the bed. Beyond the height and spread of the roses, everyone's advise to not worry too much about the rose placement is right on- as jjpeace says, the roses tend to decide when they want to bloom and even carefully planned placements end up looking like a mixture in most cases, so just put them where you want them. Since you mention being new at roses, here are some other tips for planting and enjoying them: - Do what you can to prepare the soil ahead of planting in your front bed. This could be mixing in some organic material (like leaves, grass clippings, compost) into the soil bed before planting if you're ambitious, or putting layers of organic material in the 1 meter area around the roses as mulch (maybe putting some wood chips on top if you like that look) if you're lazy like me. The worms will gradually mix that organic material into the soil and improve the overall quality of the soil over time. If you have a humid climate, you want to make sure to keep that organic material away from the canes at the base of the rose at least a few centimeters, to avoid some diseases at the base. Keeping that mulch down on top of the soil also cuts down on your work because you won't have to weed around the roses. - Be sure to water them deeply when you water - particularly when first planted - (until you can feel moisture half-way up your finger, an average of 2 cm per week) but don't drown them in water. Spacing out watering helps to build up toughness and make them send down deep roots, but in sandy soil or very dry climates you have to water more often than I do with my loamy clay soil. - Be PATIENT with them. These roses will mostly settle in for this year and much of next year, and that's a good thing. You may see some blooms, but the main color you want to see is green - that means they're putting out leaves and hopefully putting out roots to grow from. You expect new roses to sleep the first year, creep the second year, then leap (start blooming more) the third year. - Don't fuss over them too much. There will be occasional bugs that chew on them, making lacy holes in the leaves or clustering on buds in early spring (like aphids), but the best defense is to spray them off with water and not try to kill them off. Keeping a few "bad" bugs encourages the good bugs to come and keep the balance in your garden (and also make less work for you). Same thing about blackspot on the leaves - unless it keeps your rose stunted and not putting out new leaves, many of us don't do anything about blackspots on the leaves. If you don't like the look and some turn out to have too spotty leaves to be acceptable to you, you can always change out that rose for another one that will stay cleaner down the road. - Don't fertilize your new roses when planting, particularly not with any solid fertilizers. I make the exception that I plant new roses with a handful of alfalfa hay (from the feed store) mixed in the planting hole soil, since it breaks down very gradually and the roses like the nitrogen, but it's not needed. You can give them some half-strength diluted liquid fertilizer every couple of weeks (see the directions on the bottle) once they're putting out leaves for you throughout the growing season, but you don't have to do even that. Good soil is more important than fertilizer, particularly in the first year. - Enjoy your roses and your family, and we would indeed love seeing what your garden looks like as you get it pulled together. This is all meant to be fun, so have fun with it and don't worry too much. Cynthia