Thanks, all. Jeri, if I had thought about passing her by, It has suddenly become almost impossible. OMG!!!!! That peachy/fleshy color in the center is so delicious - --- like eating 3 Ghiradelli Choc. Mints in a row. Odinthor - I'm going to have to look up "die back disease". That has to be a heartbreak to see a big chunk of your collection go like that. About the imperfect blooms, I wonder if that just happens on an individual plant here and there. Planetlovercat - Thanks for taking the time to look that up. I have a Clemintina Carbonieri on order, and I know up front that she is going to fry in the summer sun, but I may get one or perhaps two beautiful bloom cycles. Some roses are just worth it. I guess it would make good sense to just debud those roses in the summer. Fig insanity - that helps to know that the bush does well in the heat. Deb, I think it's at least possible that your plant may have just been one that wasn't very vigorous from the start. I have a Mme Scipion Cochet that just seems to be a weakling. I don't know if its one of those you read about that is just slow getting started or if it's always going to be spindly. Jeri, didn't you have a General Galieni that had puny genes? And a special "Thanks" goes out to "Sherry, the enabler" -you always give me confidence. Gracin

Colette is one of my absolute favorites. She produces old-fashioned blooms with wonderful fragrance in peach, apricot or pink tones depending on the weather. Although it is said to be a mannerly climber mine is very vigorous and grew fast. Right now has hundreds of blooms and buds. Very disease resistant, 'no-spray' in my yard. To get good and fast repeat blooms fertilize and water this rose more than others; or rather fertilize and water it as you do with the generally food and water hungry Bourbons and HPs. I got Ginger Syllabub from Pickering in December. Thanks to the unusually warm December and January it leafed and branched out very fast but hit hard by the sudden freeze in February. Dead as a doornail. This is the first 'winter' when I lost roses to winter weather. Well being is a very nice rose, not very big, that is a welcome trait in my small yard. It gets a bit of winter die back every winter even here in zone 8. In my climate it must be sprayed. You will love the bloom form and the color.

I enjoyed seeing the various photos of the Euphorbs from the Huntington, impressive collection there. I am still experimenting with which ones are hardy enough to use for landscaping here in the SF Bay Area, and mostly stick to those that I see around town that have survived past freezes. E. grandicornis is one I'm also using, and E. lambii is one I also like to use quite often, it makes a very fast filler plant while you wait for other slower growing things to fill in. No doubt about it, though, it does reseed readily, but I don't mind working around that for the beauty of the plant. I wish I could figure out how to nurse E. tirucallii 'Sticks on Fire' through our winters up here, so far I ahve only been marginally successful with one plant on my back deck under rain shelter in winter; left out to get rained on they always simply rot away one stem at a time for me. I suspect that the reason the big Euphorbia's get so top heavy is that we just get too much rain for them, and can't grow them hard enough. When I use E. ammak variegata, I plant them right up against a house wall or in a very large pot, where they won't get quite so big, and are easier to keep "pruned" of too heavy branches.

Thank you so much for both of these photos, Cynthia! I appreciate the naked photo ;-) so I can see how those canes want to grow. She's such a slender little thing for 7 yrs. I just talked to Carol at Northland, and she confirmed everything you, and others, have said about her loose, horizontal growth. She also said a little shade would be good because we have extremely hot summers. Your first photo makes me so glad I got her. I don't mind waiting for blooms. My Austin Cottage Rose sat here for 15 years before she gave me absolutely scrumptious blooms last year. She wasn't in the way, and not a priority to remove. That combo is beautiful with Grandmother's Hat and the red roses on each side. Really lovely placement. An elderberry is waiting to go in the ground here, too. I am planning to have some things on hand this year to prop up my droopers and flopers better as per your earlier thread on the subject. For anyone who hasn't read it, it's here with more photos of Cynthia's roses. Get ready to drool. My limp Austins will be standing like little soldiers this year. Well, at least they won't be crawling along the ground. I actually like a bit of loose shrubbiness. I didn't mean to get off track here, but I found that thread very helpful. I appreciate your insight about MAC and no doubt other cold zoners will also find it helpful. Edited - I just read through that thread again (supports) and realize that I had totally missed the specific paragraphs about MAC because she wasn't on my mind until just lately. What a great thread, and I so thoroughly enjoyed seeing the photos of your roses again. You mentioned a smoke bush in the same area as your elderberry. I am feeling a little like a big time gardener because in addition to the elderberry bush waiting to be planted, I also have a smoke bush waiting to go near the elderberry. If I'm thinking like you, I must be doing something right.