Thank you very much Patrick and Jeri: Patrick that's good to hear that I can just plant it straight in the ground if that's how it works out. Without worrying about the canes laying on the ground. Yours sounds really pretty. Jeri: You raise a good question. If I can grow it well in the ground or not. It certainly hated being in the new bed out front where pretty much all the other roses seemed comfortable. It only perked up when I put it in a pot. I do have other beds so I will probably end up with it in a larger pot or the back rose bed. Kate

Thanks for the comments everyone. Phylrae, to answer your questions...I don't grow Pat Austin but the opening buds look very similar (from pictures I've seen), but HOE starts out in bud on the "orange" side, opens to a salmon color, then fades in time to a pale pink....a very alluring transformation because at one time on a single bush you can have several shades of salmon, orange, apricot-pink, and pale pink. During different times of the summer the blooms can either be extremely double or semi-double...a charming chameleon! Even though I don't grow Pat Austin, I do grow dozens of Austins and I'd say that HOE stands up better in the rain as well as in the vase. The fragrance is light, but mine smells like tea rose. I was lucky to find mine at a nursery here (I had to drive an hour & a half to get there!)...it is a Jackson & Perkins, so maybe they offer it in their catalog? It makes a nice bushy shrub and not too tall, and the leaves are shiny & dark green. It had several flushes all summer, and was hardly ever out of bloom...I just snip off the dead blooms and out she pops more buds! Here is another look she gives when the mood strikes...the blooms here were more yellowish-orange. Celeste a href="http://photobucket.com/" target="_blank"> And here she is right now, blooming in the cool days of early Fall: a href="http://photobucket.com/" target="_blank"> And here is when she feels like dressing up in PINK: She sure is a FUN rose! Celeste

Tom, it is understandable to be skeptical but the strange combinations of things is what makes gardens in SE Australia so weird and wonderful. You can see a yard where the main landscaping consists of Betula pendula and Yucca elephantipes, the latter ALSO being one of the most popular northern hemisphere plants in the suburbs! Melbourne in degrees F is only about 6F warmer than England in the summer...on average. Hardly warm by our standards at all. Almost like Portland, Maine: 79F/60F. During heatwaves, however, it can get a lot hotter. And presumable the birches down there have defoliated in the worst summers. And btw the She Oaks are incredibly wispy! The Canberra Australian National Garden has a huge collection of them, but I walked right past it w/o taking any pictures because they all look the same to me. Shax, I'm having to write "in arrears" - so the posts are a few days behind the trip. I might get caught up tonight. I got into Christchurch very late last night. Would love to have seen your place but really had limited time...I do have things to get back to and am having to pay a neighborhood kid to keep my 100+ potted plants taken care of. Thanks for the kind offer though...if supersonic flight ever becomes feasible and cheap, I plan to visit Australia frequently haha. Some Australians have gently ribbed me for complaining about the flight length. They are used to having to fly that long to get anywhere else in the world. It's interesting in speaking to them...so many people here have been to the US. While I doubt more than 5% of people in the US have been to AU or NZ, if that.

Thank you so much, Mary, for responding. It appears Heaven on Earth is fabulous in just about any zone. I can't wait to see how it does here. I'll pamper it and do whatever it takes to make sure it's happy. Roses usually do better on their own roots for me, and the one I ordered is own root, so it will be interesting to see how it does. If I can find a budded one, I'll buy that one, too and make a comparison. I have an idea I will want more than one, anyway.