Sweetpeas only last for a bit of time in Sacramento. You could plant some now for bloom in April and May, but they can't take the heat for very long. I do think that prickles could be an issue. An alternative is a prickle-free rose. Peggy Martin rose is a nice, recurring pink climber that's essentially smooth. We'll have a lot of them for sale (and, we hope, Peggy Martin in person!) at our Open Garden on Apr 21. It can get big but you will just have to firmly keep it under control. I learned from Jon at Mottisfont that you let a few new canes grow each year, and cut out the old ones and tie in the new ones when it's time to prune. Don't weave the canes, however supple, in and out of the pillars - tie them on the outside only. Yes, a rose can get big and heavy, but if you are going to put them there you have to make sure that it doesn't! I do think that you could train the roses horizontally between the pillars. Stephen Scanniello has some good photos on FB about doing that at a Dallas home - I just saw it in person and it looks very good. People commented about the pillars not being that strong, and I don't imagine that they are. Metal conducts heat, too. An alternative would be to sink a post in front of each pillar, and use it as the main support. At Mottisfont, once again, I was impressed by their use of big staples in their posts, which then are used as spots to tie in the climbing canes. Cl. Jeannie Lajoie is a really sweet rose - I do think it's prickly although not fiercely so, perhaps? We have one in the cemetery, and I simply don't recall how prickly it is. Andrea, do come by the cemetery nearly any Tuesday or Sat morning, or come to our pruning party this weekend, and you can see the roses and talk in person. Anita

newbiehavinfun, I have a silver maple, and although it gives great shade in summer you're right that it's very difficult to grow anything permanently under such trees. It sounds like your situation is that the roots of the trees have intertwined to such an extent that they strangle other plants. I only have one tree so it isn't quite so bad, but I've had best success with: - dry shade plants, such as hellebore - bigger container plants have a better root system to compete with the trees. Here's a hellebore at the foot of my maple. It's 5 yrs old and has done very well. These are the standard kind with greenish-white flowers. The fancier colored hybrids aren't as vigorous and I don't think they could compete. The other plant next to the hellebore is a jade plant, but I don't believe they're for zones lower than 8 or 9. The spiky foliage is bearded iris; the round-leaved trailers/groundcover are common nasturtium that disappear once the soil heats up in summer. I have three problem areas. They had plants I've tried that didn't work out for one reason or another, had to be yanked out and started over....several times now, LOL. Front yard walkway: We're on a double slope-front to back downwards, and also side to side. Great drainage but it makes the view of the house from the street quite lopsided. Trouble is, the plantings on one side grew quite a bit taller than the opposite side! I don't have a good picture of it from the street, but you can see from this front porch shot, how the right-hand side is just about twice the height of the left-hand side. When you view the house from the street, it makes the uphill side of the front look even taller compared to the lower-growing half. Moving down the hill, one portion of our side yard is exposed to our neighbor. Houses are very close here, averaging 10' apart. Their house has very few windows on our side - but of course, that was the only place my original plants didn't work out! These new tall shrubs/small trees will hopefully fill those spots in a few years: The far part of our backyard is actually quite private for a property smack in the middle of the city. It backs onto a schoolyard and is the lowest point of the lot. That means it is the furthest from my outdoor faucet and thus almost impossible to water. This area is also heavily shaded in summer by a 60' linden and 40' walnut. It's been a real struggle to find plants that will survive cold wet winters and bone-dry summers along with the shade conditions. I've gotten an oleander standard and Tecomaria capensis to survive, with a variegated euonymus and hardenbergia vine trying to get established this winter.

Jakethewonderdog, How long before a mid efficiency furnaces chimney will be rusted out if water condensate is being released, and would that cause a carbon monoxide issue or risk? On the trickle of water coming from a high efficiency furnace it can be measured, per hour. The higher the efficiency the greater amount of acidic water, about the corrosive level of acetic acid, pH2, this is vinegar. The released HEF water fumes and vapors and how much they are can only be seen on days when mercury drops to 0 C, or 32 F. There is a lot of vapor, and the reason why the plastic venting must be far away from any meter, and why the intake air vent must be apart, by a distance greater than three feet from the gas exhaust vapor vent. In Canada the gas code, CSA B149 section 8.3.7 was being ignored and my HEF would freeze up. In Nov., 2014, I began to take the intake air from my 1200 ft. Crawl space for my 100 BTU lennox Pulse, G21Q3-100-3, and the result was warmer heat and house. I am likely the only one in CAnada to do a private HEF condensate study. I measured the condensate water and it was one gallon per hour on the freezing days. In May 2015, I put on a neurtrilizer on the condensate drip vent, saved the gray water, and now flush the toilets with it. This saves me much money paying for hauled city water, and I am now sending only safe alkaline water to my private lagoon. I tested in a Waterloo water lab the tap water, a pH of 7, the gray water, pH 7.6 plus, and the HEF condensate, acidic pH 2. The heavy HEF water was not in hydrogen but heavy in oxygen, at 16 to 18. No other element testing was done to qualify how to reuse nuertralezed HEF water, other than to flush the toilets. I would not permit animals to drink from the toilet bowl, as some dogs do. I would not water a vegetable garden with it or give the HEF water to livestock. Failure of governing bodies on home heat: No government or their agencies, to my knowledge, had confirmed any manufactuer's statements an HEF condensate was only at pH 6. Where did the HEF manufactuerers do their own and required testing? And, what was the quility of the supplied natural gas to get an HEF condensate pH test of 6? In a year from now, maybe the Mallard ducks will again nest on my lagoon, if it is no longer suspected of being acidic. I did no testing of this sewer water. The ducks were not nestings after many years of releasing acidic HEF water, now known to be pH2, into my private lagoon from Dec. 1994 to May 2015. All HEFs, in my opinion, are adding to acidic problems to where this untreated created HEf water is being discharged on surface ground, or into public drainage systems and lakes, and lagoons. This level of pH 2 also corrodes concrete and all metals, so even treatment plants are vulnerable, and sewer pipes. The unneutralized HEF condensate has been permitted, by most all levels of government, to add to pollutions in the water drainage systems and the likely cause of the oceans becoming more and more acidic, and with so many businesses, and industries, and private homes going to HEFs. In Canada that was a compulsory change with irresponsible local reviews on all models of HEFs. The HEF manufacturers have apparently lied about the HEF condensate pH only being a pH of 6, or apple juice, or slightly acidic. They did so in order to sell this lie to all environmental groups. The lawyers in these environmental groups, the paid sophists, said it will be sufficiently dilutted by bath water. Well, many lawyers are paid to lie. The truth is that it is not normal to send one gallon of pH 2 HEF Water, per hour, into any sewer system, from every home that has an HEF. These homes or businesses are not flushing pH 7 toilet water or alkaline dish water into the sewer lines in the same hourly capacity of the created toxic HEF water. Mother Earth we have failed you, again, by profit deceptions involving the plumbing, and the oil and gas industries collusions on new HEF technology. Shame on their joint conspiracy of silence. If not a state or Federal law, where is the local mandate that all HEFs are required to have a neurtrilzer on the HEF condensate, and store the created water, and flush away, safely, and just use the safe pH 7 tap water for essentials.

Actually, it occurs to me that some of the Pemberton hybrid musks make excellent pocket climbers, and I believe ARE recommends them for Texas. 'Cornelia', 'Pax', 'Buff Beauty', and 'Francesca' come to mind. Reblooming, lax, fragrant, soft colors, few thorns, and not so rampant as many of the Noisette climbers. You do need to stay ahead on the pruning. P.S. And if the Cecile Brunners interest you, 'Spray Cecile Brunner' would make a nice hefty fence-concealing shrub that wouldn't take over the farm.