We mass-planted Peach, Coral, Apricot, Sweet and White in our garden for landscaping use a few years back. They have been bulletproof in terms of performance reliability, foliage disease resistance, heat & cold tolerance. Peach has the most handsome foliage and the first to bloom, coral has the most dwarf form after six years in ground, apricot is similar to peach but paler green leaves, and sweet/white are the tallest and their blooms come in the last. They all are beautiful in each’s own way and offer great impacts in the various locations we assigned them. By the way, White’s bloom form is the most double, has that old garden rose look.

Enchanted, Yardvaark, Thank you! for your excellent thoughts, I really appreciate it. Perhaps my post drew few responses because with a single row of roses there's not much to "design"... so your input is especially helpful. I've seen so many beautiful gardens here but am underskilled in design! Given your input I'll keep the arbor and leave the boxes as they are. On the OTHER side of the white lattice fence is a row of Yellow Canna interspersed with Liatris and 3 Clematis Venosa violacea - all planted this summer. TRELLIS: There is one Multi-blue on the trellis which is very nice but not that prominent when in bloom. I will add some more purple clematis to the trellis, I could probably get 3-4 more clematis planting on each side of each trellis wall. Would Jackmani make a good "wall" of flower? on the trellis? (lots of blooms?). Other? BLACK EYED SUSAN / WHITE DAISY: My single and only reason for thinking black eyed susan inside the trellis is that I have seen folk say it is a very reliable and very hardy perennial, and that coneflower is not. I understand about the 'clash' Peach and black eyed susan. White daisy is a great suggestion and thank you for advising would complement better. Any suggestions for hardy, reliable perennial white daisy, heat/drought tolerance...like black eyed susan that might work well? How tall should the daisy be given the row of Peach Drift? The Bob Hydrangea is a very interesting idea. I looked at these on web - do you know how Bobo holds up across whole summer for plant and for bloom? I also think the statue/feature idea is great, something I never even would have thought of. Sorry for long writing, I'm very grateful for your help. This is a "simple" planting area but I really want it to be effective for what it is. growitnow z7b, Eastern VA

I’m in San Diego, CA, Ken. This truly has been the worst summers for pesky insects I’ve experienced in all the years I’ve been gardening. I don’t use harsh chemicals, but have used things like Spinosad. and Captain Jacks on occasion. This year, I didn’t do any of that, due to some health problems. I really regret not spraying BT, because the little caterpillars are ruining everything. Those I get every summer, but now I’m seeing pests I’ve never seen before. I haven’t changed anything except to add a drip system in February, but that just means my plants are less water stressed than they were in past summers. Hand watering hundreds of plants was the pits! Floral, it was so miserably hot yesterday that I didn’t get out to look things over until evening. I found more on some other Hellebores. I only removed the stems that were infected with whitefly, and hosed down the rest. Should I cut all my hellebores down to the ground? Some of them are sending up new foliage now. I’m sure glad I sealed the fuzzy leaves in a ziplock bag. Although I didn’t see anything flying around when I removed the first nasty discovery, when I looked in the trash bin later, whiteflies were fluttering around in the bag, looking to escape. I’ll need to check my bearded irises tonight too. I had some whitefly on one earlier in the week. They were floating around like snowflakes, so I knew what they were, in spite of never having seen them before. That iris had none of that fuzzy beard, though. Those gobs of fuzz threw me off on the hellebore. Also, no whiteflies were floating around on the hellebores. So Deborah, I guess whitefly likes phlox too? I have one small container of phlox,(David). It’s not doing so great, since they prefer a winter chill. I better keep an eye on that one. I just might give the worm castings a try. It couldn’t hurt, and I’m sure the plants would love it. Thanks all! Lisa

Totoro, I am transitioning all my miniature roses that edge the front of my rose bed, with Apricot and Sweet Drift. I like their flower forms the best of all the 7 or so varieties in the Drift Series. I started with just one Drift Rose last year, Apricot Drift, to observe its characteristics. It exceeded my expectations. What a great little rose. It is essentially black spot free, unlike the unbelievably poor black spot resistance of the old minis. Actually, the Drifts are minis, just different from those wimpy older varieties, disease prone remnants of the mini craze of the 1990's. Drifts are extremely bushy, disease warrior's, and abundant blooming. There's also a moderate fragrance, to my nose, with Apricot Drift, about a 5.5 out of 10. The Sunblaze Series of miniature roses looks tempting, however the press on them speaks not a word about disease resistance, which is a big red flag to me. I have seen them in the nurseries. They seem to have more abundant flowers than the Drifts, are more upright, not spreading, and quite compact (a nursery for black spot...poor air circulation, warm & moist, environment...if they have no breeding against it). I suspect black spot will be an issue with them. Baby Paradise Sunblaze does peak my interest, though. All in all, Sunblaze looks tempting, though. But, I already have 6 Apricot Drifts to plant, so I will put the Sunblaze Series on the back burner for now. I need to know more about them. BTW, My niece has a number of The Faun roses. They are great, but can spread a lot. The Fairy is in The Faun's pedigree, so some of the same growth habits got inherited. Moses