they are treated no different than any other tree in my dry sand ... i would say they TOLERATE wet.. more than your comment of LIKING wet ... as always.. such comments.. are about fully established trees ... and where they plant themselves.. we really walk a fine line.. due the the issues of transplant.. where we mess it all up ... and you understand.. a transplant that size.. can not dry out for about two years .... afterward.. once established .. they should be able to handle it... you know about planting in bad clay??? we have given you that planting guide .. yes???? my 12 year.. planted as a 6 footer.. is .. w/o a scale.. 1/3 to 1/2 less than the picture .... at 20 feet i wouldnt worry about any tree lifting pavement ... they go in the dumpster if you dont buy them ... they do lose their needles.. nudey in winter.. which is cool .. my problem with them .. well i only have one left.. is/was early sprouting.. in z5 MI.. followed by frost/freeze ... once a year.. they can cope .... but one bad year.. it happened twice .. so bud.. hard frost ... die-back of new growth .. rebud .. hard frost/freeze ... dead ... but i think it may have old historical problems hold the receipt.. go for it ... what do you have to lose ... ken

I'm finally able to access my pictures so I'll post a few here of the roses I mentioned. Quadra in my experience is at least as thorny as ND, but the flowers last much longer. Being a semi-double, you don't notice them fading as much and I've seen clusters last a good 2 weeks without getting ratty. I'd say mine that's maybe 7 or 8 years old blooms more or less all summer, taking a break in August as most of my roses do. Here's a shot after I finally wrestled him into an arch after a few years free standing: Here's my Colette after about 3 years, making her a young climber. She's survived both polar vortex winters, so I'd say she's fully hardy in my zone 5. Lunar Mist climbs quite well along the fence for a good 10 feet or more and is usually tip hardy for me. And even though my "not RdV" doesn't repeat, my Reine des Violettes is a great statement in spring and totally tip hardy every year. It would laugh off zone 4 winters too I suspect. The "real" RdV should repeat fairly well and it's apparently a little more of a purple cast than mine, which is a good thing in my world. Hope this helps - you have many good options. Cynthia

I would not go with New Dawn - she is SO thorny, and on a pergola, you have to do a lot of training and etc. I think New Dawn is best off in some less-traveled spot in the garden, where she can thug away to her heart's content and doesn't need much in the way of pruning. Can't comment on Awakening, as I don't grow it, but I suggest Peggy Martin. She grows FAST, is almost thornless, and the spring flush is spectacular. She does have some decent scattered rebloom over the summer and into fall (I don't dead-head her because she's so huge - maybe if you did you'd get more). Here are some pictures of her on my pergola: (sorry about the second one - I took that this morning and its really sunny out, so the color is sort of blunked-out, but I wanted you to see the whole pergola). Here's a close up of a flower: On my pergola, that is 2 plants, one I got from RU, the other that I started from a cutting (she roots really, really easily from cuttings, another plus). I'd say she covered the pergola in about 2 years. She doesn't have much scent, but still I think she is ideal for this purpose. Another thought is the beautiful Purple Skyliner, also a great bloomer and a fast grower. A little thornier than PM, but not bad, and nowhere near as thorny as New Dawn. Here's one of mine, growing on a pillar with Sir Paul Smith (again, sorry for the fact of the photo being taken in the super-bright sunshine, it does kind of mess up the colors, but you get the idea): As an afterthought, here's another shot of Peggy on my pergola. This one is on the shady side of the pergola. As you can see, a little less bloom but still pretty good: Good luck with whatever you decide on!

Could be aphids or spider mites. Just give them a hard spray of water and then go over it with some denatured alcohol on a cloth. Not a lot. Definitely don't leave that there. Now that I look at that first picture of the dryness could be the result of spider mites which usually appear when it's very dry but I've had them when it's raining a lot as well. They will spread so get rid of them now. Sorry you have this on your new plant but it's easy to get rid of.