I grew Spanish Lavender, the one lavender that is tolerant of Florida rain & humidity, but I planted it in pure builder's sand (the same for rosemary). Both did great. Bronze fennel grew huge (as did the others), was stripped to bare wood by caterpillars, and grew back beautifully - twice. I love Lemon grass - tall, swishy, fragrant grass. I dug it up and moved it twice because it outgrew its space (almost too big to move by myself) and it kept on ticking. Hated to get rid of it but had to put the shed somewhere. Just bought fennel, oregano, marjoram, bush basil & Italian parsley, and plan to put them out among the roses so I'll let you know how they do here. Sherry

I'm not aware of any rose that needs to be deadheaded. I think most rose gardeners do that because it looks a lot neater. Some people maintain that deadheading encourages new growth and blooms--which is why they do it. Likewise, most roses don't require pruning although there can be certain benefits from pruning. Other than deadwood, I usually only prune in the very early spring and then only on roses that had winter damage from low temps. For general care, roses need a minimum of 6 hours of sun, water, and at least one feeding per season--any 10-10-10 type food will work, but many of us like rose food like RoseTone (or any one of the --Tones) which we may put on in the early spring and after each bloom cycle--perhaps 3 times a season. Kate

You and everyone else on the forum knows all about my structures and statues so I won't bore you with them too much. I do love arches and they don't have to be elaborate. Changing the elevation in a garden really makes it more satisfying and interesting. I love to create a vignette. Flora sits beneath her pergola/temple the vision of the goddess of flowers and the beds surround her in circles. It's just the way I look at things. I guess most of the statuary has a classical look that fits with what I consider a romantic garden. I would very much like to recreate that circle of arches that is in Mottisfont. We saw it this past June. There is no more room within the garden proper. We have a very ambitious plan of planting ramblers to tumble down a bank above the road to our water tank. There is a spot in that area where we could perhaps do it.

Yeah, at that price if there's even just a few interesting roses in this book (avail.in Oz) I'll probably have to go for the impulse buy too.James might have to buy a bigger wallet if all the rose lunatics on these Aussie forums are any indication of the market for such a book.Hope I can manage to spot it at our newsagent! Thrip