In light of drought across the state - even here in the normally damp SF Bay Area, we only got an inch or two of rain between October and February - I should consider heat/drought tolerance. Does Autumn Damask get by there, on its own roots? Centifolias? When I brought Portland breeding up towards the end of May, the thread grew to 25 posts in the first day, but since it's been just us and the sound of crickets in this thread, I'm guessing I'll be continuing this as a solo project. I'll probably post updates every 6-12 months, depending on how interesting the offspring are looking. And since no thread on breeding is complete without a picture of a seedling, here's a dinky moss. Disease free despite having never been sprayed, but that's all I can say at this point.

Does it have to be that exact brand? I do have a friend with a certified wildlife habitat yard in Vancouver who has an eco lawn with clover and english daisies and such but I don't know what brand of seed he used.

Westond,I'm not trying to be rude when i suggest you reconsider doing this yourself. The point I want to make is that you must have some degree of judgement on what you are looking at while performing a task such as this (largly due to the enormous collective weight of all that brick). At minium one should have have played with legos and dominoes rather than vidio games as a kid to know that the intire fireplace will fall on you if you remove a few of the wrong bricks before removing others from above. The pics are interesting and you have a nice place but I don't need pictures to tell you the fireplace is not holding your house up. Look at your own pics (better still,the house) and it's obiovus the brick in last pic is only one brick deep. I realize the little "soldiers" at top in last pic might appear to be holding the ceiling/floor up but they are there to fill a gap and do not support a thing. There are things that should never be attempted without a basic understanding because you can't get it off the net despite what some believe. Think of it like this,with mortor falling out as you say yours has,the brick would shift and alow house to fall if house was supported by brick in fireplace. Removing the fireplace is a grunt job,hire some experienced grunts and spend your time doing what you do to earn a living or just go fishing. Fixing the hole after brick are gone require's even more construction skill so be prepared to hire a finish carpenter.

@David Jensen - stained concrete is stunning! And it has a price tag. You do not just stain it and walk away. Concrete is porous (which is why it takes stains so nicely/easily...which is a draw back with red wine). It MUST receive some sort of finish. Please remember that commercial settings have NIGHT CLEANING STAFF that have RIDE-ON cleaning/polishing machines that get brought out several times per week. The concrete floors in Costco do NOT stay that "pretty" all by themselves. They take a crew of people riding along on those cleaning machines that clean at the front and leave polish behind out the back. Kinda like a tile/cement Zamboni. I see them in malls all over North America. Not many homeowners have that level of cleaning time/money/effort/machinery. It doesn't mean you CAN'T have stained conrete....it just means you will need to make some decisions. The FIRST decision is: How much MAINTENANCE are you willing to put up with? Can you handle a twice yearly polishing event (wax on, wax off grasshopper) that has to occur no matter how much you hate doing it? If you don't mind this idea, then you are one of the lucky one's. You get to have the "cheap and cheerful" stained concrete + urethane + wax finish. A single colour + urethane is in the $5-$7/sf range. If you do NOT want that type of hassle, then you have to step up your game and move into the epoxy finishes. A simple "clear/shiny" epoxy is $5-$7/sf. If you add the stain then you add another $2-$3/sf. That's where you get into the $10/sf range without much effort. If you want an exotic tri-colour stain then you get to $15/sf without blinking. If you want a picture of a beach at sunset then you will need to break out the big bucks = $25/sf! That brings us to your next decision: How much of a budget do you have? Again, the BASIC concrete floor (no stain) is $5/sf (that's some grinding, microtopping + polish + urethane finish). That one DEFINITELY will have serious amounts of maintenance. Lots of liquid polish+ lots of "stripping" old polish so that new stuff can be put down. Some of the most artistic floors are concrete. I think they are amazing. I also know the amount of artistry needed to get them into the "amazing" range is not cheap. I respect the process and - if I wanted a concrete floor - I would be more than willing to pay for that process. What often occurs is the homeowner thinks a finished concrete floor is a cheap way to get flooring. They think it will be bullet proof without ANY issues at all. How wrong they are. How very wrong and how bitterly disappointed they become when they realize an UNSEALED concrete floor (polished without finish) will stain and etch FASTER than marble. Again, Homeowner Know Thyself. Answer the questions: How much maintenance are you WILLING to do? How much budget do you have?