Henry, If HT's are someone's thing, then many of the newer Kordes Hybrid Teas and Grandiflora's have very good, to exceptionally high standards of disease resistance to BS, mildew and rust. The latter not being a common disease issue in Ontario, but can be in cramped beds with poor air circulation and or proximity to fences and walls. Some very good examples would include, Grand Amore, Beverly, La Perla and Eliza in particular. Eliza has been in my garden for 4 years now and has never suffered even a hint of BS or mildew. You should not really need to treat any of these. Moreover, the Kordes bred Fairytale series does exceptionally well here and in PEI, Canada. Many of the Fairy Tale roses are also cross-classified as floribunda's and HT's and not as shrub roses. For example, Golden Fairy Tale is often listed as an HT rose because of its upright growth habit. It is very hardy for a yellow rose, blooms exceptionally well and is near bullet-proof in disease resistance terms, much like most of the Fairy Tale series in general. Their only real weakness is a general lack of stong fragrance. I also can't say enough about the Vigorosa series of roses. Once established, they are essentially season long blooming machines that are hardy and disease free here. Another good rose that is classified as a groundcover/landscape rose, but that grows very much as a shrub is the rose Escimo. It is a stunning single white. For miniatures, Kordes has a wondeful rose called 'Roxy' that is like an improved and more disease resistant version of Sweet Chariot, but not as strong in fragrance. Lots of the Austins do well here, but an equal number do not. Explorers and Rugosa's are bullet-proof by and large and the Parklands bloom very well and hold up to the heat, but some of them can be more prone to BS than I would care for. Morden Sunrise being a very good example and sometimes Morden Blush as well. If we're talking purely in terms of disease resistance and roses that are hardy and bloom well, I have a very strong leaning these days to the newer Kordes roses and in particular, those with an ADR certification.

"If it doesn't really mean that, is there any real reason to stay with strictly "native" plants rather than ones "adapted to the environmental conditions"." There have been some wonderful threads on this question. I've put in a link to one of them here, and there is also some good stuff in the FAQs. I think you'll find a wide variety of personal takes on the native vs. non-native issue. One thing just about everybody agrees on is to avoid planting, spreading or encouraging non-native invasive plants, including those that spread when birds eat the seeds and fly away to plant them in the wild. Two big debates are: (1) what is a native? and (2) what about non-invasive non-natives? The 'what is a native' debate involves issues such as: (1) how far back do you go? do we assume that pre-European conditions are pristine or do we acknowledge that indigenous peoples manipulated the flora by burning, clearing, etc.? Do you say that plants that were native before the ice ages but never made it back up north in the centuries since are still native? (2) is native to the U.S. enough, or to my state?; my county?; (3) if something is native to a wetlands in your state, and you don't have a wetlands on your property (or your property was not a wetlands in the pre-European past), then is that plant native to your property? (same for sunny, wooded, alkaline, acid, etc.); (3) are any or all cultivars and hybrids natives? The 'what about non-invasive non-natives' debate is largely scientific, I think (I may get lots of disagreement here). Those of us who want to see the ecological diversity of pre-Colombian America restored (even a tiny bit) prefer to spend all our time and energy on natives. If the goal is restoring, recreating or honoring native plant communities (not just individual species), then there is no real place for non-natives, or at least no reason to expend time and energy on them. I see each native in my yard as a piece of a complex puzzle that includes the climate, the soil conditions, the wildlife, even the bacteria -- this puzzle gives me just a hint of what the tiny piece of land I am stewarding was like during the time of the pyramids, the Roman empire, the middle ages and early Renaissance, before the European immigrants artificially speeded up the natural processes of species distribution to a dangerous level. Adding a non-native is like trying to fit a piece of a different puzzle into the picture. One puzzle at a time is all I can handle. But if you are making a garden with native plants in it (as opposed to a native plant community), many people are perfectly comfortable with mixing natives and non-natives (as long as they are not invasives). For some people, native plants are a much-overlooked treasure trove of beautiful, interesting plants that serve a myriad of purposes. Anything that increases the cultivation of natives will, in the long run, help maintain and restore the vanishing diversity of our plant communities. I do think the point about 'adapted to local conditions' is a good one. Many native plant enthusiasts will remark that natives require less water, less soil amendment, less fertilizer, pest control, etc., than non-natives. But this is not true for all cases. A plant from Asia that grew in conditions identical to those in your yard may not need water, soil amendment or fertilizer (although pest control may be worse), while a so-called native plant that thrives in very wet conditions in your area will need lots of care if you try to plant it in a spot that's too dry. To me, that means the plant is not really native to the spot where you planted it, but this may seem like nitpicking. Sorry for the long-winded sermon -- this stuff really matters to me, -- wd Here is a link that might be useful: Helpful thread

Well it is about time! American Holly is a native down here on the south coast, with huge tree sized specimen's growing in the woods near my house and some spectacular 40 footers in yards. They pop up like weeds on my property, but I have never had much luck transplanting. And I almost never see them in the local nurseries. This has never made sense to me. They sell many other holly cultivars locally, some not so well suited to our winter climate (like English Holly) but they pass over the hardier native. I know Sylvan nursery in Westport MA has had them in the past, but only super large sizes that cost mega bucks and require a large truck to move.

Wanted to see if there are any updates. I honestly dont know what to do to make my next soil mix. I have a bucket left of Flourite, Ill use that in place of turface. I used it for a few years to feed my aquatic plants. Flourite absorbs nutrients from the water and releases it slowly to the plant roots. I can buy succulent soil from anywhere, I think its the same price everywhere. I still need to call humber to check for periite, I went there a few weeks ago and didnt see any perilite. I also cannot buy it in cu ft because I dont have the space. Bark, Ive not seen bark anywhere where its not an inch in size. Same thing for crushed granite, no idea where they will have it.