Other than FDH, Delicata is one of my favorites. The shape of the bush is more pleasing. I was thinking I would move our FDH to a sunnier location as mine is only 3.5' X 5' wide. Well, the wrabbits pruned it to 1" but that is another story. Hansa would overwhelm that area and it is very ugly and coarse, but it blooms a lot and has very nasty thorns. It also suckers. I would give FDH another year and pour the water and liquid fish guts to it. Better yet check with some local crazy people. You are in a much warmer Zone than I am and you have a much wider selection of prickles, such as some of the lovely Hybrid Bracteatas Zone 7-9, to choose from. Good luck! Foghorn Here is a link that might be useful: Delicata

Hi - I'm back in Sacramento, and greatly appreciate all of your kind words. Thanks so much. I was planning to respond to each of you individually, but I'm overwhelmed by your support. My mother was 89 in that photo. For the last 11 years of her life, she was legally blind from macular degeneration, and had only peripheral vision. With typical energy, ingenuity and tenacity, and some help from family and friends, she persevered. I heard from neighbor after neighbor what an inspiration she was to them. One said, "She wasn't just matriarch of your family. She was matriarch to the community." It makes me very proud to be her daughter. I'm the executor, and will be back in Ohio a lot for a while. I'll miss the Sacramento cemetery rose garden, my home garden and my life here, but there's something to be said for sorting through the stuff, reliving the memories, and spending time with my family back there. Thank you again for all of your sweet postings. I'm doing ok. It's good to be back home - although my mother's house is home, too. Anita

Building on the Comtesse's thread, I was wondering: mightn't a hedge of rosemary be more feasible? not that the rabbits would eat it, but I have heard that grazing-types animals prefer to avoid places with a lot of rosemary; it's scent ,if planted in abundance, is strong and masks the scent of the predators,so animals that tend to wind up as being preyed on don't want to stick around too long, since it inhibits their self-defense. I use rosemary a lot, meself; I have even noticed that it does have some deterrant effect,though it's no magic solution. My experience: I planted a Cedrus deodara in an un-fenced-against- deer area,protected only by a large neighbouring rosemary, and the beasties did leave it alone for it's first years. Now, last winter, they DID get to it ;I was afraid I'd lost it, they damaged it so badly, but when I finally got down there I saw it was re-sprouting nicely from the base. At that point I put a cage around it, of course. So, you say, silly bart, it didn't work. Well, yes, it sort of did and didn't. We all know that if pressure is too great, deer will eat anything,and they get used to certain deterrants in time ,etc, etc, etc. But I did buy some time for myself and the tree. It may well have been far more effective if there were more rosemarys around, forming a hedge; I have noticed in other cases that a nearby rosemary does tend to make a given plant less of a target for grazing. Besides, rabbits are not deer-they'd find the rosemary branches right in their faces. Rosemary also would not require much in the way of soil preparation, either, or watering. For what it's worth, my aim is to eventually surround the entire perimeter of my large garden with these attractive, no-care evergreen shrubs; it'll take a lot of time, probably, since I only put in a few plants each year,but as I say, I think it does help. It's just part of an IPM program to help keep mammal pests down; it's not "the" solution.

I wanted to update on my Robusta. It was put in as a band from Rogue Valley Roses in 2017. It is approaching 7 ft tall and has really thrived in our Colorado climate. It is a little bit asymmetrical due to an unfortunate run in with a flame thrower on one side a couple of years ago. We also just cut the plum tree back that was encroaching on it on the fence side so it may fill in more on that side. It has bloomed non-stop through the summer but we generally don't debeetle it like the main rose bed so the blooms get munched pretty quickly. The description of Robusta on the Rogue Valley Roses web site says H6-8'. We will have to see how big she gets. https://roguevalleyroses.com/rose/robusta/ She is also cane hardy here in Colorado and needs almost no maintenance. But she is wickedly thorny so needs to be some place out of the way with room to grow. The blooms are a pretty, true red.