North of you a bit but still without a lot of cold, my garden is home to a dozen or so once bloomers. We rarely get any actual frost, but we have more chill hours (below 40ºF) than you do in your area. They all bloom reliably but perhaps for not as long a period as they would in a cold-winter climate. Having said that, Félicité Parmentier does best of them all. This is one happy rose here. Others that have done well for me here include Léda and Konigen von Danemark. Watch Léda; it has definite runaround tendencies. Madame Plantier suffered from being overcrowded and overshadowed. I have moved it into a new spot with a trellis for support, and expect great things. None of the gallicas truly thrive, alas, and I do love then so. Charles de Mills does better than the others, but it probably has a lot of china in its background and is often called a hybrid china. Speaking of once bloomers, have you tried R Moschata? This species rose blooms here from early June until frost, if you get any frost, and otherwise until sometime in fall. By bloom I mean a nearly continuous show. Big clusters of showy singles and an amazing perfume that wafts make this rose well worth growing. It is healthy for me here. I grow it as a large, rounded, freestanding shrub. Oh, I wanted to tell you that there are some species tulips that don't need any winter chill. Many of them are tiny and none of them are truly large, but I find clusiana and saxitilis to be well worth while. Check John Scheepers's catalog for a really nice listing. Also the Old House Gardens catalog has a good selection of daffodils that do well in warm climate gardens without winter chill. Rosefolly

Don't forget all the hardy annuals that you can direct sow in late summer/early fall to bloom in spring. I have had good luck with these early spring cool season bloomers. Best for me are larkspur-never fails, poppies, hesperis, and sweet alyssum my books say spring sow, but fall for me, in the spring I hardly have time to breathe). These are all sow-in-place types and useful only to those with appropriate spaces for that use. larkspur - always reseeds, blue seems to reseed mostly blue love in a mist baby blue eyes (beautiful but closes by noon) five spot poppies - CA, Shirley, opium forget-me-nots silene clarkia godetia dames rocket (hesperis) - reseeds just right batchelor buttons sweet alyssum(esp the new large tetraploids) and all the beautiful plants by previous poster. Bulbs and roots: the small alliums-uniflorum, roseum, cowanii- and anemone nemrosa,geranium tuberosum, dicentras, (exsc spelling please). Also don't the dutch iris and glad.Bz. bloom in the down time between e spring and e summer? The LA lilies also very early. And viola Columbine,the v. odorate varieties.,astillbes, aquillegias, dianthus, May Queen daisy, salvia Blue and White hill and May Night, achillea Anthea, candytuft. small veronicas. And the early shrubs - Quince, pearl bush, small roses, beautybush, deutzias, lilac.

Thanks all! We almost cut Peace down b/c it's gotten so big and was here when we bought the house. I really pruned it hard this year and it really has bloomed better this year so now I want to keep it. We did spray once this year b/c it appears we had an invation of thurps sp.? Rainbow's End has been one of my favorites for a long time and I finally purchased one, it's really a great little rose!

Hey, how big are the flowers on Julio Iglesias? My are about 3 inches and they don't look as lovely as your Julio does. What's your secret? :) I have Rock & Roll. Is that the same rose as Rock n' Roll? Yours looks fantastic!! I know that Rock & Roll's white starts out very white, then fades very attractively to a pink. Does that sound like yours? I love your Raspberry Cream Twirl!!!! Oh I want it!!!! Your Perfume Delight is delightful (couldn't resist). Talk about a lovely pink. Wow - love them all! Carol