...full sun up to half shade; shade tolerance is greater than the literature indicates; plants under red maples made a respectable show although less dense and with decreased flowering compared to plants in full sun. Dirr, Manual of Woody Landscape Plants. I'd have to consider under red maples a pretty tough planting location regardless of the amount of sunlight.....no doubt lack of moisture and nutrients from root competition would play a factor as well. 4-6 hours of direct sunlight without the influence of a red maple canopy should be more than adequate. I think 'Kaleidoscope' could work well in the location you describe, with adequate watering. Heat and humidity do not appear to be a limiting factor for this plant, as many of the popular cultivars, including several of the variegated forms, were developed in nurseries located in the south (Alabama and NC).

Thanks for your responses guys. Yes, I live on Vancouver Island, zone 8, so normally mildish winters, (but we will not talk about the last one) :) I know you Seattleites will know what I am talking about. Anyhow, sorry, I was not including climbers in the hard prune, obviously. I just want to give my roses a boost and hopefully encourage new basal shoots. I just feel that a hard prune will rejuvenate them, and I am up for the challenge. I do grow roses against all odds. I say that all the time, and though my roses are mostly the best they can be, I envy people who have lots of sun and perfect conditions. Our property is surrounded by very tall dense evergreens and we get the minimum requirements of sun. No sun whatsover from about now to middle of March. (hense the reason I prefer to prune in the fall, so they will start blooming as early as possible for me. If I waited until, say Forsythias were in bloom, then it would delay my blooms way too much. We are very moist because of many Springs, a pond and a salmon spawning creek running through the property - drainage is not great. I never "light" prune anyway, always, a good moderate, but this year, just want to go for the gusto. Some of my roses can get quite leggy as they reach for more light, but I can and do grow roses! :) Anyway, Will get the old secateurs out next month, and give them the hardest prune of their life, and mulch. (we mulch anyway at that time of the year). So will let you know if I feel there is an improvement!

Talking about softwood cuttings and rooting in the summer: IMHO misting and coco coir do not solve all the problems although coir is far better than any other medium I tried of which peat was the absolute worst. In the first summer when I used coir and had a misting table, almost all cuttings rooted while next year close to none; in the second and third year I actually could root more cuttings last fall/early winter without mist than in several months in summer. Our summers are very hot and humid as a rule. I had to ponder what could have caused such a dramatic difference, especially because the rotting instead of rooting continued this summer, too. My tentative answers strictly for myself - are: 1.) In the first year, that is in 2005, when I used coir and misting we had frequent showers in summer; not steady rain but frequent showers and they came during the day, not night. This meant that the cuttings were taken from well-hydrated plants while in the drought in 2006 and 2007 the mother plants could not be well hydrated. This year we had watering restrictions, so the problem was even worse. 2.) In 2005 we diligently kept up our spraying schedule so I had no blackspot, therefore the plants were healthy so were the cuttings, meaning that the cuttings also had been treated with fungicide prior to taking them. Obviously, in 2005 the cuttings could keep their leaves while in 2006 and 2007 when, due to surgeries and other 'fun' occupations, the regular spraying lapsed, delayed or suspended. Although the cuttings looked OK when I took them, they lost they leaves soon on the misting table. Strangely enough Clotilde S., Perle dÂOr and Arethusa that rooted like weed before and never were sprayed all rotted this year too. So did Crepuscule and Buff Beauty. 3.) This last comment is just a side note, mentioned with hesitation, since I am quite uncertain about its significance; it happened only once this year but I was totally taken back that it could have happened. Spider mites were so bad this year (never before) that when I checked my cuttings on the misting table a week after striking them, I saw fine webbing extending from one tray to another - the web was not destroyed by the mist. It was just unreal. As a consequence I found a lot of papery brown dry leaves on the table, under the mist. (Obviously, I didnÂt see or notice any living things on the cuttings when I took them.) I tried to wash the next series of cuttings in Consan (kind of Lysol) but I didnÂt see much change. I also moistened the coir with a weak Consan solution and added dissolved Aliette to the rooting medium  these seemed to help somewhat but I think that getting some rain in the last months helped more. So this year, I guess, I will try more hardwood cutting as I did before; no leaves are needed for those as Cass stated above, and because we resumed spraying I hope that I will start with healthy cuttings. It will be interesting to see how those cuttings will do that I take from roses I didn't and do not spray. All in all I think outside Âenvironmental - factors do contribute to the success or failure of rooting. Any critique or corrections of these observations are most welcome. P.S. Cass is also right about having patience  certain roses root in ten days while some others take a long time. Years ago, in the pre-misting period, I suffered with Zephirine Drouhin a lot and was frustrated because I promised a rooted clone to a friend. Then I got mad, I inserted cuttings in to the ground and I forgot about them. During the winter cleanup, to my surprise I found four or five ZD rooted in that spot. P.P.S. all described above do not imply that McGleason has very special gifts as rooting concerned.

Karen, typically the type II large flowering hybrids are more prone to wilt than any of the other types of clematis. Some have reported wilt on type III clematis and even some of the viticellas but I often wonder when people say they have wilt whether it is really the typical clematis wilt or something else that is mimicking the disease. As to which clematis are more resistant to clematis wilt, I recommend you visit the International Clematis Society Website linked below where they have the best clematis for beginners listed by category. There are several blue-purple clematis that will fill the bill for your situation including Polish Spirt, Blue Belle, Jackmanii, Etoile Violette, and others shown on the International Clematis Society webpage where they have pictures for many of the varieties they recommend. For others you are unsure of the color of, visit Clematis on the Web and search for the varieties because they have pictures for all the common varieties you are likely to find locally. You can also search for clematis by color and the descriptions will give you the final height in meters (one meter is equal to about 3.28 feet for your info). Their website is as follows: http://www.clematis.hull.ac.uk/index.html Although you are looking for taller types of clematis, if you are into purple (and I am unashamedly am), I think you should look into Petit Faucon. It is an integrifolia which does not cling by itself but can be tied in, will get about five feet or so in height (for me anyway) and blooms for me from late April well into September with sporadic blooms into October. Gotta love that! Here is a link that might be useful: Best Clematis for Beginners on I Cl S Website