Ok, well call me the Good News / Bad News girl. Good News: the most fragrant rose that I have ever smelled is Color Magic (an HT). I planted one by my former back door and was so amazed that I planted two more. Magnificent wafts of fragrance as soon as I opened the door ~20' away, and that's with avg. coastal SoCal humidity, not Florida. YMMV, but I also loved the GIANT, mutable blooms which, even when cut fully open last a week in the house. ONE bloom will *completely* fill a LARGE room with sweet, sweet fragrance. Bad News: It could bloom more (or I could fertilize more). BUT, more important, it really would have done better for me with regular spray for mildew. Rust is not that big a deal, plant-wise, but in my experience, mildew will debilitate and kill it over time. It's a bloody shame, as Suzy would say. If you spray and have a cutting bed, this is a keeper. More Bad News: You will need to cross-reference mildew susceptibility for the fragrance suggestions above if you do not spray regularly. In particular, Double Delight: 2+ mildew; 4+ rust Rouge Royale: 4+ mildew even in 9% humidity in SoCal Mtns, don't bother Freddy Mistral, Sonia Rykiel: lovely but gone because I didn't spray Fragrant Cloud (and most anything orange) & Tiffany: 4+ mildew Good News: GramHat & Golden Celebration are bullet proof and I could not recommend them more. GramHat is pink, floppy and old-fashioned in fragrance and form, while GC, to me, is such a happy looking bush in bloom, no doubt due to my reaction to yellow, and also has very good fragrance and will try to fill a room. Blooms will blow faster, but it's a great repeater in this area. Good News: Anything Jeri recommends. Seriously. Good Hunting!

She lives in Yorba Linda, so that would put her probably mid-way between deep inland and coastal areas. I have St.Patrick too and I really like it as well; it might be worth considering, but I think Julia Child blooms more heavily. Although on the other hand St.Patrick's blooms last a long time.

Hi Sanda, Yes, we have 2 tours planned for next year - late spring and late summer. I like to give the hosts plenty of time to recover from winter and let whether warm up a bit. The actual homes/locations are still undetermined but there are quite a few we are considering. We still have a couple of fun events planned for this year. Sometime in late September we are planning to have a tropical arrt show at the nursery. Artisans of various mediums will be showing their works of art including scultures, oils on canvass, waterpaintings, etc. We are still open to more artists so feel free to pass the word along. The dates/details for all the events will be sent out to everyone on our mail list (sign up at www.tropicalvibe.com). I will try to post the events and details here but if I get to busy with our landscape design work and nursery operations I might forget. Once the email is sent out please feel free to post the information - "the more the merrier!" torpicalvibe

I live in Long Beach. We do get coastal breezes. But because of our proximity to Palos Verdes Peninsula, the large "hill" blocks the northwesterly sea breezes, so many times Long Beach can reach into the 90s in the summer while south in Huntington Beach or north in Redondo Beach, the temps will be in the 70s. But for the most part, temps keep moderate year round. I'm luck to have a large yard and big enough for several large greenhouses. If do prefer the coast. San Diego county is beautiful. Take a drive down to Quail Botanical Gardens in Northern San Diego county. Vista is nice. Capistrano is nice too. The O.C. is nice, but you will find a lot of track homes. Large homes, yes, but not very big yards. Fullerton is nice. The old part of the city. But it does get warm in the summer. Not too bad. If you go north, try Ventura County. Ventura or Carpinteria. Forget Santa Barbara or Goleta unless you have big bucks. The housing market has slumped. But not to a point where you can buy a house along the coast for less than a million. (Though you will find some nice homes in the $800K) Hard hit areas where homes have been foreclosed will be the outlying suburbs (tract homes) in Corona, Riverside and much of Inland Empire where many new homes were defaulted on. I for one hate these types of neighborhoods. Cookie cutter homes (large) but no yard. And basically but up against near desert. I would avoid Porter Ranch and Santa Clarita. Right now the area is ablaze. Planned neighborhoods, fancy tract homes, and small yards. But again, fire hazard areas. Also we have a bad drought, so you will be limited in watering. And if you do choose to live in a dry area, well, you will have to change your plantings to reflect more native plants, grasses, and cacti. San Bernardino County is up in the foothills. The base of the mountain. Fallbrook is nice, but gets hot in the summer and cold in the winter. Good for fruit that need winter chill. Again, if you want to grow more exotics, more tropicals, then you need to move to the coast. Mornings will have marine overcast. Which is nice. And will burn away to sunny, mild days. You will have more micro-climates too. Here in Long Beach, I grow mainly orchids. But also pineapple, plumeria and hawaiian tea bushes.