I have a smartparts and love it, the remote is about the size of a pack of playing cards but very thin but easy to see with large buttons, all I have to do is stick my usb thumb drive in it and upload the pictures to the frame memory, it turns off each night at a specified time and turns on in the morning at a set time, it is great and very easy to use. I really like it and would recommend it, my husband got it for me for Christmas from costco. I just got a little piece of the self stick velcro and stick the remote to the back of the frame so I don't lose it. You do not need any type of connection other than plugging it into the power. Mine is 8.4 inches which is perfect for my desk. It does the various fades in and out and auto rotation and transitions, the pics are extremely clear.

Duane, What a beautiful letter. I lost my Mother just over two months ago. I thought I knew pain in this life. But never anything like this. I loved my Mother. It was always there, just like she was always there. But both I took for granted at times. But now my love hurts and she is gone. At times, I too feel like I do don't want to go on with out her. I often wonder HOW am I going to make it with out her. The years seem long before me. You are not alone in your sorrow, even though, I know at times you must feel like it. I feel so alone in my sorrow. I feel like the tears will never stop. Being a Mother myself, I know that her love for you will absolutely never die, it will endure through the eternities.. ((Duane))

"Were you born in a barn, would you like some hay"!!!! That is just so funny! Add to the 24/7 aspect of the job, with the holidays there's so much preparations going on. Last night I went to bed and slept like I was in a coma! Thanks for the link!

The best candidates for carefree growing tend to be the native species of the area, or those from similar climates nearby. Your reasonably local choices would be R. arkansana and R. carolina, and R. californica might be another possibility. Beyond the species, there's the matter of selection. (A selection is which particular strain within a species someone may have found and propagated.) Some arkansana, for example, blooms in flushes, and some californica blooms all season, given acceptable conditions. The best selections may be very hard to obtain, however, e.g. there used to be one tiny producer distributing the reblooming arkansana, but they closed their doors a few years back, so now if you want any, you'd better find someone who grows it. R. arkansana is the most drought tolerant of the bunch, californica somewhat less so, and carolina a bit less still, but all are drought resistant compared to a normal garden cultivar. Arkansana and californica get a little rust in some climates, but all three species are generally disease resistant. Carolina seems pretty much immune to rose rosette disease, californica also resists it well. Arkansana's RRD resistance is a bit less clear, but probably also pretty good. Know that all of these species sucker aggressively (on their own roots). Unless you want them to gradually fill the entire yard, you'll probably want to limit the need for digging suckers up by planting them in a spot where they can't send them in all directions.