Thank you, thank you, all! Jackie, unless someone says otherwise I'm just going to leave the dieback - for now. Other roses in my garden haven't responded that way - though this spring does seem to have more dieback than previous years. Even a local friend mentioned having it in her garden. Annabeth, I'm glad you agree. Capitaine used to be in too much shade, and he wasn't near as handsome. If I have any more failures, I know who the replacement will be. :)) Jeannie, I think you mean Lauren (the deep rose with purple and lavender). It is a pretty, little flower on the bush in the mauve color range - and hard for me to photograph because of the exploding colors - digitally, that is. Angela, mine isn't that tall yet but is BS-free here, too, and I can see why a near fall into Le Vesuve could give you a panic attack at the remembrance of it. I didn't know about thornless roses either. How could there be such a thing as a thornless rose? But I have had several without realizing it. I only realize after working on a bush for a while, reaching in and among the canes, and then notice I'm not scratched and bloody. My worst seems to be Maman Cochet, Climbing. Big prickles on the canes and small sharp ones under the leaves. I forgot myself and did some trimming on her a few weeks ago without pruning gloves. Golly, was I sorry! I couldn't touch her without getting stuck - painfully. Vettin, I really enjoy enabling. How convenient that you like being enabled! Glad you liked the campanions. Strawberry Hill, my soil is neutral even though I thought for a long time that it was alkaline. But even so, I had to ditch several roses that didn't like it. Patricia, when all those larkspur seedlings sprouted, I just thought they were weeds. Then as I was reaching to start pulling them, it dawned on me that I had one plant in that spot last spring that I grew from seeds. Rocket is the name, I think. I had plants sprout 50 feet away. Probably the seeds can't survive your winter temps, right? It was so nice to get the purple larkspur in the rose photos. For so long I've been drooling over others' roses-with-companion photos. It's a thrill to have my own. Ingrid, I thought of you when posting the Capitaine photos since he's an SDLM sport. Do you have him? He is so gorgeous. Your daylilies may be ones that bloom mid-season or later, or maybe they're the dormant kind that needed more winter chill to be strong enough to come back. I hope it's the former and not the latter. If you get more (and I hope you will - I almost enjoy them more than the roses), try to stick to the evergreens. Semi-evergreens work, too, but lose some of their foliage in the winter - though maybe not your winters. If you remember the names, you can find out what they are here. http://www.daylilydb.com/?script=3 Spelling counts. Sherry Here is a link that might be useful: If only sweat were irrigation...

Carol, it does not get that disgusting pink-white color. It seems the color bleeds out and it gets pale yellow. Once, they all turned pale green. The blooms last a long time. Here is a photo of an older bloom fading. I don't know how cold hardy it is but I do think it would prefer a cooler climate as the summer blooms are small. My summers are evil--very hot and dry.

Thanks. You know this is the third year for the Primrose. I can't believe they've made it through these last cold winters. It's the best luck I've ever had with them. I found two orange Primrose at a nursery yesterday and planted those today. Also put out one new anenome called "Wild Swan". It's small yet and I've been keeping it on the window sill for a couple weeks. Then I transplanted another that has been growing in a the worst spot possible I would think since 2008, but it returns every year and even blooms albeit it doesn't grow much. It's called "Elise Feldman". Now watch since I've transplanted it, it will not be happy and I'll lose it. :(

Thanks so much for all the lovely comments. I'm glad I took these pictures when I did, because overnight the temperature went from 74 to 90 and a lot of the blooms are fried and it all looks quite different now. It will be hot again today and I'm afraid the spring flush for the most part is over, although Blush Noisette's many buds haven't opened yet, and ditto for Potter and Moore and a few others. I'm glad that we'll have beautiful roses to look forward to from those who have spent their winters buried in snow.