I yanked all my knockouts out this spring except 2, the original cherry red knockout roses that are growing in partial shade and add a nice punch of color, to make room for roses whose sent is as beautiful as its flowers. Winter kill on them was absolutely horrific, plus the JBs loved the pink knockout roses in my garden. Even my Buck rose "Folksinger" which has weathered much colder winters than this one suffered with winter kill to the ground, but being own root after pruning down to about 4 inches from the ground it is recovering beautifully and sporting buds already. I'll be planting some Austins for their luscious scent and exquisite flowers plus some other less fussy (hopefully) roses like Julia Child, Bolero, Macy's Pride, Zepherine Drouhin, Darlow's Enigma, which is bullet proof and smells so sweet, Cl "Compassion" and The Fairy. I have some Kordes Fairy Tale roses that did well over the winter and "Heritage" came through once again. I have too little yard space that offers the best sunlight for roses and am not willing to give up the space for such a mundane, and yes, overused, rose.

Hi Beth - I'm new to this forum, but not new to coastal Southern Cal rose growing, so I'll chime in too. I'm in San Juan Capistrano on the South end of Orange County and about 2.5 miles from the beach in a coastal canyon. So I know all about roses in the marine layer fog. Mildew, not black spot, is the bane of our existence here. The only blackspot I've ever seen in my garden was on florist roses. But I do spray. And the three most fragrant ones on your list -- Double Delight, McCartney Rose and Fragrant Cloud -- will mildew even with religious spraying. But, the fragrance is worth it and I grow all three. No one has told you about the rose societies here yet. There are several. I go all the way south to the California Coastal Rose Society in Carlsbad. That's probably too far for you. There are two other OC rose societies -- the Orange County Rose Society which meets very near to Huntington Beach in Westminster -- they focus on exhibitions and hold their show the last weekend of October every year at Rogers Gardens. There's also another one that focuses mostly on gardening, garden tours and garden parties -- no exhibiting -- which is the Saddleback Rose Society -- that one's a bit inland for both of us. Wholly different climate those folks have. You can get to either one by googling the names, or I've put a link in here for the OCRS. On the rest of your list, I've grown most of them, and they do just fine. But as a general rule, in coastal cool areas like ours, fewer petals is better. Many roses just won't open like they do in hot climes, and sometimes you just die waiting for a leeeetle bit of heat to get them open, which never comes. So, plan to have some that open without heat. As for colors, try these -- Pink -- Our Lady Of Guadalupe is by far the best pink floribunda. But also check out The Imposter and Lovestruck, both of which do well for me. For Hybrid Teas, I like Memorial Day. Purple -- Intrigue is okay, but try Purple Tiger -- it's better and it's striped. It does really well on the coast. For a Hybrid Tea, I like Neptune and one that Armstrongs carries called Della Reese that is a darker purple hybrid tea with occasional exhibition form. Orange -- About Face Red -- I'm still looking for a good one. Yellow -- Julia Child or Midas Touch. Or even Peace, which gets enormous blooms on the coast. Multi -- get some stripes -- City of Carlsbad if you can find it or Cabana if you can't. Have fun. I seem to move every few years just BECAUSE I get to replenish my garden. Enjoy it. Kathy Here is a link that might be useful: Orange County Rose Society

Lots of great ideas, thanks! My original plan for SS was that it would look simpler than tile, and easy to clean. But I'm reconsidering, since blending SS and tile might be too much. jodi- I agree with you about 1:3 rations being better, but the heights I posted were based on the cabinet level and the hood. pllog- funky-artsy is definitely ok, as long as it isn't "too much." I was thinking about some irregular tile border- tendrils, as you said- but I got lost after the initial idea when I tried to go from vague idea to concrete plan. pllog, sweeby, cindilou, sailaway- all of you voted at least to some degree positively for "#2" and I just want to make sure that were talking about the same thing- tile that goes up 18" along the whole wall, but then goes all the way up to the hood just behind the range. My BF will love that his idea, which I scoffed, got votes. :) But I have to admit, I was too quick to judge, and it might work, especially if I soften it and make it a bit more like #5, like sweeby said. sailaway, if I did #5, the angles would be symmetrical, or maybe they'd "stairstep" down rather than being a cut angle, but youre right, the tape is messy. vw- yes, it is a bit cost prohibitive, at least with the tiles I like so far :) chinchette- I do need some sort of wall protection, since I do cook alot, and I'm not always that neat and tidy. jillypie- I did briefly consider just doing a 4" of the countertop granite, but I was concerned that that would look odd with the other walls tiled. The countertops are a dark granite, and the backsplashing will be something relatively light, since other elements are dark (counters, floors) rosie- I have SS, copper and black pots/pans, and I think the rack will have the ones that I use most often, which will represent a little of each color. I'm really glad you guys got me thinking about this more. I'm going to try to plan it without SS for now, and see where that takes me!

Wow, what an ordeal! Hope you get full reimbursement from the car rental company. We have USAA so I've never really worried about changing a tire myself - I did learn years ago when I got my license, but I'm sure I couldn't remember now! I also live in a very suburban/urban area and typically don't drive anywhere that doesn't have cell phone coverage. I got a flat tire one night a couple years ago on my way home from my book club, only a few months after getting a new SUV. I knew it had a spare, but didn't pay much attention to its location though I knew it was underneath my car. Dh, of course, was out of town, my kids were home alone (oldest was 13) and I hadn't planned to be gone past 9:30. I didn't realize I had a flat at first, but knew something was wrong, so instead of taking the highway, I pulled into a complex of restaurants, condos, etc where I knew people were around. I ended up having to wait an hour for the USAA contractor to arrive. Then when he did, it took him forever to get my spare out. To prevent theft, There was a special tool just to unlock the lug nuts that I had no idea was necessary though was in my glove compartment. Even he, a guy who does this for a living, had to pull out the instruction manual to figure the whole thing out. It took him more than an hour. I didn't get home until 11:30, and realized there is no way I'd ever have been able to do that on my own! thanks for the reminder to check on spares in rental cars. I rarely use rental cars but just took a college tour trip with my dd and rented a car. Stupid me didn't think to look for a spare.