Jeri, cool here in coastal NC? In winter maybe, but then we are cold (if we have cold weather) and nothing blooms except Crepuscule and Buff Beauty venture to do it if we are above freeze because they are in the backyard close to the house so they feel warm and cozy. But cool we are not - well, we did have one nice week of cool crystal clear sunny and windy "California style" weather this spring a few weeks ago but it wasn't foggy, instead it fried every bloom that was cabbage style into an ugly brown paper ball -even thrips could not produce such an ugly landscape. But I loved that kind of weather - had it last I would get rid of certain roses. No such luck though. Elemire, if I had a bit more 'real estate' for a huge once bloomer I would certainly get the Alchymist - that is the most beautiful rose I saw pictures of, I think from someone from the Pacific Northwest. Breathtaking rose!And huge! Alas, no space for it. Maybe I'll ask my neighbor who has nothing in his yard....(joking) Austins don't do well in my climate, they definitely need spraying and I would prefer a climber that does not need spraying. I kept thinking about Bouquet d'Or but so far I heard nothing of this rose on the east coast. I know it does well in Texas, but I wonder if it covers east Texas as well, that is very humid part of the state, or it opens only inland, in much drier areas. I should ask Antique Rose Emporium that carries this rose, they must know. Sherry, "you made my day"!. WOW!!! and WOW again!! I love your Cl. M. Chochet. Great photos of a gorgeous rose. Thank you so much for all the trouble you went into to take those photos. I am so grateful. I truly loved to grow that rose. I can train it horizontally, maybe that would be easier on the rose and on me - my trellis line is along the neighbor's fence; south side of the property, so it would be full sun, as soon as it gets higher as the German Iris border. You are so lucky not to have thrips! We got thrips and Japanese beetles at the same time. I hate them both. Thank you again everybody. I am getting closer to the solution, or I might say I am closing in. I just have to find a good source.

I love the pinch and poke method and you can do some perrenials that way too. I do it with Autumn Joy, and it doesn't seem to matter when I pinch them, they all just plain root in the ground. I also do Artemesia Powis Castle and it does best with only a small tip cutting, no more than 2--3 inches soft wood and it looks pretty pitiful in the ground for quite a while, but then I notice it perks up into a new plant, does take a while though. Also Lantana same thing, it does propagate easily. I didn't know I could do gardenias, so now I am off to cut some and make new plants. I had no idea they were so easy. Pauline

WOW!!!!!. That is just gorgeous.You have a beautiful home and rose gardens.The roses are beautiful and such a beautiful setting for them.That samariten rose is beautiful,and Ebb Tide is to die for.Dang,Thats GORGEOUS. A lot of work went into that.Thanks for sharing it with all of us. Jean

If you buy a hand saw, the best are the japanese pull saws. I have a bucket full of hand saws that are not worth the effort - they have too agressive teeth and you simply can not get a good cut with them. The pull saws cut as you pull them towards you, standard ones cut as you push, and that is way harder to control. You mentioned it's a bearing wall. Though the wall in the picture is in the middle of the house, it is actually a bearing wall as that was the exterior of the house at one point, then a porch was added and eventually closed in. We had already "fixed" the wall and then after four years decided to swap the den and dining room and opened up a second passageway and made an alcove for the hutch as there was not enough room for the hutch and dining table. This is what the other side of the room looked like after we made changes the first time And after making changes We moved the wall 2' into the kichen to make the alcove for the hutch. Here is the kitchen side of the original wall, after plaster and lath had been removed. You can tell where the exterior windows use to be - This wall now has three headers installed. The main one is 7' wide and then htere are the two new ones, 3.5' wide for the second entryway and about 5' wide for the alcove I put the new wall in place before opening up as I wanted to save as much sheetrock on the back side as possible. This is the new wall - DH was working out of town and while I can demo and build walls, I needed him to put up sheetrock so it stayed like this all last summer. My house is a complete remodel so we've been at this since 2004 - the big problem is I ended up changing my mind a few times so we tore out a wall and patio door we had installed only four years earlier. And just one more picture taken a few weeks ago - we were still using the old cabinets - the new ones are getting final coats of finish and we may get some installed this weekend.