Personally, the Radiances are not in my plans. I just don't know where I'd put them. It sounds like a wonderful rose, and hopefully, others will decide to try it from reading here. I have Tiffany also, and it's doing very well right now - even with all this rain. Really, all of my roses are doing well, but that was also the case last year before summer hit and with it the BS. I'm hoping that another year under their belts and my improved mulching will keep them from stressing as badly as they did last year. IOW, I'm not overconfident about being free from BS later in the year. Re these old HT's I'm really interested in these that Vintage says stay "thigh-high" or thereabouts. *** you might be lookin' for love in all the wrong places. So what else is new, Michael? Right now my Mme Abel Chatenay is perfectly clean. I looked her up on HMF today, and she has lots of HP's in her lineage, so we'll see. The ladies at Rose Petals Nursery prune their HP's hard after each bloom to force new growth and get rid of older growth that is susceptible to or infected with BS. I don't know if I'll have to resort to that technique with MAC, but I guess it's an option unless she's a total mess. She defoliated last summer (along with several others), but I think it was heat stress. Laura, you're right. HMF does not say Betty has a Damask fragrance. I was reading the wrong line in my scribbled notes. Elaine, do you spray? Captain Christy's pics really are beautiful. Keep us posted on these roses as they progress, OK? We Floridians need to know. Anita, I have wanted KAV for 2 years. I should have gotten her (I tried but VG sold out) last year but was unsure of her disease resistance here, and now the garden is full :(( Hopefully, others are growing some of these roses. W E Lippiat and British Queen are gorgeous - among others! Sherry

I'm with digger on this one as far as red smelly hybrid teas. My taste hasn't changed much in thirty years. Still love those the best. But I AM actually more interested in fragrance than before. My taste/interest has broadened. I've only grown minis for the past 7 years, but now they're about half of my roses. That has mostly to do with the practical consideration of limited space. But I have really learned to appreciate their "bang for the buck" --they generally bloom more and more rapidly than big roses (generally, that it. there's always variation) Down side of minis is the lack of fragrance in so many. Only a handful of them so far are significantly fragrant. I sense a market opportunity there. hmm... Never knew a thing about old garden roses before about 8 years ago. Since then I've learned a lot and have familiarity, not expert, but at least respectible, with various OGR varieities. Still they don't compare for me with the performance potential of moderns (translation: my biased preference for big, flashy florist-style blooms on straight stems). My secondary color interests vary from year to year, from whites, blushes, mauves, yellows, apricots, and orange blends. I like them all. But red is always #1 for me. Must be a "guy" thing? Note: Please feel free to consider the preceding sentence a shameless gender-based stereotyping generalization. I still think it's "generally" true. : )

My two cents: Don't worry about matching. Go with themes that please you and seem to flow, but don't stress about everything being the same. We intend to do simple recessed panel Shaker cabinets (slab top drawer, panel lower drawers) in our kitchen remodel. We have a 1911 Craftsman with no original cabs in the kitchen (all dark 1970s pecan with orange formica counters), but all the built-ins throughout the rest of the house have the very dark Arts & Crafts wood Shaker-style recessed doors, and slab drawers with tarnished bronze hardware. The slab drawers are rounded more on the edges and corners than the contemporary ones. Not everything in the house is matchy-matchy; the original doors in the less-formal upstairs, kitchen and basement are 5-panel raised panel painted doors, and there are more formal-looking 1-over-3 raised panel doors in the first-floor entry, living room, downstairs bath, parlor and dining room. Built-ins with the Shaker style doors include a linen closet, window seat drawers, drawers in an inglenook bench, and glass bookcase built below the wrap-around of a fireplace mantle. It's a simple, clean look, and luckily it makes it easy for us to choose kitchen cabinets that happen to be one of the cheaper styles now available. That said, we're not going to stress about matching the wood tones or exact proportions in the kitchen -- budget, availability of recycled materials and whimsy will trump historic verisimilitude.

Eleri Rose came into the world on 9/4 at 11:19AM at 8lbs 4oz. She is the 1st girl born into DH's side of the family for at least 2 generations so she will be spoiled. Her big brothers had planned to hide and live underneath their beds if they got a sister but they are very thrilled w/ her now. I got home Sun. & my house is remarkably in decent running order w/ the help of DH. He set me up w/ a lap top but it's not working right now. That just gives me more time to consider how to rearrange our LR! Projects never stop! That said, to make more room in the LR DH brought an old low steamer trunk down out of the attic to use as a coffee table in place of our giant round space consuming banana leaf one. I thought that it would be cool to mount industrial style wheels underneath to raise it a bit. Anyone know where I might try looking for some? Thanks so much for the pic. arrangement compliments! Can't wait to add this little one in!