The type of plant you have, the amount of water (whether natural rain or manual), and container type will make a big difference on the type of mix and how your plant responds in your environment. I think that sometimes we overthink it too much for a plant that is basically only going to be grown as an annual. People have posted great results for tomatoes growing in 5-gallon paint buckets, tires, actual bags of soil as the "container", rubbermaid totes, half whiskey barrels, fancy clay pots, plastic square pots, foam pots, etc., etc. The big thing to consider is your climate - ie., does it get brutally hot all season with little rain or does it fluctuate with hot periods and cooler periods with rain or does it stay cool all summer, etc.? Do you get lazy (or go away alot) during summer and can't water as often or do you baby your plants and try to water them every day whether they may need it or not (out of habit)? Do you get full blazing sun all day long or just morning sun or mainly afternoon sun? Are the plants sitting on concrete? Grass? Black asphalt? Gravel? Wood decking? Basically, over time, you would learn about your area's climate, the actual growing area's microclimate, as well as your natural watering practices, and would then adjust your mix and container type to best fit that. And as an FYI, my mother insists on getting bagged soil rather than a soiless mix and based on her yard, sun exposure, and her watering habits, her container tomatoes and peppers blow mine away by a longshot (she has a south-facing spot for her plants where mine are on a NE-facing covered balcony getting little or no overhead sun but full morning sun and a little in the afternoon in the corner where I position mine). It's the most remarkable thing to see but the whole debate about soil in containers seems to get thrown out after watching her container production year after year after year. Last year, she planted some 12" - 18" tall tomatoes and peppers in pure "Miracle Gro" vegetable and bedding soil (the kind you dump in a bed) at the end of May and by July, her plants looked like this: By August, they looked like this, sprawled all over (she moved her peppers to a different spot as some of the fruit were getting scalded): Apparently, the heavy wettish "soil" that she uses for her containers sitting in full blazing sun was kept in a sort of balance due to the tomato foliage helping to act as a shade over that soil to keep it from getting rock hard too quickly, and thus the soil's tendency to retain moisture helped the roots deal with the sun. So I just say, do some experimenting to see what works best because often things don't always pan out the way that would make any sense whatsover, but the environment and your care practices will be more the determining factor. ;-)

I have personally had had your flooring and loved it, the color brings a nice warmth to any home. However, they can take over and dominate as well. I somewhat counteracted that as I had many works of hanging art...and years ago eggplant walls here and there as well as golden yellow. Another thought is to look at some mid gray shades without a lot of movement for countertops with maybe small barely noticeable streaks of floor color or none at all, thatÂs what I did and with that you will have more options on paint colors and decorating. If you have a dominate floor and a dominate countertop maybe some of the other lovely things in your home will be overlooked.

Yes, the countertops are white Corian and they are in excellent shape. We have about 95 square feet of counters. Our realtor has strongly discouraged us from changing them based on comparisons to others in our neighborhood. He also said that in his experience whatever sellers have whether it is a solid surface material, stone or other, that 9 times out of 10 clients comment that it's not to their taste and they deduct the cost of changing it in their offers anyway. All of the houses in our neighborhood were built with laminate except for the 10% or so houses which were custom built and they all had Corian. Some of the homes have replaced their laminate with stone or other material. I forgot to answer another question earlier. The floors are site finished hardwood throughout all of the downstairs. We constantly get positive feedback on the floors. The only thing I can think of is that our kitchen is significantly larger than most in our neighborhood and it would be quite an undertaking to change it out any more than we already have. Maybe most buyers want to renovate to their taste and see ours as too big of a project. Unfortunately if I were to do the renovation for them, it still wouldn't be to their taste.

My conditions are a bit different from yours, my Swedish zone 5b is perhaps not as cold in winter as yours but our summers are shorter and cooler so roses don't build up the same strength. I've grown or still grow all roses on your list except Snow Pavement and Mrs Anthony Waters but both are very popular in colder zones in Sweden. None of the roses on your list have died but Fantin-Latour froze badly one winter and had to start all over again. The same with Complicata on centifolia 67's list. Your know already what I think of Agnes, beautiful flowers on a not quite as beautiful plant. I like Alba Meidiland a lot but then I don't know White Meidiland. If it is as free flowering and remontant as Alba M, pick White M instead. Most of my roses are grafted so they don't sucker. Suckering is a problem I have with only a few roses, most of them gallicas. If you don't have it already I suggest you get Bonica, a rose that has everything except scent. It is modern but a cold climate garden needs a fail-safe rose. I have 6 bushes and the climbing variety since 1995.