It is really really big. I am going to bring the measuring wheel home from my office this pm, and get an actual size. It is roughly triangular. It has two long straight legs, formed by the driveway and the deck, and the long curved edge that follows the line of granite slabs that make up the steady rise to my door. The slabs are separated by grass - they look sort of like ledges. Anyway, the plan is to have a curving retaining wall a little more than half way up the slope, with at last two meandering stone walkways to make it easier to negotiate between the roses. My roses are all in pots, a dozen new this year, another dozen plus that range in age from six being bands last year, now 18" or more tall in gallon pots, to a few that are giants in pots that I salvaged from a nearly twenty year old bed. I have been collecting cclor photos of all my roses, but the variables of recurrent or not, and size, are complicating things for me. I figured I would make little cardboard squares to scale, representing the probable hunk of real estate that each rose could eventually demand, glue the pics on the cardboard, and start with that on a poster board scale of the slope, with the stone wall drawn in and the stepping stones. I may not actually get things in the ground until the end of June, and I expect that collecting the underplantings will be the next step. I have tons of chives, various geraniums, nepeta which I will move in. Also a wonderful spreading oregano which escaped from an herb garden over fifteen years ago and is growing wild on the hill in back of the house. What I need to watch out for is the invasive anemone sylvestris, which spreads everywhere it seems. (I started with a gift clump in a gallon pot twenty years ago - it has naturalized itself.)

Lee Valley is having a pretty cool Cyber Monday sale . . . you can buy a Gift Card and get a discount on it ! That would totally work if you know you are going to buy something in the future. You could wait for the next time they have free shipping and get it using your discounted gift card. $500 gift card on sale for $430 $250 gift card on sale for $219 $100 gift card on sale for $89 $50 gift card on sale for $45 It says Limited Quantities of gift cards on sale !

I have not had great luck with their lamps. I have three of them and they each have some problem or other. I'd compare the quality to what you often see at Home Goods. Cute styles, but corners have been cut somewhere.

It's true, though, about Bourbons. I know from photos, that where they're happy, they're happy, but I've never YET met a Bourbon that wanted to live where I live. That's a real pity -- I love their look, but I know when to admit defeat. Still true about the pruning thing. Most of your Austins are budded. Most of the older roses -- are not. And until they build up some substance, pruning is the last thing most of the oldies need.