Welcome & nice birdbath. It is about height of mine I think & I looked out 1 day to see a very large neighborhood cat sipping away. He was so cute I ran & got my camera don't know if I still have the pic or not but he looked my way after I got it & kept sipping. Mine is glass with stained glass inside of it with a metal rim. Grout is kind of gray rubbery stuff. It's a hummingbird getting nectar out of flowers I think, just cleaned it tonight would think I would remember. Anyway as I mentioned on another post gift for getting "Birds & Bloom" magazine several years ago. I would go with a large flat rock that takes up about 1/3 of top & drop in large copper fitting 1 1/2 in. x 3/4 in. to help keep slimyness down. I would have a hard time cleaning it with gravel in it. Too gross for me! I keep scrub brush outside near the birdbath! Jan

Annie, I'd like to hear about that Montreal garden too. Ann, it sounds like you are right about it being R. bruonii. It was definitely huge, and no blooms at all that day. Thanks for the info! Malmaison, I was surprised at how much I liked MAM, they had several specimens and they all looked great to me. One of the happiest looking plants in the garden, and a very shapely bush habit. Bon Silene was as big as an ornamental tree. It was a huge plant, perhaps the biggest tea rose I've ever seen. Nur Mahal was grown as a free-standing shrub. The plant was wider than tall, with an open habit and arching canes. I thought of a fountain when I looked at it. It is not a huge plant, and will fit nicely in my garden. Just guessing, I'd say maybe 4 ft tall and perhaps 5 ft wide. I was like a deer caught in the headlights will all these old roses around me, I'm afraid I didn't sample the fragrance on this one. A guy walking around alone in a giant rose garden in Texas could get beat up for looking like he's TOO interested, so I didn't go out of my way to stick my nose into too many blooms :-) In the book, 'The Organic Rose Garden', Liz Druitt raves about this rose's scent. MadGallica, thank you for the info on brunonii ... I am sure you are right. A person could have crawled up under it and been hidden from view it was so mushroom-like and massive. In the step garden area, I think the designer was going for a "knock-your-socks-off" view as you enter the garden from above. That would explain why they had so much of one variety in that area. It is definitely impressive from that vantage point. Valerie, I felt really fortunate to have seen that many old roses in one day at one garden. It says volumes for the city of Fort Worth to offer something like this free to their citizens. Randy

I HATE, HATE, HATE Barberry! I ripped out all the Barberry the former, desperate homeowners ever planted here. What is considered deer resistant will vary depending on where you are, in colder zones, they will eat more plants that would otherwise be avoided further south. I use the following plants successfully here in Zone 7B NJ to avoid the deer. 1.) Cherry Laurel "Schipkaensis": it's highly poisonous, and they know it! It's the cyanide! Don't worry, it won't kill Bambi, they are smarter than people and won't think of eating it..., but if you have kids..., who knows. It grows FAST and forms an impenetrable hedge from the ground on up. 2.) Holly, they ignore my spiny hollies (Nellie Stevens, Chinese Holly)..., they will munch on Japanese Holly if stressed by deep snow..., they may munch on blue hollies. 3.) Osmathus heterophyllus 'goshki' (False Holly)..., it's very prickly 4.) They seem to ignore Rhododendrons 5.) They will not eat any bamboo (clumping or running) but love to make their dens under the cover of bamboo. 6.) And finally, it may not work in New England, but they don't eat Magnolia grandiflora (Southern Magnolia)..., but LOVE to rut them in the Autumn. P.S., I have more DEER neighbors than human neighbors, and I JUS' LOVE IT!

One thing I've noticed, with some nurseries at least, is that they try to pot plants up and sell them at a larger size. Price differences here between plants in small pots and the same species/varieties in larger pots are big. The differences in the plant sizes themselves is not always all that great. Of course, on the other side of the argument, would you like to be making a living from potting up plants and selling them for the prices you see? I do sometimes ask myself that question when in nurseries. On the matter of getting small Ficus plants, the discussion above made me smile. I have no problems getting small plants, they keep sprouting in my pots, on other trees and even on rocks.