Whether or not the materials are suitable depends more on their size than anything else. You want all the particles in the soil to be pretty regular in size and concentrated around that 1/8" size, +/- 1/16". I use equal parts of pre-screened orchid (fir) bark in 1/8-1/4" size, screened Turface, and either Gran-I-Grit in grower size or #2 cherrystone. You can't avoid the major work of a full repot, and the first time you do it, if the roots have been neglected, is the most difficult. The bad news is if you don't do it, your plants will steadily decline. The good news is that once the plants are in the gritty mix pictured, subsequent repots and root-pruning are quite easy. I have all my houseplants (including cacti/succulents) and all my woody material in the gritty mix. If you've spent time here on the Container Forum, you can probably tell I've done a LOT of experimenting with soils, and I've yet to find a formulation that tops the one I just shared above. It is a VERY good choice for any of your plants. I'm not sure what to tell you about your 'time' constraints. You can research further to find what the individual components 'jobs' are in the soil, and see if you have anything that closely matches their 'job description'. I CAN say that if you're particular about your soils, looking for and finding the ingredients I listed will be worth the time/energy outlay. Good luck. ;o) Al

Hi Beth - I'm new to this forum, but not new to coastal Southern Cal rose growing, so I'll chime in too. I'm in San Juan Capistrano on the South end of Orange County and about 2.5 miles from the beach in a coastal canyon. So I know all about roses in the marine layer fog. Mildew, not black spot, is the bane of our existence here. The only blackspot I've ever seen in my garden was on florist roses. But I do spray. And the three most fragrant ones on your list -- Double Delight, McCartney Rose and Fragrant Cloud -- will mildew even with religious spraying. But, the fragrance is worth it and I grow all three. No one has told you about the rose societies here yet. There are several. I go all the way south to the California Coastal Rose Society in Carlsbad. That's probably too far for you. There are two other OC rose societies -- the Orange County Rose Society which meets very near to Huntington Beach in Westminster -- they focus on exhibitions and hold their show the last weekend of October every year at Rogers Gardens. There's also another one that focuses mostly on gardening, garden tours and garden parties -- no exhibiting -- which is the Saddleback Rose Society -- that one's a bit inland for both of us. Wholly different climate those folks have. You can get to either one by googling the names, or I've put a link in here for the OCRS. On the rest of your list, I've grown most of them, and they do just fine. But as a general rule, in coastal cool areas like ours, fewer petals is better. Many roses just won't open like they do in hot climes, and sometimes you just die waiting for a leeeetle bit of heat to get them open, which never comes. So, plan to have some that open without heat. As for colors, try these -- Pink -- Our Lady Of Guadalupe is by far the best pink floribunda. But also check out The Imposter and Lovestruck, both of which do well for me. For Hybrid Teas, I like Memorial Day. Purple -- Intrigue is okay, but try Purple Tiger -- it's better and it's striped. It does really well on the coast. For a Hybrid Tea, I like Neptune and one that Armstrongs carries called Della Reese that is a darker purple hybrid tea with occasional exhibition form. Orange -- About Face Red -- I'm still looking for a good one. Yellow -- Julia Child or Midas Touch. Or even Peace, which gets enormous blooms on the coast. Multi -- get some stripes -- City of Carlsbad if you can find it or Cabana if you can't. Have fun. I seem to move every few years just BECAUSE I get to replenish my garden. Enjoy it. Kathy Here is a link that might be useful: Orange County Rose Society

iVillage gets sold every couple of years. I don't remember who owns it now but I believe it is one of the big news channels/publishing giants. It was better way back when it was owned and controlled by one man (Spike) who used monitors from each forum to help him keep everyone in line. The fact that it gets sold so often makes me think that it makes money, but not enough money. Which is one of the problems I see with the internet - a gold mine of communication that is having a tremendous impact on entertainment and publishing and information getting "out there" but it is like a giant casual conversation that no one wants to pay real money for. Very few people are making money on the web. If the big guys can't figure out a way to make this thing work I don't hold out much hope for smaller operations. I imagine this site will get sold again and again.

What Ian said... Despite rumours otherwise, NZ is quite dry in summer- my folks live on the West Coast of the South Island (no fancy-shmancy names for us..) and ran out of water this summer. We've seen some pretty severe droughts in the last few years. Historically the West sides of the islands have been significantly wetter, capturing rain and leaving the East dry, but since we seem to be getting 'hundred year' droughts and floods every couple of years. Damn Climate Change. Anyway, despite our small landmass, NZ's soo long and thin it goes from sub-tropical up North, with some (NZ style) desert in the middle to sub-antarctic down South. A lot of natives succumb to phytopthera if too wet, even the tree ferns and other 'tropical' looking plants. Like Ian, i highly recommend hebes- they are TOUGH- I don't know what your access to NZ plants is like, but if they have the 'wiri' cultivars, they are really stunning. Astelia is one of my favourites. Very hardy, dramatic pale green and silver spear-shaped leaves. Astelia fragrans...need i say more? How about the Caprosma and muehlenbeckia families. Maybe a bit of an aquired taste; divarcating, very 'architectural'. I love em! I think heat and dry would't be a problem. Months of freezing...not so sure. Of course alpine plants would cope, as it's blimmin boiling up those mountains in summer!