I like climbing roses, and yours are lovely. I like the fact that they get out of the range of our deer herds. What I don't like is some varieties do not want to drop their old bloom, and get looking ratty, and some of us living in the hills with steep ground have a tough time dead heading. Your garden is so lush it is hard to believe its in dry California. Al

Aw, thanks, you guys. The weather here has really been cooperative. This has convinced me to get more roses, which means a five-year heat spell and drought is in order. Pippi, the peachy-apricot flowers are nasturtiums, either Apricot Trifle or Creamsicle. The pinkish flowers in the second to the last photo are Martha Washington pelargoniums in a barrel. Jenn, the chartreuse plant behind Cajun Rhythm is Golden Feverfew. Easy to grow from seed. I am not sure how tall it gets, but it's scaring me already. It gets little white daisy flowers. I am so pleased with the Showbiz bed- it's the first time I ever had an idea that worked out right, where the plants bloomed together and were the right height. And I'm so glad they didn't die when the irrigation system broke last year and I didn't notice for two months! Renee

Clairtx, that's a beautiful example of what Climbing pinkie can do in the landscape! My climbing pinkie leans on a chain link fence. As you might be able to tell in the photo below, with age, it will develope some fairly stiff canes. However, the young canes are very flexible and very near thornless making it easy to work with. You could drive a heavy piece of rebar into the ground and tie the young canes to it to get it started being a draping pillar rose. The beauty of this rose is that it has so many possibilities for use. Antique rose emporium winds the young canes around and through a cedar rail fence. Roses of this type bloom even more on lateral canes so if you find something to use for attaching it to the fence in an espalier fashion that would be pretty too. It can get to be a big rose, but is not a monster rose in that you can easily get in there to work with it and cut back any canes that are not part of the design you want.

My Climbing Pinkies are pretty healthy. I can't guarantee that they never get BS, but they certainly don't have major issues with it. But then, my standards are probably low as far as BS is concerned (I don't spray either) so you might want to wait and hear from others.