Stlgal: Thanks so much for the report on Austins so I know what to avoid. My regrets here: Pat Austin (healthy but few blooms that shatters, so-so scent) - Mary Rose (annoying prickly thorns). Onederw: Bolero is also great here in Chicago area. The best-looking and best-fragrance at the rose park in late fall. The fragrance is elegant, like an expensive perfume. Now I just have to find a red rose to plant next to Bolero in zone 5a. When I checked on Mayflower and Eglantyne - there are varied opinions. I wonder if some roses prefer acidic soil versus alkaline soil. Some roses with a wimpy start might need some shade, or a jump on nitrogen. I had problems with William Shakespeare's own-root, slow, stunt, yellowish growth - until I fixed the soil: 2 gallons of peat moss with 1 gallon of alfalfa meal (bring down pH of my 7.7 alkaline soil, plus a hefty nitrogen-boost). He's now extremely vigorous, dark green, and healthy in east sun. What Michaelg wrote helped me a lot: RE: Can Roses on Multiflora Rootstock Grow In Alkaline West? Posted by michaelg z6B NC Mts (My Page) on Fri, Feb 4, 11 at 17:28 Maryl, surely own-root hybrids vary in their tolerance for alkalinity and salts; many would be more tolerant than multiflora but less tolerant than Huey. Rugosa and roses of multiflora heritage (some ramblers, polyanthas, and hybrid musks) of course would tend to prefer acid.

Well, you have to remember that I am working over lawn grass (compleate with weeds). I don't know what type of native grass you have but I think that you could smother the grass with the newspaper just like I do. Mow it and then lay the newspaper thickly. I use about 6 sheets, you could use more. Some people use cardboard but I never have. By spring, there is no root system left and the soil is loose enought to plant in. I never till. I will be leaving this bed the way it is until spring. Then in the fall, I pull the dead or pretty much dead tomato plants from the old part, bag them and put out for the garbage. Then in the spring I will put pleanty of compost on the entire bed, both old and new parts. No digging, no tilling. I just then plant directly in the compost. And I don't mix the compost in either, I just put it on top. After planting my tomatoes, I mulch them with straw. I find the beds get full of earthworms which break everything down and till the soil to make it nice and loose and easy to work in.

i have an antique brass bed, in a guest room, with the same kind of side rails. i think they might be put in upside down (in the photo) and, therefore, are on the wrong side of the bed. my bed was put together like that by my last mover and was recently discovered by my daughter when she was here visiting. she wasn't able to get the mattress and springs off so just put short boards at the corners to keep them from falling off. i got new carpet since then and i asked the installers to put the rails on correctly when they reassembled the bed. sorry this is so long!..... i don't know if that was done or not and the bedroom is on a different level of the house than i am on and i am in a wheelchair so i can't go check. regarding the length of the mattress, yes, today's mattresses are too long. i bought a used one about 25 years ago, when i bought the bed, since it was shorter than new mattresses at that time. i hope this makes some sense!

Gorgeous pictures everyone and you've gotten great advice from people closer to your zone. Just a heads-up that you want to be a bit careful where you buy your Reine des Violettes, since there are two versions of the rose circulating other that name. I started with "Not Reine des Violettes", which is both thorny and a once-bloomer - so Ingrid gets the satisfaction of being right even in her temporary "error". The color is lovely and it climbs, and it has the peppery foliage smell, but no rebloom ever on mine. I have now ordered the real RdV from Burlington, who I trust to know that she has the real one, and it's thornless and should be a repeat bloomer. I'm sure other people would have the real one, but do ask if repeat bloom matters to you. Cynthia