Thank you all for your suggestions and kind words. It is definitely helping me planning the Memory Garden. My Grandma loved gardening and I think she would really like it. Grandma's favorite color was blue and her favorite flower was African Violets. I can always remember her having AV all over the house and they were so pretty. She has given me lots of iris, hens & chicks and several other things over the years that I plan on moving to this garden. She also loved strawberries and chocolate, so I have added plants with names like "Strawberry Swirl, Candy Girl, Strawberry Ribbon Grass." Her name was Florence and I haven't found a plant yet with that name. I will definitely check out the link for Tinkers though. Thank you Heather for giving me that suggestion. Grandma also loved birds and always had bird feeders outside her window. So I am adding lots of bird houses and feeders. We received a couple Angel garden statues for the funeral which I have also put in there. My husband made a nice bench for the center of flowerbed and I am hoping to add a few other decorative things also. I actually do have Remember Me hosta, so I will have to move that to this garden also. Rose of Sharon is a great idea also and one of my favorites. You have a good point on taking my time planting things. I have felt like I had to get it done right away, but it would be nice to add things later on as I find plants that fould be perfect for it. Thank you all again for your suggestions. I truly appreciate it. It is comforting knowing others understand what I am feeling and my need to do something special to honor my Grandma. Please, any other ideas or suggestions are more than welcome. I am also happy to set up trades. Thanks again! Teresa (Cindy, I sent you an email. )

I have to echo all with my regrets for your loss. I also have to echo Diane and ceterum, to also query the Antique forum. I know it sounds kind of scary at first with all of the long names but people will be gentle with you and they are not hard to come by at all by mail order from reputable places. The reason you may be more pleased with old garden roses is that often they have more disease resistance, more and more of us don't spray due to the environment, but honestly speaking who has the time and dedication? This might also be why the ones you lost didn't fare well. I particularly like the 'found' roses with names of who found them or where they were found. Some may only bloom once which isn't bad, but for your application you may want to make sure that they bloom throughout your season. I finally dove into them this last year and am very excited about how they will look and do, you sound like it wouldn't take too much for you to become just as excited if only you had better guidance (and enabling, you've come to the right place for that!) than what's at the local big box or nursery. Although you've described your needs pretty well, you might want to think about colors before you start studying what to get. If I may suggest, you might want to focus on bold (but not overly gaudy) colors. I especially like yellow as an accent, it is such a happy color to me and that's what you'll want to feel in the spot, not that she's gone of course, but all the happy memories of times shared. Too many pale colors would just get me down, I know, and that's where you want to go to get away from such a mood. You might also want to include her favorite color as a main color or accent depending on what it is. If she liked white or pale pink, just pair it with a saturated dark pink or the lovely purple clematis above. Best of luck and don't be afraid to really dig in and ask more questions here, we really thrive on wonderful projects like yours. Kerin

What a touching and loving thing for you to do; your husband is a very lucky man. I too am not from your area but would think some of the smaller tea roses like Westside Rose Cream Tea would be wonderful; it blooms all the time and is bushy with lovely large blooms. There are wonderful climbers like Reve d'Or which bloom practically all the time. Cl. Pinkie is a darling rose you might consider. I hope that people from your area will chime in to help you with this wonderful project. The old roses like teas, Chinas and noisettes are beautiful and romantic, and will actually do better than many modern roses in terms of vigor and disease resistance. Chamblee's is a good on-line vendor in your part of the country. Have a look at their site and find some things you like and then you can always come back to the forum to ask advice about these. This is a wonderful project you're undertaking and we'd love to help you make it something beautiful, something your wonderful mother-in-law would have appreciated, and a peaceful spot for your husband to spend time being with her. Ingrid

Hi, I am a mother of two small children who are 4 and 6 now. They were 3 and 4 at the time. I got my kids two puppies to grow up with. They were 6 weeks old at the time. One day when they were about 7 months old. I had to leave, left them outside. I have one of those underground fences and they were trained by it. When I got home, it was dark. I got the kids in the house and went outside to call the dogs. I called and I called and no dogs came running. Finally after about 30 minutes of calling, I heard a rustling in the property next to me. I came in and got a flash light, went running over there, found them both, barely breathing, barely able to move. I brought them in the house and spent an hour on the phone with my vet explaining how they were acting. Finally after not getting an improvement, I loaded up my kids and the dogs and headed for the vets office. We get there and they ran tests for Parvo, sure enough, Parvo, I had to have them put down. My kids were both crying as well as me. We were all VERY attached to them. My vet asked me if I wanted them cremated or if I wanted to take them home and bury them for the kids. I decided to take them home and bury them for the kids. This was decided after talking with my children for 20 minutes. Now its like 4 in the morning. The vet and I loaded their lifeless bodies into the trunk. The drive home was 45 minutes of answerng questions about where puppies go when they die. Got home around 5am. Tucked the kids into bed and told them we would take care of the puppies later. When we got up, I let the kids pick out a place in the back yard. All three of us together dug a hole big enough to place them both in because my kids didnt want to seperate them. After the hole was dug, I pulled my car around and unloaded them into the hole. The three of us covered them back up with the dirt. I let my kids find some rather large rocks to place around the grave. I still have plans to make a little "graveyard" in that area. You will see why when you read the next part. My daughter received a cat for a 5th birthday present. The cat was an outdoor cat so I left it that way. A couple months went by and she ended up having 4 kittens. My kids were exstatic. We fed the kitties daily, went out and played with them and watched them grow for about 5 months. My neighbors dog got out on accident and my daughter watched as the dog grabbed up one of the kittens and literally shook it to death. The kitten it happened to grab was her favorite. So, I took her and calmed her down and explained to her that her kitty is now in kitty heaven with her puppies and that her puppies were watching over her kitty and they were all playing together. This time, her and I dug a hole together. She wanted her right next to the pups. We placed her kitty in the hole and covered her. Again my daughter went to the rock pile and picked out rocks to place around the grave. To this day she goes out and "talks" to her animals and tells them she loves them and misses them and hopes they are ok. I just started doing landscape work in my yard and am in the progress of designing something to have a "memorial" affect to it. I will post again when finished and pics are available. Shells