Donna, as mostly a lurker I can see from your posts that you are a knowledgeable gardener. You know in your heart what you must do to solve the problem. Plants just grow so big in warm climates. Below is a link on the types of climbers by Steve Jones, current president of the American Rose Society. You might wish to pay particular attention to the LCI classification. On my arbor I use Aloha, but I've also grown America and 4th of July. Pick your poison as they say. Here is a link that might be useful: Climbing roses

Good luck! I am also in the N. O. area and this will be my first year with Austins, too. I bought an Abe Darby, Charlotte, and Jude the Obscure. I have them all in pots because I started a "lasagna" bed a couple months ago and it's not ready to plant yet. I will wait until the summer heat is through and the organic material has composted to plant mine out. It is already so terribly hot and humid during the day I can't stand to do anything outside until after 5PM. I don't think brand new roses appreciate being planted directly into the blazing heat. I also have a "Peggy Martin" climber, a Belinda's Dream, and a Cecile Brunner, and I would love to get a an old fashioned Tropicana, or Peace rose because I love the colors. When I bought my potted roses they were most all already covered in blackspot, but a couple consecutive weeks of spraying with Bayer remedied that. I know I will have to spray in this brutally hot and humid climate, but really it only takes a total of 20 minutes twice a month. I'm willing to do it because for no other plant do you get so much excitement out of anticipating the blooms. I have gardened for years but have always ignored the roses because so many people down here have a big prejudice against them. Really, if you aren't going to spray, the hybrid teas that are regularly available will generally look like crap, and that used to be the image "rose" brought to my mind.

Daisy, I only had rust once in my garden, and that was a year when it rained pretty steadily from mid-May through mid-June. 'Zephirine Drouhin' got the most tremendous case of rust, defoliated, grew new leaves in the now-dry summer, and that was that. We have no rust this year and mildew is at about normal levels. So we've been luckier than you, enjoying the benefits of increase rain without suffering any of the drawbacks. The spring certainly was wretched. We've been in Italy since spring 2000, and this is the first year we've had such a mild and moist summer. Local knowledge is probably correct about 'Felicia', but it doesn't hurt to have one's own opinion. Of all my Hybrid Musks this is the least prosperous, although no plant of it grows down in the shade garden where the Hybrid Musks do so well. So it hasn't really had a fair trial in my garden. It sure does smell good. Perhaps I ought to look into finding a place for a plant of it down there. Laura, I'm glad you enjoyed my post, and were inspired to look up some roses! I got so caught up in my own eloquence that I forgot to add that I wanted other gardeners to write in about roses in their gardens: varieties that aren't terribly well known and that they've fallen in love with or are feeling particularly enthusiastic about. Spread the word about their finds. Melissa

Building on the Comtesse's thread, I was wondering: mightn't a hedge of rosemary be more feasible? not that the rabbits would eat it, but I have heard that grazing-types animals prefer to avoid places with a lot of rosemary; it's scent ,if planted in abundance, is strong and masks the scent of the predators,so animals that tend to wind up as being preyed on don't want to stick around too long, since it inhibits their self-defense. I use rosemary a lot, meself; I have even noticed that it does have some deterrant effect,though it's no magic solution. My experience: I planted a Cedrus deodara in an un-fenced-against- deer area,protected only by a large neighbouring rosemary, and the beasties did leave it alone for it's first years. Now, last winter, they DID get to it ;I was afraid I'd lost it, they damaged it so badly, but when I finally got down there I saw it was re-sprouting nicely from the base. At that point I put a cage around it, of course. So, you say, silly bart, it didn't work. Well, yes, it sort of did and didn't. We all know that if pressure is too great, deer will eat anything,and they get used to certain deterrants in time ,etc, etc, etc. But I did buy some time for myself and the tree. It may well have been far more effective if there were more rosemarys around, forming a hedge; I have noticed in other cases that a nearby rosemary does tend to make a given plant less of a target for grazing. Besides, rabbits are not deer-they'd find the rosemary branches right in their faces. Rosemary also would not require much in the way of soil preparation, either, or watering. For what it's worth, my aim is to eventually surround the entire perimeter of my large garden with these attractive, no-care evergreen shrubs; it'll take a lot of time, probably, since I only put in a few plants each year,but as I say, I think it does help. It's just part of an IPM program to help keep mammal pests down; it's not "the" solution.