Pauline, It is a weeping Fuschia Meidiland. It has tons of flowers in April. It's branches have "weeped" to the ground in years past, but I pruned it back a bit this year. I am hoping to find a Scarlet Meidiland, with red flowers. I picked this one up in California one year, when I was over there. That particular grower did not ship. Margaret

I know this won't be of any help to you, but wanted to share with you what a friend of mine does. She bought a tree rose from a local greenhouse. For a fee of $15 annually, they overwinter the rose in a cave and even though it looks really rough by fall (she's not a rose person), it comes back each spring looking beautiful....all pruned/shaped and extremely healthy. Wish I had a cave in my backyard!

It is actually suggested around here that you plant roses with the graft union several inches below ground so that if the plant does die back to the ground that what comes back from the root has a chance to be your preferred plant, which may have grown some of its own roots. Then mulch. Don't cut back until spring when you see what has died. Climbers you can detach from the trellis and lie close to the ground and mulch. I tend to grow roses from cuttings from friends that I know will be hardy locally, and even as a relatively inexperienced rose grower I've been reasonably successful. Unfortunately, many of the roses I've seen at big box stores aren't hardy for this area, so enjoy their blooms this year and hope for another mild winter, preferably with good snow cover. I'm biased in favor of roses that I don't have to fuss over too much, so I don't grow hybrid teas and research whether the rose is prone to blackspot or other deseases before I buy them. Anecdotally, sprinkling alfalfa meal or corn meal under the plant is supposed to reduce blackspot, but I've never had enough of a problem to try it. Many of my roses are early once bloomers because they are done blooming before the J beetles arrive. The ones that aren't I've planted in an area that isn't good J beetle territory - a clearing surrounded by much woodland. I'll be spreading Milky Spore desease on the small amount of lawn there as I've had success with that reducing the J beetle population at a previous house/garden. I don't have any neighbors with lawns within J beetle flying distance, and I've heard that this is only successful if all the nearby area is milky spored. Another problem is rose chafers, which are insects about the size of J beetles, but longer, slimmer, and tanner. They emerge a bit earlier than J beetles and chew on the blooms. I don't know of any organic way to prevent them other than hand picking. They are common if you are near fallow agricultural land, which surrounds my current house. I don't have problems with them in the wooded location. I hope this is helpful, and if you want cuttings or have other specific questions, I'll check back here (though maybe not right away as work is busy right now.)

I am thinking of (if my husband let's me) growing a rose hedge along one side of the driveway about 9 meters long in between 3 tall weeping tree roses. The hedge is a barrier to stop the kids crossing from the front garden onto the driveway and the road. The hedge should be 1m max in height and no more than 1m (or shorter) I'm width. The roses can be in any colour as long as it's care free, suitable for hedging and most importantly "no thorns" coz I have a baby and a young toddler playing around the area almost everyday. I don't know if such rose does exist so please share your knowledge and advice here. I live in Sydney, Australia. Thank you.