I have birdhouse gourd seeds to trade for some of yourClimbing Vine - Black-eyed Susan Email me if interested. Melanie

I don't think 8 roses are too many to start with. That's how many I started with two years ago now. Last year I added about 30 more. This year I'm adding another 30 (I think, not sure what it was on the last count). Peace does fine here in Wisconsin, it will die to the ground but it comes back and was three to four feet tall by fall. It does get blackspot but I use that Bayer Garden Disease Control stuff and it is very simple and works well. I'd recommend leaving some room in your rose garden so you can add to it. You'll want to do some research on this forum for good cut roses once you've had more experience with roses. A good cut rose is more than just a pretty bloom - other factors to consider are how long it lasts in a vase (some very pretty roses only last a few hours) or how well it perfumes a room (some of the cut roses have very little scent). Check out Palatine roses as they have a great selection of beautiful cut roses. For other nurseries, be sure to check Dave's Garden Watchdog for feedback from gardeners. Some of those pretty catalogs look good but don't deliver what they promise. When you get your roses in the spring be sure to plant them deep. Don't over-do the fertilizer as they won't need any right away. And if they don't turn out well then don't give up. One of the roses I thought would be great turned out not to do very well for me, it was a different color than I thought it would be and didn't bloom much. It died over the winter and I replaced it this year with a different rose that was much closer to the color I really wanted and that rose has done much better. I hope they all survive the winter, but if they don't it means an open spot that I can get another rose to fill.

Some contrary advice here, as I think you could easily make the existing Podocarpus gracilior work for a 6 foot screen, but they will require some regular pruning over time to keep them at this size. This tree is slow enough growing that it is often used as a hedge or espalier. I also have seen Fatsia japonica and Melianthus used successfully as informal screens, and if complete foliage cover at the base is not necessary, then Fatsia works very well, and can be attractive. It is not suitable to the sheared uniform hedge look, nor is Melianthus, which needs staking and regular grooming to keep it looking good. It is not really that subject to pests such as whitefly near the coast, and is a really fast grower with water and feeding, and could look good, but will need more care to remove dying leaves, cut back older stalks that get too topheavy to renew growth from the base, etc. If you wanted something flowering as well as foliage, then the Pineapple Guava/Feijoa sellowiana is a great choice, as well as giving edible fruit. You could just as easily plant Tibouchina urvilleana for a flowering hedge, and this plant thrives in Santa Cruz. If you did want to grow one of the Leucospermum/Leucadendron/Protea shrubs as a hedge, then you will have to make sure the soil mix is well drained, and not contaminated with old residual fertilizers that contain phosphorus, as they are very sensitive to this. Some of the more forgiving Protea relatives would include Protea 'Pink Ice', which is amongst the easiest to grow and can easily make an 8 foot tall by 6 foot across hedge if regularly shaped, and old bloom stalks are removed regularly to tidy it up. This one blooms throughout the year along the coast, and is the easiest to grow in less than perfect soils as long as it is fairly well drained and good sun, and good air exposure,(it prefers good air circulation). The Leucadendrons such as L. salignum 'Safari Sunset' or similar are also quite easy to grow, but get tall and lanky if not regularly pruned to keep them smaller and denser. They also will look best if they have the room to reach their full size, and won't really fit into a 6 foot tall by 4 foot wide hedge without alot of tip pinching. Stunning plants if you do have the room for them, as they give amazing color for half the year, even before they reach maximum color and bloom. Some other good hedge choices that do lend themselves to being shaped and also offer scented flowers/foliage would include Osmanthus fragrans, Choisya ternata 'Sundance' and Coleonema pulchrum. Another shrub suggestion might include Metrosideros collina 'Spring Fire', which blooms all year round, and has foliage very similar to the Pineapple Guava in color and texture.

That's IT, Mr.B! You have totally inspired me! I now know what i want! You are spot-on with the stream edge/riverbank idea! So, I will now make one very large, fake tree going down into the water. It will be enormous, like a very old red-wood or Douglas fir, or even a mangrove, and you will see about 3 feet of trunk, and then about 2 feet of roots going down into the water. The rest of the walls will be the 'riverbank'. This is still realistic because the tree can be growing out of the side of a riverbank, not just on top of it. And it also allows for realism with branches coming down from the canopy (most likely fake, since I want everything to weigh as little as possible) or fallen branches sticking out of the riverbank. I will also then make my 'pool' like a river, with directional flow. This wil be very well-suited to discus, who live amongst the tree roots going down into the Amazon in nature. Sweet! I'm REALLY excited about this now! Not to mention eternally grateful for this forum that enables me to communicate with people I don't know and would never have met! As for where my tree will be, I don't know. Perhaps the back left corner, so that I'm not totally copying Mr.B =) and so that my waterfall can still be on the right side, now more of a stream that is flowing down the riverbank and into the river. I will also likely put some more tree roots entering the water on the right side, to suggest the larger picture. Hmmmmmm. . . I think I will leave the tree trunk hollow, so that it weighs less and also provides space to hide cables and whatnot. And of course I will have some jungle vines draping down, to provide additional space for epiphytes. I am really excited about making the texture of the bark! I love how moss grows on the ridges of tree bark in the forest, and I will strive to emulate that in my tank. What would y'all suggest for my main tree form, since I want it hollow? I think that a piece of PVC that large would be too expensive. Perhaps I could build a plywood frame that is sort of hexagonal (only not totally round, because the tree will disappear into the back of the tank, not be entirely molded 'in the round' so to speak)? Oh, another thing I am very excited about is the plants. I have decided that I must have a super dwarf lotus in my tank! I adore these plants, but it is just too cool here in the summer to grow them successfully. I think a terrarium could be just the thing! And mine would have enough space (I think) for the smallest variety out there, right? Gary, please chime in here and tell me if this will work or not at all. Would it require a cooler dormancy? If so, could this be accomplished by removing the plant and storing it somewhere for the neccessary dormancy period? And also, since I'm going with a riverbank idea, I think I will make some holes in the bank to contain pots for terrestrials. Some paphs. and phrags. would be REALLY sweet! Especially with the flowers arching over the water. . . oh my goodness, I hope you all can see this in your head like I can. It's a piece of paradise! One question about the fake branches: how does one heat the PVC pipes in order to bend them to the desired shape (a la the Dutch vivs)? Heat gun? Blowtorch? Homer, I don't mind you being contradictory. =) I think that I will need excellent air movement in my tank though, especially if I want a lotus. You're probably right, I probably am too worried about the technical aspects (I'm more artsy-fartsy than handy, especially when it comes to electricity. Thank goodness I married an electrician!). And the wet/dry filter probably scares me more than it should because I simply have no experience with them. I should go check out the pond forum, so that I at least know what you guys are talking about. =) Are they similar to the sump method of filtration for fish tanks? Because that's what I want to use. You know, the water flows out of the main tank via an overflow, which contains a pre-filter, and then it goes down into the sump, where it flows through various chambers containing foam, sponges, 'bio-balls' or other media good for growing beneficial bacteria, etc., and then back into the tank via some powerheads. I think I will need two, maybe three powerheads on the right side to create my river flow effect. Am I making kind of a riffle tank here?