hoovb: That was a long time ago in Mar Vista -- many people wish they had bought back then because MV has improved quite a bit since! We are happy to have gotten our house 10 yrs ago -- one of the last old ones from the early days of Abbot Kinney creating the Venice Canals -- and, it's taken a lot of pioneer spirit but I got the big garden I wanted, an old rambling house. a view of the ocean from afar & lots of ocean breeze & fog, all in an old neighborhood that's like a village (used to be covered in bean fields a hundred years ago). All the vacant lots have been developed in the last couple years (McMansions of course!), but MV retains its old charm nonetheless. And now we even have a Farmers Market on Sunday -- and it's a great place to garden!

Regarding Golden Celebration & water needed - I've found it needs no more nor less than other roses here in central Virginia. But we have a fairly high average yearly precipitation at 50" or so - perhaps similar to your garden? This June & July rainfall was steadier than typical, and all the roses loved it - never seen them bloom so abundantly in July before. As far as support - agree not necessary - depends on what look & form you're after. Decided to corral mine within a structure when it began to reach far into the arms of its companions - though that was a lovely look on its own, it didn't suit the location of that bed between the front walk & porch. (I like the abundant nearly wild look, but my husband prefers a more cultvated restrainment, so we compromise in that prominent location.) This is my report from July of this year, and you may want to read the full discussion in the link. Planted Golden Celebration 4? years ago in the center of a garden bed that spans the front porch. Saw within a year that it wanted to grow tall & left it to its own devices to arch for two years trying to figure out how to support it vertically. Assembled a 2-foot square copper pipe obelisk around it rising 9' from ground level. It's not tied to the supports but simply confined within them, which shapes it into a pillar form with the branches finding their own way within the verticals & spilling out over the cross pieces. Like this tall narrow yet full effect, the structure it bears as a centerpiece & the room given other plants in that bed. If the obelisk were removed today, the rose would easily arch down to a width of 15' & overpower the scale of the planting & its neighbors. Mine started with lax thin canes but has firmed up well over time so the blossoms' stems face outwards instead of nodding as they did at first. The framework supporting it allows it to arch gently & it has many flowering shoots all along the branches. Just counted 18 along 2' of cane, and many of those are budding their own clusters. I've never pruned it, just deadhead the sprays. No dieback here in central Virginia just east of the Blue Ridge Mountains & no disease despite my lazy no-spray ways. At first the blooms came mostly one to stem, but ever since has put out sprays of at least five. Repeats so rapidly, with so many clusters budding as others are blooming that I'd have to call it continuous from mid-Spring past the first frosts - anywhere from mid-April through to Christmas. Love the scent & the nuance of color. Only in temps in the high 90's does it bloom plain yelllow. In the early flush its first Spring after planting the preceding Summer, some blooms were half bright tangerine & half egg-yolk yellow, as if they had a line drawn down their centers. This rose has never ceased to delight & amaze me. May it do so for you! Here is a link that might be useful: Golden Celebration

For growth habit, remontancy (repeat bloom) and fragrance GOLDEN CELEBRATION is hard to beat. There is a gracefulness to the shrub that works wonderfully in cottage gardens and the very strong fruity fragrance is the best that I've smelled on any yellow rose to date. All that being said to be grown successfully here in black spot hell it must be sprayed with a fungicide - and not just once in a while but consistently every week or else. Which is why I settled for GRAHAM THOMAS. I not only like the color better (GC's golden yellow color is very deep and lacks the luminescent quality that you get with GT) but the foliage can get by with my erratic spraying. I'm growing him own root as a short climber and have been very pleased with his performance. Decent repeat bloom too, not as prolific as GC, Julia Child or Molineux but there is usually at least one or two blooms on the plant at all times after the profuse spring flush. I can see why this rose is considered a classic. Neither rose is particularly thorny, which is something that I appreciate.

Even in this central Virginia Upper South garden, Golden Celebration reaches 8'+ tall and would arch over to cover a circle 15' or more if not confined within a copper pipe obelisk. That structure is 2' square with staggered cross bars & 4 corner verticals that curve near the top to join together in a wooden ball finial, rising more than 9' from ground level. After 8 years, my grafted rose has outgrown it & I'll be adding another 2 feet of vertical pipe to accomodate it. GC is planted in the center of the obelisk, which was assembled around it when it began shooting long arching canes in its second year. It grows in the center of a long & deep front porch bed, and would have swamped neighboring plants if not coralled in some manner. Since it's not tied to the support & grows naturally in an arching vase shape, canes & laterals spill over the crossbars giving a total diameter of 4' starting 3' from the ground & widening as it keeps going up. The nearest rose in front of it is a 3x3' round floribunda planted 3' out from the obelisk, so around 5' center to center of each bush. A taller hybrid tea is 5' behind the obelisk. Two more shortish & willowly climbers at either side by 6' lean slightly on the same obelisk. This arrangement allows me room to walk within the bed to tend the roses & other perennials & so far (knock on wood) they've all done well. If this sounds odd, it's more or less an island bed, since it's seen from all vantage points, and GC is the tallest element. Tend to plant with mature size in mind for spacing, rather than crowd, in this humid climate with high blackspot pressure where air circulation is important as a deterrent, but that's me & my no-spray ways. All this is a longwinded way of saying since Golden Celebration grows so well here in the Upper South, I'd expect greater & lusher growth in your Deep South garden with your considerably longer growing season, higher temps & greater sun intensity year round. So I'll echo others' recommendations that you space CG 6' at minimum from other large roses, consider your best guess maximum mature dimensions of any other rose you're thinking of including in the same bed & adjust your plans accordingly... Very nice roses you've chosen! Give them room to thrive.