Duchesse, I've seen Purpurea described as less than 3' and also 6'. Mine is in the ground about 10 months and gives no signs of being large unless it's just waiting to explode. It's a small 2x2 now. Whether this will be true when it's older I don't know, but it stayed leafless for 2 months this summer. It was the prettiest bunch of green sticks you ever want to see. Looked something like Form #2 (but smaller) in Vintage's Hybrid Tea chart. It has leafed out again but hasn't put on any size. Carol, re "bands that started dying back at the tips as soon as I took them out of the box. I'd cut them back below the dead portions but it didn't stop the die back and eventually they just died back to the soil.", mine didn't start that soon - only after repotting, and I'd had some roses for months. But the rest of what you say is exactly what has happened. It seems to me I did everything I usually had done except that I used some peat - oooohh, wait a minute. I used an oil absorbant recommended on the "Container Gardening Forum" is this mix and in another that I made for a Marie Daley that I was moving to a big pot from the ground. That rose died, too, and quickly (that mix had much more absorbant in it.) I wonder if that was the culprit. The bag even said uses include gardening. Well, I guess I need to dis-pot the surviving roses. Glad you asked, Carol. Maybe this is my answer. Ingrid, there may be thousands of roses, but probably 80-90% are already eliminated right off the top due to our locations. And now that I've fallen in love with Teas (thanks to the Australian ladies) I find that there aren't enough of them - that can be bought anyway. Of course, if I had planted Pink Pet and The Fairy instead of Marie Pavie and Clotilde Soupert, I could have used Blush Noisette. So our own choices quickly reduce the numbers from which we can choose. And, of course, there's the fact that we're just plain picky people. :)) Sandy, if I could only have one rose, I would also probably choose Mrs B R - unless the only spot I had was the small yard in front of my house. It would be a gorgeous bush out of place, I'm afraid. So I think I'm going to move LeVesuve to this center spot and put Anna Olivier in its old spot - hoping that neither one get as big as they can get or will at least tolerate a little nipping down the road. It still amazes me that Malcolm Manners prunes his Mrs B R Cants at the college down to short sticks every year. I call that whacking!!! I wish he had posted photos of those bushes after their spring growth. After everything I've read here it was a shock to see his after-pruning photos of one-year old plants. Thanks everyone for all of your input. Your suggestions were all good ones, and I appreciate them. Sherry

I found that burlap is dusty (sheds fibers) to use. Rough and unfriendly to our tender little elbows. lol My mother in law put her antique/vintage hankie collection down on the dining table and covered it with a sheet of glass. I just had a wild visual image (dont worry my Dr. knows about them) of hankies on crisscrossed clotheslines strung like banners. It also has that vintage summer message of clothes drying in the sun. I would buy clothes pins and paint them all one bold color to match your table cloth or napkins or the main color in the hankies. I bought and restyled some dolls to be my laundry helpers. (see pic) Something like this would be a good center piece. The caucasion dolls were broken at Hobby Lobby. The others were lucky finds at resales. I took the golfer and put a miniature scrub board in her hands. The tallest one has a basket attached where I put my grandmothers embroidery and grandpa's hankie pieces. The tiny clothes pins could hold place cards. Go to the net and print off all of the vintage house working mom pics. I can promise you that no one else has ever given this party before. Ok. Thanks for letting me vent that idea.

PD, this table is one even my husband would appreciate--golf related! What a cute find for your centerpiece, and I love the way you used the black/white with the green accents. I was just thinking "now isn't that great that she even had green candle holders to match"--good that you snagged those at the sales! The last picture would be my DH too--he much prefers to eat in front of the tv! LOL Luvs

Get terra cotta pots and paint them in the team colors with spray paint. Put a potted mum or something like that in each one. Add some moss to hide the rim of the potted plant and make it look finished. Print out color copies of the team logo and mascot, put two of them back-to-back on a bamboo shishkabob skewer and stick in the pot. Depending on the size and shape of the tables, do a line of three or five per table on rectangles, a cluster of three on a round. Get some net fabric (like the goal) and bunch some of that around the pots. You can have drawings for moms or kids to get to take the plants home. No candles- in fact, many places don't allow open flames, especially with kids around.