Randy, I suspect you'll love the Duchesse. She was my first tea and still one of my favorites although my defective sniffer can't detect any fragrance. Be prepared, she's a fast grower but doesn't seem to resent regular moderate pruning. Sheriberrie, I'm in west central Mississippi so our growing conditions are almost the same. I try to maintain my DdB at about 6 feet high and wide but it would get much larger I think if not pruned back. All the teas I've tried do real well. The healthiest, Madame Antoine Mari, Monsieur Tillier, Gilbert Nabonnand, Mrs. Dudley Cross, Clementina Carbonieri, oh heck I can't think of a bad one (LOL). Hamp

You're welcome Sherry! That's why it is a must. If you only saw the smaller plants from shorter season areas, you'd plant them close together and then reap the "rewards" of it. That's why growing English roses well was so difficult for so long. The only growing information available was from Austin in Britain. Catalog descriptions stating Graham Thomas is a "mannerly, 5' X 5' shrub" may hold true for upstate New York, but it is a 15' climber in many areas here in SoCal! The same holds true for things like Ballerina. British books state it is "our most reliable small poly". Yeah? Try 26' up a Pine Tree in Manhattan Beach, CA! I hacked out the one I cared for when it climbed up on the house roof. New Dawn, "dependable 10' X 10' climber". NOT HERE. It's as indeterminate as any tomato planted over the septic tank ever was! Without the collective knowledge and photographs from all areas, there just isn't any way to make INFORMED choices and decisions. It does no one any good for someone to tell you the plant is going to be 2' when in your area, that translates to 10'! Thanks. Kim

Also on the deck, coming up by the stairs, is 'Reine des Violettes' which continues "blueing" after opening its blooms. Thanks to "tweaking", I captured the color as it is right now on these three-day-old blooms. 'Tamora' opened her first bloom, and a few others are almost opened. But at the moment, she's a bit lost in this. The deep pink blooms belong to another long, arching cane on 'Mme de Sevigne' coming from the right of this pic. The white in the lower right corner is pegged 'Botzaris'. The white against the fence is 'Bubble Bath'. And the purple in the center of the right edge is 'Purple Skyliner. Clematis blooming on the fence, from left to right, are 'Red Star', 'Lasurstern', and 'Blue Light'. Same area as above, but closer to the front. You can see 'Botzaris' pegged in the center, with Dianthus 'Bath's Pink' to its right, and 'Mme Dore' to the right of that, with 'Monsieur Boncenne' behind her. See all the deep pink Bourbon blooms in the upper center of the pic? That's all 'Mme de Sevigne', arching up and over the others. She put out a few fat, tall, arching canes which I held in place with tree branches. This rose is really more of a climber, growing like 'Mme Isaac Pereire', perhaps even more so. But its canes seem rather self-supporting -- until the buds form, which is when I had to prop them up a bit. Near the short path in the bed to the garage window is 'Clotilde Soupert' still slowly opening its blooms. To its right is 'The Prince', which looks like it's going to have a rather stingy first-flush this year, just as it did last year. But then it blooms more often during Summer and into Autumn. Odd, right? When a rose has as many petals as 'Clotilde Soupert' has, it takes a while for them to open. I kept saying "any day now" for over a week. Notice there's no balling -- while we had some rather cool days this Spring, it's been unusually dry. CS balls for me only when cool and wet -- cool and dry, or warm and wet, I don't see balling. And I'll finish up with areas that still need further attention -- and roses. This area gets full-sun during the hottest parts of the day, so I'm going to think about Chinas and Teas which may work in a narrow bed against the neighbors' house. Here's 'Perle d'Or' which is still rather tiny, but came as one rooted twig two years ago. Despite my tweaking, I can't capture its apricot tints. To be continued.... :-) ~Christopher

Here in the Valley of Heart's Delight (aka Silicon Valley), Honorine de Brabant is an arching, sprawling shrub, broader than tall, and between 4 and 5 feet in height. It is very airy, that is to say, there is a lot of open space under those sprawling canes that you could use to plant spring bulbs. If you don't mulch, you would definitely need to weed. Ferdinand has similar lax but not limp canes, and is probably similar in form. However right from the beginning I grew it wrapped around a support and I never saw its natural form. Once it grew into its maturity it may have had more canes than HdB but I'm not sure it was any taller or bulkier. And my impression of more canes could be a result of me having to keep training them. Neither one was actually all that tall or all that massive a plant. I liked them both. The roses on HdB were a bit larger and the stripes on FdP were a bit more vivid. That could be a result of our strong sunlight bleaching them out. I've seen noticeably brighter color on HdB roses grown in England. FdP repeated better, also, though both had some repeat. In a different climate (yours), I have no doubt that you will see something different than I did here. Rosefolly