Back to your original question to what might be earlier than Methley. Here in mid Georgia Goldcrest, Flavorich, Regal, Camden, Queencrest, Maycrest, Springold, Springcrest, Springprince, Empress, Sunbrite, Carored, Suzi-Q, PF-1, Starlite all would ripen before the 25th of May every year for me at my location while Scarlet Pearl, Junegold, Glodprince, Derby, and Correll will be within a few of both sides of the 25th of May. All these varieties have 650-850 chill hour requirements. All are clingstones with generally smaller size than later varieties, and some would say not as good of a taste. They tend to be more tart than sweet to me than later on the season. Your ripening dates will vary from mine I'm sure, but if you are picking Methley on the 27th of May we are not too far apart. In my personal opinion Flavorich, Springcrest, Sunbrite, and Scarlet Pearl are the best out of these because of taste and size compared to the other ones in this group. You might look at the Dave Wilson website for some of the newer California early varieties which I didn't list which may be of interest to you. Hope this helps. Russell

dmny- thanks for the white recommendation. Iceberg sounds like a good choice. I'd really like to find something that repeats well. I ordered Sombreuil without researching the thorns and was shocked when I pulled it out of the shipping box! The prickles are huge, so probably not the best choice for next to the front door! Something about those jagged edges doesn't say "Welcome." Anyway, I found a place for Sombreuil in my side yard near the back deck where hopefully I can enjoy the fragrance but my kids won't get hurt on it. meredith_e, nice to hear from someone in my exact zone in addition to the other voices! I love the orangey- apricot tones, too, more than the yellows, in Westerland and Royal Sunset. Nice to hear it keeps those darker tones in the shade! I found a band of Royal Sunset at Burlington Roses if I can be patient enough for it to grow. Since the spot I'm looking to fill is on the front of my house, I'm anxious for it to get big. After doing more research, I came across Renae and Annie Laurie McDowell, which really piqued my interest, too! These roses sound like they might do nicely in this part shade spot and provide plenty of blooms. I was originally going for an apricot color, but I'd be willing to go pinkish. Maybe I should get them all...

Another climber that does well without spray for fungal diseases here in blackspot-land is Dublin Bay. The beautiful deep red roses last quite long in a vase. I am growing him as a shrub. Cresupule is a beautiful, no disease, thornless climber (Noisette) but the stems are short for cutting. Naga Belle is a beautiful deep pink hybrid tea from India that is black spot resistant for me. Other Buck roses that have performed well are Quietness, lt pink, Prairie Harvest, lt yellow and Western Sunset, deep yellow. I put in Earth Song, deep pink, and Pearlie Mae, apricot, both Buck roses last year but so far they are puny. Country Dancer is another buck rose that is reputed to be good in the South. I perfer roses that are good for cutting. All of these I ordered from Roses Unlimited. Wonderful company and I am close enough to get the lowest shipping rates. Hope your Mom enjoys her roses as much as I do. It was my teenage son that get me into them years ago.

I can't see the situation you have there so can only guess based on knowing how hot air behaves. Also, calculations based on 'yearly averages' are misleading and can lead to wrong conclusions. A number of palms will cope with moderately cold minimums if the daytime maximums are much higher. However, if daytime is also cool the palms could be dead in a few days regardless of how high the overall yearly average might be. So to get them to survive you have to concentrate on the period of time they're most at risk, not on the offset value of summer time temperatures they might not live to experience. Without doing it in a completely enclosed space, not just behind walls, you're bordering on the impossible. Heated air rises so without some barrier overhead you'll be losing it rapidly. I could imagine the cost keeping heaters going to try and compensate this would be very high. It'd be more economical to build a structure overhead and reduce the amount of heating required. I've seen a few examples (photos on the internet) where people have done that. One was a fanatical Hoya grower who posted photos of an extension he built onto the house. Snow was piled high against it on the outside while Hoyas were growing happily inside. Another was what the owner called an atrium, quite large, filled with lots of tropical plants, mainly aroids. You could do that for palms, just keeping to the smaller species of which there are many beautiful ones. Just a suggestion that could be more easily achievable.