Oh! My! Gosh! Toolbelt and Subk3, pictures like yours are what inspired me to try this companion planting! Christopher and camps, your point about rose selection is well taken. Super Jane is a hybrid musk, although a modern one. Clematis versicolor blooms (according to Plant Delights) in April-June and then again in Sept. and October. I think that they will bloom together. I hope. That's why I asked for others' experiences. Super Jane doesn't have a lot of thorns and I chose her for that reason. I don't want to deal with yet another rose that fights back when I prune. BTW, Christopher, I so wish I could grow albas. Maybe someday... Thanks for your spacing and timing suggestions, kidhorn and dublinbay. When I plant my rose, I'll make a point of having my clematis ready to go in, too. I'm glad that they can be planted that close together. It will make it easier to find the best spot for both. Mad_gallica, that is disappointing. Deer are always a factor here since I live on the edge of a woods. I know that when deer here are hungry the way they have been this winter, they'll eat whatever they can find. This year, for example, they ate 3/4 of the leaves and buds off my camellia, something they've never bothered in the past. I may need to rethink the location if I decide to go through with this. The pruning thing makes a lot of sense. I don't know where I read it and will have to go back and check, but I thought that the little clematis I'm considering died back quite a bit and could be cut back completely in late winter. I hope that's right. If not, I'll look for one that can. Subk3, you make a very good point about checking to see if Super Jane and clematis versicolor can handle the same growing conditions. Super Jane seems to be a tough girl to survive her setbacks but I haven't had her long enough to draw any conclusions. I live on the edge of a dry woods on top of a small hill that's on top of a larger hill. Keeping plants moist enough is a battle for me. I would like to plant Super Jane on a trellis on the side of a small building that faces east/southeast. She will get morning sun and dappled shade/light shade the rest of the day. Our soil is horrible here- dry clay and rocks- so I amend it quite a bit with compost and mulch. It sounded like the clematis could handle regular garden conditions so I thought that the extra watering and soil amendments for the rose wouldn't hurt the clematis. This clematis is supposed to be less prolific than other natives and play well with others so I thought that it might be a good one for me to try. This is coming from the nurseries that have it for sale, though. Thanks, everyone, for taking the time to respond.

I second Steve on everyone's pics, they all look so gorgeous! Poly I am so happy to hear that your garden is beginning to grow since I remember talking at the swaps about all the difficulty you have. Like Poly I am terribly grateful for all your advise and all the plant starts I have gotten from you all. Connie, I am happy to share my penstemon cuttings with you if I can get them to root. This year I had 20 going hoping to bring them to the swap which by chance I missed but somehow they all didn;t take root. I am not sure what I did differently last year. The plant doesnt' seem to spread by roots or anything of that sort or may be slow to do so therefore I am not sure how to get more because I like more of them around the rest of the garden and in case they peter out one season. The only think I can think of is maybe the long cold spring was the reason? The Verbascum is supposed to reseed according to Bluestone's description but I see no signs of that yet? I only got these last summer. Skybird, your yellow columbine is begining to put out more blooms and they are lovely. Anyway I had picked up more plants today at the Flower Bin in Longmont - everything is 20% off this weekend. Coincidently I picked up a Callirhoe and a Veronica Royal Candles which I had my heart set on for a long time and Skybird, your RC looks so good I am glad I had gotten them. I also picked up several Lychnis Chalcedonia and a couple of Coreopsis Zagreb and a Mercury Rising - reddish wine blossoms looked striking and was smitten. PS: I am not sure what the heck was going on with the image codes. I've posted with the exact same html image embedding code but somehow this time after submitting a lot of the code changed characters. Well I am glad the link version worked. Well I am pooped for the day and speaking of poop....I'll start a new post about that! Love, love, love everyone's pictures! Thanks for starting this thread Cat

Nick, yeah, same here in Kansas how each rose insists on doing their own thing. Sometimes I swear they have their own psychology. People always talk about waving their shovel as threats and the roses "suddenly" shape up. When I had Fragrant Cloud for example, I would always brag about Lincoln and its GORGEOUS COLOR! and FC would try so hard to have these deep red blooms instead of scarlet-orange like it's supposed to have. Lincoln right now is having machismo pride against Folklore. Usually Lincoln always is the first HT to bloom, but right now Folklore beat it and it's doing its male stubborness about wanting its own separate show...Nick, I specifically color coordinated the gorgeous deep florist red of L. to go with the candy-reverse sherbert orange/golden yellow reverse of F. to go together, but just like you say, they keep varying in bloom period. One gets spent, then the other rose starts up.... Nick one thing strange, I found out that I cannot keep large perennials alive once I transplant them, but NEVER EVER! have I had a rose go into transplant shock....I've had pretty old roses like Penny Lane that I've transplanted. You see I have too much energy spent on roses and can't have any time to care for transplanted large perennials save for watering every other day. Nick one of the problems is that I handwater EVERYTHING! and here we are having global warming to the MAX. Baby perennials do fine but not the big ones. Anyway, your plantings also sound gorgeous Nick! We are looking forward to seeing them in their splendor! I can just imagine the blanket of beautiful purples, lavender, and mauve going....

SoFl, I wanted to add that Bolero smells similar to Sugar Moon. I could have a garden comprised of those two just for smelling. Guess I'll have to add Sharifa Asma to my list now if it smell similar. : ) When I comment on a post and go to it from my email notice, it take me directly to the last posts and if it's a short one without pics, I just read it in my email.