Don Juan is a climbing rose that grows typically at least 10-12' tall & 8' wide. You're concerned that the Knockouts will eventually grow too big for the space, so just checking in with Don Juan's eventual size. Since you plan to train the long canes horizontally, the height will be reduced by adding to the width. Jackson & Perkins recommends planting 8' apart for solid coverage. ( http://tinyurl.com/mr5r7a8 ) Click on "plant description" at that link for further details. So I'm with kippy & brittie here that you wouldn't need more than 2 for your 15' fence. Though you're thinking of trellis to space the roses away from the fence, consider the suggestions of boncrow & kippy for espaliering using the fence. Eyebolts of appropriate length can be screwed to the fence to hold horizontal runs of wire, or blocks of wood or whatever can be attached to the fence at right angles to project from it to hold shorter eyebolts for the same purpose. (And light to medium weight trellis can be attached in the same manner from the fence.) This is the simplest, least expensive & most unobtrusive method. Canes are lightly tied to the wires with soft material, as you probably saw in the videos, in a figure 8. Check out kona's photos - 3rd & 4th down on the left in the link below - to see how this has been done. There are only two runs of wire. While you're there, check out all the photos of this lovely rose & the ways it's been grown. Here is a link that might be useful: Don Juan photos This post was edited by vasue on Sun, Aug 31, 14 at 19:38

Yourit, You've just confirmed for us all that thumbnails do load faster. Thanks. I was kinda wondering whether it made any difference perhaps, because I figured there might be some conversion process involved. I'm happy to see that they do in fact work fast as claimed. And in fact, I like them as they allow me to lay out my articles better, using HTML tables to format the thumbnails into groupings. Arvind, I did note a sign on the grounds at the Rosicrucian that they had a Native Plants project underway. It was posted in a small grassy yard next to what I'm guessing was employee parking. Your link to the contest article helps much to clarify what that sign eluded to. I can't wait to see what they do with that project and I hope they don't cut down any of those Yuccas or those beautiful towering pines that are just to the of the main museum front entrance, between the museum and the planetarium. Those are very beautiful trees and I regret, too large for me to have photographed. You have to go there to appreciate them.

Kristen, the reason why "damaging" the end of the cutting allows callusing is you're exposing the cambium layer, the juicy, lighter green layer just beneath the bark. This is the circulatory system of the plant and the tissue that differentiates, either forming more cambium to "knit" a bud to a stock or callus which further differentiates to form roots. Scarifying, or exposing more cambium by scraping off the bark to reveal it; smashing or crushing the ends to expose it or simply slicing through the bark to uncover more of it all have the same effect, though with varying results depending upon a variety of factors. The bottom line is, usually, the more cambium you expose, the greater the callus and number of roots. You might not have had good luck with softer wood cuttings possessing leaves because they transpire too much water, permitting the cutting to dry out. Traditionally, those with foliage work best in more humid conditions where they actually absorb moisture, keeping the cutting hydrated while it calluses and forms roots. Softer wood cuttings with a set or two of leaves are very successful under mist propagation. They continue producing chlorophyll, feeding the plant while absorbing moisture so the cutting continues performing as if it had roots, until it does. Often, this can be accomplished using Mel Hulse's Baggie Method http://paulbardenroses.com/hulse.html It also works rather well under more sophisticated greenhouse conditions. If your climate is humid and mild enough, it may work outdoors without artificial assistance, but I live in a more arid section of Southern California where outdoor propagation isn't successful without assistance. Are leaves necessary for success? If you're using soft wood cuttings during the normal growing season, and you have the right conditions and equipment, they make success easier, faster and more guaranteed. If you can't meet any of those conditions, they'll probably make it easier to fail. If the cuttings you strike with leaves fail with the foliage drying up, your humidity is too low when and where you're doing it. Where I am, they either perform as you've described, or if I put them under plastic, they mold and the cutting fails. That's why I have been so enthusiastic over the wrapping method. When done under the most appropriate temperatures with sufficiently hardened wood, it works like magic. Burying all but the top inch of a cutting has very similar effects and results as the wrapping method. You're keeping the cutting dark, cool and moist, all conditions required to stimulate callusing and rooting. After removing them from the wrapping when they are callused, and often rooted, I plant the cuttings deeply so the majority of the wood remains under soil for that exact reason. Why not? The suggested method of planting a bare root rose is to plant it then mound it with soil, keeping it damp, cool and moist until new foliage appears at the cane tops. At that point, you want to gradually expose more and more cane, permitting it to harden off to the elements rather than just stripping the soil from it and letting it fend for itself. The same is true for cuttings removed from a "close environment" of a baggie or greenhouse. They have to acclimate to the hotter, drier and sunnier conditions just as we do after being inside all winter when we begin spending more time in the hotter, sunnier spring and summer. Once I see growth beginning at the cutting tops, I tilt them out of the pots to check on root activity. If it's filling the bottom of the pot with roots, I'll raise it in the pot, exposing more of the cane by planting it higher, with more soil beneath it. If you can accomplish planting bare roots, uncovering them from the protective soil mounds once grow begins or putting the cuttings out higher just prior to or during a rain, it works excellently! The continual bath of rain helps stabilize them and harden them off very quickly, making your success even more of a sure thing. Kim

I don't doubt it, Jeri. It, like Banksiae, will continue flowering until the real heat arrives to 'tell it' to stop flowering because 'spring' is over. Remember all the reports over the years of the "repeat blooming Banksiaes" along the coast? Yup, "spring" lasts many months until the "heat" arrives, so the plant keeps thinking it's spring so it keeps blooming. My Fortuniana flowered the whole of the first two years we were here and refused to grow. This "winter" has been dry and it stopped flowering and started throwing thorny, long whips and is now starting to flower again. Whatever the conditions tell the plant to do, it does. If there is enough water and the temperatures don't signal spring is over, it flowers until the heat tells it to stop. Lutescens spasmed flowers most of last summer here and the ones on the freeway didn't stop all summer, either. If the heat comes on like inland valley heat, they stop quickly. If spring lingers, so do the flowers.