It does seem odd but I assumed the potted Hibiscus was left by the previous owners since it was on the list of what came with the new home. I was going by the leaf shape and texture (they are more ovate and glossy) plus the way the buds are carried and the appearance of the calyx. I do grow H syriacus in my garden and I am familiar with H rosa-sinensis as a pot plant. So I just said what I thought. But I may be wrong. It will become clear which it is once it blooms. Maybe someone else can comment.

Good luck! I am also in the N. O. area and this will be my first year with Austins, too. I bought an Abe Darby, Charlotte, and Jude the Obscure. I have them all in pots because I started a "lasagna" bed a couple months ago and it's not ready to plant yet. I will wait until the summer heat is through and the organic material has composted to plant mine out. It is already so terribly hot and humid during the day I can't stand to do anything outside until after 5PM. I don't think brand new roses appreciate being planted directly into the blazing heat. I also have a "Peggy Martin" climber, a Belinda's Dream, and a Cecile Brunner, and I would love to get a an old fashioned Tropicana, or Peace rose because I love the colors. When I bought my potted roses they were most all already covered in blackspot, but a couple consecutive weeks of spraying with Bayer remedied that. I know I will have to spray in this brutally hot and humid climate, but really it only takes a total of 20 minutes twice a month. I'm willing to do it because for no other plant do you get so much excitement out of anticipating the blooms. I have gardened for years but have always ignored the roses because so many people down here have a big prejudice against them. Really, if you aren't going to spray, the hybrid teas that are regularly available will generally look like crap, and that used to be the image "rose" brought to my mind.

I've never looked up my sunset zone before. I see I'm in zone 39, interesting! I think my advice, besides what you've already mentioned, Lynn, would be to give them space. In my lust for more roses I crowded mine together and regret it now. A lot of mine are tied to trellises so they don't cover neighboring roses and they can't become the robust shruby plants they should be. And be patient. I've found that the Austins and OGRs take time to establish and build up they're structure before they really start to strut their stuff. It took at least 3 years and sometimes 5 before they really gave me those big beautiful displays of blooms. Oh, and easy on the pruning. Let them just grow the first few years and don't prune them at all except for dead wood. After that you can shape some but don't whack them back. I thought they needed pruning like my modern roses but they actually don't like being pruned much. When I stopped pruning them like HTs in the spring I found out they bloomed way better for me.

Glad to hear you are settling at last Len. Hope all is going well and your wife is doing okay. That vegie garden is looking great! Here's to many a yummy meal from it. Cheers, Dee.