I don't have anything else planted in the main top tier rose bed. The bottom tier is a mix of minis, bulbs and perennials of all kinds. I also have a couple of clems with my climbers. And last year I had a ton of volunteer petunias come up in all my rose pots. I decided to let them grow and it was so pretty that I let them grow again this year. They're mostly pinks and purples and they go really well with the roses, fill in the empty messy dirt in the pots and work just like mulch in keeping the soil cool and moist. I just have to be careful with some of the smaller roses. The petunias have a habit of out growing the mini's and shading them. The street bed has some iris in one corner. I'm not sure how that's going to work out because the iris are multiplying rapidly and I may have to pull them out before they take over the roses. It sure was pretty this spring when they were in bloom at the same time as the roses though!

Living in Wisconsin I do adore so many different trees. But my Mom had a gorgeous flowering mini crab apple tree that in spring would smell so wonderful, like almost a musky Hibiscus type scent that would last about 4 weeks. The fruit on this tree was about as small as a pea and was very abundant as the tree itself in bloom would look like one big huge flower on it's own. But most of the pea sized apples that would never have any issues with scabbing or insects would stay on the tree through the winter that would be a #1 staple of the bird life that never flew south for the winter time as my Mom would also have bird houses and Cardinals would stay along with Red Winged Black Birds and others. When the trees were flowering they would attract so many butterflies, humming birds and honey bees, that the next door neighbor would surly get his fill from, and even offer up honey to my Mom, otherwise he wouldn't have had so much honey and bees wax to sell at the farmers market. But unfortunately in 2012, my Mom's condo association voted on removing her wonderful bird and furry ground fellows tree (Yes! Also the squirrels of at least 3 to 5 different kinds would take advantage of all of the tiny apples that had fell to ground, along with chipmunks and some other furry ground animals, so I never did see what the big deal was. They had said that tree had made a mess. Well I beg to differ, and the closing vote was neighbor that actually got kicked out by the banks foreclosure no more than 4 months later. Now my 2nd favorite tree would be the lilac tree, not the bush but the actual tree. I remember when I had one right outside my bedroom window and the scent of lilacs would come in through out the lilac season, and my Dad had planted them to flower 2 weeks apart from each other, so I had that scent in my bedroom going for a good 4-6 weeks long at least! Now Wisconsin has a law in place that no one is allowed and will be fined if they are to plant any sort of troublesome tree. One big one being the darn Cotton Wood Tree. And for those that have them on their land that are in neighborhoods that clog up gutters and fly over to parks in which the fire departments HAVE to do a controlled burn to keep them from growing out of control every single year. This junk get into your air filters and in your cars, garages, homes and all over the place. I really hate these trees, and I just don't understand why people would take advantage of free removal by the city, especially if they have a fire place, free wood to burn for them for the winter time. And now these trees are huge! It's just unreal what you pull out of your gutters every year. Even though we want to enjoy our spring times and not have our usual floods as that is what usually happens here, but when you have Cotton Wood trees, you almost beg for rain every day so these seeds will only drop on the owners home and not yours when floating through the air and causing allergies with watery eyes, sneezing and being all stuffed up from just trying to enjoy the outside, which is impossible when you have a cantankerous neighbor that just won't take down that damn tree, even though it almost looks like it's 1/2 way dead anyway. Maybe some day it will get hit by lightning, and then he will have to use his home owners insurance to fix what ever damage it has caused and Karma will win in end. Just because he didn't do right by others. I know if I bought property, I would surely call the city and have them come and take it down as soon as they were able. And one more tree I don't care for all that much for at all either, is the Maple tree and for some reason, the seeds or what some people call whirly birds or helicopters I think they are a real pain in ars and for some reason the are falling off all year long and are green and slimy. Leaving the steps and landings all stained with this slimy mess so you can't even sit down and dry your hair naturally in the nice weather. And sometimes they even drop in clumps but when they do that they are too heave and drop onto the lawn, or what ever is left of it, when it rains it's a muddy mess on that side. I am doing my best to get the heck out of here, but I have some issues I need take care of right away! Heath issues that are stopping me from doing the simplest tasks. I never thought I'd need to be calling the HDRC for help like this. But I need to get out of here. Plus I just got a letter from my land lord that my rent is going up (only by $5.00) but still, I've been here for 14 years now. And I have been so unhappy and haven't had a single update done since I move in here. Sorry for over sharing, but she knows she has me over a barrel here, I have 3 auto immune disorders and many other medical issues that she used to be very empathetic to and I don't know what's happened to her now. She just no longer cares anymore at all! Now my Thyroid is effecting me. I knew years ago they found a nodule on my thyroid, but I went to a specialist and he said it's very common. My Dr. then always kept up with the testing. He now moved and I'm left with this flippent woman of a GP that is only in it for the money. Need to get rid of her now, and see if I can get a blood test tomorrow while I'm at the hospital anyway with 2 appts. back to back. I did feel so sorry for my Mom, she not only had a shade tree that she loved watching her birds every morning, but it was also a tree that gave her some privacy from her kitchen window and I think that was totally unfair for them to just take that away from her. She loves wildlife and birds, and loved waking up to it, watching and hearing the Cardinals and seeing all of the beautiful butterflies and other germinating creatures. Even the honey bees seemed very docile and as if they were trained to be non violent and just be busy worker bees along with all of the humming birds of every color of the rainbow that would stay still just long enough to make out their colors, I even saw a turquoise one, my favorite color. I went on google maps and they really need to update their pictures. That tree is still there on Google maps. I couldn't believe that when I saw that. Oh well, It's been awhile and they must have taken that picture right before they took that tree down. All I see is people raving about how much the love those trees and how glad they are they chose them. Mom moved in when that tree was a bit young yet. I wish I could turn back time, and announce her neighbors were being kicked out by the bank. That would have changed things a lot back then. They wouldn't have had a voice or a leg to stand on. And I believe the bank would have said "Keep that tree!" It only adds to the curb appeal and beauty for the next buyers. Oh well, to late now, Thanks for taking the time to read this. And God Bless to all those that have or have chosen the Mini Crab Apple Trees, you know what I'm talking about!

Here is a picture of my Henry Apples Dupree, Roxanne... This is what Diana has listed in her notes.... Henry "Apples" Dupree large creamy yellow named for the plumeria collector who found it. Big clusters, long lasting yellow and white, sweetly fragrant. The tree is a prolific bloomer. Henry originally thought was the tree named for Iolani which was a prize tree lost to borers back in the early nineteen eighties. The tree habit balanced, the season long, the inflorescence huge and fragrance sweet rose. 3+â bloom of a light shade of gold. The flowers appear in heavy clusters and have a sweet fragrance with hints of apple. Creamy white petal with bright yellow color toward center, nice texture, large to 4", wide petals and slightly irregular, smell like a good mixed of apple and jasmine. Flowers have a slight green tinge. During WWII, When a submarine departs its berth on the west coast and heads for the war zone the torpedo tubes are empty and all the torpedoes are stored in the Submarine and are armed just before being placed in the tube. On their trip through friendly waters the needed supplies are stored in the empty torpedo tubes. Henry stored several crates of apples in one of the torpedo tubes to be used on the long voyage in his cooking. One day before they entered hostile waters the torpedo mate decided he needed to test the torpedo tube, forgot about HenryâÂÂs apples, loaded the tube with a test air charge and fired it. All of HenryâÂÂs apples were projected out in front of the submarine with a big bang. As the submarine plowed forward through the hundreds of apples, they were hitting the sides of the submarine and bouncing along its side for the length of the submarine. From that day forward in the USN Henry was known as Apples Dupree. Scent is similar to the green apples which is fresh, yet sweet with a mildly sharp edge. Have a wonderful night!!! Laura

My favorite fruiting tree is Meyer lemon, mainly because I use more lemons than any other fruit. It is difficult to pick just one. The fig trees from Texas that I had in Venice produced the sweetest fruit of any fruit tree that I've had, but the season is not that long, and it got hot in the kitchen when I made fig preserves, which I mostly gave away. I also love my blood orange tree and cherimoya. Favorite non-fruiting tree is Ceiba speciosa (Silk floss tree), which makes beautiful pink flowers in the fall and has a very interesting spiked trunk.