Nastarana so happy to hear that. I wanted something that was a good climber as well as continual bloomer. I planted it up against an iron trellis that backs up to a fence. I had a red climber that didn't do too well and had a virus of some sort. Forget what it was called. I dug that up and put in some fertilizer a couple of weeks ago to prep the soil for my new Polka. I can't wait till its tall and full of blooms. I'll be able to see it all the way from the front of my house through to the back yard. I sit in the font of my house to study and can see straight to the yard. I'm going to enjoy these! Our elderly neighbor loves roses and she can see mine from her kitchen where she sits. I always clip roses and bring them to her. She and I have the same birthday so I go over with roses from my garden and a cake. She has way too much shade in her yard and just never had any luck with roses but I share mine with her any way I can.

According to Gladwell: "The great accomplishment of Jobs's life is how effectively he put his idiosyncrasies, his petulance, his narcissism, and his rudeness,in the service of perfection. "I look at his airplane and mine," Ellison says, "and everything he changed was better." I don't agree with Gladwell at all that Gates's philanthropy represents a superior kind of imagination to that of Steve Jobs. The (alas defunct) Constance Spry hedge and the Rothko paintings make up for a lot , IMO. Philanthropy also represents a kind of tinkering, and not always for the good, as with Gates's abominable educational policies, which are based on the slenderest of evidence -- on no evidence whatsoever, in fact. Great power confers power to do harm as well as good, and there numerous ways to be an egomaniac and not listen to other people and to ride roughshod over them in the service of an ideology.

It sounds like you have a lot of good ideas yourself. You might want to check to make sure the okra isn't daylength sensitive in a bad way for your location. For fall, I like beans that can be used either snapped or shelled. Black Valentine has great flavor, so I would stick with that choice this year. And it is an American original. Two attractive beans in this category to consider for the future are Tongues of Fire and Coco Rose de Prague. Kohlrabi is nice for demonstration plots, as many people are not familiar with it, it grows fast enough to be a succession crop with another quick growing vegetable (probably a leafy one) and it looks nice. Young leaves of thinnings are edible. You could consider showing how to do "cut and come again" gardens, mesclun mixes, baby vegetables, and selective harvesting of outer leaves of certain greens. Giant Italian Parsley is attractive and tastier than most parsley. Also consider some Asian greens and edible flowers. Here is a link that might be useful: Tongues of Fire bean

OK, apologies for dropping out of the conversation. I'd like to add my perspective. When I purchased my York rose I was fully expecting white flowers, just like I always saw in any picture I'd ever seen of the flower. Imagine my surprise when in my cool June temps. oceanside garden (it doesn't usually really get past 80 here until July) the flowers opened peachy pink and then stayed that way for several days (fading, but still pink until maybe four days later, at which point the look was white, but not a pure white, like Rosa rugosa alba, or Iceberg, or most other "whites")!! There's something vaguely, slightly apricot about my York's color even when fully developed. That's what I meant about calling it "milk white". Yes, the innermost petal or two is small and twists. The flower size is about 3"-4" when fully open, and as I said, the flower petals are notched at the apex and the petals are floppy, more so as they age. The canes are thorny, but only somewhat, especially as the cane ages. The image of the cane is consistent with my (now apparently dead) rose's canes. The leaves are just fine for York rose. As I said, the leaf color of York rose (& also Rosa x alba maxima - the Jacobite rose) is NOT the classic "blue-green" generally associated with Albas (such as Great Maiden's Blush). It's a leaden-green color instead. Graham Stuart Thomas mentioned that in his book on the old roses. If your rose is not York Rose, I'll be surprised. If it reblooms it's not York rose (and also not an Alba). Pay attention to the hips as they develop. You should have nice ones by Halloween or Thanksgiving.