I can't believe it's been that long either! Kate, I'm very sorry that I'll miss your visit. I hope we get to meet one of these times. Patricia e, Sangerhausen sounds like a wonderful trip too! I hope you have a great time. Jon, Infamous, eh? I'll try to behave this time. I don't have an itinerary yet. I'll have only five days to look around so I'm not sure what I can fit in. I'll take loads of photos and report!

We have Peach Drift & I love it. The colors are amazing, always changing & it is has very good disease resistance. Happy Chappy is another really good ground cover rose.

English gardens writers are sometimes delightfully impolite: I liked the remark about sticky plants rising from acres af bare soil. I would add that some of the newer Harkness roses might well also be considered national treaures.

Hi Caperose- Ooooh, your question brings back great memories of our trips. Your choices are overwhelming... Here are some points to ponder. Sorry, if I restate the obvious. Do you want to see formal gardens, cottage gardens, or smaller private gardens, or a mix? Do historic houses w/gardens interest you? You need to decide in order to refine your focus. Enrollment in National Trust, Royal Hort Society, etc. qualifies you for free admission to their properties. Saved us a bundle. Also check out the "Yellow Book" (charitable garden schemes) which specifies dates that private gardens can be visited. All info on net. There is a 1992 book on "rose gardens to visit in England" - probably out of print but available in your state-wide library system. Sorry, forget title and author. The number one mistake US folks make is overbooking too many places to visit and too frequent a lodging change. Too many of us return home exhausted and it doesnt need to be that way. When you evaluate travel miles, 50 country road miles there can take 2 hrs by car, not the 1 hr here. We've had a blast using public transport and an occasional day guide there (for isolated areas) and have found it very rewarding. Another idea: day coach tours run daily from the larger cities and are reasonable. Oh yeah, when I have emailed the rail and coach authorities for clarification, their responses are accurate and timely - love those people - the US transport system could learn from them, they arent perfect but they sure are helpful. Independent travel is very easy if you enjoy research and planning. We did and wow, the small as well as the formal gardens we saw - memories to last a lifetime. Garden tour companies didnt fit our taste as we like to set our own pace. Example, one private garden on an island is open a few weeks a year and we stayed 5 hrs there, some plants bloomed for the first time in 25 years! A tour company moved on after 2.5 hrs and we would have missed the many details that sunny day, including our picnic at water's edge. On the other hand, tour companies take the worry out of planning, etc so many people prefer this type of trip. Again, there is no wrong or right, you just need to know what suits you best. Make sure that you ask for the daily itinerary to check out the time per garden. Some tour companies devote more on meals/giftshop versus the gardens and that works for many people. Tour companies also tend to frequent more populated places and they can be very crowded in summer and holidays. Travel time - make sure that you dont overplan your trip and need to hurry from place to place. A distance of 50 miles there could take you 2 hrs, depending on the roads. Let's hope the exchange rate improves and don't forget Wales and Scotland, lovely gardens there too! English Grammy's Gardengull