Lol, this so many wonderful selections I'm having a hard time picking! I found a 3 gallon America rose at a private nursery, I remembered the name from this thread and it was the only fragrant rose in the lot, so I went for it. It has a lovely salmon pink color that turned out to be a great compromise between the decking and white building. The clematis Perle d' Azur is trained up the wall and the rose went in front of it next to a Clematis Arabella intended to scramble trough the border. What surprised me was how much clay I found about 2 feet down while back digging the bed. I dunked two bags of mushroom compost and mixed it up with two bags of fine gravel and one bag of sand but I'm kind of worried about what will happen to the root a few years down the line? Any predictions? Is this enough amending ? I left the hose on to soak the bush, a small trickle for about 45 mins, and when the bed was over flowing I turned it off and it took about 25 mins for the standing water to drain away. This was after I had replaced about 8'x2'x2' of the old dirt. Anybody with more experience who can give me more insight on how this will play in to it's health? There's a few spots on the leaves that I suspect is the dreaded blackspot. I live inland, due west of Chicago, so not exactly coastal climate but still lots of humidity in the summer. I made sure to clear about a foot between plant and wall and also at some distance from where another rosebush been before, I cleared about 2 feet from the original site but I essentially replaced all the dirt as well. I made sure of sinking the bush level with the dirt in the pot per instructions. As far as I could discern, it's not a grafted plant, I felt up the trunk all the way down the to the ball of dirt and felt no bump. I'm very drawn to the Romantica and English roses and am interested to learn more about the two series, My new Colette is coming in this weekend with a Stormy weather who's supposedly a purple rose. These will be my trial experience before I commit to a full rose garden. I understand ramblers only bloom once, no? How do I know the difference between a rambler and a climber? What is the difference between a Grandiflora and a Wicheriiana? My roses must be of the resilient kind and besides generous amounts of mushroom compost and a good trellis will have to fend for themselves. No spray, no chemicals. I'm staying clear of any grafted stock and no Tea roses. What would be the best US purveyors of either the Romantica or the English series? Is it possible to buy rootstock older than a year trough mail order? Also, can anyone advice me on good online sources for reading up on the different categories ? I'd like to hear from someone who grows the Zepherine Drouhin, Queen of Sweden, or the Polka in zone 5. My priorities are as follows: Repeat bloom, disease resistance, fragrance, cut life, color... God bless and thank you! Kerstin

Hi there... I am in southern Maine on the coast (zone 5b). Endless summer hydrangeas are a terrible idea for you. In zone 5 they will have a couple scraggly blooms, even in sun. i have an Endless Summer (macrophyla) blushing bride in part sun. It always has a few pathetic blooms around the base of the shrub that originate from the old wood that was not killed below the snow. A bloom on the top of the bush is rare, and looks lame by itself. Most of my neighbors have macrophylas that also do not perform. I recommend the hydrangea arborescens cultivars. People will tell you they don't like invincibelle spirit because it isn't as showy as other hydrangeas. They are right... But it blooms better in shade than any other hydrangea I have grown in my yard, and I really like it. I have not grown Bella Anna, but it is supposedly good in shade as well. Annabelle does great in zone 5, but I have not tried full shade with it. Strawberry vanilla blooms well in part shade for me, but it is very floppy and leggy. I am going to try harder pruning for it. There are also a few lace cap macrophylas rated for shade. I have not dared try them because they are macrophylas. (Blue billow, blue wave). I have heard one person say pinkie winkie worked for them up here. The climbers are supposedly shade tolerant, but be sure you have a very strong support! Good luck!

Kate- Olivia is on my to buy list for next spring. She will be getting a primo spot in the garden. Austins seem to do pretty good here. My Windermere is almost always in bloom and Queen of Sweden has nice repeat. Munstead was in about 4 1/2 hours of sun and always flowering but got bs and was not winter hardy. I tossed her this year since she only had one scrawny cane left. But her flowers were to die for and the scent was one of the best. Maybe own root would work better. DA Thomas A Becket is listed as shade tolerant and disease resistant but I've read mixed reviews on it. I wish I had more sun but our acre property is literally carved out of the woods with about 1/4 acre cleared for the house and yard and the trees are up on a hill so they shade even worse. Plus there are more across the road. I know I could get more blooms with better growing conditions but it's just not doable money wise so I have to make what I have work the best way I can and settle for the blooms I manage to get. Zack- I would love to be able to remove some trees but they are probably 75 years old or more. The trunks are about a foot across and they're probably 50 feet tall. The white oaks are even taller. It would be very expensive to have them removed. We looked at installing solar since our house faces south perfectly but it would have cost close to $10K to have all the necessary trees removed so barring an inheritance I'm stuck with the limited sun I have ;-). Sharon

If the grass is being trampled out no alternative low carpeting plant is going to hold up better. And grass has the advantage of being regularly mowed, as far as weeds are concerned - with the mowing these can at least be kept below mower height. Whereas anything like thyme - that does not lend itself to mowing - has to be hand weeded, as mentioned above. And when a planting consists of such very low growing subjects lots of weeds will come, unless kind of ground cover chosen and site conditions are in perfect balance. For instance I was once charged with weeding an established woolly thyme planting with a dinner fork. The issue was that - although the drought adapted thyme had done well - the soil on the site was moist enough to support numbers of tiny rush plants that were poking through the thyme carpet. I could have spent the rest of my life going back on a routine basis and popping these rush plants out of that planting.