Joanne, I agree, the Vintage 'Marie Pavie' is different. It's a charmer. Hamp, it does have more petals, so far. And the petals have nice substance in comparison to my other 'Marie Pavie'. My other Marie Pavie also very rarely showed the little tinge of blush in the center. I assume it may not be that way when it heats up, but it sure is great now in the cooler spring. Thank you, Gean Ann. Organic, I think you'll be glad you put it on your list. Yes, it certainly does, Jackie, and it's fairly strong & consistent to my nose. That's a huge benefit of this rose. Randy

Very beautiful. I enjoyed all of your photos. I like the mixing with other perennials, especially the blue ones, and the daisies and the zinnias and dusty miller are pretty. I notice that some of your beds are partially shaded by trees, and are still thriving beautifully. I guess that gardening in Florida is quite different from here in Delaware as far as the sunshine is concerned. My other observation is that your gardens are not overcrowded. That is my worst gardening fault, I just try to cram too much into a space that is too small, and I never seem to learn. But when the plants have enough space, the effect is more serene, as in your pictures. Christine

Sam: That's the best bush-shot of Alnwick rose. so many blooms. How do you like the scent? I'm going keep my eyes opened for outdoor-wood-burner at Craig's list. My neighbor has a small open one (a circular one with feet) which he got at garage sale, and he got lots of wood-ash from that small fire-pit. But that has to be stored inside a garage, 2 neighbors had to trash their metal-fire-pits, since they got rusty in the rain. There's a picnic area with a public fireplace nearby, will have to check if there's wood ash inside that fireplace. We go past that park when I go to the Spice House to get spices. I've just spent 1 hour drilling hundreds of holes on my plastic pots ... roots need air to grow big. Can't find the fast-draining pine-based potting soil, so I just have to cope with slower-draining MG-moisture control (sold cheap at Sam's club $!1 for a HUGE BAG twice the size at Walmart). Jude the Obscure is an old favorite, 2 own-root Jude died on my zone 5a winter, so I try 2 more own-roots this year, but will winterize them inside my garage ... I'm addicted to Jude's scent. The pink ones are Annie L. McDowell rose (thornless):

I love old houses - the quality, the history (I was THRILLED when I saw the names of the owners of our then under 5 year old house on the 1930 census), and the style. If I don't win the lottery, I will never live in another "new" build (80's and up) because the vast majority of non custom built homes are just not up to my standards. Of the 4 new builds I lived in in my life, only two were decent. The last decent one had been built by a guy who had previously done commercial building. It was built to last and I have no doubt that one would still stand after a tornado. Because of the commercial background, the finish "prettyness" wasn't there, but those details were added later, by us. The last new build was a nightmare. The "quality" semi custom build was so lacking that I can't even imagine how much worse some of the mass produced really poor quality houses will last. Within the first 5 years the deck was partially rotting (no flashing between the house and it), the roof leaked at the chimney, many of the windows wouldn't work well and/or leaked at the top, lots of the trim wood was rotting out and the floors of both 1st and 2nd floor creaked in almost every spot as did the entire staircase. And then of course you had the "minor" issues like one couldn't use a hairdryer in the master bath before resetting the outlet in the upstairs bath if someone had used a hairdryer in it before the master bath. And the defective shingles requiring a complete reroof at 3 years is hard to forget. My brother has a friend who last year moved into a house in one of those new mass built neighbourhoods in South Carolina. Brand new. 6 months after moving in, a water pipe junction burst (iirc, they thought it hadn't been correctly connected or something) in the attic while they were on vacation and ruined most of the house and their items. The builder denied responsibility and the insurance company was blaming it on the builder since the house was still under "warranty" and it was turning into a huge mess, to say the least. New does not equal free of work and I'd rather strip wallpaper than deal with finding out what corners were cut.