Another climber that does well without spray for fungal diseases here in blackspot-land is Dublin Bay. The beautiful deep red roses last quite long in a vase. I am growing him as a shrub. Cresupule is a beautiful, no disease, thornless climber (Noisette) but the stems are short for cutting. Naga Belle is a beautiful deep pink hybrid tea from India that is black spot resistant for me. Other Buck roses that have performed well are Quietness, lt pink, Prairie Harvest, lt yellow and Western Sunset, deep yellow. I put in Earth Song, deep pink, and Pearlie Mae, apricot, both Buck roses last year but so far they are puny. Country Dancer is another buck rose that is reputed to be good in the South. I perfer roses that are good for cutting. All of these I ordered from Roses Unlimited. Wonderful company and I am close enough to get the lowest shipping rates. Hope your Mom enjoys her roses as much as I do. It was my teenage son that get me into them years ago.

No, it's definitely not a stupid question! If winds were calm all the time then you might not need to actually put much additional protection other than some lights , but since winter is often very windy it would never work. You dont have to protect Mule palm fronds for that long though! During the average winter if you protect the fronds of your palm from mid December to late February, maybe the first week of March, then your good to go. They will only be covered 6-7 weeks of the year during the average winter and during winters like this one you wouldnt even need to protect it at all yet since we have not gone below 22F (not sure how cold it got in the hamptons but that's my lowest temperature so far in NYC). You really only have to protect the fronds below 20F and we have definitely not see temperatures like that too much the past 2 years! -Alex

Actually, I just remembered a long time ago my friend had a California fan palm in his back yard, and it was grown locally from seed. I believe it was in the ground for quiet a few years and it was well established. It pulled through the winters unprotected, but his neighbor hood "code" made him cut it down because it still had the beard on it and even when pruned they still did not like it, he was not so happy about that. But I think I will be going with the California fan palm. Our winters are dry and it only gets really cold here for about 2 weeks until it starts to warm up. I'll give it a try!

Wow.. thank you so much everyone. !!! So far the only rose that i have purchased myself is Mercury Rising. I do like to. I've had all my roses safely moved away from NN.. into containers. This year I hope yo but the saucers to go under the containers and a drip system to connect them.. lugging water is no fun. Also hoping to dig up a path to them. I'll need lots of prayers for that feat! I buy those $1 throw away roses because it's a I can afford, but the failure rate it exorbitant! Egads... I keep hoping to find local people to share with but not a soul here cares for gardening much less roses: (