Kim I thank you for your concern/interest but I have been consistently surprised by the resilience of some of my study species eg, Strelitzia reginae which as long as not in a harsh exposure needs no water after establishment,at least locally, and Crinum moorei one of the most tropical looking plants (and native to bogs) is very dry tolerant, living on rain only, as long as in shade and not too next to trees. So Ive learned to keep an open mind. Regarding the Chinese roses Ive found testimony like this: Gertrude Jekyll, speaking of gardens on the French Riviera, says "Tea Roses, which not only bear but enjoy the summer heat and drought, flowering freely in November and December after the autumn rains and pruning". My understanding is that 'Safrano' was grown commercially there as a cut flower crop under ambient rainfall. And the original species Rosa gigantea, it must not be forgotten, is from seasonally dry forest. Based on this information I'm willing to consider that they can be grown in very dry conditions. I think you are right that chinese roses dont "go" with many of the xeric species but I'm a reductionist designer anyway. That is, I dont think roses "go" with most other woody plants, particularly the ones with fancy double flowers. I would always put them in a separate area carefully combined with garden flowers that would complement them, rather than other shrubs. If you search long enoough eventually you will find something that fits. Iris unguicularis which blooms from Oct-Mar, is very dry growing but like the Tea rose does not look like a desert plant.It also would do well under dappled shade. So I believe our differences are actually semantic. I am actually not considering tea roses in combination with Acacia redolens or Salvia clevelandii because they dont fit aesthetically together. And consider another irony...a native plant that is one of my study species, that can grow in very dry conditions in summer, but that dislikes harsh sun...Ribes malvaceum. It may actually have similar environmental tolerances to the roses. And it looks green, not desert-like, and its down-hanging tassels of pink flowers may actually be a good complement to some of the chinese roses like 'Isabella Sprunt'. In my opinion there isn't any one "look" that a very dry garden necessarily has, especially considering the mediterranean winter growers. In the study garden I put in on campus at Cal Poly Pomona the plants, especially Pelargonium echinatum and Withania aristata, look very green in winter, rather like a traditional water guzzling plant. In summer of course they drop their leaves and look much different. ...so Kim, Jeri, Campanula et al I hope you understand my outlook. I'm not going to take too much of a risk with a rose garden design. Maybe the next step is to do something like an agricultural trial, which acknowledges the uncertainty of my proposition by looking at no irrigation, monthly irrigation, and biweekly irrigation; sunscald susceptibility; efficacy of Purshade sunscreen, etc. Thank you all for showing concern, Nate

Hi Bart! I'm sure many CAN import from the US. The glitch is the individual country's import restrictions. Some are more lax than others. I guess that could also be stated, some are far more "extreme", strict than others. If they are importing from a nursery which provides the phytosanitary certificates required, the cost is much higher to import, but the material has an easier time making it in. If it's being sent by an individual without the certificate, many countries won't allow it entry. Bierkreek has a number of partner nurseries, with whom they exchange material. My experience so far is The Netherlands appears to be the country with the easiest entry. I've not had any issues getting material into The Netherlands. I have had issues getting it into Germany. The Germans are petrified of RRD, rightly so. The Netherlands, from what I understand, is more concerned with preventing importation of RMV infected material. Just an FYI, Bierkreek is budding this month. They may be finished by now, I don't know. My bud wood was sent there two weeks ago. Previously, a Priority box required 48 hours (no joke!) to make it from Los Angeles to Bierkreek. This year, a smaller padded envelope also sent Priority required 8 days. That's well within the time frame Priority can take, but disappointing compared to the time required previously. Both were sent the week after July 4 to avoid any holiday delays here. How the material is packed makes a tremendous difference. Thursday, I received bud wood and cuttings from Washington State, which required two days to arrive. I begged the sender to make sure all dripping water was squeezed from the toweling. I received two water balloon, Zip Loc bags with nearly a quarter cup of water each. The foliage had turned translucent like old produce left in the refrigerator too long. The ends of the canes were brown and mushy and many of the buds had turned brown to black. I salvaged the buds I could and have my fingers crossed. The bud wood I sent to Bierkreek was wrapped in DAMP toweling and double sealed in large Zip Loc bags to prevent moisture loss. They said when they received it, 8 days later, it appeared as fresh as if it had just been cut. I can't stress highly enough that rose material sealed inside plastic for any length of time requires humidity, NOT liquid water. It doesn't matter whether you're considering cuttings or bud wood in the mail or cuttings wrapped for propagation. Liquid water will rot them. Damp toweling prevents them from drying out, providing just enough moisture to maintain them. If you can squeeze ANY droplets from whatever you are using to carry the moisture, it is too wet! I'm sorry. I don't mean to hijack the thread. It seemed a perfect opportunity to share the experience and reiterate the point. If you can work out the arrangement with Bierkreek, they may be one of, if not the easiest to accomplish your goal with due to their country's restrictions. You might also contact Loubert in France. They have generated own root plants of varieties an acquaintance wished to import so they met the 10 mm size restriction to import into the US. They may be suited to handle your request. Good luck! Kim

Hey Sarah--I'm about 90 minutes north of you in Illinois. There's another lady that frequents the forum; "stlgal" is her name. Hopefully she'll chime in as there's no way to earburn someone to the forum. I've had great experiences ordering from Palatine, but don't use them as the only source of information for a rose's appearance or characteristics. As catsrose said, HMF is probably the best resource I've found. You can spend hours there ogling photos and reading comments. One thing I forgot to add; I use Bayer fungicide on most of my hybrid teas, but I've never needed to spray Kiss of Desire. As long as she has good air circulation and room to expand, she should be wonderful where you are. Peace, Chicago Peace, Love and Peace, Flaming Peace....all are susceptible to blackspot around here. That being said, conditions haven't exactly been conducive for disease. It hasn't been near humid enough either during the day or night, and we're not hitting the normal nightly lows in the blackspot danger zone. So if you're looking around at local roses this season for evidence of disease resistance, it could be a bit misleading. I personally mix up all different kinds of roses; Hybrid Teas, floribundas, grandifloras, a couple of Large-flowered climbers, an alba, and several miniatures & minifloras. I like the different heights, growth habits, foliage colors, bloom shapes, and aromas. Other folks probably think my yard looks like a hot mess. I started with Kordes roses, and expanded from there. Once you get started, it's kind of hard to stop.

What Kim doesn't know is that my 'Lynnie' has grown at least 18" taller and 2' wider than it was when he saw it growing in my garden. I wish I could just let it go to see how large the rose would become in this climate. I had to tip prune it last week to protect it from snow breakage. What I find so interesting about the performance of this plant is that my climate is so different from Kim's. During the summer I have triple digit temps for weeks at a time. In winter, the day temps are in the 40s with night temps in the teens. Yet, during the rose season, 'Lynnie' is always covered in bloom with dense foliage. I am glad I gave it enough room to really stretch out. It's glorious in my garden. Smiles, Lyn