Hi, MD! The zone you list is usually published by the USDA or other agencies and refers to frost dates and other weather conditions in your part of the US. It isn't a Burpee thing, and all of us live in various US zones. Since you're in California, you need to Google "California planting guide". You should find several sites online that give approximate planting dates for what you're interested in growing. Then for each plant you're interested in, Google "Growing tomatoes", etc. You can also search GardenWeb for information about growing specific vegetables -- there's tons of information here, too. But maybe most important, since you need to grow things in containers, you should go to the GW forum linked below. Read those posts if they seem relevant. The kind of growing soil you use is critical to success as well as the kind and size of containers for various plants. The weather and exposure of the plants to the sun is important, too. I'd start small and keep notes. You have too many questions to answer all at once, but that's okay! Maybe somebody can suggest a good book on growing vegetables in containers, too. Good luck and have fun! Here is a link that might be useful: Container Gardening

Since Seashell was able to give you a specific link, I'l just add that you might have fun on the Garden Junk Forum here at Garden Web. Lots of crafty folks and I'll just bet they would love seeing your creation. josh Here is a link that might be useful: Garden Junk Forum

>I live in zone 5b. I have an east-facing 6x15 fence that is shaded by a 100-foot tree, so that it gets about 3 hours of direct afternoon sun and 3 hours of (very) dappled sun through various trees. It might get a couple hours more of dappled sun once it makes it to the top of the fence. I'd like a climber to cover this fence Cornelia's blooms are not usually a straight pink, but have a lot of yellowish warmth, especially focused in their centers. Buds with a deeper shade of coral/strawberry red. Janet at Rogue Valley says: "I would say it will grow well in Zone 6 for sure, but may, quite possibly, survive in colder climates with just a bit of care." Barbara Wilde's Roses book lists this one for zones 4-10. Antique Rose Emporium says zones 6-9. Help Me Find says zones USDA zone 5b through 10b. Ghislaine De Féligonde's blooms change depending on the weather, but can have some definite apricot or orange shades, though most commonly the yellow colors are seen. Usually they fade quickly to very pale or white, though, so at any one point the bush has a large mix of warm colors. Barbara Wilde's Roses book lists this one for zones 5-10. Help Me Find lists the rose for zone 5. Either of these varieties ought to work for your spot, I'd guess. Plant two along the 15-foot distance and either variety ought to quickly fill it in and top your fence. Both are fragrant, flexible, and low in thorns. Both can work well in a pretty good bit of shade. If you don't also want a shrubby effect standing out from the fence but want more to use all the rose's leggy canes to covering the fence, Cornelia might be the better choice. If what you want to see is more like a full shrub that you could also take its longer canes to use for completely covering the fence behind it, then Ghislaine might be the one to choose. But they are not drastically different in form, according to all the pictures I've seen. (I've had Cornelia, but had to get rid of it with RRD after only one year. It did look as if it would make a wonderful climber that would easily do a good job in covering a fence, as far as everything I could see in the rose's habits.) Ghislaine's pictures lead me to believe that that one would cover every square inch of the fence in a large dose of vigorous growth everywhere. You might get by with just planting one rose in the middle, but I'd use 2 if I were doing it. Using 3, it would fill in in a really big hurry and perhaps ask for some pillars and a trellis too! Best wishes, Mary

I don't have Ramona, Mrs. C was one that emerged late in season (planted last yr), Elsa Spath (planted last yr) has been knocking my socks off! HUGE blooms, beautiful changing from new to old blooms & has been in bloom since 6/2 & still today. With as many buds she has on her, I will say she will bloom for at least another 2-3 weeks. Needless to say, I'm impressed. I was taking pictures of her just recently w/ old & new blooms & have a pic of my hand next to 1 of the blooms for comparison of size. If you're interested, I can post them for you. There is another forum that I just started reading & they have a thread about dud type 2's & unfortunately Will Goodwin is on it. New to me last year as well, it seems to be doing pretty good contrary to what others are mentioning. It still hasn't bloomed just yet, but could be root size which I can't recall the differences of.