Sunset has wonderful books aimed at southern gardens and gardeners. I have one that must be 30 years old. What I like about it is that it has older varieties listed that you seldom see anymore but that you might encounter from time to time. I think everyone should have a book like that to look up impartial information. That is how I came across my Brandy which is an amazing bloomer in cool or even the hottest weather. It out-performs all our other flowers and is about the size of a small woman's hand. A good 4-6" I would say. Jackson Perkins also has a great book with the more modern varieties, but they seem to imply that all the varieties featured are fantastic performers, and I couldnt disagree more. Many a bush has come to my house only to go back, because it didn't tolerate the heat or wasn't the color they described. We live in zone 8a which might be the same as where you are.

Hi Campanula, >Mary, thank you for sweetly pointing out my tendency to disappear up my own bottom. A little introspection is a good thing and those who never indulge are missing out on some good insights. Apologies! I didn't mean what I wrote exactly in the way it might have sounded. >I have decided to jump on Melissa's kind explanation and claim wisdom and experience - I certainly know enough about my own lazy tendencies to know that any rose I grow must look good with weeds. Melissa is certainly right. And I like weeds too. We pulled a huge one growing right next to General Gallieni earlier today. I kept looking at it, thinking that it was a good-looking weed, so did we really need to pull it? But it was clearly steeling lots of nutrition from the rose; we almost had to pull up the rose to get the weed up. Anyway, I'll bet that if we looked up that weed in our book on native flowering species of North Carolina it would be one of those natives I'd really enjoy having somewhere. >Roses have to have a definate presence en masse, flopping and rampaging with abandon. I think our tastes are fairly similar so I know exactly what you mean, I think. >I can just about detect an underlying vision for the whole plot, loosely based on wildness, abundance and a certain amount of make-do, bodging and chaos. I've purchased some landscaping books and have noticed over and over how drawn I am to landscapes like this. What most people consider well-balanced symmetrical perfection seems too unnatural to me to be the ultimate in beauty. >Even so, I have jumped out of my comfort zone and finally ordered Hot Chocolate (after years of dithering)-it can live in a pot on the sidewalk if it looks too silly at the allotment. We've not tried that one but it looks exciting! Good luck on it! Oh, oh... I just heard your Hot Chocolate asking for another rose friend to sort of repeat some of its colorings a bit farther along in the plot. I hear Hot Chocolate right now, saying that it wants you to plant Cinco de Mayo, ownroot if you can find it there. Just to keep Hot Chocolate company. Or maybe just because Hot Chocolate likes its developer? Anyway, we have tried Cinco de Mayo, and both of us loved it. It might have been a bit thornier than average, but that's the only negative that I know of. We lost it due to RRD and I still miss it, happy party rose that it is. Healthy as you could ever wish for; no spot of anything anywhere at any time. Beautiful, beautiful foliage, dark green with new growth edged in red for many weeks. It grew to about 4.5 feet here in one season, growing extraordinarily rapidly from a plant in April so tiny to begin with that its foliage could have fit into a teacup (though it had its roots in a gallon-sized container). The fragrance is at least moderate 90% of the time and it is WONDERFUL. When my husband brought a single cutting into the house, that wonderful scent from a single bloom wafted across the room. I hope you have a great time with whatever you end up deciding on! Best wishes, Mary

Thank you all for your advice and pictures. I just LOVE them! After a weekend of being laid up again (fell off a machine at the gym and totally wrecked my back but am finally feeling a bit better now), I am hopingto get out there and prune this coming three day (can you say YEA!) weekend! Still on the fence about my climber as she is throwing out all sorts of laterals right now so this could be a good bloom year unlike prior years. She may have just had to have more time to come into her own. However, I am seeing that there are all sorts of little oak trees and other plants coming up through my rose bushes due to the mulch and birds. UGH! I may have lost my Sharifa Asma because of it if I can't pull them out. I have a feeling my garden is going to be very sparse this year due to a bunch of new roses going in to replace my old ones. Evelyn and Ambridge are reverting back to rootstock, so out they go. I have oak trees growing up in my Sharifa Asma as well as Evelyn, Mary Webb and now one of my Brother Cadfaels! I also have another unidentified bush growing up in my Peach Blossom. So it looks like I pretty much get to start from scratch all over again. Looks like an expensive year!

I thought about this question while reading an old issues of British Home last night. A designer's home was featured and she said that while as a designer, she usually only gets "one shot" at decorating an entire house and does so, but in her own home, she has the luxury of time to allow the different rooms to evolve. I totally agree with her! While I am a designer, I am usually called in to "pick up the crumbs" of other designers when one room needs freshening. The closeest to doing an entire house was my daughter's new house (new to her) 17 years ago. We re-did nearly every room, but many where done in the same colors as her NYC apt as she was re-using curtains/furniture from it. We really only started from scratch in the entrance hall, LR and DR. It's very hard to give a house a "soul" when one does it all at once, but that is what clients often want...and you won't hear from them again for 15-18 yrs when they want a complete do-over with everything new. I have the luxury of not having to work with such clients. Of course, I've never had to earn a living doing interior design - as I said "the luxury".