Hi, SFL, I don't know how similar Zone 9a and Zone 10b are. I imagine you get NO chill time, and I'm wondering how is your soil? 300 miles is a long way, putting us pretty much in different worlds even in the same state. But I'll give it a shot. The main similarity is heat & humidity!! There's a good small book called 'The Southern Queen: Growing Beautiful Roses in the Tropics' by Latimer C. Farr about growing roses in South Florida. I got mine in a local rose society drawing, and I can't find any for sale online. As to the nematodes, if you're going for HTs and other moderns, they definitely should be on Fortuniana. I grow Tiffany on Fort and two Chrysler Imperials probably on Dr Huey so they're in big pots. Both are on Farr's HT list. I have a very early HT (pre-1895) called Madame Abel Chatenay (own root) which I love, she's healthy but loses her leaves in Jan & Feb. Farr has a pretty long list of moderns that do well down there. Probably your local rose society would be the best source for a list. I don't grow David Austins. Belinda's Dream is a good modern one. She gets very big here. Hmmm, don't they all? Old Garden Roses, especially Chinas, have some resistance to nematodes so they can be grown on their own roots. (I have 100+ roses, mostly own root.) And it has been found that nematodes don't like organic matter and heavy mulch including concrete slabs & foundations, so organics is the route I take for nematode deterrence with OGRs like Teas, Noisettes and polyanthas that aren't 100% China. I incorporate a lot of composted horse manure and pine fines (close to 50%) into the bed before planting and topdress every spring with composted horse manure on top of the old mulch and add new mulch. (I didn't know that clay could be obtained and added to the soil when I did my beds, but if I were starting over, I would try to get some for water and nutrient retention. I don't know what type of clay is preferred.) This year I've started watering daily with a micro system for 30 minutes in the early morning. When I watered every other day, my bushes stayed almost leafless all summer even with thick mulch. So! Which roses? Louis Philippe is the best, a beautiful red/pink flower with cherry candy scent. Easy care, virtually no BS. Another China that I love is Le Vesuve along with Jean Bach Sisley & Old Blush. Teas are great. They love the heat and come in a variety of colors and bloom forms. Some favorites are Maman Cochet, General Schablikine, Mrs B R Cant, Anna Olivier, Duchesse de Brabant, Madame Antoine Mari, and many more. The Bermuda Roses work well. I like Carnation. Noisettes and Tea-Noisettes are generally climbers that like heat and tolerate our humidity. They get fairly huge here. Cile Brunner Spray, LeMarne & Perle d'Or do very well in Florida. I have had less success with Hybrid Musks probably because of my soil pH and they tend not to like heat & afternoon sun. For climbers Don Juan does well enough here but does get BS. Mine is on Fortuniana. I have own root Sally Holmes & Pink Perpetue, both are recommended by Latimer Farr along with New Dawn, Sombreuil & Clair Matin. The short Bourbons in the Souv de la Malmaison clan do well albeit with some BS but have beautiful flowers and extended blooming, and Farr says Maggie does well, too. I found that Maggie got more BS than I could handle so she's gone, but you have to establish a tolerance level for that. Hope this is helpful. I hear the soil in South Florida can be really shallow on top of limestone. What's your situation? Hi, lagomorphmom! Sherry

Alex, there is an extremely talented gardener here in my area who has done some gardening similar to your zone - although I haven't seen her posting in the last few months. I attached a thread she responded to a while back about growing hydrangea in the Laguna area. 'Macs' - hydrangea macrophylla. But, be warned, if you are not seeing them at all in your own neighborhood, there may be a reason. The florist type hydrangeas you mention are varieties of hydrangea macrophylla. Sometimes they are perfectly acceptable planted in the garden in mild zones like my own 8b....after being acclimated to being outdoors, these are greenhouse grown plants. The problem with them is they have been bred and raised for the flower trade, and grown under a strict regime of fertilizers, hormones, lighting and temps so that they will bloom to coincide with particular dates, like Valentines Day, Mothers Day etc....often grown with no regard to long term plant health. Sometimes they recover from the treatment and do well, other times they do not. If you were to receive one as a gift, I'd say go for it and plant, but if you have a choice, choose regular nursery stock, not florists stock for your garden. Your seed choices look good with a couple of exceptions. Hellebores sown in Feb may take 15 - 18 months to germinate. They need to experience a period of warm moist, followed by a somewhat lengthy moist chill, then will germinate while conditions are still cool. If I sow them fresh by Aug/Sept, I will have germination approx March into April. If you were to ask around June, someone could probably send you fresh seed (like me) that you could sow - much more reliable than dried commercial seed. Alstroemeria can be similar, they self sow like crazy in my garden, can be stubborn or at least very slow (many months) from dried commercial seed. And do you know they go dormant around August, leaving a blank space in your garden? The hummingbirds love them while present, but they spread, become a little messy, disappear until Fall rains begin or the weather cools. Here is a link that might be useful: Hydrangea, California

I can tell you my experiences container-gardening bell peppers and jalapenos in Houston. I directly sow my seeds into small cheap pots, then transplant into large buckets with holes drilled in the bottom. For bell peppers: I keep the plant in partial shade year-round. I have a hanging system for them--the plant grows out of the bottom of a bucket hanging from the eve of my duplex. The pepper plant is 18 months old (no freeze last winter) and has given me several crops of peppers. I may start moving it to full sun in the Fall. For jalapenos: Right now, my jalapeno plants are in full sun. But the temperatures are only hitting the low to mid 90's. When it gets above 100, I'll move them to a shaded spot (using a cheap enclosure I made out of some leftover Ikea plastic shelving). Also: I cover the top of my jalapeno plants with compost (as the forum FAQ recommends) to help prevent the soil from drying out as quickly. We can get a lot of rain here, and my plants seem to tolerate it. One of my jalapeno plants did lose a bunch of flowers in a storm, and I think it will stay dormant until Fall. This happens a lot when we have very hot summers--my bell pepper and tomato plants stops producing when temperatures stay over 100, but will perk back up in late August. Last year I got a late summer crop, a February crop, and now they are going non-stop :).

I recently spoke to K&M roses and he said they got a call from Kordes stating that Earth Angel (and some of the other newly released Kordes roses) were found to have gone vegetative (meaning lots of green growth but not blooms) when grafted onto fortuniana and that he should cease to sell them grafted because of this. I have had this problem with Kordes rose before in my hot South Florida garden. They either go vegetative, or they take years to get going (except for the veranda series, those guys love my garden and bloom like mad). They also tend to form bullheaded flowers in the hot summer which is such a shame as they are one of the few really disease resistant roses that grow and grow in my climate. But dang! No blooms. The ones I've had the most difficulty with were Lion's Fairy Tale, Elegant Fairy Tale (this one finally started blooming after 4 years in the garden, but does produce bullheaded roses in the summer) and Summer Romance. I had the same problem with First Crush that was planted in the ground, but the one in the container did bloom a bit (alas, bullheads all summer long and suffers from tons of die back). I would try growing it own root and see how it does and give it some time because as I said, some just take a while to get going. I'm so sad I have problems with my Kordes roses because I really like them. I just wish they did better in the heat. I'm going to try out some of their Sunbelt series as I was told by Chris, those were bred for the hot south. Savannah is on that list and its on my list as well.