I would have thought, from pictures I've seen of sandy beaces, that something like Sandbanks might be less unique elsewhere - it is certainly unique here! I think the trees were some kind of willow so I assume the roots are long enough to reach the water. Perhaps the unique thing is the sandbanks on a fresh water lake instead of a salty ocean. The fresh water would be kinder to things like tree roots than a salty ocean would be. It must be the cold that helps make my wisteria more manageable. I could see doing a gazebo like that in wisteria here if I had the space. It would undoubtedly take a lot of pruning of course. After a few years, the wisteria vines would merge like the trumpet ones have in those pictures and the actual underlying framework of posts would sort of become irrelevant. I've seen some nice older wisterias where the stems have merged to form a ropy-looking woody trunk that is very attractive. Thinking about what would work but be less of a thug, I think I'd opt for Graham Thomas honeysuckle vines. I planted several of them at the longterm care garden several years ago. They were slow to get big but several of them are now substanitial vines covered in lovely scented pale yellow and white flowers in June. I think they would make a great choice, especially as I've never seen their leaves succumb to mildew like many honeysuckle vines do.

I can't imagine you'll be keen to cut the first flower, but have you tried taking any of them inside? I was disappointed with William Shakespear 2000 due to undetectable smell when promised lots until one day I picked a bunch and brought them inside....they filled the house with the fragrance. I rather suspect that a really low humidity makes the fragrance very hard to detect for some roses at times, and I find that most of my roses are distinctly more smelly very early in the morning....I also recall reading a tip that if you stick the rose under your hat for a minute the smell with intensify (probably for the same reasons, higher humidity).... though I can't imagine why you'd do that very often :o)

I did some decorating when I was young and transient and living in rented housing. During that time, my parameters were to have a flexible color scheme that could work from place to place, and also light furniture, and a lot of modular stuff that could be configured many ways. D2, Pier 1 and Ikea were my "go to" shops. Then, when I bought my first real home/house I got seriously into "decorating" and joined this forum. For me, the main goal of "decorating" was similar to what Buatta is talking about, to make my home feel comfortable for myself and my guests. I wasn't going for a certain "look" so much as the artful arrangement of the things that would add comfort to my home, plus things I liked by way of art and housewares. Gradually, due to needing a more ordered environment, I got rid of most of my "decorative items" that weren't both beautiful and functional, but I did have a large glass enclosed cabinet where I put all of them that I wanted to keep. My walls though, got pretty full up with art, and still are. And then the book thing . . . I go through regularly and cull, but I still have a LOT. So that sort of dictated that I would go with a "curated" or I guess some call it "English country" look. Now I have more "stuff" but only because it reminds me of times in my life and experiences, so I like having some of it around. I always decorated like that, just now I have lived and experienced more, so "curating" it becomes more of a chore. I got a few books on how to decorate, but not how to achieve a pre-set aesthetic, more like: how to mix patterns, how to hang photos, how to arrange furniture, how to please the eye, how to create a color scheme, etc. Learning those principles were far more useful than reams of pretty pictures of rooms that were vastly different from my own home. I learned how to take inspiration from a photo and translate the basic elements into my own, from a few shows that were on HGTV at the time, where they showed a photo of a high end designer room and then illustrated how you could create a similar look for much less. Something akin to "Design on a Dime" but not quite. And also, Lauri Ward's "Use What You Have" decorating book helped me a lot. I'm sure young folks nowdays can find stuff like this online. There are still a lot of great ideas floating around out there. The general dis-interest in creating a "home" or "nest" may just be within my family. My husband's son showed no interest in home making and family traditions until he married a woman who did, and she's in the process of re-doing the family homestead, it's nice to see. One big issue now is where to shop. The furniture stores are mostly full of poorly made stuff, and antiques are even hard to find since there are so few anymore near where I live who are interested in buying them. I wish I had time to go to auctions and garage sales and specialty shops, and peruse Craigslist and go on hunts, but I just don't. I am in a downsizing mode now anyway.

I have three Princes on their own roots--the oldest one, one year old, was planted last summer. It getting tallish and is rather problem-free so far this summer, but I have noticed the weird small roses in hot weather mentioned above, but it's not the only one that does that and it was freakishly hot here, in the mid-90s in June (not normal for us). I have put two photos here with its companion plants to give it some perspective in terms of size and color. It is perhaps not as vigorous as something like Olivia or R. Dahl, which are grafted in my garden, but it really not far behind, especially given that it's own root, and started puny. And it has been been flowering more than those two did in their first years. Lots of blooms. So far it is not super tall, but in its habit, it reminds me a bit of my Louis XIV, and is it possible they are related? Louis XIV is grafted, and stays even smaller, but like the Prince, it has regular fragrant dark red blooms on sort of spindly legs, and the blooms are much bigger and more interesting than the plant itself. In the pictures, my one-year-old Prince is intermeshed a bit with Somme 2016, which is not blooming right now, but has the one large bud towering above The Prince that looks bit lighter. Somme 2016 is actually is in a similar color scheme as the Prince and Munstead Wood, and the color also fluctuates based on the weather. It can get a lovely sort of deep magenta-violent and could be an option for people who like rich colors in roses, as the Prince and Munstead Wood are essentially out of circulation, other than the occasional small vendor or in the case of Munstead Wood, I recently got one from a vendor who was getting rid of the rest of their stock from last year. Louis XIV could be an option as well for dark rose lovers, as it is still on the market, if not always easy to find. It does stay a small plant but it good for the front of a border and does smell lovely once it gets going. So far, Somme 2016 does not have much fragrance but it's only a few months old, wants to bloom all the time, and it may surprise me yet. The rose Centenaire de l'Hay les Roses is peeking out in the background, as are Jubilee Celebration (1 month in garden--also possibly about to go out of circulation, so I have heard, so one to snap up if you like strong fragrance as it has to have one of the best) and Bluebell (one year old) in at least one of the photos. Bluebell, for dark rose lovers, is an excellent, small vibrant, violent/magenta pot rose and I totally recommend it for that. I am starting to favor own-root roses (when can find them). I think they bloom more? And you don't have to worry about growth from the rootstock, and when the roots are established, apparently they can live almost forever? Or so I have heard? But I am new to gardening at this level. I live in a temperate, humid climate and this Prince gets afternoon sun, and this what it looks like after weeks of rain and wind. It has been fed but is not sprayed with anything. It bloomed into autumn when planted last year, so I think maybe it deals well, even thrives, in cool and partial shade. But last summer, it was planted right before a heatwave/drought of 40 celsius and survived that. I have a younger own-root Prince in a Southwest exposure as well, almost full sun and it's doing okay in one of the worst spots in the garden, better than many of its predessors that are in the compost heap in the sky, or had to be moved. It's too soon to tell if the Prince will completely thrive in the SW spot. It has bloomed constantly there, though, so here's hoping. I think a lot does depend on where a rose is positioned in the garden. I have had ones that do not do well in one spot that totally perk up in another. But I am still learning so it's really hit and miss sometimes!