I'm in hot dry SW18, zone 9-10. alkaline clay. I have a variety of rose types in my yard.... I would say Archduke Charles and Valencia (a ht) bloom almost all the time. They're both taking a winter break right now, but I had blooms in Dec and Jan on both. I'm confident they'll be blooming again soon. Duftendes Weisskirchen, The Faun also bloom a ton. I remember remarking several times over the last year that "Wow, the Faun is in FULL BLOOM again!" Bermuda's Kathleen blooms a fair amount, too. Though it does take a break to set beautiful hips in the winter. Though I am looking forward to my few old teas becoming larger in hopes that they will bloom more. I have Anna Jung which is supposedly "rapid rebloom" just planted. and also have Madame Lambard (Lombard)... and Maman Chocet cl finally went in the ground this past fall so I'm looking forward to seeing if it will start wowing me this year. Also from Paul Barden I have October Moon and Oshun in the ground now... both listed as "strong rebloom" so we'll see!

Yes, the Tropicana is the one I've fallen for! I know canna spread &/or multiply--do you over what period of time? (Trying to decide how many bulbs will make a healthy cluster w/out creating a future monster like my dahlias evolved into :). I'll check Sunset. I *adore* the Echium gentianoides and it would look stunning in front of the canna. It's the same color as the trim of the house (see link below--a old incarnation of one relevant bed, and the white is now repainted blue). The Tropicana canna would be beautiful with the echium in front of it, and something smaller to contrast with the echium at the stones. I also like the agapanthus Elaine--there are others in the garden which bloom normal lavender. The Verbena bonariensis would mix nicely in a center bed which has many variegated iris there for the beauty of their foliage; but their fairly inconsequential yellow flowers fade quickly, and the Verbena could incorporate and make a nice textural contrast which echos the canna/echium combo. Here is a link that might be useful: French blue house trim and bed...

Thank you for still posting pics of nice flowers I already got great ideas of flowers that I want to start for the next season. Shure Mike I have seen your posts but work sometimes calls me away from home and internet. What could possibly be the problem growing such and easy plant to grow as the Plumeria? No I'm joking some are not so easily grown. Usually it's the "older" plants that starts early with inflos in the spring for me it's March-May. Some of my plants go dormant and it's usually in January-February, but some are not going dormant but just sitting there in a south facing window doing nothing untill March where they go back in the greenhouse to get a boost of heat and lots of light. When I root cuttings during winter I do it on my kitchen radiator with 2-3 40 W 6500 K flourcent super daylight lamps 10-12 hours a day. I'm starting up some right now and they will probably be ready with inflos in March. I really have no secrets but I guess I'm fortunate to have natural rainwater all year. I always have 2 tons in reserve and it always comes from lightning storms and are therefore more nitrous. If empty it takes 5 minutes to fill back up so you see I have quite big roof to collect it from on my garage and I keep a net over the butts to keep mosquitoes out of there. Else I feed the plants an organic fertilizer that is ment for vegetables, tomatos cucumbers and peppers. The reason I do that is it's easily bought in a box with some kind of salt and a little bottle of organic liquide that I mixe in a little more than 3 gallons of water which then again can be mixed into 2 tons of feeding water for plants.The fertelizer boxes can be bought even bigger if you want. Some plants need more than others so I prefer a sip here and there in the water jug everytime I water. Sometimes I do run out of water and then again I'm fortunated to have good tap water that is not chlorine contaminated but it's loaded with chalk from our underground and therefore very neutral. Some says the chlorine evaporates and will not damage the plants but I'm not really shure!! The chalk can colour the clay pots if used too much. Besides all that I my plants gets tons of natural sunlight where the UV index is like 5-8 and sometimes more I think the plants like that and when they have inflos and flowers they are never dryed out totally. This must be my very covered secret growing the Plumeria plant in Southern Scandinavia. You are in zone 5 Mike. I'm not really shure where that is in the US but I will look it up. I still have 20 plants outside that I need to get into the greenhouse but as long as we are in the 60 F they will sit out there in the open. I hope you can use some of my info for growing the plant where you live. Soren

I used to be a David Austin rose fanatic always buying their new release roses but now I'm starting to loose interest in their newer varieties. Two new roses coming to Australia are: The Lady Gardener and another magenda red rose which I cant recall at the moment are not appealing enough. I think this is a great opportunity for me to try out roses breed by different rose breeders like Tantau, Gilluoits and maybe Kordes. I'm not sure what it was that got me hooked into DA roses and neglect other rose breeders. Their petals drop so quickly and a lot of the blooms gave weak neck and doesn't up straight. My parents say they are too messy and very short-lived. But I guess maybe I was aytracted to them because they remind me of life and how delicate and short life really us. "A rose will bloom, it then will fade. So does youth, so does this fairest maid."