Maybe the mini Moore rose 'String of Pearls', it's a species cross but I don't know how big it's supposed to get. Some suggestions for the bed maybe, not for the middle per-se...'Climbing Pink Cameo'...maybe a hybrid musk of some sort for the center. Other choices for the bed: 'Duchesse de Brabant' How about 'Arethusa', it's yellow blend but not orange at all. For a china rose it's not supposed to be too big. Maybe some 'Souvenir de la Malmaison' and it's sports.... If some other Cali people can chime in, they'd know what type of teas, chinas and bourbons would do much better than I would.

I've recently learned that in my sandy garden my roses need daily watering in order to grow lots of leaves like normal rose bushes. Every other day only results in sticks. I may as well not water at all - or not have roses. So in order to afford this quantity of water usage (city water), I have found homes for 12 roses (15 were on the list) and will be putting in a drip system after the holidays. In addition, my thinking is to empty one bed whose roses will fill in some of the vacancies left by the downsizing. Drought tolerant, easy care plants will also fill in. I also need to dig (or maybe hire someone) the last rose bed (killed the grass a couple of weeks ago. Yay! No more grass!) The Chestnut Rose and White Maman Cochet will go there. In the meantime all these giveaway roses need to be potted and roses moved around. Gee, does Geritol really work? I feel tired already. These are the ones leaving: Kronprincessin Viktoria, Mme Scipion Cochet, Gartendirektor Otto Linne, Gruss an Aachen, Chromatella, Wm Allen Richardson (he never even got planted - no room), The Fawn, Pink Gruss an Aachen (2), and Marjory Palmer. I'm on the fence about Nur Majal. With the extra water she's got some leaves (not as many as the teas) and is blooming - and I might be able to leave her where she is - in front DH's den windows - but she's sucking up A LOT of water so maybe she goes. I couldn't find takers for a very young Baronne Prevost (a totally frivolous choice for my no-spray garden) so I'm going to try her in a pot, or Valentine who's doing better with the watering and a little pruning, and besides he's little, or E. Veyrat Hermanos which has gotten to be a true monster in 14 months, but since he's staying, I'll make the best of him and hope he's fairly drought tolerant in maturity. (His BIG problem is keeping him tied and out of my neighbor's yard. Her lawn man has been "trimming" EVH.) I'm also pondering the ejection of Mme Antoine Mari. She still hasn't fully leafed out after 3 weeks of daily water, and her nodding kind of bugs me, plus I need a spot for my third LeVesuve which in MY garden gets highest priority because it performs like an absolute miracle. LeVesuve rules! Anybody think this will be the LAST garden overhaul. I want to be done. Sherry

Hey Sweeby ;^D Sorry I didn't get back to you sooner, but I've been off the Net and out working in my gardens this weekend. My fireback: it's a real one and weighs something like 34 lbs. I was initially worried about how hard it would be to use it as part of the backsplash behind my cooktop but both our GC and our tile guy said it would be no problem for them . . . and it wasn't. It was put in during our big kitchen reno several years ago. Our painter for the reno initially sprayed just the front of it with 2 coats of a satin-finish sealant. I don't recall the brand name, but it was probably a Rustoleum product. We've had absolutely no problems with rusting, cleaning it or anything since then . . . and I cook a lot. I use a very soft mushroom cleaning brush and just some dish soap and water to occasionally clean it. As far as putting it in, it was put in before the surrounding tile was started. They used what they told me was just a commonly used strong construction glue to hold it on the wall. It came in what looked just like a big caulking gun. The wall itself is real adobe brick. They glued the fireback in place and gently tapped several large nails directly under and on the sides of it to hold it in place while the glue hardened/cured. They then pulled the nails out and our tile guy laid the Crema Marfil tumbled marble tiles around it, starting at the fireback and working out from there. That's all it took and we haven't had a bit of trouble with it ever. I love that's it's not the same old just- tile type of backsplash and it goes well in our kind of Old World kitchen. I'd initially planned to have a custom painted Spanish/Mexican scene done for that area, but then decided that I didn't want to necessarily be locked into a Spanish type of kitchen forever and went with the fireback instead. BTW, you can find tons of different designs available online just by googling "firebacks". I hope that answers your questions. Let me know if you have any more. I'd be more than happy to try and answer them Lynn

I have granite in my rental and up here in Maine it really is too cold for me (I'm also an easily-chilled, sock-wearin' type). For my new kitchen I am selecting a different material. I second the idea of selective use of granite - great around the stove where you want to cool hot pots down, great for pastry-rolling in a separate section, but too cold (and unresilient) for me in the prep and eating zones where I use a lot of glassware.