Excellent! All are beautiful. Ripple Effect looks like it is painted on perfectly. Holy Mouse Ears is too tiny to be real! Wow......and I'm so glad you let the rose come to the party. It has great color and a high petal count. Good show, Esther.

So lovely! I'm a little envious of your cooler weather and rain. We've had record-breaking heat lately and no rain for awhile. Anyway, your roses obviously appreciate the weather - not to mention all the TLC that they get from you.

Mary, I too, was expecting a picture that would make me feel better about the state of my own garden:) You certainly have nothing to be ashamed of. Your front yard is a work in progress. I have seen front yards that don't look half that nice, and those people considered it good(and finished). With the drought in CA, ugly front yards are almost becoming the norm around here. Yours is far from ugly, AND your working to improve it. I've found that people on this forum are very friendly and eager to help. They've been better than any book or article because my specific questions get answered, for my specific climate, rose, soil, yard, etc.... I love this place! It helps everyone give better advice when they can get a visual. I think a fence with big tea(or climbing) roses planted on the inside would be lovely. They will grow up and over the fence, cascading down on the street side. I'm betting the fence won't even be visible once the roses really grow in. Having the roses inside your fence also means more of your rose care can be done from the more private side of the fence. I'm not all that fond of being watched as I go about my gardening. I like to wear my junkiest clothes for gardening. The clarkia looked great. The good thing about them is the way they self seed and you get a ton of fresh plants next spring. I always look forward to seeing them return. Is the white flower on the right a clarkia as well? I had a beautiful white one 2 years ago, but for some reason I didn't get any white seedlings this past spring. They do make great cut flowers though, so it's possible that I didn't leave much on the plant to produce seed. How about a picture of your backyard now? We all love pictures. I have both Felicia and Cornelia. I'm debating about where to place Cornelia and its outgrowing its container. Time to make up my mind! Seeing yours might help me out:) Lisa

Lily, I'll throw my hat in the ring here and say I have a couple of small groups of deer that come through my property which borders U.S. Forest Service land. They love the roses, and not just the blooms. No, they strip the canes bare. They work around my flimsy attempts at caging. Over time, they have worn me down and I won't plant anything that they can munch on in unprotected areas. I'm just done. I'm tired of the roses/flowers looking like heck compared to my dreams of them being beautiful. I keep unprotected areas around my house more native landscaping and crushed granite. This also conserves water resources. I understand the desire to have wonderful blooms at the front of a home, but if you have an inkling that deer might be a problem, either be ready to do a constant battle or don't do it at all. (I say this in good humor and coming from experience, not in a negative way. :-))