I yanked all my knockouts out this spring except 2, the original cherry red knockout roses that are growing in partial shade and add a nice punch of color, to make room for roses whose sent is as beautiful as its flowers. Winter kill on them was absolutely horrific, plus the JBs loved the pink knockout roses in my garden. Even my Buck rose "Folksinger" which has weathered much colder winters than this one suffered with winter kill to the ground, but being own root after pruning down to about 4 inches from the ground it is recovering beautifully and sporting buds already. I'll be planting some Austins for their luscious scent and exquisite flowers plus some other less fussy (hopefully) roses like Julia Child, Bolero, Macy's Pride, Zepherine Drouhin, Darlow's Enigma, which is bullet proof and smells so sweet, Cl "Compassion" and The Fairy. I have some Kordes Fairy Tale roses that did well over the winter and "Heritage" came through once again. I have too little yard space that offers the best sunlight for roses and am not willing to give up the space for such a mundane, and yes, overused, rose.

Melissa, I acquired WWT in the spring of 08. it's doing fine. no frost dieback of which I have a few that got it. I was thinking because of the white that it would be suseptipal to the cold. average growth rate. I bought it to do some hybrid crosses with it. I hope it blooms this year. it starts going green in June for me. it does stand out right now among the others, because of the contrast. I bought mine from Naylor Creek at a open house. it wasn't in the 08 catalog. I can look it up in my Hosta Finder if you like. Jim

I read your blog this morning and have been thinking about your dilemma. I thought about it in the shower- I have the Oceanside Sandstone #005 Iridescent in my bathroom which similar to the one you called "funky". I really love that tile but it may be too much in your kitchen (although I think it would compliment your floor quite well). My favorite for your kitchen is the Veil. The photo on your blog does not do it justice. It's very beautiful, timeless and definitely does not look harlequin. To me harlequin would be black and white diamond shaped tiles. I think the Veil would allow you to accent your kitchen with any colors you liked and paint the walls whatever you wanted. It would not limit you like colored tiles could. It will not call more attention to your floor and will look good with it. I think Veil is the tile shown on Kraftmaid's home page. Here is a link that might be useful: Veil tile

Lots of great ideas, thanks! My original plan for SS was that it would look simpler than tile, and easy to clean. But I'm reconsidering, since blending SS and tile might be too much. jodi- I agree with you about 1:3 rations being better, but the heights I posted were based on the cabinet level and the hood. pllog- funky-artsy is definitely ok, as long as it isn't "too much." I was thinking about some irregular tile border- tendrils, as you said- but I got lost after the initial idea when I tried to go from vague idea to concrete plan. pllog, sweeby, cindilou, sailaway- all of you voted at least to some degree positively for "#2" and I just want to make sure that were talking about the same thing- tile that goes up 18" along the whole wall, but then goes all the way up to the hood just behind the range. My BF will love that his idea, which I scoffed, got votes. :) But I have to admit, I was too quick to judge, and it might work, especially if I soften it and make it a bit more like #5, like sweeby said. sailaway, if I did #5, the angles would be symmetrical, or maybe they'd "stairstep" down rather than being a cut angle, but youre right, the tape is messy. vw- yes, it is a bit cost prohibitive, at least with the tiles I like so far :) chinchette- I do need some sort of wall protection, since I do cook alot, and I'm not always that neat and tidy. jillypie- I did briefly consider just doing a 4" of the countertop granite, but I was concerned that that would look odd with the other walls tiled. The countertops are a dark granite, and the backsplashing will be something relatively light, since other elements are dark (counters, floors) rosie- I have SS, copper and black pots/pans, and I think the rack will have the ones that I use most often, which will represent a little of each color. I'm really glad you guys got me thinking about this more. I'm going to try to plan it without SS for now, and see where that takes me!