Kitchens are very personal to those that use them. One cooks dream kitchen will be another cooks nightmare. Fingers crossed in two years time I will be allowed to build MY dream kitchen in our current house. Any line cook/professional chef will feel at ease here, but most people on this forum would be shocked. I am in a very unique situation where my wife has a very well paying job that means I do not have to work to put food on the table. This is not to say I could not find work, as 13 years in the Australian Army (retiring as a Major) and four years as a Finance Professional (two finance degrees, the highest a Masters) have left me with marketable skills. After moving to Dallas TX via five years in New York City, from Sydney Australia, I was looking at short courses to improve my home cooking. Not finding any courses that were of value I enrolled at Le Cordon Bleu and completed a 15 month Culinary Associates Degree in 13 months then worked in a five star restaurant for nine months. This was all to improve my home cooking. Kitchens for me are a place of work. If you want to socialize there are other rooms in the house for that. If you need to do homework, there are other rooms in the house for that. If you are in my kitchen you are cooking and/or cleaning. By their nature kitchens are hot, noisy, dangerous places. Pets and very very young children do not belong in the kitchen as they pose a risk to themselves and others, both through injury and food contamination. My kitchen will have a commercial range hood. I'm not talking 27" deep 48" wide 1,000 cfm, but a 48" deep 9' wide 2,500 cfm hood covering the entire hot cooking area. The hot cooking area will have one gas wok burner and outlets/space for two 3,500w (240v) portable induction burners, two 1,800w (110v) portable induction burners, one 240v counter top deep fryer, two immersion circulators (110v) in their water baths, and a commercial combi oven. Portable burners and the like allow flexibility in the kitchen and increase prep counter space. Most of my kitchen will be stainless steel with open shelving. It might not grace the pages of Better Homes and Garden, but it will be a bullet proof kitchen that is easy to clean. As much as possible the kitchen will be a separate room, NOT open the the main living areas. For me kitchens are food preparation areas with other rooms for food eating and socializing. A separate kitchen allows the noise, heat and smells to be contained in one room, not spread throughout the house. This kitchen will match my cooking style and methods. I hunt and have a chest freezer full of venison, rabbit and squirrel I harvested myself. The freezer also contains sub-primal cuts of animals that I buy in bulk. I much as I can I butcher and process my own meat and make sausage from scratch. I make all stocks, broths and sauces from scratch. I need large prep tables that are easy to clean to do this. While I do not consider my cooking methods cutting edge, I do own and use equipment not often seen outside professional kitchens. I cook Sous Vide for almost every meal. I use immersion circulators to cook most of my proteins and I use a vacuum chamber sealer to seal product in plastic bags. For those that have seen the five volume cookbook Modernist Cuisine, I can prepare most of those recipes with the current kitchen tools I own. My dream kitchen will allow me to cook them all. I rarely cook one pot wonders. A normal mid week meal, for just my wife and I, will be one course with a protein, sauce, two different vege and a starch. I require five separate burners to heat the food for plating - one for each item. I will/have happily spend/spent 6-8 hours a day in the kitchen for 3-4 days preparing a themed 9 course tasting meal (paired with wine) because one friend from out of town is/was coming over. I enjoy preparing, cooking, plating and serving food at home that is 5 star restaurant quality. When people ask me what do I do, I say I am a Personal Chef to my Wife. I can count on both hands the number of times per YEAR that we order take out and/or eat at a restaurant for dinner when in Dallas. A kitchen is where cooking occurs. While many people forget it, cooking is a very serious business. When you make mistakes in a kitchen, at best people go yuk and a pizza is ordered; worse case people die. To reduce the possibility of food borne illnesses, the kitchen needs to be an area that is separate from the main area of the house. It should not be a thoroughfare for the family and pets traipsing from the carport/outside/garage/etc to get to another part of the house. The materials the kitchen is made of need to be easily cleaned and sanitized. If you are scared to use a pressure washer on them, it is not the right material. My dream kitchen is most peoples nightmare. It is industrial, noisy and tight. Any aisle wider than 36" wide is too wide, any wider I would have to take a step to reach something - that is inefficient. The lighting will be bright and daylight balanced. I spend my pretty-mood-lighting-funds on the lights outside and in the great room, not the kitchen. The only view in my kitchen, other than the four walls, is the TV in one corner. The best views in the house are when you are sitting on the back deck with a cold beer in both hands, not standing at the sink washing a stack of dirty pans. A "cook's kitchen" is one where any cooking occurs. I have friends with kitchens costing $200k+ that only get used to heat precooked purchased food on Thanksgiving - I do not call this a cook's kitchen although it could be. Another friend will prepare, from scratch a 3 course plated meal for 10 in their 800 sq ft NYC studio apartment. The "kitchen" is a bar sink, 2 feet of counter space, 1 hot plate, 1 toaster oven and a dorm fridge. What constitutes a "cook's kitchen" for me is one that I am willing and happy to spend many hours a day, day after day in. For me this is commercial kitchen in a residential home.

Thank you, Ben! The new introductions this time of year help ease the disappointment of our growing season ending here in the US. Soeur Emmanuelle is the only one I'm familiar with. She's already taller than the stated size on HMF, reaching 5'+ at 1 yr old from a Palatine bare root. Mine is similar to most of the photos on HMF with clusters of blooms on long stems that start off as deep red buds, open to a rich rose pink that gradually lighten to pale pink. I don't believe the fading blooms is a negative, rather a feature of the rose. The various shades are very pretty on the bush. The form on mine is definitely hybrid tea, rather than shrub, right down to the sparse foliage toward the base, but that may stand out more to me than to those who are used to hybrid teas. Scent is often hard to detect in my climate, but her's is strong and lovely. I'll try posting my pics below. I'm having computer troubles or Houzz troubles tonight.

My Over the Edge has gotten black spot pretty severely but hasn’t defoliated from it, and is continuing to bloom despite lots of black splotches everywhere. Not the prettiest bush but the blooms keep coming. Fragrance on mine is moderate and sweet but pleasing. It started very subtle and has been increasing so maybe by this fall it’ll have a stronger fragrance. Blooms are pretty and keep their form well. Blooms last a long time on the bush but I have no pink edging on my blooms which may be something that comes in later. Temperatures shouldn’t be an issue here as it’s still in lower 70s.

Hello, fellow forum members! I am George Clinston, hailing from beautiful Australia. I am thrilled to be a part of this vibrant community, and I'm eager to engage in meaningful discussions with all of you. Having grown up in this diverse country, I've developed a deep appreciation for its unique landscapes, culture, and people. I'm passionate about various topics, including travel, technology, and environmental sustainability. I believe that forums like this offer a fantastic platform to share knowledge, exchange ideas, and learn from one another. I'm looking forward to contributing my insights and experiences while also gaining valuable insights from all of you. Feel free to connect with me, and let's embark on a journey of knowledge, camaraderie, and exploration together. Thank you for having me here, and I can't wait to dive into the discussions! Best regards, George Clinston (Australia)