It has been my experience that fragrant roses are most fragrant planted in groups or grown as enormous plants. I can't do this because I like to try as many as possible in a tiny space. So I have to smell the flowers one by one, as it were. Or brought indoors. I have Golden Wings, for example, which Helen van Pelt Wilson and Leonie Bell raved about, and I have never detected much fragrance from my specimen. But walking in Longwood Garden years ago, I experienced a powerful, delicious fragrance emanating from three large bushes planted in a corner of the garden at some distance away from me. (When I went back a few years later, they were gone, alas ¯\_(ツ)_/¯). Similarly , when visiting a Long Island nursery (it was Hicks) on an intermittently raining spring morning at a nursery I was delighted by the powerful fragrance coming from a row of potted plants of Rose de Rescht lined up for sale outside beside a bench. And I returned on subsequent days and they were still fragrant. My third memorable rose fragrance experience was at the Bronx Botanic Rose Garden, where a corner was planted with large specimens of Raubritter and Ispahan planted together. What a combo! And I think I went back on subsequent years to smell them. (Haven't been back in many years). I might as well add something from husband's and my trip to Venice some twenty years ago. There was a planting of -- I am almost sure -- Mermaid, that thorny beast -- trained up a very tall entrance doorway and growing horizontally across the entire second floor of an old building. (Those antique buildings have very high ceilings and tall, imposing doorways). You could smell the flowers from the next block, a very distinctive fragrance, somewhat unrose-like, and you wondered what it could be. It was amazing. How did they do it ? It was growing in a container and some gardener had skillfully trained it with love and skill to grow vertically about 12 or 15 feet up and then sideways about 20 (or more) feet, with all the flowers at the top in a brilliant yellow stripe across the building's second storey, as a way to deal with the thorny growth, I guess. It was a horticultural triumph.

Green or is it Dale? As far as choosing a reputable online nursery. Well, there's always GW...asking people if they ordered from 'x' nursery and their opinions. Second..have you heard of Gardenwatchdog? You can check a nursery's feedback there. Go to www.gardenwatchdog.com click on first letter of nursery, scroll down until you find the name, then click...99% is honest feedback. Shipping...It's true, there are shipping charges, 'sometimes free shipping though,' but unless a nursery happens to be in the state you reside, it's tax-less. Our county tax is, if not one, the highest in the US. Some people on Ebay offer free shipping, others charge a small fee..Of course, there are some sellers who take advantage, charge over-priced handling fees. Those I avoid. Also, there's hundreds if not thousands rare plants you can only find online. Never locally. A very BIG plus buying online. :) Nope, you're not cheap, you're cautious. These days, you must be careful. One reason it's best finding reputable nurseries..where people you've talked to shopped or checking Gardenwatchdog. Mike, I believe we got our Ag's around the same time..definately, same month. Yours arrived a few days to a week after mind. I think it was Robert who got me started w/Ags..it's all his fault..lol. j/k. Toni

Bump up this thread to admire Mas_loves_roses with a vigorous Sharifa Asma. I don't know if hers is grafted or own-root. My Sharifa as own-root is so wimpy !! Also appreciate Seaweed posting so many blooms in her alkaline clay garden in Southern California. Re-post Seaweed's tip for bare-root roses (grafted on Dr. Huey): "When I received the bare root from Regan, first prep the hole with Gypsum. Then filled tap water & let it settled. Next filled with Gardner & Bloome brand organic plating mix, right below the root, added one tablespoonful of David Austin's Mycorrhizal fungi. Last: put in bare root, added pumice, earthworm castings, and diluted mix of superthrive, Eleanor's VF-11, plus more water."

Ahhh, the question to end all questions. I am househunting as well, and have asked myself the same question many times, so I don't know that I have the best answer for you. Plus you factor in the differences in opinion between the family members and that makes it even more complicated. It is different for every person out there that is house hunting based on their needs. Here is one thing that helped me a bit when my mom pointed it out based on something that I said about one particular house....think of how you live and your day to day activities. Now think of doing all that in that house. How does it work? Are you struggling to find a place to put your coat and shoes without a coat closet? Is that important to you? Are your kids bikes in the way of backing out your car when want to navigate that tight driveway? When you wake up in the morning, do you want to have a quiet place away to drink your coffee and check your email like that loft? Or will that just be wasted space that you feel that you have to furnish and wont ever use? If you want to have children, what happens with the 3 bedroom thing? What if your teen kids don't want to share? Just sit back and imagine yourself living there. Reality is, some things will drive some people crazy, when it is embraced by somebody else. The house hunt is obviously filled with give and take, but what matters the most is what works for you.