From what I can tell by looking it up, it is always a climber, and gets huge everywhere. It is confusing that HMF says it is a once bloomer, while Beales says it is continuous blooming. What has yours done re length of bloom? If it really is at least recurrent, it might get less "rare" - it is gorgeous. Of course, I am in CA and am used to large roses getting really huge here - almost always larger than they are said to. So, I guess either you should experiment with hard pruning, and see what happens, or dig it up and plant it somewhere next to a large tree or house. I have a neighbor who loves roses, and has dozens, all without ever learning very much about them. I have been able to find homes for some of my unwanted (only because of no space left) roses in her garden - I just volunteer to plant them in a suitable site for her, and so far in our climate they have survived and thrived, even without much care. Good Luck with this one- Jackie

ken: "regardless.. just order it .. what can they possibly tell you to make you NOT want it???? you are enabled.. and addicted.. just order it ..." See how you are! Yes, I do seem to be addicted. And I have this whole fenced in area in the back of my small yard where I should be growing vegetables, but there are all of these conifers.... The "Rochester Pendula" thus goes on my list.... Barb - you are getting some nice trees! You will like that 'Horstmann's Silberlocke;' it does need some protection from our intense afternoon sun (at least that has been my experience) but it seems to like it here; mine has been doing fine for over two years now (I got my tree from Timberline Gardens in Arvada.) I like Forest Farm but sometimes buying from Oregon nurseries you end up getting plants that expect to have warmer winter conditions and a lot more moisture than we do here in Colorado. I went looking for bamboos there one year; the guys at the nursery laughed at me when I said I was looking for bamboos that could survive in Zone 5! I hope you let us know how the concolors do. You have 2 acres to grow things on! Oh what I could do with that amount of land! (Probably end up in the poor house....) By the way, Dax, ken and Nate are the enablers, not me - they just lead me astray, and I am apparently all too willing to be led! :-D Holly

Great suggestions guys! That pic of Tolleson's Weeping Blue is awesome. I have a Bush's Lace coming from Bloom River in a few weeks, but it is going in a different spot. Ken, I figured the clay soil still mattered unless the entire eventual root mass was bermed up in good soil... Am I wrong? I will do a small berm to keep the initial root ball from getting water logged. As far as the Cards go, we do love our baseball here in Saint Louis. It's part of the culture here, passed from parent to child. We have been blessed to have winners in almost every decade, supported by an organization that cares about winning. Even if you hate the Cards, you have to admit that those late innings in game 6 were some of the most exciting baseball ever! Wow, what a game that was!

angela - yeah, i have no idea what's with my roses and the image on david austin's website. my photos are a very accurate representation of what i see in person though. my blooms are somewhat pinkish on the outer petals, but transition towards that deep peachy orange color inside. the photo on the austin website seems to have a subdued orange cast to the entire image that makes me wonder ever since i ordered that rose. so i'm not surprised that mine came out looking different. i don't know if it's just blooming differently this year, but mine have really only come close in color to the DA image when the floor has almost completely aged and lost most of it's color. it then becomes this dusty pink-peach color uniformly. i'll see if i can dig up some of the photos of the more aged blooms. i was planning on making a post of different austins as their blooms age anyway - to show the color and bloom shape changes.