I'm sorry your prosperity died. :( I stopped spending a lot of money on roses years ago, when I found out that for some reason, fortuniana didn't last any longer in my yard than Dr. Huey. I just grow what I call "disposable" roses now, cheapos from the big box stores that die after 5 years, and allow me to change to another rose if I want.

Don't feel bad. I have a degree in horticulture and can't grow roses. I'm a lazy gardener, and they are just too labor intensive for me.

Sorry to hear of you loss, Ill.

I'm a fan of several native vines. Some people say these get out of bounds for them, but they've never been a problem for me, probably because my sand is so sandy it keeps them in check.

Coral HoneySuckle. It does sucker a bit, I admit. Good hummingbird attractor.

Native passionvine, or Maypop. It does get a bit chewed by the caterpillars of zebra longwings and gulf frits but never too bad for me (never the way say pipevines are chewed up by goldrims).

Carolina Jasmine does not bloom all year, but it blooms a while in the winter, and it's evergreen. You could always plant an annual vine with it for extended bloom, if you don't mind mixing.

Bill

Sorry about your rose, Ill-Man, but boy do I hear you! None of mine outright DIED on me, but they all spent way too many months looking shabby and not nearly enough looking full, green and flowering.

One of my favorite native vines is clematis crispa. Very pretty little bell-shaped flowers, and it is a well mannered vine. Never seems to grow out of bounds. (Speaking of which, how is that shell vine doing?)

Are you interested in annual vines at all? Nothing like black-eyed Susan vine (one of the thunbergias) for a spring and summer show piece of cottagey yellow flowers. And of course, morning glories will come back every year from seeds, and give you loads of color.

And then there's perennial morning glory. Some say it can get out of bounds, but mine still hasn't taken off like I want it to. However, Evelyn has a trellis covered with it that is to die for! Rich blue flowers that stay open almost all day and gradually fade to purple and then to pink.

Good luck finding exactly what you need. I kept my Louis Philippe, Demitasse, and 2 KnockOuts (pink and red). The rest of my roses are gone to new homes, where I hope they will get better care than I gave them, and will thrive. I'm replacing them with copperleaf, turk's cap, thryallis, pentas, and other troublefree stuff.

Marcia

Ha-ha. I did wonder at your posts title.

I have just started on my rose infatuation (having passed through my bamboo, tomato and butterfly plant phases intact).
I will never buy another expensive hybrid rose, even on fortuniana. They just die for no good reason. I like to fill in with cheap roses too until the heirlooms get bigger.

My baby heirloom roses bloomed and leafed valiantly all stinking hot summer. Weird that just as the weather got decent (80's) they got bad, probably thrips but I never got a magnifying glass to confirm. Much defoliation.

Because I love them I went to the trouble to spray them (I'm hoping it was organic-Naturlyte) and they are recovering with lots of new growth.

Things die. I lost a small red bay for no reason I can determine.

All my vines are passionflowers. I finally got a red one (Lady Margaret) at the USF sale from Crowleys.
How about a patriotic passionflower theme? Red, white (White Wedding) and blue (caerulea). And you could fly a flag at the top :-)

Denise

I've nothing to say about vines but plenty to say about roses since roses are literally my business. I think that you are on target about the drought and the rain. I'm sure that the roses that I care for that are doing so poorly and dying are doing so because of water stress/ fungal root disease. Once they take a down hill turn and you finally figure out what is wrong it is very hard to turn them around. I had almost all (20!) of my potted minis die after a summer of excessive rain. Because roses are my business this meant having to buy and expensive fungicide to use as a soil drench. Certainly not something I wanted to do to the soil but what choice? And for you to do this? It is not possible!
In my opinion roses have become very problematic...and not worth the energy and $$ that it takes to care for them. I have a newly (less than a yr.) planted Hybrid tea garden and the chili thrips are chewing them up! Hmm, seems like I'm ranting here. Sorry about your prosperity loss.

I'm sorry for your rose problems. I've pretty much let mine go over the past couple years and am down to just a couple. But I do miss them all and it was not easy to give them up. I just couldn't find the time and energy to keep them looking nice.

Ill, my neighbor lost his Prosperity rose this summer too. It didn't have a strong showing at all this year but once it really started to decline it went very fast. I think the drought did it.

Kate

happier times... seriously, it bloomed like this all the time. sigh.

thanks, everyone, for the great advice. bill, i like the idea of honeysuckle... i should just go wild when it comes to color, living as i do in a big pink house.

marcia--man, that shell vine is VIGOROUS. it'll grow a foot a day... seriously. it's taken over my gazebo, woven itself among the brambles of my crazy cherokee rose. it stopped blooming during summer's heights, but now it's started again. is it perennial?

where can i get that clematis?

Michael---If you are interested in the honeysuckle, I know who has them. Miles. I bought one when I went there to buy the Asian pears. I like the fact that they attract hummers.

Christine

Clematis crispa? *Ahem* I know exactly where you can get some seeds, and you seem to be very good with those. Email me and I'll send you some. I think I still have a few left.

The seeds are as much fun as the blooms...the flowers turn into serpentine alien creatures that then go all fuzzy and develop seeds. Really cool. You'll like it, even if you decide it isn't a large enough vine for the space you were mentioning. It's best viewed up close, as the flowers are small and adorable.

Then come the weird seeds.

And about that shellvine...mine did the same thing when it was planted in a small space, so I moved it around to my fence in the front where it has 60 feet or so to run all over. Guess what? It is about 12" tall and that's it. Hasn't grown an INCH in six months!! Whaddup wid that?

Marcia

I love my moonflowers.Easy to grow from seed. I'm a newbie gardener but I just love them. huge white saucers that bloom when sun goes down or a grey day.

Sorry to hear about your Prosperity, Ill-man! I have one in a pot that is covered with blooms right now. Since most of my roses are only 3 years old now I haven't had any decline on them, yet. I do propagate many of them, I grow own root, so if one starts looking bad I can have a replacement ready to go.

As far as vines for your bean pole, passionflowers may be the way to go but in full sun they do get somewhat overwhelming. And if the cats find them they will become ratty-looking. Black-eyed Susan vine is pretty and always in bloom and an annual. Mine have reseeded everywhere including the compost pile! The Goldflame Honeysuckle is a nice well behaved vine in my garden and blooms it's best in the winter. I just picked up a Garlic Vine that is supposed to be a mannerly growing vine [6-8 feet] with lovely lavender blooms. But I am afraid it may be a little tender for our area. I will let you know in the spring!

nova

I can feel your pain. I too miss the roses that I no longer have, specially my Hot Cocoa.

Willy

Ill- sorry about your roses. I understand how you feel.

I had a well meaning yet uneducated friend who volunteered to help maintain my garden when I was ill a few years ago. She cut mine down past the root graft (oh...they'll grow back!....). They never recovered. I bought replacement roses which have done nothing but struggle ever since being planted.

What about SkyVine? I can give you cuttings or a plant if you wish?

I have finally figured out this plant. It only grows crazy out of bounds in the hot months of June/July/August. It takes a hard cut back once a month with a hedge trimmer to curtail it (unless you are able to let it ramble...which I am not).

It then stops the crazy leaf production and moves to flower production. My fence is covered in gorgeous blue blooms right now. So, I can say now I really enjoy this beauty.

It really does take a year to figure out a plant, doesn't it?

All this talk about declining roses and replacing with vines has me thinking I want to replace a white hybrid rose near the walkway to my front door.

I recently found a beautiful tall, narrow, pyramid-shaped, metal bookshelf at a garage sale, which I purchased with the intent of using it as a garden trellis. The "bookshelf" has removable glass shelves, so it would make an ideal trellis.

My rose bush is declining and is too high maintenance for my lazy gardening tastes. A flowering vine, specifically a fragrant flowering vine, would be perfect. I love being able to stop and smell the flowers on the way to the door.

The space where I want to use my trellis is in front of my house, sandwiched in between the sidewalk and the front wall of the garage. The space is approximately 3 ft x 3 ft, bordered by the house on one side and concrete sidewalk or driveway on the other three sides.

I love the bell shaped flowers on the vine Marcia suggested. Are there any others that you all would suggest for my intended location?