Yes Kat, it is in Fort Smith. Me and Kaye will be there. Kaye has to be there because it is something to do with the rose society. Email her or I will tell her about this post and she can fill you in on it.

What will this day consist of? It's about 130 miles or so south of me, but I'd make the drive for it if it would be worth it.

It's mainly the Rose Society helping people pick out roses from the nursery stock at Sharum's in Ft. Smith. All the roses have come from J&P and Weeks and should be looking great by then. Mostly hybrid teas and floribundas, some shrubs and a offering from Weeks called "Easy to Love". There are 4 roses in that group that are modern floribundas that will do well with little or no spraying. I grow 3 of them and Beerhog has some, too, and they really are pretty carefree. As far as Old Garden Roses, they really are not into that, but the landscape roses are the ones mentioned above and Knockout, a proven performer with little care.

I moved here Sept 10 2001. I prefer the old roses. And am hoping for suggestions on what does well here. I brought four up from Texas last Summer and they made the winter in large pots on the warmer side of my house..mild winter though. I have to come up with a way to winter them in colder weather. Our soil is quite rocky and we like having them near our sitting area on the deck. Have Cecile Bruner, Iceberg, Belinda's Dream and Souvenier de la Malmaison. Is there something that will grow in the fairly rocky soil and climb my deck posts and run the rails? And survive on the winter that blooms really well? I don't care about fragrance or type as long as I have a climber or rambler that is a very prolific bloomer to take up the slack when the others rest. By the way, they seemed to bloom more here than in S. Texas. Had lots of green spotted beetles and rose aphids though.

Hi, RoseRustler. All four of your roses are hardy where you are even in a pretty tough winter. Of course, the pots give them little protection. I mound oak leaves around any pots I leave out here and they do fine. Cl. Iceberg or Cl. Souv. de la Malmaison would be good choices for climbing on your porch. We garden on rocky soil, too, and have made raised beds for the roses. They don't have to be very high as the roses are fairly shallow rooted.