"Cass" wrote, after Allegra explained

So, I suggested that we place 2x4s
about 6 feet apart in front of the fence, buried in quickcrete. Then
run lengths of rebar arched atop the posts burying them about 6-inch
into the posts.

How do you do that? Drill rebar-sized holed in the 2 x 4 and run the
rebar through it? What stops the rebar from thanging out of the hole in
a high wind and whip-sawing anyone nearby?

I should have said that too; verbose and confusing. where did I read that? ;)
Drill about six to eight-inch dead center on the top of the 2x4 a hole about
1/2-inch around bigger than the diameter of the rebar. Fill the hole with Qcrete
and place the rebar in the hole. Any extra Qcrete is easy to clean. Depending
on the length you decide for the rebar the arch will be more or less pronounced.
Seven feet wouldn't give you an arch, it wouldn't even get to the bottom of the
hole in the rebar, but 8 to 8 and a half feet may be the ticket. We are going to
experiment with some willow to see which length is pleasing and practical -
Of course in that order.

You saw the picture of the fabulous blue at St. Albans?

http://home.earthlink.net/%7Eberndoo...s/WarmWelcome.
jpg

No, no that one. We are at the same latitude here in Portland as they
are, and according to all laws of physics we should have the same light
to deal with. Wellllllllll..............our spectrum is similar but there it ends.
I don't know if the density of our state and city parks indeed have such
an impact that color appears at times brighter and at times garish in here
than it does in London or Bath or any area around there. But it does.
Once I dragged across three airports a big planter, honestly. The bloody
thing weighed a ton and I was then 98 lb soaking wet. Got one of those
carry things which are all but worthless but I could drag the thing and
refused to let it go with the luggage. Ending having to pay for an extra
seat on the plane for the thing, but the color was to die for. There.
When I got to Portland the marvelous green that had tones of celadon
and blue across the glaze turned into the most repulsive mustard one
could only find in a bad dream. No rose could have improved that and
it ended at the late Joel Cotet studio where I have no idea what he did
with it. Great form, fantastic shade in London. Here it would have been
offensive as a cuspidor. So, black it is for me. It fades elegantly as you
suggested. All the shutters outside are black, and so is our front door.
It seems timeless and even the outrageous combinations I subject the
window boxes to, somehow expire a great sigh and do what they can
to look beautiful.

Painted trellises, especially in the French mode, are truly wonderful -
but high maintenance here close to the ocean. Black is very cool,
fades. I love it as an trim color. In fact, the trim on my house is
diplomat grey, which has faded in 2 years.

My favorite effect. I love faded things, exception being perception and
intelligence, comprehension of course is part of the trinity. There is a
certain patina that only time can give. Years ago I took classes at the
Isabel O'Neill Studio in San Francisco to learn about faux paint. It was
both very interesting (this being 1985 there wasn't the nauseating abundance
of faux everything that happened within the following ten years) and
quite revealing to me that certain colors were not only mellowed but gained
in intensity as they faded. The true pigment survived nearly intact while
the additions decomposed a bit at a time, and that is what I still aim to
when I mix our own paints. Martin Senour is all we use and never
never had a problem with it. Ageing a good formula is always an adventure
filled with fun and much ado.

I need another diva? Prince Eugene is doing his thing this year. I'm
suitably impressed. Tons and tons of buds, good flowers (I hope you saw
my post). I wonder that Vintage never sells this rose. Mine lives in a
pot and has no plans to move soon.

Don't even think of moving him. I swear roses can read your mind.
Ignore him. Feed him and once in a while play Edith Piaf or Gilbert
Becaud to him.

I've got some kind of garden contagion this year. Very odd, obviously
some microbial contagion because it enters pruning cuts. I don't think
it's dirty pruners because only certain roses get it, and not just, or
even primarily disease prone roses. sigh At the moment, I'm just
cutting it off.

Description please. Once in Orinda I got something like what you
describe. Nothing to do with the secateurs it turned out but with
one of the hoses that was "planted" in that bed. Some fungus of some
form or another, soil inhabitant that got inside of the hose and
in one of those 3 or 4 days that the hose was turned off, multiplied
apparently at an incredible rate. I am sorry I do not remember the
specifics (late 1960s so I guess I can be forgiven since it never happened
here) and only changing that piece of the hose solved the problem.
May not be the same but it is worth looking for it.

I went to Vintage Gardens where I had apparently permanently
lodged my credit card. I came home with more roses, a Baby Faurax
lookalike, Raymond Privat, bigger (yea!), and Mme Lambard. Then just
cuz I'm an evil enabler, I bought two fabulous Suan Louise's because I
want others to grow this hard-to-find rose. Her buds are about perfect:

http://home.earthlink.net/~cbernstei...il2Bouquet.jpg

English Garden (forever useful in bouquets, that buff, the perfect
blender and filler, quite good tea scent), Bridesmaid the blush pink (I
think-a mislabeled rose), Niles Cochet in the front. Niles Cochet has
the most perfect foliage of any rose, or maybe ties with Sophie's
Perpetual.

Ah Vintage! Day before yesterday I got another supplemental list, and I
told BH that if he truly loved me he keep those away from me. His response
was that he truly loved me and he knew I didn't mean it. Hard to be married
to a man who knows me so well ;) Out while the sun shines for about 20
minutes. Impulse buying of another Gertrude Jekyll to plant with the original
one, I like exuberant abandonment of roses spilling all over the place and
she is as far from the namesake when it comes to exuberance as you can
have it. She will be planted near by a golden prostrated juniper (flat little affair
clinging to the ground about 10 feet away, in the same bed with the Spanish
and French lavenders, and about 6 feet away from Annabelle, one of my
favorite Hydrangeas that I was sure had died, and that now is filled with green
little wings posed to take flight. Then I will sprinkle the beds around Leonards
bathtubs with Martha's corn - that is the name BH gave to the seeds in a
container from the notorious Martha Stewart that much as we diss her the
woman has a certain sense of quality when it comes to seeds, thus last year
a little container worth $6.99 of lavender, blue, red poppies, bachelor buttons,
you name it I don't remember myriad of "wild" looking things grew to a nearly
5 to 6 foot height in the bed, earning the moniker of Martha's corn.
They will help hide the black pots until the perennials that are going to be
planted this fall will take over the job.

Let me know the symptoms of the problem with the roses. It may jolt some
obscure piece of information in my brain that may be useful.

Allegra