Paso, I would say don't be too concerned. Whenever designing either you either stick with masses of standard colors for strong statement in simplicity or you mix in a haromony other colors. There are so many ways to design its limitless. Personal taste will be different among anyone as well. Masses of reds are done all the time with roses around my area and done quite effectively. The trick is to use other plants in the areas you have left that will compliment in color the house and roses but will not replicate either of them. Use blue foliage or dark foliage plants. Ornamental grasses can help well because there are many blue colored ones that will also add a relaxed textural beauty to the rigid mass of red. A Russian sage has bluish foliage and blue flowers and mixes well with red rose masses. I don't know your zone but you could even plant white variegated miscanthus such as Rigoletto to offet the colors. You need bold to go with the bold, don't mix too many colors in remaining areas you have left or they will be lost and clash against the roses. good luck!

Thanks Henry. I think Flower Carpet Roses are under appreciated. The name is a bit deceiving because they are not exactly a carpet or ground cover. I planted two about 5 years ago. They get no fertilizer or spray. They do get a little black spot, the least of any rose I grow, including KO. The plant is bushy and stays wider than tall, maxing out at 5' high. The foliage is very shiny and healthy looking. The blooms repeat quickly and continuously. Flower Carpet Red: Flower Carpet Coral:

There is a housing development down the road from me that installed a very long section of what looks to be flower carpet white roses, if not they are a similar groundcover type of rose. For some reason half of the length is tended, the roses are pruned, fertilized, and mulched once a year, and the other half is left to it's own devices. The half that is tended blooms way more and looks way better than the other half, so I definitely would say these type of roses are 'less care' not 'no care.' I have a couple of scarlet flower carpet roses because I liked the bright color, they do well with less water and pruning than my other roses and the leaves are always healthy and green. As to the idea that one has to choose between a garden or children, I think that it's ridiculous. When I was little I spent hours in the garden with my Mom, she showed me everything that was safe to eat and I would wander around trying things out and generally having a good time. There was a movie few years ago that documented the first year of life of four different babies, one American, one Japanese, one Mongolian, and one Namibian. The conclusion of the photographer was that benign neglect is highly underrated in our society. Children need to be cared for, but spending some time on their own to discover who they are is also important. And a garden is a great place to begin that sort of independent exploration, especially with a Mom weeding close by to keep an eye on them. Caveat, I have no children and therefore no real right to speak on the matter. Lastly, I don't know if it's because I live in such a great place to garden or what, but I see no deficit of gardeners and gardens in my area. The nurseries are always crowded on weekends, and when I go to get plants for my own garden I usually see young parents with little ones in tow. Especially in the vegetable section, it seems like there are a lot of families around here that are getting more and more interested in exposing their children to where food comes from at a young age. Trends always change, right now people may have moved away from gardening but it's only a matter of time before the pendulum swings back in the other direction.

I was going to write to try the mauiplumerigardens, but I checked their website and turned out that they don't have any seeds for sale right now. But usually they do. Anyway it's not the best time of the year to start with seeds. I'm sure they will have seeds in the next couple of months. They only sell quality products, whether if you order seeds or cuttings. And more importantly they are shipping worldwide, or at least to Europe. I'm pretty sure because I ordered from them seeds and cuttings as well 2 years ago. I live in Hungary, which is also part of the European Union just like Greece. I think the import rules and all the stuff around the plumerias are the same in our countries. So you can get cuttings also if you want. You guys are very lucky down there. Your growing season is much longer than ours. Good luck Balazs