You still don't say how old your Fat Albert is. But if it is young and small enough that you are even considering planting something "around" it, then it's not full-grown and will continue to get bigger every year. My client has two that are many years old that she is (unfortunately) emotionally attached to. We go round and round every year just until I think I've got her convinced to call in the tree service and get rid of them, then she changes her mind. They are both at least 20' wide and growing a few inches wider every year. When I first started working for her, she had a garden started around these two spruce. I worked with it and naively planted more perennials in the area. Many of these plants have since been swallowed up by the spruces and the area has become shadier every year as those things get bigger. Give us any other sunny spot and we can work with you. I do love the look of conifers in a garden as long as they stay dwarf and fairly skinny. When I built my rose garden I incorporated a few different kinds of junipers, one called 'Pencil Point', whose width is supposed to top out at 1'. Three feet full-grown width is the max I would consider for a conifer amongst flowers. And I definitely stick with things that get taller than they are wide. But that's just me.

mgleason I hope you had better luck reporting it than I did. I got an email message telling me to report it from the item page. I finally found the link and went through exactly the same steps as before and still had to provide the item number. I don't think EBay has any interest in preventing fraud. This scam artist is getting positive feedback because the roses "arrived in great shape." I really love this comment: "A+++ quickly received and cant wait to get out in my garden!!!! May-05-08 12:36 Ebb Tide Rose Bush Floribunda Family (#110246997591) And I'd love to see their face when they found out that they paid through the nose for a common rose that is NOT blue! Sheesh, there really is one born every minute, or in this case there are a lot of them being born...

I saw an Angel Face tree rose for the same price the other day. I didn't have $25 to drop on a rose at the time.

Making copies of a rose that is still under patent is illegal. If you want more copies, then you are expected to buy them. The research and development of new varieties is a very expensive business and patents ensure that the company developing the rose gets paid for their investment.