If you are in Houston, your USDA zone is 9a 4' by 2' isn't going to be enough for either of the roses you mentioned. Queen Elizabeth in my garden didn't like hard pruning and didn't flower again till she reached a certain size minimum 5' tall but closer to 6'. You can cut a rose back after it bloomed but if you keep cutting before it blooms, your rose isn't going to be a happy one nor will you be. I would try to find a smaller rose that would fit into that 4' by 2' spot but it's not going to be easy to pick a rose that is happy if confined to 2' as width goes. But if you want to put either of two roses mentioned above into that small spot, go with Red Masterpiece alone and plant QE somewhere else. I am afraid though that it wouldn't look very good. Testing your drainage can be done such a way that you dig a hole:18" deep but 2' deep is better, if my memory doesn't fail me and fill up the hole with water and check how long it takes for the water to soak in or 'disappear'. If there is a pool of water for a long time the drainage isn't good. I try to dig up an article tomorrow that is a bit more precise than my memory - meaning how deep the hole should be and how soon the water pool should disappear to qualify the spot as having good drainage. If your soil is sandy, drainage will not be a problem for you; if your soil is clay than you might have drainage problem and it is better to deal with it before you plant. If you have no access to composted cow manure, get some bagged manure and good quality compost; mushroom compost usually is good quality. If you can find a place where they sell cotton bur (cotton gin trash) that would be great, roses love it! You can buy a pH meter for $20 at Lowe's, a better nursery or Farmer's market. That would hep to see what's your soil pH is. On the long run to get a soil test is a good idea because that comes with recommendations what you should add what kind of fertilizer s you should get or avoid. However, this time of the year cooperative extensions are flooded with soil test requests so you may have to wait 4-6 weeks till you get the result. However, if you already bought those roses, they must be planted ASAP - you should not fertilize them at planting time anyway, only when they finished the first cycle of blooms and by that time the recommendations accompanying the test results will be handy. So-called soil conditioner (shredded pine bark) is good - if you soil is sandy, it will help to retain moisture while if you soil is clay, the shredded pine bark mixed with native clay will help to ease the drainage problem and it is an organic amendment. Sorry if it was confusing, around 1.30 AM sometimes I get slow and sleepy.

My new favorite is Sunshine Flower Bulbs. Their catalogue is online. Because I ordered so many lily bulbs, they called me and offered to let me buy wholesale, so now I can buy everything they sell wholesale, with free shipping over $150. Everything I bought came up and bloomed beautifully. Last fall I purchased 200 Orienpets and received very large healthy bulbs at a wonderful price. Can't wait to see my lily bed in August! I'm now getting ready to order Asiatics, as they have a good sale going on. On sale are mainly the larger size bulbs, which is a very good bargain. They are new, but I highly recommend the company. I have also ordered from Gordon Wild & Sons; they have bulk pricing and I used them to get acquainted with the types of lilies and to fill up a bare spot. Their bulbs are a little small, though very healthy and a bargain.

Surprise lilies? I'll have to look that up. Yes, I can see that the pink blooms would be great with white and lavender shades of flowers from the hosta. What I have are simply day lilies and red amaryllis. I haven't gone into other lilies--yet. This year I grew some seedling amaryllis, they will be going in the ground next year. Plus the handful of seeds like thin coins collected from the bumper crop of amaryllis blooms earlier this summer, I think I'll just sow them in the blueberry patch. It gets a lot of sun, takes up space all year that requires maintenance without contributing to the beauty of the garden. Why not some amaryllis and maybe daylilies too? They do not really die down here, and I won't be stepping on dormant bulbs. And I'll check out surprise lilies. No tulips though. Anything requiring dormancy is not suitable...except for hosta. Here is a shot of the first round of amaryllis getting all day sunshine on western side of my house, out in the open.

Hi, although the price might be a good deal, I'd probably pass. I think the traditional style doesn't work with the more contemp style of all the other pcs. As mentioned, the height as well as color is going to make it waaay too dominant even though there might be little touches of rust elsewhere. If you had the club chairs with a table paired together, do you have room for another chair elsewhere? It doesn't appear to be a very large space and you just might be "there" already as far as space for seating is concerned. Oh...is this a recliner? I'm wondering what is up with the open "space" between the bottom of the wing and the arm.