I finally went out and took photos of the glorious roses growing along Hwy 405. What could they be? Here they are at the following site: http://www.flickr.com/photos/28566127@N07/?saved=1
I hope this worked as they are apparently too large to upload directly into gardenweb.
If post again on this thread making use of the Optional Link URL slot that appears beneath the Message box I'll take a look at your pictures. Maybe I will know what the roses are. Cutting and pasting URLs typed out in posts (into Google) seldom works for me.