Here we are at the end of another year, and although most of our gardens have shut down for the season, we can always count on our members in the Southern Hemisphere to keep delighting our eyes with new photos and we can spend our non-gardening time browsing through the images in our database for a treat. The thumbnail photo for this month is Winter Sun.

I haven't caught up totally with the November thread, but there a couple of things that caught my attention.
I usually have a couple of Huntsman spiders in the house. I had an old schoolfriend out from England and her husband visiting one day. We were chatting around the table, when he turned to me and said "It's a joke, right. It's not real." He was staring at a very large Huntsman that I had been meaning to put outside for a while!
And Lola. I have been to Chudleigh. I went around 4 years ago with the Heritage Rose Society. Did you attend any of the events? I loved that street. There was one rose in particular that astonished me with its colour. It was a rugosa, I think with the awful name of Rugspin. The colour was like an Indian silk.
I was also struck with a carpet rose - Amber, that had formed a 4' high shrub. It was a glorious sight.
Here is a photo of my garden I took one evening about a month ago. The Jacaranda flowers are a deeper colour in reality.


And Rubens, recently planted

Trish - I can't believe you have been to Chudleigh! I'm not a member of any rose societies but I am a member of the National Trust so I can visit lots of old gardens in Australia and all around the Commonwealth for free. I haven't been to any rose society functions but if they have morning tea in the Chudleigh Hall I will be working in the kitchen as part of the Hall Committee catering group.

Amber and Rugspin are in bloom now and I have added them to the database here. My aim is to photograph every rose on the main street of Chudleigh and put them on the database.

Rugspin

The park and garden next to the Chudleigh General Store also has some 'carpet' roses that are over 4ft tall. I don't know how many of the other big roses were supposed to be carpet roses but there is not one under 3ft in the whole village.

Kicking the month off with some colour.
Another roadside rose


Absolutely Fabulous


Burgundy Iceberg

Thank you, Trish, Lola, and John. All of the rose blooms here have been ruined by the start of our rainy season. It's wonderful that you can show us blooming roses while we wait for spring.

lovely roses! Thanks guys!

Here are a few roses I no longer grow for one reason or another.


Conumdrum (miniflora)


Dark Night


"Zephy"

Sunny Sky

Oh, I really like that Sunny Sky!

Me too!

For us here in the Northern hemisphere, our roses are pretty much done blooming, although I still have quite a few, they are mushy looking due to the recent rains.
I mentioned to Zuzu that I could add some fun bloom shots from a few years back to keep the winter threads colorful. Before I moved to my current home almost 8 years ago, I lived 10 minutes from the San Jose Heritage and Municipal Rose gardens and would visit all year round taking hundreds of photos, I miss that!
So I'll be adding a few here through the months, please enlarge to really get their full features and beauty!

A cute miniature by Ralph Moore


I miss this rose, left it behind in my last garden and a gopher got to my new one.






Love sunset colored roses!

Oh, those roses! I want them all.

Here in SoCal rose bushes just keep blooming. My Dick Clark yesterday morning:



I am amazed at how long the blooms on rose bushes last this time of year. My America climbing rose has the same blooms it had on Nov 17 (when it was delivered), which are still in pretty good shape, and a couple of new buds I noticed this morning. The Julia Child blooms don't last as long but it has five buds about to open.

Most rose bushes I see around here keep blooming through the winter and that really surprised me last winter (my first in SoCal). Seeing roses blooming in February seemed unreal.

That's the only advantage of year-round drought, Bleu. You don't get enough rain to hurt the buds and blossoms even in winter.

After all the rain we've had I was surprised to find these roses in my garden yesterday.

Peach Swirl is amazing! It doesn't seem to realize it's December.


Molineux is my most prolific David Austin, a nearly continuous bloomer.


Brother Cadfael is another happy Austin that keeps going no matter what the weather.


The Prince blooms in flushes and seems to like the cool weather.


The dark purple buds of The Prince start out looking nearly black.


Jubilee Celebration is a rose I'm going to work on in 2019. It's an own root that will be starting year two and I hope to get more growth and blooms.


The Reeve putting out a small spray.


Wise Portia is another rose that likes the cold and keeps on going!


Lyda Rose is a favorite.


Hope you liked the roses!
Ann

Ann, bonus winter blooms are always welcome, yours are really beautiful! I am still cutting a few bouquets.

Ann, all of those are just amazing!

Wow, Ann. What a nice surprise! Your beautiful photos are much appreciated.

Yesterday we had winds of 80km/h roaring through our valley. Every rose that was open was burnt to a crisp but the buds seem to be ok. I have spent the morning cutting off broken stems and branches as well as deadheading blooms that should have been at their best now. I was going to the National Rose Garden today but I will have to put that off for a couple of weeks because it will look just as bad as my place.


Last week.


Today from the other side.


Boscobel survived.



I lost two ducklings in the wind as well so we are down to seven. Those things were like tumbleweeds cartwheeling up the hill.

Oh, Lola, poor garden and duckies! 80 km/50 mph winds can do so much damage... I hope the missing duckies can find their way back, poor darlings.

Zuzu - Your Winter Sun has such a wonderful shape to it!!

Trish - Your Reubens has such a wonderful color!! And I can't believe how nonchalant you and others are with these humungous spiders!! Shudder!!! You are sooo brave!!!

Ken - your Conundrum is exquisite!!! Oh drool and swoon!!! And I've never seen a picture of an open bloom for Dark Knight...the color is velvet supreme!!!

Sue - I can't believe how many blooms you have on your Eureka!!! What a bloom-fest!!! Chris Everett and French Perfume are standouts!!! I've wanted to get French Perfume for awhile...if I could only find it.

Ann - your Peach Swirl made me gasp out loud!!! And I love your Jubilee Celebration and Bro. Cadfael!!! Oh my!!! If only Austins did well for me. What a treat that was!

Lola - those poor ducklings. Hopefully they were blown somewhere safe. What a horrible wind storm!!

Carol, sorry for the confusion but as I wrote in my post, those photos were all taken either at San Jose Heritage or SJ Municipal Rose gardens. I did have Eureka but those particular shots were not from my garden but that full bloom shot was one of the reasons I did buy that rose.
You can click on the name above any one of those photos and it will take you to the database entry with all the photos which include many from my garden. Just looking at it again and I do think I need to try and find one again.