Honey Sweet is not blooming yet, but any day now. We've had tons of wind these past few days. I wish it would hurry up and rain already!

Zuzu, in another discussion the idea came up that my NOID might be Lady of Megginch. I saw The Dark Lady this past weekend in person, and the NOID just doesn't really match up. The blooms on this NOID are absolutely huge. Do you have Lady of Megginch? Anyone?

Terri - HMF says that the blooms are about 4.75 across. And smells like raspberries.

If so, I'm gonna have to fanangle my way down to TX and steal me a rose.

I don't have Lady of Megginch, Terri, but that's another new rose. Lady of Megginch wasn't even available in England until 2007, just as Sir John Betjeman wasn't available even in England until 2008, and you said you've had this rose for 3 years. It's highly unlikely that Chamblee's acquired a bush from England as soon as it came out when none of the other nurseries that sell them bare-root at higher prices (David Austin, GVR, Regan, etc.) could get them until this year or last year. I just don't think Chamblee's was selling Lady of Megginch 3 years ago, and Sir John Betjeman didn't even exist 3 years ago.

I think you have to concentrate on the Austins Chamblee's does offer. What about Portmeirion, for example? They also carried Prospero and William Shakespeare at one time. Don't go by their photos. Their photo of L.D. Braithwaite, for instance, makes it look red, but it isn't red at all. Their photo of The Prince is also way off base. Their photo of Noble Anthony bears no resemblance to the actual rose either. It actually looks a lot like your rose.

http://www.helpmefind.com/gard...

William Shakespeare is a magnificent DA that I really should get, but I don't have a singl..

wait.

I DO have a space that I could dedicate to a 6'x6' bush!! My Autumn Serviceberry tree didn't survive this past winter (it was in super bad shape to begin with), so I *could* put a William Shakespeare there! It has the most wonderful raspberry colored blooms that just SMOTHER the bush, great for repeat blooming, and smells like a dream.

I think we have come up with a new description to be used in future when describing a rose bloom. Size of bloom as compared to a dog's behind! I've e-mailed a couple of photos off to Chamblee's. Although I have enjoyed the discussion of what this NOID might actually be and could continue trying to guess for some time, I think I would like to see what they say. So far it is the size of the blooms that is throwing everyone off (I've posted these photos elsewhere). Those blooms really are consistently 4-5" across.

Toni, I have to say that I am trying to find room for almost every Austin. Austins are not even on my "list" anymore. I have the "list" and then I have the Austin catalog! My Perdita has just started to bloom. I'll have to post a photo later as I am at work now. I think I am now in love with Perdita. Tomorrow Lady Em might bloom again and I might be in love with her. Sigh.....

Oh, and I have to post my frustration with Hortico. (I just posted on Garden Watchdog with a neutral rating, but really think I should have been negative!) I had ordered Jubilee Celebration from them last year. I haven't received and had to call them. They told me that they haven't had that rose in stock last season OR this season. And yet they charged my card! I was soooo looking forward to that rose. I think it is Austin's or Chamblees for me from now on! Humph!

Terri - HMF doesn't list Hortico as a provider for that rose, only J&P (YUCK!) or DA's themselves.

I'd really love to smell a "raspberry" smelling rose. Wow, that would be gorgeous! And I'm so jealous.. I don't have ANY blossoms or even buds on ANY of my roses yet that came back from last year... *sigh*

We'll see what my choices for that NOID might be. I asked for a couple of most probable suggestions if they couldn't name it outright. We'll call it a fruity fragrance for the NOID as fragrance is in the nose of the beholder.

As for Jubilee and Hortico, they did definitely listed it as available when I placed the order online. They also confirmed it as available at the time of order. I don't have a problem with them if they had a crop failure or what have you. I just have a problem with them not telling me, charging my card and then not contacting me to make arrangements for a credit when they knew they would not be able to fill the order within a YEAR, and then the petty little arguement about whether I did really have an order and not being able to issue the credit to my card and confirming such credit withing 24 hrs. If I were still at my old job, I would have recorded the conversation, copied all order confirmations, and brought it all to our monthly customer service seminars as a "what-not-to-do" examble! I just hope I get my money back. I had three on order.......

Ah well. As I said, I'll order from Austin's for fall or spring. I'll live.......

I had the good fortune of seeing SJB at the Chelsea Flower Show in 2008, and received mine this spring from Garden Valley Ranch. Here's one of the photos I took of it a couple of years ago in London.

That's the picture that made me crave it. I love the two-toned look it has.

Ooooo, lovely photo! Thanks for posting! It is storming like crazy here right now and that photo is nice to look at with the rain blowing horizontally up against the window!

Some nice photos there, Terri. I love the gentle, soft yellow of Buttercup. Your Gingerbread Man looks marvelous, too. That bright golden color does not always develop with GM, sometimes it's more a dirty orange that fades to ugly cream in blotches. Summer Song is nice, too. It would be fun, sometime, to see how you have grouped all those bright colors.

If I can get them all blooming at once I'll do a photo of the whole bed! Buttercup seems to have a bit of a variety of yellow on the same bush, but each bloom holds its color well and the blooms last a good long time. I'll have to wait and see what happens with Gingerbread Man. I just got that one this spring as a bareroot.

I'm experimenting with bright colors in this garden. My old garden was the classic English garden with all the pastel and muted colors to go with it. I felt like doing something completely different this time around!

Terri - if you like bright colors, you should love my setup once it's actually blooming. I almost despise the soft muted colors (I *am* Mexican, after all, with all the garish, gaudy colors they love!), so the brighter, the better for me! Which is why 2 of my favorite places in my yard is a mixture of either RedGold & Bluegirl or RedGold with Sterling Silver. Bright, happy, loud. That's me!! I *love* your Gingerbread man.. when I saw GM at one of my LGS, I wasn't impressed as it was more a yucky burnt yellow than a happy orange like yours.

wow Mike that is rose picture to make every one want that rose. Its wonderful.

Steph, I took hundreds of pictures at the Flower Show that year. They're actually posted here in the Rose Forum. You can see more of them here: http://cubits.org/roses/thread...

My SBJ is leafing out beautifully, and I'm so glad Zuzu told me that Garden Valley Ranch carried it this year. I remember returning home from London two years ago with the specific intent of finding SBJ and planting it in my garden, only to discover that it wasn't available in the US two years ago. What a disappointment that was. But now we have it, and I'm so glad. I hope mine gets that two-toned look to it; that's what I liked most about it, too.

I have Lady of Meginch. The rose is actually a very unusual color in my garden. It's kind of a dark raspberry sorbet sort of color. It's lighter in color that Sopie's rose, just a tad. And it has less blue in it than Noble Anthony, just a tad. And the flowers seem to fade or darken hardly at all. It's definitely not red. And it's too dark to be pink. To describe it as rose would make it too mauve. But it's not quite coral. Sort of right on the cusp of coral and rose.

The shape of the flower on LoM seems less old rose to me than many Austin introductions. My impression is that your NOID looks nothing like the Lady of Meginch in my own garden. I think that the petals on NOID are too narrow. And they appear to fade and blue visibly as they age. Doesn't mean it can't be the same rose, but I sort of doubt it.

well I will be following this thread eager to see when SBJ blooms.

Well guys, I sent a couple of photos of my NOID off to Chamblee's for identification. Mark from Chamblee's e-mailed back that he definitely feels it is an Austin, but it is definitely not a variety they are currently carrying in their nursery. Their unwanted trial roses and discontinued roses often go into the sales tent. And I just cleaned out my drawer containing all the old catalogs from Austin's, Chamblee's, Digging Dog, etc.! Drat, I might have gotten some clues from there.

So we can tentatively eliminate any Austin currently listed by Chamblee's. Doesn't really narrow it down by much, but it does confirm my feeling that it is not Sophy's Rose or The Dark Lady. Hmmmmm, I wonder if I should e-mail David Austin USA.......This is rather fun!