I hope it's OK that I break this down. Every day now new roses are finally blossoming.. I have lots of little buds opening everywhere, but few full blooms. Plus we got a massive 2 hour rain/thunderstorm yesterday evening that just beat the crap out of everyone that WAS open. So here's some pictures from Saturday morning, and then this noon hour. If you see rocks & dirt, it'll probably be in the back yard. If you see lots of mulch & sawdust, it'll probably be in the front yard. EVERYWHERE (practically, not too much in the front) there are weeds.. sorry. I weeded yesterday for 3 hours and didn't make a DENT. So, I'm doing this alphabetically.

Starting with Ebb Tide. SORELY disappointed in this rose. Stingy with growth, PINK? blooms. I saw this at a nursery and couldn't buy it yet (not ready for sale). Bought a bare root package w/Julia Child.. PINK? WTH!!!

However, Enchanted Evening is back in force with some beautiful blooms. I need to cut down the dead canes (this had some strange spurt of growth right before our last snows.. sending up a cane like an extra foot long, then the cold killed it. Now this beautiful bush is only like a foot tall now. Oh well.

Now, if anyone wants a blooming idiot, get Europeana. Totally the best damned rose I've ever grown (in my whole 3 years of growing roses, including this year.. started in '08). Blooms constantly, consistantly, for MONTHS on end... it'll actually keep blooming all the way until we have a truly killing frost (November). Now if these bad boys only had a SMELL!

Another shot, 2 days later. Bloom Bloom BLOOM!

I thought that Intrigue was darker than this last year. Huh. Still smells wonderful, even if it's a pathetic little bush. Blooms are bigger than the bush.

Bought this Joseph's Coat last year at Big Lots for $2.50. Still blooming! Yay! It's supposed to be the climbing variety, but I doubt it as it lays on the ground.

In the top 3 of my favorite roses is Judy Garland. I got this rose earlier this year and it has finally graced me with some blossoms. And are these spectacular.

She's starting to age, but she ages so GRACEFULLY! Judy Garland looks better as an older rose than a new rose, IMO.

Julia Child is so buttery mild.. RIP dear heart.

Unfortunately, you'll see my fat hand here.. but I thought that Kordes Brilliant (from Palatine, planted earlier this year) was a bigger rose. These survived the torrential rains from yesterday, but are nodding horribly.

Our Lady de Guadalupe is a beautiful rose. I'm not a religious person, but growing up on the Mexican border in NM where I did, most people praise or, basically, worship Her rather than the standards of Christianity. She's dirty from mud splatters from last night.. this particular bloom was very close to the ground.

Montezuma took the full force of my aspen tree being cut down.. it got pretty badly squashed. For some reason and some how, it managed not only to repair it's cane (?) and is now blooming.. while 100% on the ground. Yuck. I may yank this rose.. I have enough ground roses.. I want big fat bushes!!

But Montezuma *is* a beautiful rose. I will give it that.

Moonstone froze all the way to the ground (bareroot I got from RU last fall, never really grew last fall, then was under 1-3' of snow/ice all winter), then the cane that was above the ground broke off at ground level. When it sent up a single baby leaf, I babied it until it produced more leaves. Now it's horribly eaten by something (grasshoppers?) but it's trying SOOO hard to give me a rose!! I feel so bad for it... but it has none of the pink tinge. Maybe it's in too hot of an area?

Back in '08, one of my neighbors was redoing his front yard and dug up 2 roses. He was going to throw them away, so I took 'em. One never survived the transplant (transplanted in the middle of July?), the other survived. This year, it hasn't given me that many roses (but, then again, none of them have), but here's one. NOID. No scent.

Oktoberfest caught my eye last year. It wasn't a blooming rose last year.. then again, hardly anyone bloomed. But I'm happy to finally get something this year!

Oranges and Lemons has had a slow start.. everyone is 1-2 months behind. But considering the winter, I'm just happy it survived!

Purple Heart has been faithfully producing blooms for the past week, and it doesn't show any signs of slowing down, either.

Ruby Ruby has been going strong also.. such a clear red!

I had this mislabeled when I attached my tags last year as the professional tag was laying between Scentsational and Stainless Steel. Come to find out..oops, this is Scentsational! Why would they call it SCENTsational rather than sensational as it has just a mild scent?