Last night we got another frost, not a bad one, definitely not a killing frost. But I know that the season is winding down with a vengeance and all my beautiful roses that are in full flower now (some for the first time this year!!!!!!!) won't make it much longer. This is the longest Indian Summer we've had in years.. we usually have a good snow by now. Maybe this will be a mild winter? Don't know.

Anyways, on to the roses.

Ch-Ching! is finally blossoming. And when it does, BOY does it!


Gingersnap has not given me a single bloom this year. It pouted all summer. And now it has a single droopy bud. *sigh*


Kordes Briliant (sp?) is definitely brilliant! Couldn't get a "sunshine" picture of it, though, so this is in light shade.


Maybe I can get a picture of Octoberfest open when I get home.


And Wildfire is just amazing!


I'm pretty happy in the end with all the RedGolds.


Melody Perfume had a rough beginning with me, and is now a happy rose.


Intrigue doesn't want to open. I took this a couple of days ago and last night it was still the same. Huh.


Tequila Sunset is so dependable with giving me blooms.. once it starts blossoming, it doesn't stop. This is almost how it's been all season.


Ruby Ruby is identical with being a blooming idiot. But, right now, it's actually buried under about 12" of mulch (mulched the last of the roses last night, so everyone's under mulch for the winter)


This rose was red last year, but it's been blooming pink all summer. Found this bloom under all the hyssops & agastaches. No ID.


Tuscan Sun is a warm happy corally orange. It's a nice rose.


I want to bring this spray of Heirlooms into my office for a last hurrah. It smells divine & you can actually smell it about 5 feet away!


Escapade has grown on me. Still don't know why I bought it, but it's a very nice bush and has wonderful smelling roses. But a little too pink for my tastes.


Sunny Delight just keeps on a truckin'.


Kordes Perfecta is just breath-taking. I can't believe that I'm growing something that looks like a rose you'd find in a bouquet.


Back in my back yard, the pond area actually looks almost like something I'd actually want to look at. Please excuse the dead & the bottle of fertilizer!


Some of the roses are just going bonkers in my pond area. Here's one of my Sterling Silvers. I swear it's a climber.


And a Sterling Silver with a Singin' the Blues.


And a different Singin' the Blues with Heirloom.


Summer Sunshine makes me happy considering it's one of the few roses that I haven't managed to kill in 2 years! Yay!


Europeana is frost-kissed and Sunsprite is spent.


Scentimental can't keep it's heads up. I've never had such a droopy nodding roses. What can I do to make the canes thicker?


And, lastly, Scentsation (mini) is blooming again.

Wow, things really came alive for their last show before winter! Tequila Sunrise is incredibly healthy and vigorous for a florists rose. Mine never looks that good. It always has some kind of bug damage. I love the look of your Intrigue. It looks like the foliage on a gardenia.

It's Brillant, by the way. Only one "i" in the word. The font on this site makes it difficult to see the difference between "i's" and "l's", but here it is in capital letters -- BRILLANT. (I'm not screaming at you, just trying to make the spelling easier to see.)

I am very impressed by the healthy foliage on all your roses. Mine have plenty of blooms as a rule but not enough leaves. I guess our long summers give the bugs and diseases more time to grow too. How do you get pictures of red roses that still look red? Mine always get bleached by the camera.

PPal - Healthy foliage is easy when you've had 3 months with no rain and fivehundredthousand robins everywhere. Not much was eaten by grasshopper because of the robin infestation I have and very little blackspot due to lack of moisture. As far as red roses not being bleached out, first of all, I usually take my pics either early morning before the sun comes over the trees/neighbors houses or in the evening after the sun has dropped past the trees/neighbors houses (my front yard has a very small window of sun in the morning before I have to go to work.. and now that we're into later fall, I don't see sun until about quarter to 8 to 10 minutes to 8, and by that time I'm on the road already, same with the west side of the house due to the huge maple tree). But if I am actually taking pictures in the daytime, I change my camera (https://www.amazon.com/dp/B001SER49C/ Canon SD1200 Point & Shoot) from Auto mode to Program mode and adjust the aperture for a longer time (ISO400, whatever the heck that means). Some pictures come out too dark, but at the same time, Kordes Brillant actually comes out orange rather than washed out Tang-colored. Believe it or not, that's why a lot of directors don't like using red in their movies.. it's very hard to film. That's why car chases are usually with a darker colored car or a white/silver car and not a red car.. too hard. Dukes of Hazard was a major exception to that rule, but at the same time, you never ever see the General Lee shiny.. it's always dusty. That way the film catches it without bleaching out.

Very interesting, thank you!

Got some pictures of the roses that were tempting to open, but hadn't opened yet. I'm posting a side-by-side of a standard picture, then with a longer aperture (ISO400).

Kordes Brillant with Shocking Blue to the right & Sir John Betjeman behind. You can see the yellow tones in the "washed" picture, which doesn't really show in the darker.


Shocking Blue to the right, Sir John Betjeman to the left.


Wildfire. Wow.


Octoberfest. The non-washed out shows the orange a lot better.


Now just some single images.

Shockwave.


Sir John Betjeman


And Our Lady de Guadalupe (the Mexican in me required me to get this rose, but she smells divine, too!)

Neat contrast between the two photographic techniques. I think I need Octoberfest.

ISO 400 is not an aperture number, a camera's ISO function sets the light sensitivity of the camera's image sensor.
http://www.slrphotographyguide...


This is an excellent site that explains aperture
http://www.freephotoresources....

cool! I told you I was a camera dummy! I just know that when I put it in "program", a little bar comes up on the bottom that I can move back & forth.. to the right gets lighter, to the left it gets darker, and then a little box comes up on the left side of the LCD screen that says ISO400. It changes from ISO200 all the way up to ISO1600 and I thought that (from my old film camera days) that meant speed, but it changes the amount of light on the screen. Huh, maybe it IS speed and it slows it down so not as much light comes on? I know that when I tried taking pictures of my Halloween lights last night, it kept coming up in Auto Mode as ISO400, and then I'd click it and it'd hang for a second or two, then it would show the pictures. Maybe I'm slowing down the speed of light!! Heck ya! then we can check out distant galaxies if a little cheapo camera can slow down the speed of light!!

Okay, I'm confuzing myself and my eyes are crossed.

LOL!!!!!!!!!

I second the comment on healthy foliage. Lots of black spot in my garden.

The last fall flush is always melancholy.

Late July/early August was hotter and drier than any summer in my memory. Luckily, I don't have to pay extra for water. I watered the garden, but held back on the Bayer disease fighter. My usual program also includes biweekly evening spraying with neems/baking soda/soap when daytime temps are less than 85'F. Obviously, I didn't use much neems this year. I was afraid of burning the plants. I started regular spraying again once the temperature cooled. We still had high humidity during parts of the heat wave. I would feel like it might rain for days, finally drizzle a tiny bit and stay balmy - lots of humidity with very little rainfall. I am not sure if suspending the spray program was the right decision, but blackspot notwithstanding the plants survived. I am making sure that I also spray the winter protection. It isn't time to add it yet. I wait until the leaves are finished falling, removed, and we have had a few hard frosts. I have peat moss ready to cover the bases of the roses and other tender plants.

Guess who still hasn't gone outside. I started a pot of soup for later instead.