The weather forecasters promised us a thunder storm yesterday and that is what we got - thunder!

Weather here is also weird for us. The geese started to fly like 3 weeks ago, but now they've stopped. And we've been getting a LOT of rain!! Well, some parts really could do without the rain that we've been getting.. the flooding in Manitou Springs, for instance and major flash flooding in Colorado Springs (http://www.9news.com/news/loca... and http://www.9news.com/news/arti...), not to mention the other flooding here in the Denver metro (http://www.9news.com/rss/story... and http://www.9news.com/rss/story... and http://www.9news.com/news/loca...). In my particular neck of the woods, we've haven't gotten *that* much rain, but we've gotten more this month than we have all year combined! Yesterday I think it got up to like 72 degs & last night, it was down in the upper 40s. My roses are definitely loving this weather, though! Posted new pictures I took last night (almost 60 of them) here http://cubits.org/bluegardens/...

Going to have to move 2 roses next spring. I planted Twilight Zone & Bolero in my front yard near my daylilies & tradescentia. I completely forgot about my hibiscus right there because it takes FOREVER for it to come up. And this year, this hibiscus has gone crazy! It dies down every year to the ground and comes back every year. Doesn't get too tall, we're talking 2-3ft tall, but this year, it's about 6' around! Both new roses are completely & utterly buried in the hibiscus!

My hibiscus are having a great year also. The grasshoppers have reduced my roses to prickly stems, yet they've ignored the luscious looking hibiscus. The poor daylilies are finally sending up some scapes after 2 years of minimal performance. Guess what they really wanted was 15 inches of rain in the heat of July and August. Never ever would have thought that would happen!
But it did...
And there's no end in sight!

Cindi - Any damage with that storm I warned you about last night? I hope not...

Wow, Toni, what a display! I love the unusual colors of Distant Drums and Marilyn Monroe - not roses that are likely to do well for me. Also is that the typical form for the bloom on Pure Perfume? Enchanting!

PPal - Yea, Pure Perfume always produces these weird shaped blooms. They're the flat blooms, but they always are the double or quad blooms. And almost ALWAYS lopsided. But she smells SOO good (very citrus-y), so that's why I love her. Her blooms are always too heavy & the canes are always too thin to hold them, so she droops a lot. Plus she NEVER stays white.. gets filthy SO easily compared to some of my other white roses. And she does show a pink tinge rather than the yellow tinge many white roses show. Honestly, why don't you try a Koko Loko? That's gotta be one of the oddest roses I have.. starts out beautifully tan (yes, tan, like a cafe latte'), then ages truly to a magnificent lavender. Smells good, good vase life, very hardy for me. My bareroot from Edmunds isn't as strong as the 3gal grown one I got locally, but they're both in good shape. And very easily found here.

Hi everybody!

I am finally in my new place. My roses seemed to have survived the move in their pots. Pics and details to follow, eventually....

The ultimate survivor is....Wildeve! You may remember that Wildeve was the first rose to survive a winter in my garden. My love affair with rose growing began with Wideve - purchased in a pot labeled "AUSbonny" at Walmart before I knew what an own root or an Austin rose was! When I dug her up, the root mass was so big that it couldn't fit in my largest pot. I was out of time and the largest pots in the stores were smaller than my largest pot from a friend. I cut Wildeve's roots in two places with a hacksaw! Then I sprinkled them with sulfur and rooting compound, repotted the pieces crowded together in my mega pot and hoped for the best. Although she was one of the last roses planted, she was one of the first to recover. What a survivor!

I guess it isn't going to rain after all. I am done with work and heading outside.

Welcome back! I'm glad the move went well.

Andi, I'm so happy for you. And happy for Wildeve! I hope your new home is everything you want it to be.

Thanks, zuzu. I like my little house so far. It is unique and charming. now I just have to get everything planted before the frosts and everything unpacked. I'll have plenty of cardboard for lasagna gardening.

I'll be moving my pots around to find places for the roses. the challenge for this spot will be working the shade tolerant roses among the trees - just scraggly pine trees. Not ideal for roses, but this is the Poconos. I have sopme areas of sun also.

I plan to let Mme. V (Veilchenblau) ramble into a mulberry shrub/tree near the deck. She outgrew her 8' tall post in my old garden and was magnificent this spring. All my roses were fabulous this spring, just in time to be cut back, shoved into pots, and trucked around. Oh, well, maybe it helped them survive. Luckily, they had a relatively short ride.

William Baffin may be trained nearby against a post fence. The posts and nearby trees will be great for clematis.

My experiment of clematis with roses had mixed results. Generally, I prefer the clematis nearby the roses instead of climbing the roses. The smaller flowering types were the best candidates for growing with roses IMO. I am a novice clematis grower and an advanced beginner rose gardener. I have seen great combos in magazine photos.

I am thinking of grouping coral/orange roses and purple flowers in one flower bed - assuming Carefree Celebration survived. Carefree Celebration and Johnson's Blue hardy geranium were a favorite combo of the old garden. I would like to add a dark purple salvia to that mix....

Other than one pink knockout rose in front of a house, I haven't seen any roses growing in this area. Lots of vinca, hosta and rhododendron....

Winston the pug will need a longer lead to keep me company in the garden - especially if he continues to tie himself around trees. Now if I could only get him over his fear of the spiral staircase....

Bella the cat is still in stealth mode. At least I managed to get her in the box and to the new place. I better like it here. She won't be fooled with the nightly treats in the carrier trick again!

Andi - Congrads on the move.. moving is the WORST! I particularly don't like my city any more, and I am getting tired of the attitude of my county, but I do NOT want to move because of the work involved! Especially considering I am getting my front yard almost exactly how I wanted it. And Orange/Coral roses ((Charisma/Kordes Briliant/New Year/Cary Grant/Dolly Parton) with purple roses (Heirloom/Intrigue). In fact, along my walk way in the front yard, I have my Picante flanked by 2 Intrigues. And when they're all in bloom.. looks SOOO cool! If you're looking for salvia.. go with May Night. Can't kill it, gets HUGE (about 2-3' around, 18" tall), after it blooms prune hard to the ground & about 3 weeks later it'll bloom again! I'm mixing more salvias with my roses now as I wanted to get the roses in the ground first and settled, then put in little itty bitty salvias from the big boxes (you can sometimes find them for $1).

Took new pictures this morning.. I think I'm getting better at taking pictures!

http://cubits.org/bluegardens/...

I have photos somewhere that look just like this!

I think they need to be potted up; they are sure to be root bound.

Love the kitties!

I was starting with my coral roses, orange poppy, purple perennials ( Johnson's blue geranium, a lavender campanula). I start most of my perennials from seed. I LOVE wintersowing. I had saved lots of soda bottles to use as containers, but threw out the ones that I didn't use to move plants. Moving the roses, yarn, fabric, clothes, furniture, dog, crazy stealth cat......I got the movers to move my slate pavers also, but left behind some rocks. They kept "playing blonde" with the pavers. I had to remind them. I think I must have been one of their most eccentric clients. Friends helped me move the delicate and small stuff first, the movers got the rest. If they were throwing my china like they were throwing the boxes of yarn, I would have exploded!!!

I also have gorgeous purple zinnias. they are great for filling in places - they are supposed to repel bunnies also. At least the bunnies don't eat them.

I like the thread with the combination plantings, will have to take notes.

I am glad to have blooms at all here.

We had nice, cool weather today, but I was inside dealing with the computer and phone. I HAD to fax something last night and got the wires all confused on the cable modem. I have also only been able to get one phone to work so far. The cable guy will have to come out tomorrow and check everything again.

I have a young ebb tide - my only dark purple rose.

I want this entry garden to be bright coral/orange and dark purple. I'll have to check out may night. I like the contrast of spiky salvias and full roses.

Winston the pug is snoring away on my peach leather loveseat (actually on the quilt protecting the loveseat from you know who).

Has anyone grown any of the new Buck roses from Chamblees?

Toni, are you happy with distant drums?

I LOVE Honey Sweet and want to grow more buck roses. Honey Sweet has a form like a hybrid tea and the hardiness of a shrub, at least in my garden.

I know, I promise to plant all of my struggling roses in transit before buying any new ones, but, a girl can dream.....

Some other roses may be coming my way. Grumpypants's great aunt (his grandmother's youngest sister) passed away recently. She had some 50+ year old roses at her house. Her son told grumpypants that he will dig them up for me (spoken like a man who has never dug up a rose). I would hate for them to be rounded up and weed wacked, so I hope that they manage to save them. The rest of the family is fighting over the money, no one cares about the roses but me except maybe Grumpypants. She has one huge red climber that I think is Don Juan. Not a rare rose, but huge. I like that it had grown in a friends grandmother's city lot, moved to her younger sister's house and brought beauty and joy to women's lives for so many years.

I plan to live for years, but I will have to make provisions in my will for an announcement to the gardening groups of friends or something to find homes for my plants. Have any of you done that?

Walmart had a new kind of body oil and hand cream. I generally prefer vegetable to mineral oil products, but loved the scent of this one - anfora body oil - so I got the body oil for the bath. The label is in Spanish, so it may be with the ethnic beauty products in your store. They had it in a center display in the beauty section in my store. It has a white label with a pink rose on it. I drizzled a bit in my hot bath and loved the strong rose fragrance. I still smell like roses.

GardenQuilts said:I plan to live for years, but I will have to make provisions in my will for an announcement to the gardening groups of friends or something to find homes for my plants. Have any of you done that?

I made out a living trust and my trustees have been instructed to rent my house for a nominal fee (just enough to cover the property taxes) to someone who likes cats and gardening, preferably a smoker who might have trouble renting elsewhere. I also provided them with a list of candidates. I hope I don't outlive all of them.

What am I saying? I actually hope I outlive everyone I know, including the trustees.

That sounds like a perfect arrangement, even if you may have to find new trustees.