Lyn, is there a standard number of buds that are grafted on each rose? I would like to know more about the budding process. The maiden roses I got from Steve Singer have many buds, where some of the new ones I bought have 3 canes and no more buds that I can see. The process is not like tree grafting, is it?
I took one of my maidens from Wisconsin roses to my Rose Society meeting, and they were fascinated like me. We never knew that roses grew that way their first year. I'm about to cut the tops off them because they are getting leaves.

Zuzu and I hit the nurseries yesterday but I took a few shots in her garden before we took off. She is almost in full bloom, judging by the huge amount of buds, it will really be a fantastic first flush, one of the better ones in a while.










Not our nursery cart, it was smaller but we liked the combo!

Wow! Lovely blooms! Thanks for the inspiring photographs!

I was all excited because I found 1 creeping phlox bloom yesterday...

Whoop, whoop!

Toni.......breathe deeply, breathe deeply !

@CindiKS, Cindi ...

A grade 1 bare root rose has three good canes coming out of the bud union. Of course, a rose can have more than three, but less than three is a lower grade of rose. When the rose industry was much, much larger, budders had a quota of 5,000 roses per day to bud. Those guys were amazing. There was a larger percentage of grade one roses produced back then than there are today. The art of budding is becoming a lost art.

@Calif_Sue, Sue ...

I am so glad you always have your camera with you ! Your photos are so inspiring.

I saw buds on my roses today for the first time. Yes !

Smiles,
Lyn

Thanks Lyn, glad you are enjoying them!


First bloom on Cafe


and Helen Hayes, man I love this rose, thanks Zuzu! It's just stunning and she and I both added so many lovely examples of it's beauty to the database. (from a small cutting probably 2.5 years ago, it's now 5-6 feet tall, in 1/2 day shade so it gracefully leans over)



Summer Song, (from which I named my Etsy shop) is such an intensely deep orange, thanks to the cool overcast mornings. The little lavender blooms are Geranium 'Bill Wallis' which I have all over the garden. It makes a great sprawling cover for beneath a rose, self seeding everywhere but easy to remove where you don't want it.


Little mini


Iris are making pops of early color, as are a few clematis, the roses will be in full flush within a couple of weeks, can hardly wait! Penny enjoys roaming the garden, lately the two dogs (Penny the tiny toy poodle & Kasey the Yorkie) have been alerting us to recent gopher activity. Brad killed one a cople of days ago and I dispatched an iris eating one yesterday, he is now worm food.


My favorite rose, Brothers Grimm, is right behind the golden Juniper (Juniperus communis 'Gold Cone') look how shiny and huge it is!

Sue - Man oh man oh man... I wish my Summer Song was that saturated... wow.............

*sigh*

Saw roses at the big-boxes yesterday for the first time. They had Gold Glow, Spanish Red, Belinda's Dream, Betty Prior, Climbing Picante, & Climbing Joseph's Coat. Didn't buy anything. Was a bit tempted by Spanish Red & Betty Prior, but I have to watch what I buy now because I'm desperately running out of room for plants. Woe is me to have such a small lot & so many roses I want!!! Will be digging out some Silvermounds & getting rid of them.. that'll open up another 6'x3' space to put 3-4 more roses in.

Still digging....

Your blooms are beautiful. My roses will need time to recover, but I am thrilled with any sign of life this year. A couple of roses that haven't set any leaf buds yet have healthy new roots! these. I am so glad. I was suspecting that they didn't survive the winter. I want to give my plants a chance, but not move any dead sticks.

A few more clematis are setting their first leaves. The daylilies are growing well now that I rescued them from the deer. (They seem to prefer the named day lilies to the native ones, deer gourmets) The lilies and hostas better hurry. I don't want to leave them behind! The hellebores are lovely, I will have to plant more of them!

Off to wrap up the wine glasses and vases.....

Brothers Grimm is almost ready to explode, my best looking rose, I have two of them now.


Autumn Sunset opening, awesome rose. I have a nesting morning dove atop it's trellis.


Cindo de Mayo


A sweet bud of Distant Drums, I love the soft historic iris in the background.


Tradescant



Aloha (the Kordes one) is opening

Sue.. just beautiful.. just beautiful. Took some pictures in the pre-dawn light this morning. Kinda depressing after looking at yours.

My front yard w/all the mulch.. well, not ALL of the front yard, just a shot. All the sticks sticking up are winter-dead roses.



I have some creeping phlox blooming, though, along with some woodland phlox (blue moon)



All of my lilacs are about to bloom, though. Here's one of my itty bitty James McFarland's. It'll bloom pink. Dappled Dawn is beautiful, too.



I also have a single yellow tulip blooming.



But the vinca's going crazy. This is Blue & Gold, but most of it has reverted.



I have a couple of grape hyacinths, plus my regular hyacinths, blooming as well.



But the roses.. they're just starting to send out growth. Here's examples of what my roses look like first thing in the spring. I'll be pruning this week / weekend, cutting all the dead winterkill off. As you can see, they're starting out from the ground up. These pictured are Princess de Monaco, Betty Boop, Heirloom, Sterling Silver, & Tardi Gris. The roses in the red mulch have less than 1" of mulch on them, so they survived pretty well with almost no protection.

Sue your gardens are amazing - so much lovely, healthy, blooming, luscious vegetation and so well planned!

Toni I really admire your determination to grow roses in such a difficult climate.

Quite a contrast at this time of year!

PPal - I never said I was smart...

Toni,
Many of my roses look just like yours--only an inch or so of green on them. I've never had to prune so much dead off of the shrub roses, though. That last little freeze we had a week or so ago really hurt. On the roses that were green and growing, now I have blackened tops.
The leaves are all smaller this year, too. Is that a lack of fertilizer last season?
We have a chance of storms tonight. Hopefully there will be some rain with the noise and wind.

This is where I got my love of gardening from, my Mom. She'll be 80 next month and is very active in her beautiful garden. We spent a nice but short afternoon talking plants and I dug a hole and planted her new Lady of Shallot rose. Her back prevents her from any heavy digging and lifting otherwise it goes into spasms.
Photos aren't the best, it was hard to get the right lighting with bright full sun and some shadows from big trees.

Her front porch has these two beautiful Eureka in full bloom. I lost mine to a gopher, need to get one, or even two, again!


Golden Celebration


The Pilgram


My hubby built her this wonderful arbor, she has Austin's Malvern Hills planted on both ends. The left one was planted probably a year later so is still small.


Penelope



She has an wonderful collection of scented and zonal geraniums and succulents, she grows them so well!

Forgot this shot, she is testing the vase worthiness of all her roses.


The center dark one, not showing the correct coloring, is Wild Blue Yonder, she said its good and the last one on the right is Hot Cocoa, that's been in the vase for a week now.

She's amazing. I hope I'm still gardening at 80 (and I hope I can count on you for the digging and lifting).

zuzu said:She's amazing. I hope I'm still gardening at 80 (and I hope I can count on you for the digging and lifting).

Zuzu ... I was thinking the same thing ...

Smiles,
Lyn