Anyone have any experience with Stainless Steel? I have 4 surviving Stainless Steels... 3 of blossomed true, but 1 is a MONSTER.. about 7-8' tall (seriously) and hasn't put out a single blossom all year. It blossomed once w/Dr. Huey flowers this spring.. has the rootstock taken hold? I actually have a couple of roses that happened that way.. a "climbing" Charisma that never blossomed but is over 6' tall and a Lagerfeld that blossomed w/Dr. Huey, but no Lagerfeld blossoms.

The Dr. Huey blooms and the absence of others suggest that the rootstock has taken hold with a vengeance, Toni. As for the climbing Charisma, which HMF does not acknowledge, I also have one and it is ridiculously skimpy on blooms. I'll pull it out as soon as I need the space for a better climber.

Yes, Sue, I'm sure that's how she sees herself.

I can't tell you a thing about scorching because mine's growing under that blasted scrub oak next door. As I recall, it was once quite tall, but living in total shade tends to stunt growth. It's now about 3 feet tall and puts out the occasional bloom, but it has never suffered from rust. Nothing really does suffer from rust here, though. Plants arrive with rust, but growing here quickly cures the problem.

Baronne Prevost suffered from rust here, but it suffered from everything. I have never seen a rose so vulnerable to pests and disease. In spite of this, it's also immortal. I dug mine up and threw it away, but it came back, apparently from some little piece of root I left in the ground, and it looks worse than ever. It's no match for black spot, rust, powdery mildew, curculio weevils, etc.

How ironic: a sickly, unattractive rose with an extraordinary will to live! Actually I guess I have several of those - at least almost. I often plant another rose right next to one that seems to be dying, which seem to insure that the ailing rose will struggle on indefinitely. Most of them are anonymous as the labeled cane is long gone, and they never bloom well enough to be identified - but they aren't quite dead enough for me to decide to dig them up.

Well, I guess it goes on the chopping block in the spring when everything dies back. I planted 7 silvermounds in my pond area and the place looks like a damned jungle right now. I can't find half of my roses in that area...

Maybe Daphne should have gotten Sexy Rexy. One of mine was in bloom this afternoon - just a single bloom, instead of the usual spray.



And here's Sir John Betjeman, also in bloom this afternoon. Both the plant and the blooms have been on the small side for two years in a row now, but they're very pretty.



And French Lace.



Darcey Bussell is also in bloom.



And here's The Squire.



Love & Peace



And Paloma Blanca



And here's Angel Face (climber)



And lastly, here's a tiny little mauve mini I bought in the grocery store last year and planted out in the garden at the end of last season. I really didn't expect it to survive, but it certainly has. The blooms are no bigger than a quarter - sometimes they're a little tatty, but pretty all the same.

Daphne did have Sexy Rexy. That's just the kind of name she couldn't resist.

Your little mauve rose is probably Andrea, which is the lavender rose of choice for most grocery stores.

http://www.helpmefind.com/rose...

Unfortunately, there's only one photo on HMF and it's a little deceptive because it seems to have only half the requisite number of petals. Andrea actually has full (26 to 40 petals) blooms.

After all of these years of falling in love with Paloma Blanca all over again every time you post a photo of it, I finally broke down and bought it from Heirloom. I kept trying to find another supplier, but ultimately had to take a chance on Heirloom.

So that's what it is! Thanks.

BTW, I got Paloma Blanca from RU, probably 5 or 6 years ago.

It's still on their list, but it's never available.

I am really enjoying seeing all your happy roses, Mike. Mine are really struggling this summer with the hotter-than-usual temperatures plus the drought. It's great to see such healthy blooms.

Great shots Mike, I especially love that little lavender mini and The Squire. Love that color! I planted Tradescant today in fact, always happy to get another rose in the ground.

Thanks guys. And now, for something completely different... I've been making kaleidoscopes out of some of the rose photos. This is the same photo of Tuscan Sun from above.

Cool!

Oh, what fun! It's stunning and it looks medieval (in a good way).

Oh that is so cool! What program are you using? I think those would make fun art prints.

I'm glad you like it. I made it with one of the Mirror Kaleidoscope tools in Plugin Galaxy 2.1, for Photoshop on the Mac. Sometimes they look like Navajo rugs; other times they look like country quilts; and other times they are very abstract. Sometimes I'll apply multiple filters and get something really cool. For example, here's a picture of the my gated arbor:



Then I applied a poster filter to it which makes it look hand-drawn, and got this:



Then I applied the kaleiscope plugin on top of the posterized picture, and got these images:













Pretty cool, huh? I think I'm going to have some enlarged to 20" x 20" and have them professionally printed at the lab where I get most of my art prints made.

I want the second kaleidoscope shot to be a carpet.

Wow, those are so fun, some of them remind me of a fancy potager garden! I agree Zuzu, that would be a fabulous rug!

Meanwhile, here are some more blooms from this afternoon, starting with Peace.



And Chicago Peace.



America



Ruffled Cloud



Crown Princess Margaretta



Our Lady of Guadalupe



And another of Paloma Blanca for Zuzu.

Amazing! I like the first kaleidoscope picture - sort of rustic looking. And the last two shots are fascinating.

Paloma Blanca is such a romantic garden shot!