Happy St Patrick's Day everyone...
Am new, and glad to join this site...

Welcome! You live in a wonderful place for growing roses! And iris, and daylilies.....And not too far from some really good nurseries.

Thanks Cindi...we have a very hot and pretty dry Summer and where I live I have to grow stuff in my raise beds since the grown is mainly limestone rock...But I love my pretty flowers and enjoy gardening and meeting great friend like you... What good nurseries you were talking about ?

I got few roses from Lowe's today : Savannah Sunbelt, Soul Sister sunbelt, Deja Blue (these three are own root roses) and Pink and Chicago Peace... I hope they will do great...
I had a mix up and had to cancel my Rose's order...

To answer your earlier question, I wish I could remember where all I shopped when we were down there. My husband was working there for 5 months two years ago, and I went down a few weeks. I went to nurseries in Tyler, to Chamblee, to Carpenter Daylily farm, and to a great African Violet nursery closer to Dallas. The Lowe's and HDs there are way better than up here. I came home with carloads of roses and trees. It was so worth the drive.

Thanks Cindi...I never have a chance to visit that places, maybe should plan for this Spring... I always want to go to the Rose Garden in Tyler (David Austin Roses)..
I planted 3 of my Roses yesterday, you would not believe how much rocks I got from my flower beds, and it's a 10 yrs old flower beds...look like there was a neverending supply of limestone rocks here...hopefully they will be beautiful...

One year I volunteered to put in a flower garden for my sister in law in Arkansas. I dug and dug and dug until I could dig no more, and all I dug up was one rock after another. I could not believe anything could grow in that rocky soil! I ended up telling her to make a raised bed, as there just wasn't enough soil available to plant any roses in her yard.
Funny thing is, I brought a bucket of rocks home with me because if I want a rock here, I have to go buy it.
What amazes me is, I see beautiful gardens all over Arkansas, and I know my aunt there has incredibly beautiful flower beds. She has a big rock pile at the edge of every bed, and she swears they work their way up through the soil, and she pulls out a new crop of them every spring.
The Austin roses in the Rose Garden in Tyler are HUGE!!! I might have a chance to go back there in a few weeks. Turns out my husband is going to be working in Texas again this year.

I understand about rocks. I used to live in New England. Those quaint stone walls around all the fields are just the result of the farmers trying to find a place for all the rocks. Now my soil is totally rock-free - what a lovely difference!

Those rocks seems like they are multiplying too fast for me to get rid of them, just like they say about grey hair (don't pluck them or more to come )

If my garden is anything like the hair on my head I'm in for a lot of work!!

You are so cute Sunnyvalley !!!

I'm sad, lost quite a few of my roses branches and buds (especially newly planted Savannah, Soul Sister, Chicago Peace And Deja Blu) from hailstorm last night...So Im going to post some photos from last year...

Those are beautiful! I would be sad to lose any of them for sure!

Thank you Porkpal...We actually got married in Richmond 21 yrs ago...
Fortunately only few are damaged, but I hate that my new ones lost quite a bit buds, some are big and almost blooms...

Hail can be terrible! Pity that you'll have to wait a little longer to see those beautiful roses bloom again:(

Believe it or not, we haven't had hail here since we moved in 9 years ago (touch wood).

Thanks Sunnyvaley, how is your Spring ?

Spring has sort of arrived - Forsythia isn't in full bloom yet but the temps for the next 2 weeks have lows around 38F and highs 60F+ so things are going to explode. I have gone ahead and pruned all my roses and given them a light fertilizer. Today I am going to remove the mounding on the new roses that I planted in November. Have to start tending the other plants in the garden now - general cutting back and cleaning up. Spring is always such a busy time - it jumps on you and the days are just too short to get everything done. One plus is DST starts on Sunday so I will have more time in the evenings when I get home from work.

it's going to be a lot of work in the garden for me, and I'm loving it

Have a wonderful Easter everyone !

This is my new Chicago Peace, most of the buds were destroyed by hails...