You have some glorious roses and rose colours, zuzu. I've started a rose 'wish list' from these rose threads; thinking now about breaking up one of our fairly big lawns to add another bed...

Hawaiian Sunset is an appealingly tropical color - well named.

zuzu said:Where does the time go? I meant to answer your question about Lemon Meringue's fragrance days ago, Sharlene, but the weather here has been perfect for staying outside all day every day. It may have a lemon scent, but I can't confirm that because it's growing at the back of a flower bed filled with thorny roses, so I never get near it until pruning time, and it doesn't have blooms then.

Zuzu, thanks for your comments on Lemon Meringue. It is always interesting to read about roses which I don't have. Serendipity and Hawaiian Sunset are great looking roses as well but both of them and Lemon Meringue don't seem to be available over here.
BTW - I know what you mean - the weather has been great for gardening here too, maybe a bit humid but dry! Almost too dry but we had a good down pour yesterday! Going to make digging over my new trial beds a little easier got another 6 to do and then that's it for this season.


@cliftoncat Mika your roses are just stunning!!!

gemini_sage said: Hope you know I'm coverting right now, ...., I'm green with envy!

zuzu said: I suddenly want some of the Austins I've never wanted....

I almost tend to agree with Zuzu and Neal but I haven't quite made up my mind about Austins. Most of the ones I have seen tend to have weak necks but The Lady Gardener is totally gorgeous!

Mika, like you, I started a wish list and am constantly adding and deleting - come September I have to make up my mind and put in my order. Not quite ready to dig up part of the lawn - need time to convince the better half - he is quite adamant about leaving the lawn as it is

I think I mentioned that I have been having a real problem with thrips - see blue cups do help

The blue cup thrip trap is impressive! Thanks for the idea!

My pleasure Porkpal - also picked it up from one of the forums and its cheaper than buying the blue or yellow sticky paper they sell in the garden section!

Today is National Radio Day, and the Rose of the Day is 'Radio,' a beautiful sport of 'Condesa de Sastago.'



Unfortunately, 'Radio' appears to be available only in Japan, but there is a more accessible contender for Rose of the Day: 'Radio Times,' a lovely Austin rose.

Radio is lovely - luscious color blend plus ruffled petals. Too bad she is not more available.

Catch-up time again. I was stung twice by bees or wasps a couple of days ago. I don't know what they were because I didn't see them. Both bumped into me and stung me out of panic or spite. I suspect a wasp stung me on the shoulder because that sting hurt more but caused less swelling. The one on my elbow is ridiculously swollen now. Of course, it could be worse. I don't have to walk on my elbow or type with it.

Mika, I wish I still had a lawn to break up into flower beds. All of my lawns were broken up and eliminated long ago. Now I can only wait for a fish pond liner to spring a leak. Many years ago, I put in four ponds because it was so much easier to grow plants in water than to spend all of my time watering them in the ground. The liner of one already failed, providing space for a nice bed of about 15 roses. Another small pond has just sprung a leak, but the space will accommodate only three or four roses, so I might reline it instead.

Sharlene, the blue-cups solution is amazing. I've heard of it before, but your illustration of its efficacy is highly appreciated.

Zuzu ... for reasons I do not know, the aloe vera they sell for sunburn seems to reduce the swelling from insect stings and bites for me. A good thing, too. I have a spider bite on the back of my head ... I put some aloe vera on it last night and the swelling is almost gone.

I think I got bitten when I was working under my fir tree moving the drip. It's so hot up here, I've had to start watering the trees. I am going to find another way to move that drip ..

We have two ponds in England and one in France - I love the sound of running water and the relaxing sight of happy fish swimming around. Our soil in England is heavy clay, so even without pond liners the water stays put... My pond battle here is rather with herons who would like nothing more than to snack on my gentle pets.
As for creating a new rose bed, I'm going to have to investigate how to instal some kind of drainage system under what is now lawn - it gets really wet in winter, so that when you walk on it, it squelches. Our existing flower beds are all slightly raised, either by dry stone walling or simply because of decades of soil improvements/mulches. So it will be a fairly major project...

Thanks for that information, Lyn. I'll have to stock up on it. My Googling led to various sites recommending apple cider vinegar, honey, aloe vera, meat tenderizer, baking soda, witch hazel, and a million other things I don't have in my house.

Oh, Mika, those herons drive me nuts. I buy small feeder fish. As soon as they get big enough to be seen from a distance, a big blue heron parks on my roof and swoops down to kill anything orange he sees in my pond. It's heartbreaking because he doesn't even eat them. He just stabs them with his bill and leaves them to float on the surface.

Mika and Zuzu at least you don't have bears fishing in your ponds A couple of years ago a friend of mine had a bear virtually move onto her property because he loved her pond, her berries and her vegetable garden.

She had given up on bird netting for the pond when a young eagle had gotten tangled up in it, so, she too had problems with herons and other birds, but it was the bear that really upset her the most.

Zuzu, of all of those remedies, I have found the aloe vera works the best.

zuzu said:Oh, Mika, those herons drive me nuts. I buy small feeder fish. As soon as they get big enough to be seen from a distance, a big blue heron parks on my roof and swoops down to kill anything orange he sees in my pond. It's heartbreaking because he doesn't even eat them. He just stabs them with his bill and leaves them to float on the surface.

They do the same here, zuzu. We have tried everything; most so-called solutions work for a short while but not permanently. At the moment we're using a series of angled mirrors - herons aren't very bright and seem to be scared off if they see what they think is another bird claiming the territory. Downside is that the mirrors aren't the most beautiful objects to have around the pond. No doubt they'll get used to the mirrors in due course. And herons are protected here, so we're not permitted to remove their nests...
I don't know what your set-up is, but something that really does work is overhead wires. All the professional koi breeders here rig up tall posts with thick wires over the area where they have their ponds and they swear it deters the herons. We can't organise that in our garden in England, but in France we have a telephone wire above the area where the pond is, and we aren't bothered by herons, or even by seagulls (the seagulls don't hesitate to steal the feral cat food in a different part of the garden).

Mika, I was going to suggest the wire - our neighbour collects koi and that's what he has done. Actually doesn't look that great because most of his front yard is pond!

In May I posted this pic of a bunch of mauve Aldi roses which I intended grafting onto rootstock.

A week later, I bought a bunch of these at the local coop


Now I have the first blooms on the rootstock


Update on La Rose du Petit Prince - here the latest pics - this rose wants to be big! It is just about ready for the second flush and is going to be beautiful if the thrips leave it alone

Wow, Sharlene, that is so impressive! Here most florist/supermarket roses have no scent - presumably that means the rootstock roses won't?

Sharlene, you're an inspiration! Your La Rose du Petit Prince is my idea of a perfect rose plant- it just moved up to the top of my Palatine list

Thanks Neal - Mika!
Neal, I promise you will not be disappointed and 'the little prince' is wonderfully fragrant unlike the florist roses.

Mika most have no or very little fragrance. For me, it is just the challenge of seeing if I can get them to grow. If I see a bunch of roses I like - and they don't cost the earth because sometimes a couple of cut roses cost more than a bare root plant - I just have to experiment! So far, I have only had one failure - a cream spray rose called Vanilla Bouquet

cliftoncat said:Wow, Sharlene, that is so impressive! Here most florist/supermarket roses have no scent - presumably that means the rootstock roses won't?

Mika ... the root stock has nothing to do with the scent of the rose grafted to it. You can graft a rose to a root stock that has a highly scented rose and it won't make a bit of dfference

The gene for fragrance is recessive. Breeding for fragrance breeds out a lot of desirable traits. Tough call.

Good work, Sharlene ...

Thanks Lyn
and thanks for explaining the fragrance question - maybe I should have given a more detailed reply but I just assumed it was understood