Walk along the southside rose garden with me. Of course the roses are not blooming yet but the shrubs in the mixed shrub border across are in full bloom.

What a lush and calming landscape, Rita. Very nice.

Toni, I'd hesitate to recommend George Burns and Purple Tiger to anyone starting a rose garden. They're so temperamental in comparison with other roses.

My purple tiger did fine for years and then one winter it just upped and died. Replaced it with an own root Purple Tiger.

I've tried own-root and grafted and both are temperamental and incredibly susceptible to black spot. They rarely had any leaves to speak of.

Zuzu - GB survived just fine for me.. and if I can keep it, I figure anyone with a plot of soil can keep it! Only reason why he died is because 100% my fault. I 1) buried him wrong, 2) he had wet feet all summer, 3) wasn't mulched, & 4) pruned him in the fall right before a killing frost when he was putting out new growth. Going to get a new one (finally found a nursery that has him!) next week. Only downpoints GB has are 1) his thorns (EVIL!!) and 2) the best colors are in the cooler temps where he shows the yellow/red versus white/red in hot temps. Haven't found a good Purple Tiger yet that I was willing to spend the money on.. every time I see one they're always little spindly things w/weak-looking bud unions.

Ooh, I forgot Perfume Tiger. I've had mine now 3 years and they're indestructible IMO. They've taken everything I've thrown at them, including one poor plant that was encased in 3" of pure ice!!

Trish - do you have humidity problems? I don't have humidity to speak with, so I don't suffer the problems with blackspot like Zuzu does. But I figured that with your drought there in TX you wouldn't have that big of a problem.

Yes, it does like to Blackspot. But I have to spray everything with fungicide anyway so it doesn't make much difference.

Oh, this is so frustrating! My new 'September Song' from Heirloom just bloomed and it's just the latest in a series of disappointments.

I've wanted 'September Song' for years. It's supposed to be a nice orange-apricot blend and should look like this:

http://www.helpmefind.com/gard...

I bought one from Great Lakes when it was still in business, but it looked like this when it bloomed:



That was disappointing, so I bought one from Roses Unlimited, but it looked just like the photo they now have of it:

http://www.rosesunlimitedownro...

Both of those were white roses with pink centers, so I bought one from Heirloom, which described the rose as having "orange-red blooms in clusters." Well, it just bloomed -- no orange-red, no clusters, just what seems to be a pink blend. It is slightly different from the other two I bought, but it certainly isn't orange-apricot or orange-red. Heirloom, incidentally, has now changed its description of the rose to "apricot blend" and has removed its earlier photograph of an orange-blend rose.



I wonder if anyone sells the real 'September Song.'

Zuzu - don't fret.. remember last year when my Hawkeye Belle opened up & looked 100% wrong.. then finally towards the end of the year she was blooming what she was supposed to look like? I'd wait patiently... Does Sue have it? If so (100% of her pictures on HMF are from her), maybe you can get a cutting & have Burling root it?

Well, let's see The one from Great Lakes has been here for 7 years and the one from Roses Unlimited has been here for 5 years. They're still pink and white, and the Heirloom one might be new, but I can't imagine that semidouble pink-blend bloom suddenly turning into a full orange-apricot bloom with twice as many petals and in clusters. Besides, the plant habit bears no resemblance to a grandiflora. I'm afraid this is not going to be one of those cases.

Toni- No, it's not very humid here, even when we aren't in a drought. The only time I've really seen black spot be a problem here is when people have planted their roses too close together and there isn't enough air flow.

Zuzu - rats. I was hoping!!! I forget that your roses are so much older than mine.. my oldest rose will be in the ground 4 years this year! W00t!!11!!

Trish - that's what I thought. I wouldn't worry too much about blackspot problems then. And you can always plant shrubs between the roses so you don't have blank spots. I like putting in spirea between the roses. I won't be doing bluebeards any more. they get too big!!

I bought purple tiger for the name alone since my daughter goes to K State and they are the purple wildcats. It is the worst rose in my yard, and I have it marked to go in the dumpster.
In my opinion Fourth of July is a better striped rose than George Burns, and has fewer thorns. Ha...still is a thorny bugger but less than George. George is the thorniest rose there is.

i was in Lowes today and they had a new cart of roses. Half the cart was Happy Chappy, a rose I love because it makes a neat little border. The other half was a rose the same size as Happy Chappy but with soft apricot blossoms and smaller foliage like a miniature rose. The tags on all of them said "Westerland" and I laughed out loud. It had a picture of westerland, and the only resemblance was the color, although that soft color is only on Westerland when the blooms are a week old and fading. The blooms were small like a mini, not 3" or so like Westerland. I went ahead and bought 3 of them because they were healthy and they were only $6 for the 1.5 gal pot. After some searching online, I think they look like an Oso Easy or carpet rose. I may call the grower.


Anyone have any guesses?

Well. they are pretty!

Here's my Westerland on the left with the imposter Westerland on the right.
I should have picked some foliage too because my climber has much larger, darker foliage.

It looked a lot like Apricot Drift, except when I put them side by side, the apricot drift had more petals and tighter blossoms. It also had smaller foliage.

Humm, well I have Westerland myself and it really doesn't look anything like Westerland for sure.

Hated Purple Tiger, awful looking gangly bush and full of black spot, it was dumped within a year.

I would sure like to have an idea of the eventual size of the mystery rose before I plant it. Moving established roses sets them back a year or so.
Roses here just finished their first big flush. I wish they had held off a week. This weekend, 2 of my 3 girls plus my mom will be here. we're celebrating a college graduation for one, an engagement for another, and the end of radiation treatment and the good cancer reports for my mom, and mothers day, of course.
We'll spend quite a bit of time in the garden smelling iris and roses. That's the bad thing about not living in a neighborhood...few people get to see the pretty flowers. I can't wait to share them with my family!

Cindi - That's awesome! I've been trying to get my mom to come visit me, but she can't right now because she can't leave her dog at home by himself & he's not you'd classify as .. friendly. More like Kujo.

Sorry to everyone for suggesting Purple Tiger. I've been on my wish-list for a couple of years now and I drool every time I see it at Tagawa's, but don't want to spend $40 on a spindly rose that won't survive my winter. I *did* see it at Highlands Ranch Gardens, so I may pick it up there.

Here's the second bloom on the "September Song Not":



It probably is a Buck shrub because it has plenty of black spot, but I don't recognize it.