In my experience, next month we'll start concentrating on the 2020 season. Palatine usually starts updating its website at the end of August and our September chat threads are full of plans for next year.

This, then, is the last month we'll focus completely on this year's gardens. I wish I could say I had finished weeding, but I haven't. I haven't even finished planting yet. I just bought some new potted Agapanthus, Heuchera, Camellia, and Hypoestes plants. They're crowded in the pots and want to go into the ground soon. I also have lots of roses in pots, but they'll stay there until the rainy season starts in November.

Our thumbnail photo for this August is Orsola's fabulous photo of Augusta Luise.

What an eyeful of blooms! Gorgeous.

August is a busy month for me. Getting everything in good order for pruning at the end of the month. Football season starts (Friday night under the lights). And I'm one month closer to the end of my chemo treatments. Oct 2nd is my last treatment. I'll be able to enjoy the fall flush.
One of my favorites. Ring of Fire

All you Southerners and Californians don't feel the urgency like we Northerners do. Up here we are trying to hang on to every second of warm weather we can get because we know that fall is soon upon us. The days get shorter and the nights get colder quick. The roses will start to slow down. Soon I'll be thinking about winterizing!

The pretty mini Yantai

@seilMI, I've been told that autumn cool temperatures bring out the best for roses. Is that true for you? Do you get your best flush in fall? My summers are always cool at night so if I'm lucky I might get three to four flushes all season along. I wonder what will the new season depart for me. I do hope yours is extended beyond the September equinox.
Arturo

Oh wowza!!! Now that's gorgeousness to the extreme! I love that shot of Augusta Luise!!!! Mine has a bunch of bull noses to them with vegetative centers. Could be from the weather??? I'm hoping mine will look more like Orsola's picture later in the summer.

Ken - I love the colors in your Ring of Fire! Lovely! I'm so glad that you're nearing the end of your chemo rounds. What a relief that will be to be done.

Seil - that's a wonderful yellow bloom! I hear you about the colder zones. I've had one flush so far on most of my roses...but not all. Hopefully I can get another flush in.

I just planted Alchemist and ZD next to each other. When I get Lady Emma Hamilton, it will be in this corner too.

I saw Augusta Luise as a bare root yesterday at the nursery but the picture in the label looked nothing special. Is Orsola's photo indicative of what that rose normally looks like or is it an extraordinary shot of an extraordinary plant? I may have to go back to town...

Arturo, my biggest flush is in the spring, usually the first week of June. In the fall the colors intensify but I don't know if that's because of the cool nights or the change in the sunlight, or both. I don't get a "flush" like in the spring when everything blooms at once. I don't do a major pruning like I do in the spring so they just bloom when they will.

Call the nursery Lola and tell them hold Augusta Luise !

seilMI said:All you Southerners and Californians don't feel the urgency like we Northerners do. Up here we are trying to hang on to every second of warm weather we can get because we know that fall is soon upon us. The days get shorter and the nights get colder quick. The roses will start to slow down. Soon I'll be thinking about winterizing!

The pretty mini Yantai

• Rose (Rosa 'Yantai')
• By seilMI

Seil ... I am so glad you still have Yantai.

Yantai was the first rose I ever fell in love with when I volunteered at Tiny Petals. Every single plant I grew in San Diego at my condo got stolen, so I had to keep getting a new plant.

I lost my Yantai when I moved up here and it was no longer in commerce. Last year, Kim got a few small cuttings of Yantai and propagated them. Then he arranged for a friend who lives in Red Bluff to deliver it to me up here .. Bless him ..

I had to pot it up to grow a larger root mass and finally got it into the ground just before the heat hit this year. Even being just planted, when the heat hit, Yantai didn't miss a beat. It has been a healthy beautiful plant and has handled the triple digit temps perfectly ...

It's such an Interesting rose for me in this climate. In the cooler temps of spring, the petals reflex back gently. In the hot temps of summer, the petals quill. Last year, during the colder temps of fall, it actually threw old fashioned looking blooms.

These photos were taken with an obsolete point-and-shoot camera after my other obsolete camera died. I hated this camera and never really got the hang of it. Please forgive the quality of the photos ...

Mid-September ... it's still HOT up here ..





Mid-October









I am still in love with this rose ...

Lola, that is a pretty typical picture of Augusta Luise. If they had Ascot, get that one as well. It is gorgeous!

@KenNEGA that Ring of Fire is beautiful. So far my favorite orangish rose right behind Vavoom.
Heres my RoF





@seilMI you're in the same zone as me. When do you cut back for winter?

Lyn, I love Yantai too! It's stays small but it never stops blooming. AND it's very winter hardy! So it seems it's a good rose in both hot and cold climates. It does black spot here, but then what doesn't, lol. I see yours gets that tiny blush of pink now and then too. Mine usually does that in the fall when it's cooler.

Seth, NEVER! I do not ever prune my roses back in the fall. Roses store energy in their canes. They use that energy to start with in the spring. If you cut the canes off in the fall you've cut off that early food supply they need to get new leaves with in the spring. Yes, you will lose some cane over the winter. BUT if you cut them down to 12 to 18 inches in the fall you'll have nothing left but stubs come spring. If you leave them alone chances are, if it's not a horrible winter, you'll have 18 inches left of good green cane come spring. And you never want to prune climbers in the fall. You want to save as much cane as possible every year or they will never climb. Also, once bloomers should only be pruned back in the summer right after they finish blooming or you will cut off all the old wood that will give you next springs bloom. If you have canes that are long and/or floppy stake and tie them so they won't whip around in the winter winds. Wait until spring to do any type of hard pruning.

Here is some of what's growing in my garden:





Color Me Pink




Lovestruck









Shockwave


Michaelangelo


Molineux


Shazam!


Gingersnap


Disneyland


Bill Warriner


Happy Chappy


Strike it Rich!


Sunstruck


Easy on the Eyes

So pretty, JC! Your photo of Disneyland is just gorgeous and makes me want to replace the one I had until a couple of years ago, when it suddenly declined for no apparent reason. Fred Warriner is one I've never seen. Do you mean Bill Warriner? I love the way your photo of Easy on the Eyes captured its different colors.

Oops!! Bill Warriner is correct (I always do that ). Thx

A few more of my blooms:


Mother of Pearl


Rainbow Sorbet


Elle (with Pumpkin Patch in the background)


Hot Cocoa


Shreveport

Beautiful! I hope you're going to add these photos to our database.

JC - lovely roses...especially your Shreveport, Color Me Pink, Molineux and Rainbow Sorbet!

Seth - your 2nd and last pictures are outstanding!

Lyn - I really love the look of the later blooms...what a wonderful shape!