The first flush is almost finished in my garden, the black spot has almost disappeared now that temperatures are climbing, I have very little sawfly damage, and the rose weevils are much less conspicuous this year. A great year, all in all.

The gorgeous thumbnail photo is May Queen. What a fabulous rose!

May Queen is, indeed, a fabulous rose!

I think I need May Queen! Absolutely glorious!

May already and April just flew by!



My dog Lily likes to spend time outside with me while I garden. She such a sweetheart.

Roses are at peak bloom, it's a riot of color.
First row taken from my upstairs balcony.



The digiplexis is fully open now and I want more!

Rose (Rosa 'South Africa')

Floribunda Rose (Rosa 'Cinco de Mayo')

Rose (Rosa 'Sally Holmes')

Rose (Rosa 'Lady Emma Hamilton')


#1 Rose (Rosa 'Teasing Georgia') on left, Rose (Rosa 'Aloha') on the right.
#2 Rose (Rosa 'Jacob's Robe') on left, Rose (Rosa 'Grace') in center, Pirate Ahoy iris in foreground, iris Connection behind it.


#1Left, Rose (Rosa 'Graham Thomas'), center Rose (Rosa 'Molineux') and Rose (Rosa 'Hot Cocoa'), which I may remove. Not working for me.
#2 Rose (Rosa 'South Africa'), white Rose (Rosa 'Sally Holmes') in the back, gold shrub is Butterfly Bush (Buddleja davidii 'Santana'), the grey foliage with fuchsia blooms is self seeded Rose Campion (Silene coronaria), small gold shrub is Oriental Arborvitae (Platycladus orientalis 'Aurea Nana').


#1 Yellow rose is Rose (Rosa 'Graham Thomas'), shrub behind bench Mexican Orange (Choisya ternata Sundance) and the tall salvia in the back with huge blooms is Blue Anise Sage (Salvia coerulea 'Costa Rica Blue'), lavender clematis 'Romona'. Fur baby is Kasey, looking for that lizard she saw zip under the plants.
#2 Rose (Rosa 'Teasing Georgia') in foreground, at her base is Clematis Josephine™ and Clematis (Clematis florida 'Sieboldii'). Rose (Rosa 'Gebrueder Grimm') coral red rose, and blue blooming shrub is Ceanothus (Ceanothus thyrsiflorus 'El Dorado') '

Sue, everything looks fabulous! The peak happened in April for me this year because I didn't prune anything. Now I'm spending my days deadheading in preparation for the next flush.

I know what you mean about the Digiplexis. Yours looks great! I have only one that looks like yours, but I have five more that will reach their full potential next year. I wish I had 10 more.

Sue, your roses are beautiful.

My roses are just starting to pop. No photos, yet.

Smiles,
Lyn

Sue, everything looks amazing!

Calif_Sue said:Roses are at peak bloom, it's a riot of color.
First row taken from my upstairs balcony.



The digiplexis is fully open now and I want more!

Rose (Rosa 'South Africa')

Floribunda Rose (Rosa 'Cinco de Mayo')

Rose (Rosa 'Sally Holmes')

Rose (Rosa 'Lady Emma Hamilton')


#1 Rose (Rosa 'Teasing Georgia') on left, Rose (Rosa 'Aloha') on the right.
#2 Rose (Rosa 'Jacob's Robe') on left, Rose (Rosa 'Grace') in center, Pirate Ahoy iris in foreground, iris Connection behind it.


#1Left, Rose (Rosa 'Graham Thomas'), center Rose (Rosa 'Molineux') and Rose (Rosa 'Hot Cocoa'), which I may remove. Not working for me.
#2 Rose (Rosa 'South Africa'), white Rose (Rosa 'Sally Holmes') in the back, gold shrub is Butterfly Bush (Buddleja davidii 'Santana'), the grey foliage with fuchsia blooms is self seeded Rose Campion (Silene coronaria), small gold shrub is Oriental Arborvitae (Platycladus orientalis 'Aurea Nana').


#1 Yellow rose is Rose (Rosa 'Graham Thomas'), shrub behind bench Mexican Orange (Choisya ternata Sundance) and the tall salvia in the back with huge blooms is Blue Anise Sage (Salvia coerulea 'Costa Rica Blue'), lavender clematis 'Romona'. Fur baby is Kasey, looking for that lizard she saw zip under the plants.
#2 Rose (Rosa 'Teasing Georgia') in foreground, at her base is Clematis Josephine™ and Clematis (Clematis florida 'Sieboldii'). Rose (Rosa 'Gebrueder Grimm') coral red rose, and blue blooming shrub is Ceanothus (Ceanothus thyrsiflorus 'El Dorado') '

• Rose (Rosa 'Teasing Georgia')
• Uploaded by Calif_Sue

It is so beautiful at your garden. I wish I could visit and just wander around to see everything.

Thanks Rita!

A few shots from this cool overcast morning, lots of heavy dew, the plants love it.

Cafe


Sweet Dream


Vesper


And I could take hundreds of pictures of Helen Hayes!


Jacob's Robe


Polka


Westerland



Caramella


Ghislaine de Feligonde is loaded with buds, as usual, and is just starting to bloom. It, and Molineux, are the only ones hit by the rose weevils this year, first time for Ghislaine. I have been hand picking them every day and picking off the blooms with holes, I think it made a pretty good impact and the damage is minimal. The roses that were their usual targets in the past seem fine this year. As Zuzu said, less conspicuous this year.

Hurray for me getting the roses sprayed today. Should have been done already but now at least I can keep to my schedule all summer and have nice clean foliage. This was the first spraying of the year. The roses are really short (REALLY short) so it wasn't too difficult to do.

Zuzu, have you ever seen Polka that pink?

No, Sue. I've seen it fade to almost white, but even then the remaining color is more melon-orange than pink.



Are you sure some other rose didn't sneak into the photo, the way Helen Hayes once did?

No, this one is off by itself. That mix-up was when I had all my pots sitting together when we first moved here.

It has the shape and size of Polka, both in bloom and the plant growth and I saw it bloom last year and it was much lighter. I didn't take a picture of it then as it wasn't a nice enough bloom, being one of the first ones after planting.

It's probably a temporary aberration like your pink Lady Emma Hamilton this year. Wait until it blooms some more.

This is the third bloom so far, same coloring. Maybe once it warms up more it will peach up.

I'm gonna stop coming here. This is sad. Y'all have gorgeousness and this is what I have.

http://garden.org/thread/view_...

Skiekitty said:I'm gonna stop coming here. This is sad. Y'all have gorgeousness and this is what I have.

http://garden.org/thread/view_...

Sorry Toni, looks like winter took its toll on everything else too (not just the roses). Go to the garden center, and get something with some blooms to lift your spirits and brighten things a bit- that's what I always do when feeling defeated. Gosh, I must feel defeated or depressed a lot, LOL.

Neal - Went to 2 different nurseries yesterday. Bought almost nothing. Prices on plants this year are ridiculous. $15 for a 1 quart plant? $40 for a rose? $60 for a 1/2" caliper tree? But this is my yard EVERY spring.