Let's Go To Rick's House to See His Garden

My friend Rick has the the best managed rose garden I know.  He chooses his rose varieties carefully, plants them well, cares for them perfectly, and they always look beautiful.

The archway that leads to Rick's rose garden.

Cajun Sunset

Hybrid Tea

Rick's house is on a quarter-acre lot, in a wooded subdivision.  His backyard is the only place with enough sunshine to grow roses.  When people tell me that they don't have the room to grow roses, I use Rick as an example.  He has at least 150 roses, all of which are in his back and side yard.

I know he's going to blush when he reads this, but I'm going to say it anyway.  I consider Rick to be one of the driving forces behind my own rose addiction.  He is one of the most generous people EVER ... always ready to share his knowledge, experience, and techniques to help others grow roses successfully.  Get me going, and I may even use the word 'mentor' ... perhaps, more than once.

Pink Simplicity

Shrub rose

 Poulsen's Pearl

Floribunda

Rick is an active Master Gardener, a Certified Rosarian, and an accredited Rose Judge, with tons of rose show trophies and ribbons to his credit.  He also works full time, fishes whenever he gets the chance, and maintains this beautiful garden by himself.

There's no way to pigeon-hole Rick OR his garden.  He loves modern Hybrid Tea roses, and he loves the lovely, fragrant Old Garden Roses just as much.

Marilyn Monroe

Hybrid Tea

Marie Pavie

Polyantha

I think Rick has won the Dowager Queen trophy in the Colonial District shows (the top award for an Old Garden Rose) more times than anyone else!

Champneys' Pink Cluster

Noisette

Reve d'Or

Tea Noisette

I stopped by Rick's house last Thursday while he was at work, to leave him a lotus for his pond.  I had my camera with me, of course, so I could spend time taking pictures of his beautiful roses.  It was a bright sunny day ... which is good for the roses, but bad for taking decent photos. Some of his loveliest roses were in brilliant sunshine, which made getting good photos of them completely impossible. 

I darkened this photo a bit, and the other ones that show large expanses of his garden, to tone down the bright glare from the sunshine.

Monarch butterfly on Buddleia

(I didn't do anything to this one.  It was perfect as is.)

Kimberlina

Floribunda

Rick and I also share a love of cars, along with our love of roses.  He has a new Mustang, I have an old Mustang, and we both used to own old Corvettes. 

He and I are going to a rose society picnic in a little while.  I thoroughly enjoy his company, no matter where we are or what we're doing, it's always a good time!

Have a great Sunday!

Connie

White Roses on Wednesday

I  am sorry to have to tell you this ... are you sitting down?  These are the last of my white flowers photographs.  I searched all of my photo folders, and there's no more.  One last dozen ...

Paul's Himalayan Musk Rambler.  I saw photos of this once-blooming rose cascading from trees, and I fell in love.  Here, I have it planted at the base of a wild cherry tree beside the driveway, and it's happily scrambling toward the top.

Rosa Macrantha.  You know how much I love singles and stamens.  Isn't this beautiful?

Moonlight ... I have shown this rose before.  It's so photogenic.

Madame Plantier.  Pure white flowers, pale green leaves, nearly thornless canes and stems, good disease resistance ... this Alba hybrid rose is practically perfect.  Give her space, because she can become a big girl.

Dagmar Spaeth is a lovely smaller floribunda.  Sometimes her white flowers will have a small red stripe or two.

Secret Garden Noisette, found rose.  This class of rose was very popular in the early/mid 1800's ... and there have been many unidentified Noisettes discovered in abandoned sites over the years.  This one was found in the same garden as the more-well-known rose, Secret Garden Musk Climber.

Haywood Hall, another found rose.  I grow this one on a rebar tripod in my front border ... it blooms like crazy and smells wonderful.

White Killarney ... a color sport of Killarney, the famous pink hybrid tea rose from 1898.  I love the form of these early hybrid teas.

I think I might have used this photo of Leda in a Friday Flowers post a few weeks ago ... I love it so much, I'll use it here, too. 

Souvenir de la Maimaisson isn't really white.  The flowers bleach out a bit in the hot sun, and this photo made it look almost white.  SDLM, as it's abbreviated, doesn't like cool, damp weather ... but it's a fabulous rose in the heat of July, when many other roses are suffering.

I forgot to take a photo of the label for this rose, and I have no idea which one it is.

Our final white rose is Silver Moon.  Pure white flowers (which I love), simple single form (swoon) and look at those stamens.

I was thinking ... if I had been on the ball earlier this week, I would have gone out to the garden while we had snow and taken White Wednesday snow pictures.  Winter is just beginning, so I'll make a note to do that the next time we have snow.  (wink wink)

(written by Hartwood Roses.  Hartwood Roses blog)

White Roses on Wednesday

It's Wednesday, and the weather is gray and chilly here in Hartwood.  Let's brighten things up a bit with some white roses from the garden this summer.

Darlow's Enigma is an unknown rose, possibly a Hybrid Musk, discovered in Eugene, Oregon, by Mike Darlow.  It is very fragrant.

Mary Lovett is one of the Hybrid Wichuriana ramblers bred by Walter Van Fleet in 1915, and named for three Lovett sisters.  Mary, and her sister rose Alida, grow here on my Van Fleet fence.  I have a dark pink mystery rose that I am evaluating to see if it may be their lost sister Bess.

Rosa Moschata, the musk rose, was once thought to be extinct.  It was rediscovered in Richmond's Hollywood Cemetery, where it still grows today.  Though it is technically a once-bloomer, it starts to bloom in July (later than almost all other roses in the garden) and finishes in October ... and its scent is wonderful.

Ivory Triumph is a rare floribunda from 1961.

Baby Alberic looks just like a dwarf form of the famous rambler Alberic Barbier.  It is small, and round, with beautiful shiny foliage and creamy white flowers.

British Queen is a lovely old hybrid tea from 1912.

Out of Yesteryear, Hybrid Bracteata, 1989 ... nice shrub with snow-white flowers.

Unidentified Alba rose in the Doswell Plot in Richmond's Hollywood Cemetery.

Sir Thomas Lipton, a beautiful white Hybrid Rugosa bred by Dr. Van Fleet in 1900, is completely undeserving of its miserable ARS rating of 5.5.  It's fabulous in the garden here.  This is a clear example of what a mistake it is to use the ARS ratings to help you choose your roses.

Moonlight.  Beautiful, photogenic, white Hybrid Musk.  'Nuff said.

(written by Hartwood Roses.  Hartwood Roses blog)

White Wednesday Roses

The white roses that are still blooming in the garden took quite a hit from the rain late last week from the remains of Hurricane Ida. The cool temperatures of fall always make good conditions for botrytis ... the added dampness from three straight days of rain and drizzle have caused a king-sized outbreak. Most of the lighter-colored flowers have balled and drooped. Those that can open, are covered with lovely purple fungus spots ... how attractive.


Sit back and enjoy a little White this Wednesday.

Alberic Barbier, Hybrid Wichuriana rambler, 1900. Technically, Alberic Barbier is pale yellow. I love how the flowers fade to the most beautiful creamy white as they age.

Grace Seward, Miniature rose, 2001. I love singles!! There's something unbelieveably appealing about the simple form of 5 petals and a shock of colorful stamens. Grace Seward's flowers look like pure white stars.

Snowbird, Hybrid Tea, 1936. The creamy flowers on Snowbird contrast nicely against its dark green foliage. It's a relatively early hybrid tea, that has a much softer form than the stiff, upright modern hybrid teas.

Nastarana, Hybrid Musk, 1879. There are flowers on Nastarana throughout the whole growing season. They come in clusters, and the bees LOVE them.

Dairy Maid, Floribunda, 1957. This is another rose that's (technically) pale yellow. The yellow doesn't last long, and it becomes a lovely cream color. Look at those stamens!! They look like eyelashes.

Westside Road Cream Tea, found rose. This rose was discovered by Philip Robinson in California. This is a tea rose for the smaller garden ... it's not quite 2 feet high here, in its second year in the garden. It almost died to the ground last winter, but it recovered quite nicely and is a lovely little rounded shrub.

Alba Meidiland, 1986. The American Rose Society put Alba Meidiland in the Shrub class ... which is just a way to put it somewhere because it doesn't really belong in any one class. This rose wants to hug the ground and grow like mad. This makes it good to as a ground cover, but I like it best trained to climb. I grow it on an arch in the Rose Field, and it never fails to get attention from visitors. It is one of the most vigorous, healthiest, most floriforous roses here.

Golden Ophelia, Hybrid Tea, 1918. This is another one of our 'creamy whites' for today. Golden Ophelia's yellow buds open into soft, ivory white flowers.

Aimee Vibert, Noisette, 1828. I have the climbing version of this rose. It's trained to the fence on the east side of the Rose Field. Aimee Vibert begins to bloom later in the year than most others, and it doesn't stop until late fall. It is one of the most fragrant roses I grow.

Princesse de Nassau, Noisette, 1835. I love the clusters of shaggy flowers on this rose. Right now, it's three years old and about 4 feet high ... though I expect it will get quite a bit taller as it matures. Like many of the other Noisettes, Princesse de Nassau is quite fragrant.

My final White offering for you this Wednesday is a jigsaw puzzle. (I LOVE online puzzles ... the cats can't jump onto the table and 'help'.)  To play the puzzle, click on the arrow at the bottom left corner of the puzzle. Have fun.

(written by Hartwood Roses.  Hartwood Roses blog)