Don't know about others but I do place a permanent marker next to the bush. After 25 years of being totally immersed in roses, reading all I could find on them, and through trial and error, I've gained a vast wealth of knowledge and experience. I keep no log book or notes. I'm not that disciplined. After awhile one just knows and things become automatic. I confess, I often have to turn to reference books, of which I have quite a few. It also helps having a good memory! Keeps one from getting dimentia.
Like any obsessive hobby, roses become part of your life and you soon become identified with them.

For most of us,hundreds or thousands of roses don't happen all at once. it starts out with a couple and we quickly find ourselves adding more each year. By adding a few each year, one becomes familiar with what they have, the newly added, and remembers their qualities and faults.
Planting hundreds all at once would make it very difficult to start out and to remember things about them.

Karl hit it right on the head. It's as much of an obsession as any other. I can remember details of many of the roses I grew in my old garden from 1989 through about 2007; which were own root, where most of them came from, even "see" where they were planted and what was planted around them. Unfortunately, it existed long before I began toying with digital photography and they exist on thousands of slides which I seriously doubt will ever be scanned. Too expensive to have done and too time consuming to do myself. Collections of anything like this occur with obsessive personalities and anyone with an obsession can tell you chapter and verse about them. Kim

I'm relatively new, but my goal is to have hundreds of roses throughout my lifetime. I figure I have at least a few years left.

I track my roses in an Excel spreadsheet. I have columns for when & where I purchased them, when they arrived, when they went into the ground, and how well they perform. I keep notes about any special problems or anything really cool that should also be noted. I also keep track of rootstocks.

As far as the tag in the ground, I only put the name of the rose, the class, and the year planted. The only reason I have that much information on the tag is that I'd like anyone passing by to have the most pertinent information right in front of the rose.

What Karl said. When you start out with four or five and add them in small groups, you can remember what's what.

I have a notebook with detailed maps showing the location of every rose. It has the list of roses purchased each year. Also have a marker next to each rose. Lately, I've been investing in calendars to record rainfall, planting, pruning, and spraying, and fertilizing dates. This makes it easy to compare when I did things compared to previous years.

I agree..if you add roses gradually over the years it is not hard to remember them. I have very few markers and don't have trouble remembering mine. I have made maps and plan to make new maps in case my memory declines, which is pretty likely eventually. I have calenders and keep track of when I've sprayed and what so I know when plants are due. I don't feel a need to add more paperwork than that.

mashamcl, THAT is what teaches you about roses! It is the key to knowing what to do to, for and with a rose. You learn FROM the rose, it will teach you what it wants and needs. Nearly every question you see posted here and on other forums can be answered simply by doing what you are doing. Let them teach you, listen to what they are trying to tell you and you have it made. Kim

That's why Masha has become as good a teacher as she has been a student.
She is, first, a student of her own roses, but she cares enough to spend more learning time in the Heritage.

Jeri

You do start out with only a few. And then you want a few more. But wait, maybe just a couple more. I think I can squeeze one in here. And oh, isn't that one a beauty! I need to have it! And so it goes until you have more than you know what to do with. But you don't care because you love them all!

I have an inventory on a spread sheet too. It lets me see what I have at a quick glance. I have tags wired (because the ones I stick in the ground always seem to disappear!) to the base of each rose with the name on it but that's all that's on the tags. Those are for other people though. I rarely have to look at a tag to know which rose is which even when they're not in bloom. If you walk your garden daily, like I do, you get to know them by sight. And you learn their individual idiosyncrasies. That's the key, walk your garden every day. It's the best way to know it.

I have hand drawn maps with the roses listed on them. Then I have a simple "spreadsheet" (I guess you call it) with columns listing the name, type of rose, yr of purchase and place of purchase, color description, scent description (if known), bed location number and a notation as to whether or not I have a photo in my massive annual photo files. Most of them I know right where they are. Some of the smaller own-roots that are really slow growers I often have to refer to the maps, and then go out and figure out exactly where they are. I need to mark the plants better one of these days tho. When I get to the point where I can't take care of them myself, I will have to have them dug up and given away to others, as my boys will want nothing to do with them. So, I would want all the unusual ones to be clearly marked for whoever gets them one day... hopefully not too soon.

I use a Google spreadsheet to document what I want to know about my roses, and I keep a file folder with hand drawn locations of my roses -- and I have labels beside them.

I have changed my garden totally since I stopped spraying, and unfortunately, I have not kept track of exactly why I stopped growing some roses. I will start doing that because as I make purchases, it is important to know whether a branch destroyed a rose, or I thought it was ugly. Just a few are plain ugly to me, and I don't have accurate records of those that I disliked. (Something I need to do). If you keep all the roses you have tried, you have a clear picture of your expenditures, and I never want to know what I have spent. LOL

Sammy

I'm one of those crazies Kim talked about who planted hundreds of roses practically all at once. I'd been collecting them in anticipation of having our house renovation finished and the gardens prepared. There were delays. I bought roses anyway, and I kept them in pots.

My main reference for keeping track of my roses is my Excel spreadsheet. I can tell you when I bought a rose and from whom, which is important to me. It also keeps track of which garden a rose is in, and even whether it's planted or not (I still have 200 roses in pots ... most of which are my Ralph Moore minis which will go into their own garden as soon as the soil dries from all this spring rain.) Each rose in the ground has a tag that gives the name of the rose, the class, and the date. I will eventually be attaching a permanent tag to the rose itself, for reference in case the 'pretty' tag goes missing.

Learning about roses for me, unlike acquiring roses, has been a gradual process. My best move was to join a rose society as soon as I bought my first rose. It is from the members of that society, and the others in the area that I visit, that I have learned the most about roses. It's no secret that I grow mostly OGRs, and that rose societies are heavy on HT growers, but that doesn't matter. We all love roses, and we want to help each other grow them as well as possible. I truly believe that it is a rare rosarian can truly succeed alone ... we need the companionship of other rose gardeners for our gardens to be the best they can be.

When it's not winter or raining, you can count on finding me in the garden. With as many roses as I have now it takes a lot of time to keep them looking moderately acceptable. (There are 887 according to my spreadsheet, but I know I have at least 6 more grown from cuttings in the greenhouse to add, and perhaps there are a few winter casualties to delete ... which I don't actually delete. I move them to the Dead Roses page of my spreadsheet, and I note how they died.)

Everyone here has pretty much said the same thing. We LOVE our roses and we make the time to learn what it takes to care for them so they thrive. Success begets even MORE love for our roses ... and more roses. LOL

Connie
(come visit the garden this spring!)

I have absolutely no method of any kind. They aren't marked and nothing is written down.

You probably think I possess some sort of super mind. Nope, I forget which is which all the time. I just learned that not knowing a name is of little consequence and I'm not going to worry about it. Besides, building spreadsheets and keeping inventories is too much like my job. I garden to forget my job.

Of course, I retire in 3 weeks. What projects will I concoct to keep myself out of trouble? I know, a rose location spreadsheet...

Here's good old "whats her name"

{{gwi:244028}}

I have only ninety roses or so which makes knowing their names and origins fairly easy. I do have a rose notebook which lists the locations of the roses, where and when I've bought them (some of them anyway since I didn't always do this), roses I've discarded and any other information I find useful. I do tend to be forgetful but it's also fun to add new things to my notebook, and it's just another way to keep me connected to my roses. My roses aren't labeled so the notebook is a valuable backup.

Ingrid

It does drastically cut into my time allotted for drinking vodka and watching Glen Beck, but you do what you have to do.

I started out with grafting paper and all, but at heart I am a "Plopper." Heaven knows what is back out there now!
Congrats Harry, no more "Commuting!"

harryshoe-the rose in your picture reminds me of a tea rose called 'Falling in Love' although the picture in my catalog is a tiny bit different shade of pink.

I also use an excel spreadsheet and put all my roses, lilies, larger shrubs on it. I add in when I fertilize and keep track of how they do each year, when they start blooming,etc. I don't always update it as often as I should, but it gives you a general idea anyway. I also put info on when to cut back things like clematis, which have different time periods for that.

I have revisted this thread several times to see the latest posts, and I snicker every time I read your post, hoovb.

"Keeps one from getting dementia."

What a relief-

Everybody on the Rose Forum will be posting lucidly forever & ever!

Harry, I love old what's her name!

Since I am growing under a 100 roses I am obviously not qualified to answer to the question of this post, but I want to share that I will retreat to the techniques that some of you mentioned and start an excel sheet to keep track of my roses and maybe also draw a plan where they are located in the garden just to be safe for the future ;-). Should be fun to do this!

Christina

Here is a link that might be useful: Organic Garden Dreams

I started out years ago with handwritten markers next to the roses and a drawing of the garden bed with the roses marked on it. Then I gradually increased until I needed a looseleaf binder to hold a page for each rose I had planted, and finally I graduated to an Excel spread sheet. I still do the hand drawn map of each bed (there are now over a dozen distinct areas in my garden so that many maps) and I still have markers next to each rose although now I use a labeler to write out the name. I can identify from memory almost every one of my 200 roses. (But now and then I have brain fade and I have to bend down to check the marker, LOL!) The spreadsheet just helps me track where I bought the rose, own root or grafted, what year, fragrance, size, disease resistance and other info I might find useful.

SO relieved to learn that some of you are convinced that rose gardening keeps dementia at bay. There's a certain person I'm obliged to deal with every day who's convinced that my rose fixation is proof positive that I AM demented (and have been for years).

Hoovb, I nearly sprayed the computer screen with coffee! How nice to begin the day with laughter.
I started with a 3 ring binder with pockets. It has my plant tags in it, invoices, hand drawn diagrams in pencil of where I planned to plant and lists of what I planted spring of 09, fall of 09, spring of 10..etc.
The binder is threatening to burst, so it's time to learn how to do the spreadsheets. What a great idea!
Barb

Good one, Hoovb! Can resist adding my own observation that if you're watching Glen Beck, the vodka quickly becomes a necessity. :-) The converse, however, is not the case at all.

What a great thread.

I have lists...but they are spread over 3 computers. You could see where this wouldnt be an efficient method. I don't have over a hundred roses, but come close at times. I have a very small lot and I must admit, I bought about 6 roses on an impulse buy a few years ago. I only remembered their names for about 5 minutes. When they failed to do well...I think the fact I didn't 'know' them made it easier to rip them out.

My roses are like my kids. I can remember all 70ish of them. I also list all my roses on HMF and it has helped me in the past.

I am thinking of starting a detailed spreadsheet because I am often asked about certain roses since I live in an high BS area and do not spray. The spreadsheet may help me provide better information to others.

I too keep a spread sheet: rose description, vendors, etc. Location is noted by the "garden" (ie, pond stump, bluebird post, birdbath, mound wall, etc). And I have a column for living (Y) or dead (N), so I can pull a report of what is actually there. I have a column for notes, such as cause of death. I'm heading towards 500 and it does get harder to remember what I have or have tried. I remember my first 100 or so best, partly because I was on a tighter budget at the time and chose more carefully.

Only 50 roses at present, and every day when I do my first pass walk through to inspect my garden I say the name of each rose as I pass her. Hopefully this technique will continue to work into the hundreds!

I hate to admit it, but I am utterly anal retentive when it comes to tracking my garden plants, not just roses. I made my own database using MS Access, I keep maps of all my beds AND I keep some written records. Pathetic, huh?

Updating the database gives me something to do in the winter! I can also run reports which show me which vendors I've had the best luck with (Pickering, FWIW) and which beds the roses do best in. I'd be lost without it!