My plan for this spring is to watch all my new roses flower and evaluate them. Quite a few of them haven't bloomed yet or had only one flower so those will have to wait. Of the ones I have seen these are my opinions about them:

Favorites:

Therese Bugnet - I love this rose and especially adore the fragrance, which to me has a sort of wild rose smell. The only rose I can remember that smelled similar was Suzanne and one or two wild roses. This rose is a definite keeper at this point.

Sister Elizabeth - love the lilac pink color and lovely small blooms.

Aunt Margy's Rose - A many-petaled rose in miniature in lilac with pretty foliage and growth.

Angel's Camp Tea and McClinton Tea- lovely blooms and tea rose smell, too soon to make other judgments.

Mme. Joseph Schwartz - exquisite cupped blooms, lots of buds, vigorous band

Not Enchanted by:

Huilito - spiky, gangly bush, flowers hang their heads and often don't open well, flowers and scent are so-so.

Carnation - flower shape is pretty but the dark pink color doesn't seem very special and the flowers hang their heads.

Ingrid

My plans are to try not to overdue it and make sure and not just plant the roses but to take time to stop and smell them to. I kinda got carried away and brought to many roses, now I'm working overtime trying to get them in.
My Abe Darby is starting to bloom and I can't wait to see him.

Got to work on setting the rest of my posts in concrete and going to the nursery to cut more bamboo for the crosspieces. The roses are ready! Some of them have buds, others just have a few green leaves at the bottom of bare canes. Mine are all babies. The clems I planted around them are growing nicely too. (Speaking of clems, I have one w/ several large blooms, and another one that just opened 1 dark red bloom- gorgeous!) Brandy

This place is a stop on the garden tour next week. 500 people coming...yikes! I've been busy. I hope there is enough in bloom to make it look good.

Hoov, good luck with the garden tour. Very exciting though,
to have your home on a garden tour, but then your garden is
FAB! Love the walled garden effect you have. I'm sure it will
shine by the time of the tour.

I do wish you would put the blue shutters back on your windows
at the front of the house. Your home looks charmingly Provencal
with it and it matches your driveway gate so well. There must be
some coating that the wood can be treated with, to keep it in good
condition, but your home and garden, both front and back, are
beautiful anyway.

My garden plans in general this year are to make the gardens make more sense. More organization - shift things around a bit, add some filler here and there. Rose plans include getting a Hybrid Perpetual plan (have too many that are not postitioned well, and some not yet planted), getting my ridiculously huge Gallica ghetto in the ground, repositioning some minis that are getting eaten, and training up some large climbers that have gotten out of control. Oh yeah, and trying to find a spot for a warm color rose garden. I would like to do a grotto/Mary garden, but don't know if I can get to it this summer.

500? Gosh! Take a lot of pictures of your garden and post them, please!

Hoov, 500 people in your garden? I can't imagine that many. I had a small garden party last year with about 50 people and that was incredibly hectic for me. I'm not sure if I'm going to do it again this year or not... some of my friends are asking about it so I guess the guests had a good time.

Right now I am weeding, edging, and mulching and trying to make my garden look less wild. I have loads of perennials to plant, many grown from seed started this winter. I am not buying any more roses this year... at least no plans at this time.

THat is a lot of people, Hoov. I'm sure they will love seeing your garden. A small group of master gardeners toured my garden a couple of years ago, and then went over to Dickie's ( budeye's) garden. It was very nice, with refreshments and all.

My plan is to get my truck running so I can go get some compost and horse manure. I've been moving roses and perennials, sort of painting with the perennials. I'm excited to have some op seedlings. I might try hybridizing a bit this year. I have a new picket fence and decisions to make about what to put where. I have a new Gertrude Jekyll to replace the one I lost to RRD. Loveis, I like Gertrude better than the Compte.

I like Sheriberrie's plan to smell the roses. I plan to visit Carla's and budeye's gardens this spring and would like to see some of the other Carolina rose gardeners. I may do something practical and grow something to eat as well.
Linda

I love reading about all your plans----Hoov--I would love to see your garden in person.
My garden will just have to hang on this year . I'm still having a problem with my Hip replacement surgery. I do hope to at least get some food and alfalfa on my poor babies.

Florence

I'm finishing the other side of my front circle garden. I think I can fit 4 teas there - maybe 5, and last weekend I got one planted (Marie d'Orleans) and some perennials. I have to trim the tree in the front some more. It's making a lttle more shade than I think the PGaA's will tolerate which have to be planted, too. Have to put up a trellis for the Cramoisi Superieur. My side fence is going to get 2 Noisette climbers, but they just arrived a couple of weeks ago. I'm spreading granite gravel on that side of the house (I only have 8' of property on each side.) It's the only way I have found to beat the grubs so bye, bye grass. We're in the planning stage for a rose tunnel on the other side of the house. DH is working on the plan using rebar and who knows what else. I still have to move Belinda's Dream. Ugh! And several more in the pot ghetto have to be squeezed in somewhere. I think I have one untapped portion of yard with sun. Oh, and some sort of arbor has to be built over the garage door to hold Mme Caroline Testout. We were thinking of a 3 lengths of cable on T posts. We'll see.

Sherry

My plans for Spring (September):

I was looking through Maurizo's website(has plenty of great ideas there) , so I'm thinking of making a couple of planters for my roses. Seems like an interesting project to do. Can't wait.

I also can't wait for Tea Clipper and Summer SOng. Will definitely post pics of those roses here.

I'm deciding whether or not to shovel prune some of my other roses and just keep maybe 5. Maybe I should give away the ones I don't like to my siblings rather than shovel pruning them.

It won't be 500 people all at once. It will be spread out over 5 hours. It will help finance a college scholarship for a horticultural student, (they can hybridize some more roses!)

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Geranium maderense
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Hoov----your roses are breathtaking--
Good luck with the fund- raiser

Florence

OMG Hoov...what is that orange-mix rose in the first and second picture???

BREATH-TAKING!!

Ronda

Hoov what gorgeous photos! I wish I was on that garden tour. We'll be having our annual Rosalia garden party on Memorial weekend. I love to have people in the rose garden.
The big plan this year that I've mentioned before is that we are taking over our friend's entire rambler collection. This will be many roses planted along the road to our water pump. We have started by enclosing a garden where we are keeping the big pots until we can finish building the rest of the fencing and plant all the roses.

Gail, goodness girl. I see a picture from a fine gardening mag.
I wish I could tour your garden.
I want to install drip system. Enjoy roses. Get the rest fed, pull weeds. I HATE to pull weeds. Put down lots of mulch so weeds can't breathe or get light.

Carla

Weed. Mulch.

With summer and its drought coming this isn't the time to plant more things, even though we succumb rather regularly and do so anyway. In our garden we started large-scale (ca. 60-100 plants per year) rose planting around the start of 2005, so most of our beds are fairly young, and they're all more or less in need of ongoing weeding and mulching. The more recent beds (fall 2006 onward) were plowed for the first time in ground that wasn't downright awful, and so they're less demanding to deal with than the intransigent Rose Road and Biscione ("Big Snake": a long, sinuous bed), which are rocks, weeds, and clay in varying proportions. Plow, plant, mulch, weed, and wait for the roses to grow: how simple! It makes a nice change.

As an Italian might say, Adesso sto cantando vittoria. Which means I'm feeling triumphant, justified, and just plain good. We just got our water bill. For the period 3/21/07-12/14/07 our water use was 202 cubic meters, which according to the utility works out to an annual consumption of 297 cubic meters/year. Referring to the water utility's statistics, I found out that average annual consumption for a family of three in the province of Piacenza is 274 cubic meters, a rate we exceeded by 8.4%. Well, considering that last year we had a long, hot drought and around three hundred roses and a great many other plants to keep alive, I think we did very well. We were very stingy with water in house, to make up for our garden use, and in the garden we used the water as sparingly as was compatible with keeping young plants alive: plants that had been in the ground over a year didn't get any water at all. And very nearly all of them made it. We were very responsible! This year, with drought ongoing through winter and spring (we've been averaging about an inch of rain a month from December on) I'm really surprised to see how thriving all the roses look! They're beautiful! So is everything else! So, when I get tired of weeding and mulching, I go and admire the roses and see what marvels the garden has to offer.

Melissa

I have a container vacancy to fill. Maybe two if I find a home for Radio Times.
( I want Sharifa Asma instead). That and pick bouqets of roses and other flowers from the annual cutting garden I am working on. Not for money, just for fun and for blessing people. Makes a nice hostess gift for a barbeque pot-luck. I also plan to cut lots of roses to take to my babies' graves.

Melissa,
Do you have pics somewhere on this site of your gardens?
Jen

Jen,
I don't, but I'm planning on doing so. I want to share my garden, and it would be a salutary reality check for me, and possibly informative for others.
Melissa

WOW! I do love your garden pics, Hoov. That's Altissimo isn't it? Mine has some bare legs.

Triple, I am sure people appreciate your bouquets. I love annuals. I am sad for you about your babies' graves. But it is good to bring your offering.

Melissa, I'll look forward to seeing your pictures.
Linda

Linda,
thank you. they have their own rose bushes. Our son has Madame Hardy and our daughter has Memorial Day. Not sure how M.Hardy will do as a cut flower, may have to buy Pope John Paul II to use instead for staying power as a cut flower.
We are limited to annuals as we only rent our place and the garden patch is in a community plot belonging to the complex. I don't want to put in anything 'permanent'. Although if fellow gardeners ever P**S me off I may go broadcast some mint on the sly. (kidding!)

Gail - absolutely breathtaking! You should post pics more often. Your color scheme is absolutely perfect; the red climber really sets everything off. Good luck and let us know how everything went.
-terry

I've been to HoovB's a couple of times now. It's a garden tour candidate for sure. I'll bet it's not her first either. The garden is breathtaking, period.

Lucky you peachie!!! I wish I lived closer--I would love to walk through!

Ronda

I am loving those geranuims in Hoovb's garden too.

I got a new raised bed this year courtesy of DS and DH and planted Abraham Darby, Eden and Graham Thomas to grow along a fence. It was fun dividing and planting annuals and I had two roses growing in pots that are going to get their last reprieve in that bed.....Angel Face and Heaven on Earth. I am eager to see how these do.

My other plans are to complete my knockout bed. I have rainbow, blushing and pink, but the original knockout came dead from Edmunds and although I tried rooting one, I failed. So I need to find another knockout to put in that space.

Other than that, I just want to keep up on my weeding and mulching. I still need to roundup the driveway and fencelines and spray the blackberries. I need a windless rainless day for that, and so far, there haven't been any.
Good luck with your plans everyone.
K