It all sounds wonderful, and it sounds like you deserve your roses. Happy gardening!

Melissa

Sherry, I love your observations. I have to hope that cheek by jowl is ok for my roses, too. I spent some time today doing delicate garden tasks like putting a rope around Mutabilis and tying it up out of the path, and whacking at Cels Multiflor to stop it from smothering Marbree. Cels Multiflora was a feeble little thing, a found rose that a friend shared, and who would have thought it would be just about the most vigorous rose in my yard.

My home garden is mostly in its fourth year, and the roses continue to amaze me. And, yes, those that stay little enough are candidates to move! Poor little Francois Dubreuil had been smothered under salvia, so now has a spot in the front row. I rescued Natchitoches Noisette from being crowded out with some aggressive perennials in a pot, and am giving it more room to grow in the ground. But most of my roses are now in the ground to stay, and are only moving if its time for them to meet their shovel.

Looking forward to hearing more as your garden matures.
Anita

Sherry,
Thank you for your humility and truthfulness concerning your learning curve. It brought back basic truths to me which I tend to forget! After over 60 years of gardening (started very young)I am still planting too closely forgetting how big the roses will grow! Good luck; you are going to have a beautiful garden; it is teaching you and you are an apt student!
Jim

Sherry, you are a real gardener now. You have experienced what you did and what was said to be a fact and know it first-hand.

Yes, it's true those bands we put in the ground in spring 1995 look nothing like the roses they had become in 2005. Isn't Spring amazing and all that went with getting us to Spring and what was happening in the winter when we were all decorating Christmas trees and curled by the fire reading books, roses were putting on roots and spreading their wings. How could we have known what all was taking place just a few feet from the comfort of a cup of coffee? Truly amazing. No big bang theory here.

Sherry I really enjoyed hearing about your growth along with your garden. Think of all the wonderful years you have ahead of you now.

Sherry, thanks so much for sharing. My very first roses will be arriving at the end of this month, and I really appreciate your sharing what you learned your first year. I've been on gardenweb faithfully for about 8 months, so I'm hoping to minimize the amount or at least the seriousness of my mistakes! LOL
Wishing you continued education from your garden and much pleasure and success!
Leslie

Sherry -- Wait 'til they're twenty years old. You think you can't see the ground NOW . . .

Jeri

Wow, guys, you've bowled me over!

Truly, Jim, I appreciate your compliment on my humility but I can't lay claim to it, for sure. Reading all your posts, I see the gist you all got was MY metamorphosis (which, of course, is there, but I didn't see it.) I was trying (maybe ineffectually) to describe a garden with some maturity under its belt, a garden that stood up last month, looked me in the face and asserted "I'm a big kid now!" It's like watching - and being jolted by - your kids growing up, stage by stage, after being convinced they will never survive and at each new level of growth being astonished at my own lack of awareness of what the future would bring. I don't have children so don't have those experiences anywhere but in this garden. It really feels like all my fretting and stressing were needless. The roses were going to do their thing no matter what I did, as far as worry goes. The biggest lesson here is "don't sweat it!" I feel the tiniest bit of mellowness coming on. Me? Mellow? Hardly, before now. In the original post I had started to write that I was concerned that the highly anticipated spring flush might not meet expectations, but I deleted it. That definitely has the ring of mellow to it!

Melissa, what a wonderful thought...that I deserve these beautiful plants. How can that be?

Anita, *** time for them to meet their shovel ***
What a laugh you gave me!! Re Cels Multiflori, I had seen (I think on the Vintage site) that it is a very small rose, so you plan accordingly and what happens? It's moving time. I had also planted a Salvia next to NN, and the first time I cut the Salvia back I saw I only had half a rose bush. So the Salvia is the one that moved in my garden.

Jim, an apt student? I hope!

Patricia, I like your designation and I humbly accept the award. And you're right; stuff is happening whether it's observable or not.

Florence, I'm hooked alright. 67 roses on .17 acre! DH is far too tolerant of my mania!

Mendocino rose, I loved the way you put it. *** your growth along with your garden ***
Kinda gave me goose bumps.

Leslie, yes, yes, do learn from my mistakes - and from others'. Even though no one can be perfect AND inexperienced. It's a very good idea to apply what you learn - makes life MUCH easier. Oh, my back, when I move Belinda's Dream! I keep putting it off. Had the thought yesterday "I'll wait till Louie blooms then I can wack off the side that's blocking my access to BD." Sounds reasonable.

Jeri, wouldn't it be great to see my garden 20 years hence. Boy, will I be a geezer! Had another thought the other day. I've basically made our property unsaleable with all these roses. They say there's a buyer for every house, but I don't know... Thankfully, this is our "last house" so I won't face that issue. We'll let DH's kids handle it!

Sherry