Thank you for sharing!!! I wish I knew what the captions were saying....

What is this pink rose between these two captions from daniera, Mar 25 Mag, 2010 13:19?

e alcune del primo raduno
Melissa non ricordo cosa sia

Thank you again for the opportunity to view your farm with the gorgeous roses! What a day it must have been...

Take care,

Audrey

It WAS a nice day! Great folks!
The rose is the Hybrid Musk 'Cornelia': isn't she pretty?

I just went and checked the photo, as I didn't before. The rose is 'Mrs. B.R. Cant' invading the road.

Oh, Melissa, SO WONDERFUL!!! Beautiful roses, beautifully planted with companions, beautiful situation! And it was also wonderful to see part of your house now, with the climbers all growing up it - I remember a few years ago you posted some photos of your place, and you had some wonderful roses then, but I don't think the climbers were there. I love seeing how it has all come out.

Can you tell me what the rose is in the eighth photo (under the sentence "e questa bella signora che si adagia morbida sull'erba chi sara?" - I'm certain it's a Tea, and it reminds me of one that I fell for in the Australian Tea Rose book, only I don't recall its name.

Many thanks for posting all this - it sounds like it was indeed a wonderful day.

Laura

oooh, what a treat, visiting Mrs B R Cannot and Clementina Coal! Yep, had the translator on. Really wonderful Melissa - a lifework in progress. And how lovely to share with friends. Little envious thoughts, wafting your way. Lovely garden, lovely child, lovely roses (and your hair!! terrific)

Really lovely gardens Melissa - and the laundry, it so belongs to the general view of South European gardens! I remember it from my visit to Spain, in some towns they had incredible kludged laundry rope constructions high above the narrow streets - really charming in it's own way. :)
I love how natural your garden looks - as if the roses grew there as the wild plants!

I also join in on the lovely child and lovely hair compliments! :D

Melissa, gorgeous landscape shown in the photos. That would be like living a dream of mine to be there and grow roses. I hope you count your blessings everyday. I would love to grow roses in a fabulous villa there too. Keep showing us more of your world, because I for one, am enchanted.

Juliet

oh what a wonderful rose garden. I sooo envy your hills with the roses bending down. what wonderful blooms and paths to seek them out.

from flat Florida
Denise

I was wishing I could read Italian, and then the light dawned. Here's an English translation.

Sherry

Here is a link that might be useful: Melissa's party post in English

Bella, bella - bellissima

Oh Melissa,
Thank you so much for sharing your beautiful vision. I am embarassed to say that I am a gardener when I have the opportunity to see your garden. You madam are not just a gardener you are an artist. Your vision is so European and certainly fits beautifully into the Italian countryside. I wonder how many people view your garden as they drive by perhaps on motor tour.
Your daughter's charm is exquisite.
Enjoy the beautiful summer and thank you again for sharing.
Jeannie

Her "presence in the forum is precious for all we" !!!

I'll drink to that, Melissa!!! I love your garden. It's beautiful like you and Sylvia. What a massive effort and beautiful results. I hope you live to be a healthy 100 so you'll have time to finish it.

Thanks so much for sharing the link. Yahoo's translation left a little to be desired, but I got the gist of it. I loved Cornelia against the mountains.

Sherry

http://i170.photobucket.com/albums/u261/rossll/20101305033-1-1.jpg

this is so lovely! I also love the blues in with your roses and the clematis. Your guest room rose is so cute! I'm considering climbing one near my guest room today.

I liked the babelfish translation of iaia's comment the best, Melissa-

"Beautiful, beautiful! That sadness to us not to have been."

We're all sad that we weren't there too. Thanks for sharing your lovely garden.

Melissa - what gorgeous photographs. Your garden is lovely. I'm certain those 13 will tell others about your beautiful place, and all they missed. Your roses were certainly showing off, and your companion plants were also very pretty. What a treat for your guests, and for us.

Thanks so much for sharing your beautiful garden Melissa. How fortunate your forum friends were to get to spend time in your garden. And how fortunate we are that they posted their photos so we could share the experience

Sherry, thanks for the babelfish link. The translations were part of the whole experience...
"Melissa memory what is not"

Diane

These beautiful photos really give an idea of the large size of your property and the immense work you've put into this place to make it a rose paradise. To me it's just overwhelming what you and your husband have been able to accomplish. The greatest pleasure was to have all these glimpses into your life, you, your lovely daughter, the beautiful table you set, the area around the house, the roses and hills further away. Much labor, I know, but also a very magical place.

Ingrid

Thank you all! I'm glad you folks enjoyed the thread. I was actually thankful that most people wouldn't be able to read the comments, which were effusive, but Sherry trumped me with her translation. It was worth it for the comic effect: I see human translators aren't going to be out of work for a while. Laura, that "bella signora" is 'MME. ANTOINE MARI', with whom you have a history, I believe! Campanula, I am thankful to be able to live here: the countryside is truly lovely in our parts, and as you see, here Mrs. B. R. CAN! and Clementina is cool! Thanks for the kind words. elemire, I believe in having an attractive place to hang out the laundry. That is our yard, we live our lives there, and it shouldn't be a hands-off place, no matter how beautifully the roses grow. You're right, it's part of the scene everywhere you go in Italy, where most people don't have dryers, and don't need them. The garden needs a lot of work, but I want it to have rather a wild look; I'm glad it gives that impression. Juliet, thanks, though we live in a humble (though comfortable) farmhouse and not a villa. But it is a beautiful area.
Denise, I'm from Florida too and I know exactly what you're talking about. I always marvel looking at photos of people's gardens in the U.S. at how flat the ground is (and how big trees grow all over the place). The views are great. On the other hand our ground is so steep that access is a genuine problem: forget bringing in anything with a wheelbarrow or a pickup truck. And designing a garden to exploit views and changes in level is a skill I'm by no means sure I've mastered.
Sherry, your translation added just the right touch of festivity here: thanks for the allegria! And for the good wishes. Time is exactly what we most need.
Bella infatti lottirose: grazie!
Jeannie, actually I would say my garden is very American, not least because it does fit in with the surrounding countryside, at least as far as my skill enables me to make it so; Italians tend to be much puzzled by this approach, and have difficulty accomplishing it even when they embrace the concept. Thanks for the kind words! I'm glad what I'm trying to do is visible at least in intention. The garden is still young, begun in 2002 and carried out in phases, so most of it is only a few years old; it has a lot of growing to do.
aimeekitty, harborrose, holleygarden, Diane, Thanks! Blue is always welcome in a rose garden; and there will be a lot of lavender when they start to flower. I've been surprised at how well clematis does out in the big garden in full sun and with the summer drought; it's actually less happy down in the cooler shade garden. Gean, that's a nice comment.
Ingrid, I think you know how much work is involved getting a major garden started, since you've done it yourself. The garden is a mighty project, and it shows how one person, me, can labor if she really cares about a project. Ottavio just does it to help me and because he simply likes to work, and there's no way I could do it without him. I'm hoping that as the shrubs grow and the ground improves maintenance will become less demanding.
Melissa

I wish I could have been there.

Melissa, thank you for The Name Of The Rose. No wonder I had such a heartfelt response to that picture! Mme. Antoine Mari!!! How I adored that rose - it was one of the first three I bought, and in my ignorance I did almost everything wrong. As I've posted earlier, I had to pare down my collection, and MAM went along with the others that didn't thrive on my balcony (I'm not even sure that she ever recovered from my awful mistakes - I haven't had the courage to ask). But I did love that rose! However, it wouldn't have worked out here.

Reading the responses from other forumers, I realized that I had missed a great many more photos - I guess I thought the first group was the whole thing. So I just now went back and looked at the rest. You have done wonders, not just with your beautiful roses, but with EVERYTHING!!

I would like to say something complimentary in Italian here, but, alas, I only speak Puccini/Verdi...

Laura

Melissa--what a gorgfeous garden--A tribute to your hard work---Your daughter is adorable such pretty blue eyes--

Is that your with the beautiful blonde hair----Love the braid--it looks wonderful

Lovely people in a beautiful garden

Florence

Florence and mendocino rose,
Thanks! I appreciate the compliment.

Laura,
Do you remember when you were first thinking about getting 'Mme. Antoine Mari', or had just acquired her, and were seeking information about her? I posted a photo of MAM and I remember that you were inspired by it. Well, the photo from the get-together thread that you asked about is of that very same rose. I think 'Mme. Antoine Mari' is your destiny.

Melissa

Wow, I just took the tour. It is very impressive, Melissa. Your garden is breathtakingly beautiful. I also cheated by using the translator. I wondered at first if I would be able to read it since I know Spanish, but I couldn't.

It looks like everyone had a wonderful time. I cannot imagine how you keep up with such a garden. It is wonderful.

Sammy

Your garden is beautiful and so are you. Now I'm thinking about installing a clothes line myself. I bet your clothes smell wonderful with all the roses and fresh air.

Melissa, I've been away for a few days so I'm just seeing your post now. What a wonderful party! It was a pleasure to see your garden once again, though this time at a distance. It is as beautiful as I remembered.

Rosefolly

Wonderful, and the wacky translation I loved well. A touch of editing makes a poem of it:

Eccolo! Here the garden of Melissa!

But I must premise some things: the day has been warmest (for deadly me),
the sun to peak,
the day has found again Melissa,
some persons who already I knew and
others that I had never seen but that it has been most pleasant to meet;

They are returned to house with many more plants than those which I carried,
and already the ironies of my husband who knew
he would be ended thus!

But I begin because I know that you are too much curious.

This is the wide path, flanked by roses, that leads to the sunned part of the garden.

More near house
the bushes of acacia and sambuco,
more enlivened shadows and ends.

Even the cloth spread the perfection!

This I do not know it
and not even this, and this beautiful Mrs, who lies down soft on the grass
will be still.

Roses and salvie! Sights from the lowÂ
 and from above.

But, if watched well, a zone much romantic is this, where, on a building beside the room, roses scramble up.

First slowly the "Désprez to fleurs jaunes" that arrives at the roof,
another, yellow, pale, (the Maréchal Niel) frames the wood porch.

I have eaten a little too much,
I have chatted also more,
and at the end, in spite of the fatigue
I did not want to goÂ

Melissa: "I think Mme. Antoine Mari is your destiny."

I think you are right. Only, I don't know where in the heck Destiny would fit on my balcony. While I cogitate on that, I can worship the one in the Cemetery Rose Garden (although, while I feel a tad disloyal saying this, it does not compare with yours...)

Laura

Just discovered this, and thought I MUST revive it.

Thanks for reviving! I realize on returning that I didn't see all pictures the first time. A breathtaking garden.

Thank you so much,titan1!!! I think you are an enabler of the very best sort. I had just joined the forum that year and was having health problems and never saw it; very exciting. Melissa,I hope some day I'll be in your area,and if such a trip is on my programme, I'll definitely contact you and see if we could meet up. I hope you'll do the same with me. It's exciting to see your project,and I admire deeply (and try to avoid envying!!!) your openess and hospitality (I myself am such an awful shy bear,that wishes she could have guests but finds socializzation SO stressful and difficult...),not to mention the fact that your home/house is right there in your garden, not a half-hour's drive away! In the meantime, I guess I should join the Il Compagnia del G forum,but I've not even been able to set up a Facebook thingie for myself, what with all the chaos of our move going on...coupled with the fact that, qui in Italia, NOW is the true gardening season.But seeing these pictures has really motivated me to get busy on that list of my roses,so we could start that cutting exchange ASAP. However, I am kind of disgusted with myself to see that, in spite of my conviction that I should be reducing my pot ghetto,it has instead increased. Yeah, I planted stuff out, but I also moved stuff, and found that many had morphed into two or more plants,and of course I had to pot up the babies,and did it in my usual disorganized manner,and what with fatigue, confusion, and just too many irons in the metaphorical fire, now I have a lot of unidentified babies...

Beautiful. I love the climbing roses against the brick background of the house. Is this the same Melissa, now known as Melissa Northern Italy zone 8? Perhaps she changed her name with the new Houzz gardenweb.

Of course she's the same Melissa, who's very active in this forum.

What a surprise to see this thread come back up! And what a shock to see my summer garden, from the present moment of the autumnal decline of November. I still have that poem taped to the refrigerator door.

Bart, I quit CdG some years ago and have an impression that it's not very active these days. I got quite tired of certain aspects of it toward the end. And I've lost sight of the people I met through the forum, keeping in touch only with a couple of gardeners I met through a different channel. This thread reflects a very rare moment of sociability: I too find relating to others difficult. I garden these days almost entirely in a human vacuum, not liking it much, but perhaps I've reached nadir and a period of more contacts is approaching. Thanks for the invitation, I'll keep it in mind, and definitely do come pay us a visit when you can: it will be interesting to swap notes as well as plants. By the way, I don't know with any precision where you live. We're in the province of Piacenza, comune of Lugagnano Val d'Arda, about half an hour from Fiorenzuola Val d'Arda, which is on the main rail/highway line going from Parma to the city of Piacenza.

My pot ghetto reached its lowest level a week or two ago, then began to swell again: cuttings of three kinds of phlomis, double mock orange, Salvia 'Icterina', perovskia, gaura, Clematis integrifolia, some experimental sour cherry cuttings, added to the winter-blooming shrub honeysuckle, single kerria, etc. etc. that were already there. And naturally the propagation beds are once more in expansion. This frantic activity will continue until the garden is more or less completely planted. And believe me, you're not the only one who loses tags: I have far too many unidentified roses, in spite of strenuous efforts to keep them labeled.

Bad weather is on the way: the forecast is for snow for Saturday night and freezing temperatures to follow. I need to transfer some of the pot ghetto to the propagating beds, bring out the old sheets to cover those that remain, and get new plastic sheeting to set up the winter cold greenhouse for the succulents; the air plants and clivia must finally come indoors. Summer has definitely gone, now, if only we get some decent precipitation. My currently flowering Tea roses are in for a shock.

Melissa, it is lovely to see how your garden has developed over the years. I enjoyed seeing the pictures. It reminded me again of what a formidable slope you have to manage!

Wishing you just the right amount of rainfall this winter.

Rosefolly

@ Melissa: It's kind of a relief to know that A) I'm not the only one with socialization issues, lol and B) I'm not the only one who screws up with labeling. Some I manage to sort out and guess by comparing them with ones in my garden...

We live in the Val di Bisenzio, between Prato and Bologna,but on the Prato side of the mountains,even though our weather is probably closer to that of Bologna. For our area, the cold snap predicted has been somewhat redimensioned ,and it looks like it's just supposed to dip below zero and then come back up. I'm a bit more worried about the strong south-west wind that is forseen for Saturday,since my garden faces SW,on occaision I've had some real damage done by strong winds