I just add this message to respond to the notion of a rose sale or auction. Following the lead of Jeri n Clay, the Ventura County Rose Society put on major rose auctions of rare and unusual roses for about ten years; first, annually, then later every two years. As an educational device, the auction was a great success for those putting it on. As someone who started out as a contributor to the catalog that accompanied the auction and wound up writing most of it, I learned a lot. (Most of it had to do with commercial viability.) As a financial effort, it was also a great success. HOWEVER,it was every bit as labor intensive as the traditional rose show, involved enormous amounts of energy and time (gathering and storing of roses, mailing off winning bids to those out of state, etc.) and engendered some antipathy on the part of rose society members who did not want to be involved in what they regarded as scut work; (unfortunately, a lot of life involves doing scut work.) Eventually, we gave it up with 2011 being the last of the auctions. Over the course of the years we probably distributed over a thousand roses, most of which were OGRs or unusual and rare (Clark roses from Austalia before they became easily available, frix.) The only way for the enterprise to operate was to open up a national audience in order to find buyers for roses not well known--even if said roses were perfectly suited to the Ventura County climate--e.g. chinas, noisettes, and teas. The trouble is that the audience for OGRS and unusual roses tends to be spread out across the country in numbers not large enough to sustain viable commercial operations. I might add that the practices of many rose societies in permitting widespread use of cuttings from rose shows, celebrations and the like cuts down on the potential profit or even transactions. I am reminded that Frank Benardella used to dip his show roses in Round-up so as to discourage people from using his entries as sources for free roses... Jim D

There's a thread on Mons tiller fries in the sun, see below: "Mine fried after an hour or two in the sun, more so than my other tea roses so it's no longer with me in my hot garden. Clementina Carbonieri did the same thing. A pity, since both are beautiful roses. Ingrid." ***** From Straw: I'm adding own-root Yves Piaget on my rose-order for next year, along with Young Lycidas and Romantica "The McCartney" rose. I researched again on Yves Piaget: the person who grows Yves both as own-root vs. grafted reported wimpiness for both. Someone from PNW (rainy & cool) climate also reported Yves being wimpy. Robert Rippetoe in his Rancho Mirage climate of exreme heat, drought, and alkaline sandy soil .... grows Yves Piaget and uses it in his breeding program ... so it must be very good for him. I figured out what makes Romanticas works: fluffy potting soil for the roots to get big, then transfer to fertile clay. I have Yves Piaget's children bred by Robert Neil, I put gypsum in the pots, and they went beserk with growth. Ingrid in this forum once grew Yves, but it didn't do well in the heat ... she has loose de-composed granite soil high in potassium. That's different from Ingrid in Thousand Oaks, who has clay. According to Wikipedia, high potassium or high nitrogen drives down calcium. The Romanticas have a higher demand for calcium than other roses, they are very sensitive to salt, so saline soil is not suitable. Calcium in gypsum is used to de-salt saline soil. That explains why Mons.Tillier works for Jaspermplants in Arizona, but didn't work for Ingrid with high-potassium soil. Arizona is alkaline clay high in calcium like my Chicagoland clay ... I'm next to a limestone quarry. Calcium is known to firm up tissue of plants, and helps with drought-tolerance, which explains for the success of Romanticas in my limestone clay. Here's an excerpt on calcium from the site http://www.oxyfertil.com/royaume-uni/role-ca-mg-plante.html · increases the plant tissues' resistance and allows for more erect stems · contributes to normal root system development · increases resistance to outside attack Here is a link that might be useful: Does your Mons. Tillier fry in the sun? This post was edited by Strawberryhill on Fri, Jul 12, 13 at 10:58

Thank you all so much for your kind and thoughtful replies. I am sorry to be so delayed in replying to you all. Every piece of advice here has been very helpful, thank you again. Now that I have a little more research under my belt, reading these names and descriptions is not nearly as confusing as it once was. All the different species sound so varied and unique that it is difficult to decide what NOT to try. In the very short time I have been growing roses I have quickly learned that the health of the plant is it's most important feature, that and making sure it is right for my climate and conditions. I really love having these forums and Help Me Find as resources to help me research and plan for future purchases. Having said that I will admit I do love an experiment, so one or two bad reviews on an otherwise well loved, beautiful plant will not stop me from ordering something I really want to try. .........So, I decided to dive in head first (as always) and I ordered a few roses of various types that I have taken note of while reading various posts on the forums, including: Crepuscule SDLM Reine De Violettes Marie Pavie Buff Beauty Maggie Ducher Duchesse de Brabant Reve D'Or Lady Hillingdon Lady Hillingdon Climber (probably didn't need both, but I couldn't help it, she looks so lovely) Francis Dubreuil (I know this is probably just an old HT masquarading as a tea, but lets just pretend) & Mme Isaac Pereire (not the picture of health I know but I just have to smell this so called most fragrant rose in the world) and I already have a second list going after reading all your helpful replies, and I have a feeling that I will be adding a few more polyanthas, hybrid musks, teas, and bourbons to it, and maybe I'll try a rugosa too. I was initially nervous about trying Teas because most of the ones I'm interested in are listed as hardy to zone 7, and since I am right on the line between zone 6 and zone 7 I was hesitant in trying these, but I just decided to go with it and hope for the best. Also, I hope that I don't annoy Ms. Ann Peck to death with all the questions I am likely to ask her on future posts, but having someone with so much more rose knowledge than I right in my own little climate zone will truly be very helpful, as I have literally zero friends or family that shares my interest in roses, so I am pretty much on my own in learning everything about these crazy shrubs, thank goodness for the internet! Miss Ann, if you are reading, I just today discovered the existence of "Old Gray Cemetery Noisette" while looking through Roses Unlimited's selection of noisettes. Since I have lived in Knoxville my entire life the name immediately caught my attention. After a little googling I realized it had to be named after the local landmark, so after work I went immediately to Old Gray to see this found rose in person. & there it was, just a little unassuming shrub sitting next to a headstone from 1911, so I have to assume that was roughly close to when it was planted (right?). I love history, especially local history, so seeing this piece of living history in person only 3 hours after learning of it's existence was SO NEAT. After I got home and did a little more research I see that you are the person that discovered this rose! What a small world! Seeing that roses are still being found, and right in my own back yard none the less has been very inspiring & it really puts into perspective how small the rose community really is. It is pretty safe to say that I am now hooked. Thank you all again for your posts, I will probably read and re-read them again in the near future for reference. Jessica

Mary, I too, was expecting a picture that would make me feel better about the state of my own garden:) You certainly have nothing to be ashamed of. Your front yard is a work in progress. I have seen front yards that don't look half that nice, and those people considered it good(and finished). With the drought in CA, ugly front yards are almost becoming the norm around here. Yours is far from ugly, AND your working to improve it. I've found that people on this forum are very friendly and eager to help. They've been better than any book or article because my specific questions get answered, for my specific climate, rose, soil, yard, etc.... I love this place! It helps everyone give better advice when they can get a visual. I think a fence with big tea(or climbing) roses planted on the inside would be lovely. They will grow up and over the fence, cascading down on the street side. I'm betting the fence won't even be visible once the roses really grow in. Having the roses inside your fence also means more of your rose care can be done from the more private side of the fence. I'm not all that fond of being watched as I go about my gardening. I like to wear my junkiest clothes for gardening. The clarkia looked great. The good thing about them is the way they self seed and you get a ton of fresh plants next spring. I always look forward to seeing them return. Is the white flower on the right a clarkia as well? I had a beautiful white one 2 years ago, but for some reason I didn't get any white seedlings this past spring. They do make great cut flowers though, so it's possible that I didn't leave much on the plant to produce seed. How about a picture of your backyard now? We all love pictures. I have both Felicia and Cornelia. I'm debating about where to place Cornelia and its outgrowing its container. Time to make up my mind! Seeing yours might help me out:) Lisa