The garden club is going to tour my gardens next week--hope my roses open by then. I thought the meeting was a week later--didn't realize that Memorial Day interfered, so the club moved the meeting/tour up a week--it's going to be touch and go on about half my roses, whether they will be in bloom or not. With a normal winter, most of the roses would be open by now--but this winter wasn't normal, was it!

Here are the early bloomers in my gardens:

3 Home Runs--first to bloom, going strong now.
3 Queens of Sweden (Austins)--blooming like crazy. (They are so pretty!)
Lady of Shalott and Munstead Woods (Austins)--two of my newest roses and already two of my favorites. They both just opened yesterday and should be looking great by next Monday!
7 mini Sweet Dianas--little yellow cuties
Gourmet Popcorn--another mini--just opened today.
Two Double Knock Outs--the color is eye-catching, there's no doubt about that!
2 Mrs. John Laing (hybrid perpetual)--completely opened today--so charming!
Mortimer Sackler (Austin)--just opening but not looking that great yet.
Fru Dagmar Hastrup (rugosa)--good bloom for the first time ever!

That will give them some idea that there are roses besides KOs and HTs--but leaves quite a few of my roses in an iffy position. However, there are a few more that are in bud and hopefully will be blooming well by next Monday:

Buds with good color and/or half opened already:

William Shakespeare 2000 (Austin)--love those dark red buds--lots of them this year!
Pretty Jessica (Austin)--just popping with half opened buds!

One full bloom only for now--maybe they will be doing more by next Monday:

Mystic Beauty (bourbon)--gorgeous pastel
Our Lady of Guadalupe (floribunda)
Scepter'd Isle (Austin)
Dublin Bay (climber)
Cecile Brunner (polyantha)
The Wedgewood (Austin climber)

The others have lots of buds on them, but aren't anywhere near showing even any color yet. Problem is that that is about half my roses that just might be doing nothing by next Monday. Some of the garden club members don't really believe anybody could grow 65-70 roses, so I was hoping to show them what they are missing by turning their backs on roses, but now only half of my roses may make an appearance. How aggravating -- when I worked so hard to show off these beauties!

There are a number of peonies and iris blooming out there, so the gardens as a whole don't look bad at all. It's just that I wanted to show off my roses!

Did have one winter casualty--Chrysler Imperial. Couldn't find a replacement anywhere within driving distance this morning, so finally bought Oklahoma--with one bud on it. Hopefully it will open by next Monday? It is along the perfumed path, so I hope it smells good! : )

Kate