Hi Everybody! Ive been away from the garden forum for a while finished my masters and just submitted my thesis which is also due to submit for publicationa busy year! Anyway, back to ROSES! Mom and I planted a ton last year, mostly OGRs (old garden roses) and a few newer varieties. My criteria remain the same they have to be able to flourish in organic conditions. We pay lots of attention to the soil, they are planted with lots of care and organic material/fertilizer, and we give them lots of water the first year to help them get really established. But, there is little patience for black spot or powdery mildew in our garden and we are 100% organic a tall order! Most of the roses we planted last year did well, with a few exceptions, but there were some that performed exceptionally well. 1. Climbing Pinkie a vigorous climber with smallish blooms (quarter to 50-cent size, depending on the time of year) of clear pink and lush dark green foliage. I covered at least an 8 foot section of fence last year. In fact, I had to cut back a number of canes that were encroaching on other plants/beds. We were so happy with her that we are putting in at least 3 more. 2. Earth Song a Dr. Griffith introduction that, planted side by side with a knockout, really gave the knockout a run for its money, both in terms of growth and blooming. Earth Song is a medium pink with good-size blooms that are really large in the cooler temps. The blossoms dont fade all that much in Oklahoma sun and it just bloomed its heart out all summer, reaching about 4-feet by the end of the season. Nice dark green foliage. Were putting at least one more in this season, and honestly it was probably our favorite rose all summer. 3. Lafter an old garden rose in apricot/pink shades. It didnt perform like Earth Song, but its completely wonderful! Reached over 4 feet the first season and bloomed regularly throughout the summer. One of my favorites. 4. Moonlight a lovely white climber. It didnt rival Climbing Pinkie, but it was planted close to a shade tree so it received less sunlight. Still, it covered at least a 6 foot portion of fence (possibly closer to 8). I love the delicate foliage and the small white flowers. A wonderful climber. 5. Carefree Sunshine a great yellow rose with large blossoms reached 4+feet by the end of the season and bloomed throughout the summer. We planted the yellow Knockout (Sunny), and though I liked it a lot, Carefree Sunshine definitely out performed the knockout. 6. Old Blush this thing went wild! It is a Spring and Fall bloomer, so it doesnt provide much summer color, but I like having a variety some roses that bloom all season, others that put on a one-time show, and some that only bloom when the weather cools off. Old Blush has great fine foliage and just keeps putting off canes. We are putting in an arbor for her, and its a good thing, because Im sure she could take over a 20ft. section of fencing if you let her. The blossoms are not my favorite shade, a little too bright pink with a mauve base, but some folks love that color. The blooms fade slightly in the sun to a more personally palatable rose-pink shade. We are putting in a couple more on a section a fence that we want some real coverage on. 7. Knockouts We planted pink single and double knockouts, sunny (yellow), and rainbow. Some were first year last season while it was the second for others. The pinks by far out perform the others, but I completely love Rainbow it ranks up in my top 5 favorites. I know there has been some discontent with Knockouts on this thread, but for our garden I cant say enough good about them, and I dont have a single complaint. They bloom from Spring through fall without stopping, the foliage stays looking great all season, and they need less water than the rest of the roses. They also do well in a bed with other perennials and annuals and dont seem to mind the close company. The only disease issues Ive seen has been with one of the Rainbows because it got crowded out by the more vigorous pink knockout and got some blackspot. I cut it back drastically this fall and it survived the harsh winter weather just fine were moving it to a suitable location. I havent had any issues with them and I have around 25 of them in my garden. 8. Alister Stella Gray I love this rose! It has the most amazing fragrance!! Its a noisette small yellow blossoms that fade to a creamy yellow in the sun. Its a fairly vigorous shrub rose, reaching at least 4 feet in a season, and blooms all summer. Dont be put off by the fading blooms because the fragrance is completely worth it! 9. Antoinette Mari a short-ish pink rose that needs some room. It didnt do much at first because we had some annuals crowding its space, but once we pulled them out in the fall, it just took off. Nice foliage and beautiful blossoms. 10. New Dawn not much needs to be said about New Dawn (thanks to Jean, the pics are awesomecant wait until mine is that large!). This is a great climber that needs plenty of room in order to do her thing (not that you cant crowd her a bit, but she can do so much with some space). Gorgeous mellow pink blooms. 11. Souvenir de St. Annes This lovely thing was planted in an area that, unknown to us, was a water path when the rains cameso she sat in water quite a bit, which didnt give her a fair chance for the summer, but by the time we cooled off a bit she just took off. Throughout the summer, she put forth loads of creamy pink blooms breathtaking! Last year, we (by "we" I mean my mom and I!) ordered from Antique Rose Emporium and Chamblees, and purchased a number of them from TLC, and we bought some Knockouts from Lowes. I was very upset with the TLC roses they all had grub worms eating on the roots when we went to plant themneedless to say, we took them backneedless to say TLC was not very happy about it but they did refund our entire purchase. I was also really disappointed with the Antique Rose Emporium the starts we received looked just terrible! But, ARE did refund our order and asked us to plant them anyway because they were sure that they would do well. All of them eventually snapped out of it, though they were certainly stunted initially. Im not ordering from them unless I have to in the future, but they were honorable in how they handled my complaint. Chamblees, on the other hand, was great! The roses are very small when you receive them, and I was a bit trepedatious about that, but all of them took off and were every bit as large by the end of the season as the roses we planted from gallon+ containers. Chamblees is also very reasonably priced most of them are $8.95, less than half of ARE, and their shipping is pretty reasonable, especially if you order in the right incriments (for instance, a dozen roses ships cheaper per rose than does 14 roses per rose). I wish they had better pics on their website, but they are a great company to do business with in fact, its the only place we are ordering roses from this season and Im going to do my best to avoid buying them from the nurseries this year on a whim! Anthrogirl78 I was thinking about America but didnt end up planting itat least not yethow did yours do? You might try the Alister Stella Gray if you are after a yellow rose, it doesnt have large flowers, and the yellow is a little more toward blush than daffodil yellow, but I read that it can get up to 12 feet tallto us it looks more like a 5x5, but its a great addition to the yellow clan! Thanks for the good wishes, ladies! I am making a goal this year of taking photos of all the different roses so that I have a photo record of how they all did. As for this year, were putting in a number of new roses here is a list from our first order of new varieties to our garden: Wild Ginger Jefferson Rose La Marne Gruss An Aachen Mrs. Oakley Fisher Distant Drums Also, a number of the roses we grew last year just sort of sat there during the summer - they grew a bit, and didn't get any diseases, but neither did they flourish. However, as soon as we cooled off in September, they started going gang-busters. We had an amazing show of roses all fall - I had a full bouquet for Thanksgiving! They provided nice variety for us - even though they didn't like the heat, who can resist rose bouquets in the fall?! Happy Rose growing everyone!!! I'll try to post some photos throughout the upcoming months... :-) Ada (PS: I posted the pic below from facebook, so hopefully you all can access it...speaking of which, don't you think it would be cool to have a facebook group based on this forum?) Here is a link that might be useful: Roses for Thanksgiving

I always enjoy receiving shipments from ARE. Well packed boxes, good size plants. (My husband can tell when I've unboxed them on the front porch, as there are soil crumblies that get left behind. LOL) I especially like when they arrive with a bloom or two, but it seems like many times they have the foliage removed, which is fine. I think you'll like La Reine and Louise Odier!

It is like showing me two dresses and ask me which I like ? I like both and since I can't pick one most likely I will get both. Look at both the roses.. different styles, different cut ( bloom) , different colour and most likely different scent. SoFl, I feel as if I am getting into the same boat. I have room but it is matter of time that I will door be out of space. My husband is already asking me. 40 is not enough..Geezs, Jin. I want French roses, possibly a few Islanders, Antique ( mostly ) and also DA ( mostly ). Any perfumes made of roses like Nahema is on my want list. Then , I want big blooms which are big roses. I have a long , long lists lastly climbing roses which I also have a list. Trying to cut half my list by is not working :( Cori Ann, you are killing me too....your roses are beautiful. Really gorgeous. Jin

I have had exactly two blooms on mine so far but it has been so hot this season any rose that produces a flower at all seems remarkable. She is pretty new, in full hot sun. I have put her in her next to Star of the Republic which is a favorite of mine but also not blooming at the moment. Gypsy Sue's first flower, produced when it was still cool, was graceful and peachy, a bit smaller than SotR, slightly pinker. The second flower produced recently, was pure white, also graceful, and lasted about 2 100 degree days before a clean petal drop. So far I don't love or hate it, but I do feel is is not doing badly for its conditions and hope it sticks around. If a pastel rose is going to turn white in heat (which mostly they do) I prefer a pure white to a dirty cream and I like a clean petal drop. Otherwise in wait and see mode.