Well when Vintage had their retail store it began like this. Fang and I would drive up their and I would read their catalog out loud until we got lost from ignoring the directions but paying close attention to the rose descriptions. We'd pull up and begin our wanderings through the tables. I would go find what I had researched and then the signal cry from Fang would rend the air."Oh! Oh! Look...AT THE BUD! Look at the bud. Holding it aloft and I would look up and ask the name and she would murder the French. So I'd HAVE to go look. She'd buy it that week and I'd get it when we returned...Her garden is full of roses that I couldn't grow and vice verse to a lesser extent. Oftentimes Rosefolly or Pam and Michael would show up to give input and we all have copies of roses in each other's gardens and do not dither about making up your mind because Michael can make his up in a trice and goodbye Pharisaer...Nowadays it is more difficult. I'm a victim of the written word--give me snake oil. Here is just one such rose that captivated me, often in the falling rain...the light is perfect then. la

Hi everyone! Celeste, first I want to tell you how much I enjoyed your article in the current Heritage Rose Groups newletter. I wish I could do the same thing: wind in my hair, holding on tight, and exploring the highways and byways with my sweet husband via motorcycle, sounds like a lot of fun. Too bad I am scared to death of motorcycles!!! (I cannot believe I just admitted that on this forum!!!) I have loved roses since early childhood, due to my mother's love of them, and spending some time with her in her "garden" (well, just a suburban yard, really, but when you are a preschooler, the whole world is bigger, you know?). I have had small gardens at each home I have lived in, and even when I was young and single, I would at least have houseplants and a rose or two in a large pot out on the patio or deck of my apartments. My husband Johnny and I married in 1996, and he knew from my small pot ghetto at the time that a larger garden would be inevitable once we bought a home together. Although he is not a gardener by nature, he is very much an outdoorsman, and he was content that I would want a nice big garden. Whether it was roses, other flowers, or vegetables would not have interested him at all. We bought our home in 1999, and before we had moved in, the garden plans were beginning inside my head. As soon as we had made this older house habitable inside, I changed my focus to the outside... Being the nice guy that Johnny is, he took my planning and excitement in stride. He could be counted upon to dig some holes, and assist with maintenence. But no way would he help pick what roses and other plants to buy, or help choose where to plant them: "You just tell me where to dig, and I will dig" mentality, lol. I joined the Texas Rose Rustlers, and Johnny has been sweet enough to tag along with me to the meetings. After all, how many times have I gone with him to the deer camp, or out fishing, etc, just so we could spend some time together? He met several men in that club that are avid gardeners of every description, particularly rose gardening. He listened to the speakers at each meeting, he joined in the socialization, he made friends with all the sweet older ladies that think of him as one of the nicest guys they have met... and before you knew it, he was asking questions, becoming curious about soil science, propagation, hybridization, and even would love to try his hand at growing roses from seed. Several years and hundreds of planting holes later, Johnny still doesn't consider himself a gardener. He leaves that distinction to me. He is the gardener's helper in his mind. He has lots of pictures of me in the garden that he loves, and I know it is not just that the pictures are of his wife! I think one would have to be heartless to spend so much time caring for the earth and not be able to develop an abiding love for the plants that you have nurtured! And anyone that knows Johnny, knows that he is a man with a very big, very happy and loving heart! Does he get teased for gardening with me? Not that I have ever heard. Would it bother him? I doubt it. He is pretty strong minded, and can hold his own in any circumstances (except for needles.... he nearly passed out during a minor procedure once, but that is a tale for a different sort of forum!) I wonder what sort of folks would think it odd for a man to garden? Maybe I am naive, but gardening is pretty common here in Texas. Lots of us come from Farming roots. And there are generations of hybridizers to look to for the nobility of the art of gardening. How many of the founding fathers of the United States were gentleman farmers before they were called to become patriots? I doubt they *only* grew their cash crops, but probably also grew things that they fancied. ... That reminds me that Thomas Jefferson was just such a man. His garden journals still exist, and he was, I think, the original American "Master Gardener"! Maybe there are problems with people's thinking nowadays, to disparage a man for being agrarian, rather than just a hunter-gatherer! Seems to me that agriculture was a step up on the evolutionary pathway. My final thoughts: Anyone that is foolish enough to question the masculinity of a male gardener is deserving of having a whiskey barrel full of compost, or a trash can full of fermented alfalfa tea dumped on their head! And anyone that stops to think about it will realize that rose gardening ain't for sissies! Most roses have big, mean thorns, and they bite. Anybody that would laugh at a guy that wrestles Mermaid without fear is lacking in brainpower. And last but not least, as Poodlepup knows, men that grow roses... yeah, they're hot! And most of them don't even know it! Allison

I take photos instead of buying now. In display gardens if perennials you can return to that garden next year to view the display again and don't have to care for the plants. I have purchased perennials on clearance toward the end of summer. That way I only have a few weeks of watering to do for them. Not all make it, so am going to restrain myself this year to only the $1-2 ones & only if also hummingbird nectar plants, evergreen, or early/late bloomers. Summer garden is full! A nursery about 30 min. away offers 20-20-20 fertilizer jugs with free refills for the life of the jug. They know when you're there & look around you'll be tempted to purchase something. I have 4 that fit in a milk crate. Great for container plants and baskets. I don't visit as often as I was a few years ago, so only a few times a year. On my last visit I bought the granular concentrate to mix it up myself. My son was happy because he has been telling me to do that for years instead of having to stop by the nursery when nearby.

I am another rose nomad. I've visited all four public rosariums in Sweden, a couple in Denmark, Sangerhausen, Mottisfont Abbey and San Jose Heritage Rose Garden and all the rose nurseries I have been near. But large rose collections can be overwhelming with the roses becoming a blur of colour where you don't notice the individual rose. But I've been inspired to get some roses from these gardens, Radiance, for instance, several Geschwind roses and a few Horvath roses. The Austin roses at the Rosen-Jensen nursery in Germany made me stay away from Austins. I didn't ask if they were newly planted and would get bigger with time but the small shrubs with oversized blooms didn't appeal to me. I am a member of the Swedish Rose Society and a big benefit is the chance to visit other members' gardens, the best way to find out how a rose does in my climate. Sweden is roughly the size of California so sometimes we have to travel some distance but we pack in as many people as possible in each car or hire a minibus. Last summer 10 members hired a boat to get to an island in the Baltic where a member grows 400 roses in very thin soil over rock and with constant winds. My new Valdemar climber is a souvenir from that trip.