Hi Carol: I challenge you and others to finish our internationally acclaimed novel, using roses' name, entitled "When we are bad, and roses are good". See the below: â¢Posted by dove_song WA State Z 6b (My Page) on Wed, Aug 1, 12 at 8:09 ...some MOONLIGHT PASSIONATE KISSES. ST. PATRICK's HEART 'N' SOUL was ALL ABLAZE with anger at THE KNIGHT's and the MERMAID's MONKEY BUSINESS. CHANTILLY LACE had believed she had found TRUE LOVE with THE KNIGHT, But his FLAGRANT, OUTRAGEOUS behaviour with THE MERMAID would break her HOPEFUL HEART. :( â¢Posted by Strawberryhill 5a (My Page) on ST PATRICK invoked the help of king NEPTUNE, who sent a BLASTOFF of cold water jet into the BLUE OCEAN. This froze the knight's ass, so he had to jumped on his boat to continue with the journey. â¢Posted by dove_song WA State Z 6b (My Page) on Unfortunately for him, THE KNIGHT's boat ran into an ICEBERG thus thwarting his journey. In the meantime ST. PATRICK's sailboat was heading out into the BLUE OCEAN FULL SAIL... ST. PATRICK had a HEART O' GOLD, but he was weary of life's hard knocks to him and to those he loved. Therefore he decided to sail to FAIREST CAPE which was well known for it's EASY GOING lifestyle. Upon his arrival at FAIREST CAPE he was greeted by ... â¢Posted by WinterCat z10 (My Page) on ... a BLONDE BOMBSHELL with a BLACK HEART and a penchant for the use of BLACK MAGIC. "Oh! a HELPING HAND just at the right MOMENT IN TIME!" cried the TEMPTRESS. "The CHOCOLATE PRINCE is after me! He wants my HOT CHOCOLATE SECRET RECIPE! Quick! Please let me into your MERCEDES! He's CLOSE UP behind us!" "So much for EASY GOING lifestyle," mumbled ST. PATRICK, but how could he abandon a BLUSHING DAMSEL in distress to her fate? "Hop in LADY! Let's go!" "You're a saint!" sighed the BLONDE BOMBSHELL. "Don't BUTTER ME UP" replied St. Patrick. "What I need is a break from it all. Besides I'm thirsty. You wouldn't have any of that famous HOT CHOCOLATE left, have you? Even some MILKY TEA would do". "I've got SOMETHING ELSE that's much better. A real SURPRISE! Close your eyes", whispered she. ST. PATRICK closed his eyes and ... â¢Posted by Strawberryhill 5a Chicagoland (My Page) on Sun, Aug 5, 12 at 9:45 The BLONDE BOMBSHELL stuffed a GOLDEN DELIGHT into ST. PATRICK's mouth. It tastes so GOLDEN DELICIOUS to him, that he kept eating until he exploded into GOLDEN BUDDHA. Thank God that his entourage of the 7 dwarfs came to the rescue, running on their CUTIE PIE little legs. They are: BASHFUL, DOC, DOPEY, HAPPY, SLEEPY, SNEEZY, and GRUMPY. The dwarfs carried the bloated ST. PATRICK onto his boat. The 7 heroic dwarfs steered the boat toward the ICEBERG to rescue THE KNIGHT, whose YELLOW SUBMARINE got jammed. Here is a link that might be useful: Our novel using Roses' names This post was...

Really, just one? Mlle. Cecille Brunner' wins all: -for sentimental reasons, my mother and grandmother both grew it so it has been in our family for more than 70 years. -for perfect beauty. I gave a child in our courtyard a blossom of it yesterday and her daddy came over to thank me, his eyes sort of glazed over when I gave him two more blooms, he said "It is a perfect rose, everything a rose should be...' and his voice sort of choked up when he said it. There seems to be a realm that a rose lover ascends to, at some point, where our senses leave this world and ascend into grace, where all we can say is "ahhh" . Isn't it nice when someone appreciates your favorite rose? following M.C.B. would be 'Westside Road Cream Tea' and R. californica, The abundant pollen in R. californica is a real turn on for me. another rose I can't walk by without touching it and smelling it is R. moschata. Lux

HI Sophia Glad to be helpful, and you did indeed do a great job of picking roses that have a good reputation for relatively easy care. They'll still need occasional pruning and deadheading like any rose, but the mix of Kordes and Austin and other shrub roses should work well for you. Incidentally, there's no need to move those two free roses to another area unless you prefer the look of those blooms separate from the ones you have above. I have Garden Delight near Tuscan Sun in the "modern" section of my yard (hot colors), and they make quite a combined statement together. Most of us freely mix hybrid teas, floribundas, and shrub roses together, and a more important consideration for how you place them is their growth habit. For instance, many of your Austin roses (like The Alnwick Rose, Pomponella, Princess Alexandra of Kent, and Munstead Wood) are technically also shrub roses, and they're already in the mix you planned. However, these roses grow differently and need that considered mostly in how you plant. For instance, Munstead Wood tends to be shorter even in warm climates, so it would be toward the front of the bed, while the other larger Austins could go toward the back of the bed. Beyond the height and spread of the roses, everyone's advise to not worry too much about the rose placement is right on- as jjpeace says, the roses tend to decide when they want to bloom and even carefully planned placements end up looking like a mixture in most cases, so just put them where you want them. Since you mention being new at roses, here are some other tips for planting and enjoying them: - Do what you can to prepare the soil ahead of planting in your front bed. This could be mixing in some organic material (like leaves, grass clippings, compost) into the soil bed before planting if you're ambitious, or putting layers of organic material in the 1 meter area around the roses as mulch (maybe putting some wood chips on top if you like that look) if you're lazy like me. The worms will gradually mix that organic material into the soil and improve the overall quality of the soil over time. If you have a humid climate, you want to make sure to keep that organic material away from the canes at the base of the rose at least a few centimeters, to avoid some diseases at the base. Keeping that mulch down on top of the soil also cuts down on your work because you won't have to weed around the roses. - Be sure to water them deeply when you water - particularly when first planted - (until you can feel moisture half-way up your finger, an average of 2 cm per week) but don't drown them in water. Spacing out watering helps to build up toughness and make them send down deep roots, but in sandy soil or very dry climates you have to water more often than I do with my loamy clay soil. - Be PATIENT with them. These roses will mostly settle in for this year and much of next year, and that's a good thing. You may see some blooms, but the main color you want to see is green - that means they're putting out leaves and hopefully putting out roots to grow from. You expect new roses to sleep the first year, creep the second year, then leap (start blooming more) the third year. - Don't fuss over them too much. There will be occasional bugs that chew on them, making lacy holes in the leaves or clustering on buds in early spring (like aphids), but the best defense is to spray them off with water and not try to kill them off. Keeping a few "bad" bugs encourages the good bugs to come and keep the balance in your garden (and also make less work for you). Same thing about blackspot on the leaves - unless it keeps your rose stunted and not putting out new leaves, many of us don't do anything about blackspots on the leaves. If you don't like the look and some turn out to have too spotty leaves to be acceptable to you, you can always change out that rose for another one that will stay cleaner down the road. - Don't fertilize your new roses when planting, particularly not with any solid fertilizers. I make the exception that I plant new roses with a handful of alfalfa hay (from the feed store) mixed in the planting hole soil, since it breaks down very gradually and the roses like the nitrogen, but it's not needed. You can give them some half-strength diluted liquid fertilizer every couple of weeks (see the directions on the bottle) once they're putting out leaves for you throughout the growing season, but you don't have to do even that. Good soil is more important than fertilizer, particularly in the first year. - Enjoy your roses and your family, and we would indeed love seeing what your garden looks like as you get it pulled together. This is all meant to be fun, so have fun with it and don't worry too much. Cynthia

Thank you, Nana Doll. Your garden and Kate's have been inspirations to me over the years. Kate, I hope to hear that your QofS's like their new location and bloom well for you. Rose Canadian, thank you! Queen of Sweden's blooms are so perfect! Always. It's nothing to do with me, that's for sure. I had great luck with the McCartney Rose this year too. Gigantic flowers that you can smell a few feet away. I didn't have such luck with Grand Dame or Night Owl, maybe with time.