Above is ugly dead stuff I leave up all winter. The last photo is of the dingy hills in winter that mostly don't get snow. Diane

I'm so late to this thread, but so glad I finally looked at it. Have to go back to the beginning as I've only read the latest posts.

Melodye, what a saga! Ye gods.

Trish, I’m amazed anyone can get through reading it. It has been so good getting back into the rose world again. gets rid of quarantine and lockdown blues. I was upset when I couldn’t post last year, my daughter had to reset my Facebook acct because it had shut down. I believe someone in Sth Australia has a name similar to mine and itt caused some confusion with F/B… Melodye How have you been the last couple of days? your saga is getting close to mine😉

ps I have about 4 years of threads to catch up. I dont know how any one fared in the fires or hurricanes in US or fires in Europe

Diane - Yes, she would love cardiology. When she was in high school she would spend hours on the computer watching heart surgeries. I'm not really sure about how it works. ER is her specialty...but she's still taking classes and having to go to other areas. But she's mainly in ER. Maybe because she's in ER she has to learn about everything. ER does take longer than a lot of specialties. Yes, Dianela must be extremely smart...I can't imagine doing a med degree with kids/husband/roses. :) Kedra didn't work while she was in med school...but she did a lot of sports. Kedra actually didn't like gynie, cancer wards or working with children all that much.

Your Jude is bigger than your Bro? Wow!! Mine is so tiny. :) :) Nope, not getting Sweet Rose of Mine. That was someone else. Can't remember who.

Sweet Child of mine is beautiful!! And it got Excellents from everybody!!

Oh you and your Rouge Royale!!! :) :) You've made us all want one. LOL I wish I could smell a bloom at least once.

That sounds adorable that your quail run around your perennials!! I'm going to leave my perennials up this year again for the birds and insects. It looks messy, but I don't care. :) :) I wonder why your red fire hydrant bird bath prevents the water from freezing? That's strange. Maybe you don't get -30C/-22F? :) :)

Oh, I love that picture of the surrounding hills!!! It still is beautiful to me!

Well, I'm not sure if my Chartreuse de Parme and Chandos Beauty (my 2 favorite roses, of course) are going to make it. The canes still look good...but no new leaves even after I repotted them...which I know is stressful. Just bare canes. We'll see...but shoot some good wishes over to these roses, please. :)

Carol, I have more news about Blue Emotion My own root is in a 50L pot sitting in a garden bed by the deck. It is VERY vigourous, I noticed yesterday it had grown a decent branch from a hole at the bottom of the pot so I won’t be trying to move it to a permanent place in the garden. It is the pot I origially put the cutting in with Plum Perfect cuttings. I planted those out, they are thriving, but , at the time, BE, had grown so large I decided I’d leave it be! Melodye

Oh I hope Chartreuse de Parme and Chandos Beauty make it-they are rare and hard to find so we need to at least look of pictures of yours!

Oh Carol you. Chartreuse de Parme

Both are so hard to find. They just need to rally and I bet that they will by next spring. Fingers crossed

Is Carol hard to find, Kristine? Yes, she needs to rally. (Just a bad Diane joke). Diane

Diane - LOL I'm elusive and in the wind. :) :)

Kristine - Yes, my CdP and CB are hard to find. I really, really hope they make it. Thanks for the crossed fingers (early Christian way of praying and the Romans wouldn't know) :)

Oursteelers - my Stainless Steel is pulling through...so that's good. But it's, of course, the more difficult to find CdP and CB that are iffy. Dang. I guess we'll see in the spring.

Melodye - ??? your Blue Emotion/Le Petit Prince has grown a cane from a hole near the bottom of its pot? Wow! That IS vigorous!!! I love mine too...not much of a bloomer this year, but it's new and growing well...that's all I can ask from my roses this year. It's a champ!!

Carol, charcoal is good for wind, so I’m told. IIRC the grafted BE took a year to settle and bloom reliably. No such problem with the own root, it took off running from the time the cutting took. It has charming flowers, but I got out of the habit of taking photos last year but I think this is one from the year before. I forget to label the photos. It looks like the right place.

Stainless steel, didnt survive for me. one of the Saints trod on it and busted it at the graft so that was that. Melodye

Oh, that is so lovely, Melodye. I've never heard of Blue Emotion--oh, it's another name for Le Petit Prince. Yes, charcoal is good--I've had a bottle of charcoal caps around for decades--rarely use it, but when you need it.....it's way better than Gas-X harhar. Diane

Melodye, I think Carol said she was in the wind, not that the wind was in her :)

Trish, you are revealing a side to your personality I have not seen before! Diane

I thought we needed a little levity in our posts Melodye

Melodye - what a LOVELY photo!!! The intense green with the lavender!! :) :) Yup, Stainless Steel didn't stand a chance against the weight of a Saint. :)

:) :) :) So much fun with all of you! :) :) :)

Diane - you said it would be daunting to post on the fall thread -- I gave up on the summer thread because people say you don't *have* to keep up, but I feel bad NOT keeping up... But I guess anyone searching for "rouge royale" in future will have to suffer through all of our meanderings off topic! I'm not quite caught up on THIS thread, but I'm loving it. Quick update -- I think I'm back to 100% now -- had a hilarious moment in class yesterday. Students were feeling anxious, stressed, exhausted (join the crowd!), and I asked them what strategies and rituals work for them to get out from under that -- and one guy said, quite confidently and casually...."women and prayer." !!!!! I asked him to repeat it, and I heard the same thing. Some of the women students were giggling. Turns out -- he'd said "whim and a prayer" (which I think maybe he meant wing and a prayer?). Anyway -- I started laughing so hard I couldn't stop and then was crying. It was such a great stress reliever. I LOVE mad libs, and I felt like I was playing a real life game of mad libs! Most of the class heard the same thing I did, so it wasn't just me. But then imagining if he HAD said it was hilarious. Then when we calmed down, he added, "and I call my mom." To which one of the women students said, "yup - women and prayer!" And then we all laughed again.

In other news -- two new buds on Rouge Royale. If it's this good in year 1, I can't wait for year 2. But if mine gets as big as Diane's I'll be in trouble b/c it's right on my front walk way.

Two lovely flowers on my Eustacia Vye -- and two GORGEOUS AND HEARTBREAKINGLY LOVELY flowers on my Julie Andrews.

Anyway -- heigh ho heigh ho it's back to work I go.

Oh Melodye, sorry. It was just a lame attempt to add to the silliness! BTW I'm loving re-reading Jane of Lantern Hill.

Thanks Deborah. I had a good hard laugh!

Felt good this morning and went straight down into the garden. Got a bit of poisoning the onion weed and sweeping done and started another episode. Bother and *^@#. Hasn't stopped yet. But it was so good to feel like doing things. Melodye, with your low resting rate, do you find it hard to do things? Anyway, iris pseudacorus (a plant no-one could kill) is in it's prime.

Trish, is pseudacorus related to iris? Very beautiful. I love plants that are hard to kill. Jupiter's Beard is one, and I have lots of it. I'm sorry you're having another episode. Do you think your resting heart rate is too low? I thought you mentioned 40. Normal is 60-100, I believe. My heart rate is always pretty fast, but every woman in my mother's family had that, too, and it didn't seem to mean anything. My mother's BP was low, but she had a fast heart rate. Oh, my. Sorry for the unfun topic. I wish I could send my wonderful cardiologist down to Australia. He's a young guy who has gone far for his age. That was presumptuous of me, since you may really like your current doc. I finished the sixth MM Kaye mystery, and it was my least favorite (Death in the Andamans). I'm reading Bill Bryson's book on Shakespeare, which is OK, but short. Then I must return to The Far Pavilions. I posted (on the never ending off topic summer thread) some drawings Clare has done in the sort of recent past. She hasn't sent me her latest drawings which were in a small show recently. Oh, I hope your episode is over by now. Thinking of you, Diane

Trish, dont apologise, any humour is good. As Deborah has proved, laughter is the best medicine, as the saying goes.

sorry you had another bout. I find I can do things but much slower, if I push myself too hard I feel like I will collapse in a heap so I don’t try, I just try a little more each day if I feel like it. Nice pseudacorus by the way . Mine have clumped up nicely but are a bit mean with flowers at present. I need to poison my driveway, lots of kikuyu coming through the pavers onion weed is the pits though it comes up in the lawn. Diane, I have oodles of Jupiters beard ( or as my Nan called it Kiss- me- Quick) Latin; Centranthus Ruber

They make huge clumps, and as you say ‘hard to kill’ Yes, pseudacorus is related to iris, it is used in the UK as an edging for ponds, I believe. My cottage white bearded iris were about to flower, but something has eaten them, sobsob Diane those drawings were lovely. Melodye

Deborah, I'm glad you're back to normal--was it a bad case of food poisoning? It sounds like you and your students are coping with the current stage of the pandemic with humor and help. I don't know how badly your area has been hit, but Idaho is a basket case. According to my son in law who knows the scoop, 100% of the patients in ICU with covid are unvaccinated. I'll leave it at that. I'm happy to read that your RR has some buds. But I was most intrigued by how you like Eustacia Vye and Julie Andrews. Can you post photos? I'm especially curious about EV. So how are the dastardly deer? I hope the repellent is working. I kept forgetting to spray, and recently they've stopped by a couple of times and done minimal damage. So tonight, I was outside stinking up the environment. At least it wasn't like a while back when I began the evening spray and saw the neighbors with guests at their outdoor table. I'm sure they appreciated me, and I noticed they headed for the house a short bit later. Oh, deer me. Check out the summer thread that never dies and is fun and off topic. You certainly don't have to post. I posted some drawings of Clare's she has done over the last couple of years. A few of them were in her senior online show (because of covid it was online). It's a requirement to graduate with a fine arts degree in illustration, which she earned in 2020. Diane

Hi Diane, I saw Clare's lovely drawings on the other thread. Is the girl protecting that deer from (deer) you? And are you the subject of the bottom picture? Episode still going. I felt very dizzy for 3-4 hours whenever I stood up, but finally managed to wash some dishes, which has landed me back in bed. My GP thinks 45 too low - and so do I, but may have to increase the dose again. Hope not. Just a nuisance. I saw your comment about not having to study at school. Is your IQ frighteningly high? I'm guessing 160. My GP is good, but the fill-in cardiologist never got back to me. It took the GP to contact her. Wish I had your young guy.

Thanks for the info Melodye. That's about how I am. I just don't understand why I felt so wonderful at the start of the medication - and neither does my GP. Also, how did they find out your heart was only 31% efficient?

Trish, I actually saw a deer with a full set of antlers heading to my Munstead Wood a couple of weeks ago--this was while I was eating breakfast and in my robe and slippers. I ran out hollering and yelling and I think I terrified it (luckily the neighbors were gone). It ran down the hill and Clancy, the geezer cat, ran past me into the house. I was hoping that Ray was not on a zoom meeting when I did that yelling. At least I didn't bark. I had to look at the last Clare drawing I posted. The girl is a big young for me, but I did eat a bag of candy corn and a bag of cc pumpkins last week. I like both low class candy and high quality candy. It's all good. Even Cheetos are good. If you look at that drawing, you'll see a ring on the girl's finger. That's the ring I gave to Clare for Christmas several years ago.....I was hoping things would have gotten better by the time I got back here, but it doesn't sound like it. If you increase the dosage, won't your heart rate go even lower? I wonder why the doc settled on this particular drug. Something's not quite right, and I hope they figure it out. Have a good sleep or a good day. Diane

Deborah - I can keep up because I have no life. LOL Really, really good that you're feeling better!! Excellent!! And thank you for sharing your class fun...I enjoyed that. And you're so right...what a great stress reliever...for the whole class!! And, ooooh!!! I would love to see photos (if you have time) of your lovely roses...those are beautiful varieties!!!

Trish - it does feel great getting more back to normal! Although it sounds like you did too much? Start with 5 or 10 minutes of being outside. That's what I did for walking. It's tedious and frustrating...but you have to go slow. Man, that iris looks like it's a great naturalizer! I hope your blood pressure gets figured out soon. Not a fun way to live.

Diane - Clare had a show!! That's remarkable and even more so during COVID when things like that slow down. I'll check out her drawings on the Summer thread. :) Oh that is so true about the unvaccinated. And then the healthy unvaccinated love to protest the hospitals. What do the nurses and doctors have to do with them getting vaccinated?? The medical staff are there to help. Idiots! I loved your story about spraying for the deer when your neighbors were having a party. I didn't remember the part about them going in shortly after. Oh my.

Melodye - everything tries to eat what we grow!! And now you missed seeing your white iris blooming. Darn.

Melodye, I see that your Jupiter's Beard is the pinker color. There is a darker red one which I grow (because it's a passalong plant and that's what I got). I still grow the original two starts my friend gave me in 2005, and all the others I grow came from those two. They have produced a few white ones like you show, and I find those are bigger and more aggressive. All of them produce lots of seedlings which I have to tear out or monitor. There are iris here that love water and grow near ponds and in wetlands. Diane

Trish, I had an ultrasound and then I wore a holter monitor for 24 hours at home then they ran a 12 lead ECG for about 15 mins when i teturned the monitor. And the cardiologist rang me a few days later and said his receptionist was arranging for me to go to Melb Private for an angiogram because my heart function was not that good, but they could not see any problems with the blood vessels on the ultra sound and he wanted to make sure, before he did any other treatment and that was when he tpld me the range on the monitor was37-177 with an average of 84 and 31% function. A bit scary! considering my Dad had 3 heart attacks when I was small no.1 stroke when Imwas 5 and no 2 when I was 13 no 4 was when he died aged 63. At the time this was happening to me I was 10 years older than he was. Melodye

Melodye - yes, this is scary! But thank heavens the specialists are testing you and trying to get it better.

Trish, I can relate to trying to get the meds just right. Especially the bp meds. Back in the younger years who worried about bp or heartrates ?

I hope that you and your Dr can get this all worked out for you. Feeling tired and dizzy is no good.

Deborah, thank you for your story, it is so therapeutic to laugh.

Im glad that you are feeling better.

I haven't visited this thread so I have no idea what's going on but the first comment I read was

@rosecanadian "LOL I'm elusive and in the wind. :) :)"

And it made me think of Fleetwood Mac. "All your life you've never seen a woman, taken by the wind... Rosecanaaaaaaaadiannnnnn" lol. Okay back to reading, with that song stuck in my head.

Diane, yes I have the darker red jupiters beard, the paler one appeared after I got the white one from home in Sth Aust. They do seed freely but I generally wait to remove them until after they flower, to make sure the colours suit where they are. I love german bearded iris, and have planted quite a few over the years. The supplier I used to buy them from retired about 4 years ago. I sure miss their catalogues. Like jupiters beard they make good passalong plants to school fetes, or friends..The jupiters beard passed itself along to the neighbours to pay them back for the fleabane ( erigeron or seaside daisies ) that migrated to my garden. Melodye

@Mischievous Magpie (CO 5b) I'll go to bed with that tune (and your alt lyrics) in my head! All the comments re wind made me chuckle. Poor Carol!

Need to turn in -- but here are some pics from my phone snapped quickly.

Sorry -- none of these were the ones I wanted to post! But if I try to edit this, Houzz will burp me out. So -- first onei is a hibiscus I grew from seed for making ice tea. It's finally blooming -- but fall is coming. Do I still want to make the iced tea? BTW -- supposedly hibiscus tea is good for high blood pressure.

And then there is the arbor I bought at a yard sale, had hauled up to my house, then put rustoleum all over it, then painted it, then put it in some stakes to anchor it. Then planted a rasperry cream swirl climber to the right...Here's hoping.

Julie Andrews

Eustacia Vye

LIfe of the Party (aka Huntington's 100th) before it turns pink. It really changes color!

@Diane Brakefield - I think Carol said she was getting Sweet Delight from Palatine. I got that last year. It's been browsed by deer and has competed with two suckers of huey coming up where I removedBoscobel, but it's still trying to be a vigorous grower -- and it does smell divine. I just don't think I've seen the beauty yet, what with all its challenges. EV was a barely there bare root that came too late for us, so she's taking her time getting established. But those roses are soooo pretty! And JulieAndrews just makes me so happy I can't even...

Deborah, such a good feeling to have! RCT will look heavenly over your arbour. Love EV and LotP too.

Deborah, beautiful roses EV seems to be a popular rose. Julie Andrews is a lovely shade of pink. Life of the party sounds interesting. Austins Queen Nefertiti, used to go a bright candy pink in summer here. It went through shades of apricot first. I would kill for that arbour.They are expensive to buy here. You have done a great job refurbishing it. Melodye

Magpie - I'm laughing and laughing!!! At least I'm not breaking wind. :) :) Not that you'd know anyway. LOL LOL LOL

Deborah - oh my goodness!!! You found that GORGEOUS trellis at a garage sale? Oh wow!!! And I love the flagstones and the bench too!!! Raspberry Cream is going to look AMAZING there!! I looked it up on hmf...and wow!!! What a stunning rose!! :) :) Your JA glows!!!! :) :) But your Eustacia Vye steals the show!!! WOWZA!

Yeah, I'm getting Sweet Delight...I had it this year, but I killed it. Never even got to see a bloom. :(

@DDinSB (Z10b Coastal CA) I love that arbor!!! What a find! Your hibiscus bloom could be my okra's twin.

Deborah, you really scored finding that arbor. It is a particularly nice one. It is going to look spectacular with Raspberry Cream Twirl

I have had Life of The Party on my list twice, once even tried to order it at Regans and never got through. It is such a beautiful rose and I understand that it has a wonderful fragrance.

I am undecided between Life of The Party and Larger Than Life

Magpie, that is an amazing look alike. Is okra related to hibiscus? I need to check, but I don't think it's likely. Maybe Deborah was sold an okra plant that was tagged hibiscus--ha. Diane

Or maybe you've been eating hibiscus, magpie. Diane

Indeed they are related 😊

Oh, cool, and of course, you'd know that. You are so knowledgeable about plants, birds, and insects. I'm sill going to read about it because it sounds pretty interesting. Diane

Wow! Okra is related to hibiscus?? I got this from seed at Renee's Gardens. The only seed that "took" and then I got this plant, and then I looked it up, and turns out it's an annual. That was a lot of work for a very few flowers...

Yup -- that arbor cost me $10. Plus some sweat equity!

@rosecanadian - Carol -- that's not a bench, that's my worm box. But I think I killed all the little wormies...

Thanks for your good wishes, all. I am watching my Rouge Royale closeley these days. More buds coming! Such a good bloomer already, and in its first year.

Diane -- you crack me up. Always. And make me think.

Kristine -- I do love Huntington/Life -- but right after it blooms at least half the leaves turn yellow, so it's a bit higher maintenance than I'd like. But it's still quite young (year 2) so maybe it will have more roots soon and can support its blooms without freakingout afterwards. It is pretty and has a lovely fragrance.

Okay geniuses -- totally off topic -- not even about roses! But how do I get old tea stains/deposits out of my go-to tea thermos that I take to work?

Well I know Oxy works to take out water deposits and stains on glasses and cups, so you could try it in your thermos. I think you would want to soak it overnight. The stuff we use is also used on stained clothes, carpets, grout, and tile. It looks like we have a knock off product of the original Oxy; ours is called Awesome Oxygen. It must have been cheaper, so my daughter bought it. You mix the crystals with hot tap water. Be sure to have a good light and your best glasses, if you need them, for reading the !@#$ tiny print on the side of the jar. Diane

Deborah, thanks for the review of Life of the Party but I think that it may be too pink for planting in my orange yellow garden. I think that I will stick with Larger Than Life .

So many buds right now. I sure hope that they have a chance to bloom

Moonlight in Paris actually has 6 buds

It would be fabulous to gey to see them

Magpie - what a surprisingly beautiful picture of okra!! I've never seen okra before...didn't know it was beautiful!! Really? Okra is related to hibiscus...I never in a million years would have thought that. :) :)

Diane - you always make me laugh...LOL...eating hibiscus!!

Deborah - Ten bucks? AWESOME!!! What a steal!! Oh, what a beautiful worm box!! Darn about your worms. Why do you think they died? Mine are still going strong, so maybe I can help. :)

Kristine - 6 buds on your new MiP!! I hope you get to see them too. :)

I do think the okra pod looks somewhat like an hibiscus seed pod. I love gumbo, and okra is an ingredient. I should just run outside and grab an hibiscus seed pod. Funny only in some years do they produce seed pods, and it's mostly just one particularly hibiscus. Maybe she's the only female plant. Diane

Yummy.

Beautiful!!! :) :)

I have a jacket that exact colour. If anyone asks me what shade it is I’ll just say its Diane’s hibiscus pink. Melodye

Or Diane's okra pink. I'll bet your jacket is pretty. The dusty pink hibiscus is called "Fantasia" and the redder flower is a common one whose name I can't remember. I just did a quick bit of research on okra as the "Delicious Hibiscus". And basically, okra is an annual hibiscus. I would never have guessed such a thing, and they are all related to hollyhocks, and malvas and are all in the malva family. I think half the flowers that exist are in the malva family.

Deborah, I think you were sold okra seed, which is an annual hibiscus. Try making some gumbo with the seed pods of your "hibiscus". Diane