My name is lagomorphmom and I am pitiful.

greybird here, pitiful and sneaky as well.

I'm not at all sneaky. I order by the dozen.

organic_kitten, pitiful and sneaky as well.

1st 3 thoughts that popped into my head:

1. It is pitiful but pretty darn funny.

2. What a sweet addiction! You could be blowing your rose coin gambling or worse.

3. Not only do I have zone envy, I have sneak envy. Before I got addicted to roses, I could sneak a plant in here or there. Now, I mostly have to order which requires too much evidence to sneak.
Your wife is lucky. At least she gets to enjoy your addiction somewhat too.
Kitty

Pitiful only if your are being jokingly sarcastic.
Like all of you I love OGR's. But right now I think that with many rose businesses closing ( J&P, Weeks, etc.) that all of us may well be doing something really grand.
We may be the keepers of rose bushes that are not Knockouts.
Just a thought.
Probably just an excuse for my out of control addiction.
Jeannie

Grand keepers, one and all. You are so right, we must keep the light burning against the encroaching darkness...

Me too. My yard is all of 1/7th of an acre or so, and I gave up even saying I won't order any more because I do anyway. In (rare) moments of depression I think that if I keep acquiring roses at the same rate much longer I will end up reducing all of them to two or three canes each (unless I come up with a way to stack them up on the roof).

Masha

Is it sneaky and pitiful if you have your sister write the check for your latest order so you won't get found out?

Ingrid, that was beautiful! Even more so since I got my Vintage order of *14* today ;-) For ONCE, I can say that two are replacements and two are gifts AND I haven't ordered anything else accidentally that I had ordered before. Hooray!

Masha, that is too funny!

And, Jeannie, to add what you were saying, I think I've ordered one or two 'extras' for a similar reason as well, to keep our nurseries alive.

Addiction could be way worse!!!

It's not pitiful until you spend the money for the power bill (or what would have gone for your wife's birthday gift).

I grew up with thrifty parents and as a young woman was chronically broke for years. When I finally did get some cash flow going I had to set myself some basic financial rules. One of them was that, as long as you've set aside money for your basic expenditures and a sum for emergencies (I would add now, some life savings), whatever's left is yours to spend however you please. Including roses, however irrational that may seem to your better half.

My husband is very supportive, digs all my planting holes now that my knees are shot and races after the motor scythe as it chugs up the hill cutting the grass. He likes the garden. However he doesn't really get why I buy a rose from a specialist grower that costs fourteen euros when he can get a perfectly good hybrid tea at the local garden center for five. We do have our, uh, discussions on the subject. I win, being my parents' child and a thrifty soul by and large with this one great extravagance (I'm also a child of the Eighties). He knows that I'm sensible, and that our accounts balance at the end of the month.

Melissa

Yep I am pitiful, although that's because I found a cheap nursery with good quality plants, so now making a mess of my all other orders... *sigh*

The bottom line is that I can't remember what I put in one of my orders (as the confirmation does not have a list what was ordered). I remember 2 out of the 4 and I can't figure anymore which ones out of like 10 possibilities I flinged out of the final list and which stayed. *sigh*

You people are great. I did find the cash tucked away so I don't feel at all guilty about the $. I somehow find it sad that I just can't stop buying roses. I even proposed an idea of a garden at my church so I can spread out a bit.

Perhaps if I look at it as cheaper than therapy--being out in the garden, watching things grow, cleaning a patch that's gotten weedy, catching a waft of something that smells wonderful--all these things energize me and bring me peace.

If I add that I'm helping to save certain roses for the future, it sounds like a grand and noble endeavor.

So I'll recant on the pitiful--now I'm noble with a lot of passion and just a bit of impulsiveness. I think I'll start saying that I'm "reticent" to share my new purchases with my wife until they are of a large enough size for her to appreciate.

Wow. I feel so good about myself now. Isn't gardening awesome?

One consolation, there are a lot of worse addictions than roses !! sally

I'm very excited. I expanded the older front garden to move Devoniensis and while I was at it stuck in Aunt Margy's Rose and Borderer. I don't think anyone would even notice that I bumped out the edge of that garden about 3 feet! The mulch is a slightly different color but it just looks like I weeded and mulched! I am feeling sneaky and clever but I've decided that I'm going to tell my wife about my purchase. I'll just wait until the right time. I will also remind her I'm helping the struggling small nursery save rare roses. A couple I ordered from RVR are only available from there or maybe one other place. It's like saving the whales--only it smells better. (except at alfalfa tea time).

Next week, the back garden is getting a larger enlargement. I HAVE to enlarge it so I can save Archduc Charles for my wife--she likes that one. Isn't that convenient?

I felt kind of bad because I was the pitiful, jokingly sarcastic one. I don't really sneak and don't want to. When I purchased a plant in the past & considered sneaking, about an hour after I got home I'd be so excited about my new purchase I'd have to tell my husband what a great deal I got. I'm fortunate that he really doesn't get upset about that kind of thing. I'm glad your going to tell your wife. It's way more fun when you can share your excitement. Plus, she'll appreciate how honest you are and how you're saving the rose world.
Kitty

Jeff, I posted on your thread about my pitifulness a couple of days ago, but it got hung up and never appeared -- and, apparently, that is as it should be. The intervening posts have moved in a better direction away from pitiful. (Except for poor floridarosez9.) As is my nature this time of year, I have been digging up roses lately, but I still don't have enough spots for the roses that need homes. So naturally, I bought more, but it was perfectly reasonable, I thought, because I was buying from my favorite nearby nursery before it changes hands. There were very few available so I basically bought any rose that was remotely capable of surviving in my garden. Alexander Hill Gray (not a problem plus he's a yellow Maman Cochet. Yippee!) and Napoleon (hopefully, these two will find places in the ground). Rose de Rescht (I've seen it growing here) and Marchesa Bocella - both will have to survive/thrive in pots. I have learned not to deceive my DH (I always get caught anyway), so I just sucked in a breathe and casually mentioned my purchase because maybe prices will go up plus I had them shipped which was cheaper than gasoline. I think it was the next day that I mentioned I was running out to dig up two roses before it got dark. Probably poor DH is very confused at this point.

Sherry

Well I do it a bit sneaky way, since my DH usually does not see a point in getting some rare rose from UK, when I can get something just slightly different but much cheaper from around here. x)

I usually tell him about the bargains I get though and if I buy a few plants that he likes (which are not roses). We sort of have an agreement that I do not bother him with my gardening details and he does not bother me with technics, also he usually gets better PC/phone/whatever other technical stuff. We both know that we have common sense when spending, so it is not an issue.

gardenatlanta - you are onto something, proposing a garden at your church. I ran out of space a long time ago and started reclaiming the pavements (sidewalks)with many, many pots. After that space was filled, a couple of allotments kept me going but finally, I now garden by proxy. Working as a gardener anyway, I have come to regard most of my customers gardens as extensions of my own. I propagate plenty of plants for them and also make suggestions. In effect, I am a part owner of 13 gardens, quite happy to grow stuff even though it is for someone else. Because my allotments are half a mile or so from where I live, it was easy to get out of the mindset which states you must keep your stuff close, so the next logical step was to commandeer someone else's garden. You must have neighbours who have more space but less inclination than you to fill it. What about traffic islands, road verges and other public areas? Once you stop seeing your garden as needing to be attached to your home, there are many opportunities to indulge in having more plants.
As for pitiful - I hardly think so. We are referring to plants, my dear, not crack cocaine or the dogtrack.

Cute and true, Suzy. I've thought of that, too, but for me expanding to other areas presents two problems. Lack of water at these potential plant sites and lack of muscle. The spirit is willing, but the body is too weak for me to be digging anymore anywhere to the extent that I have in my yard where crappy cement-ish sand had to be entirely replaced with real soil and amendments. Sometimes limits are good things. But I say "go for it!" to Jeff and the other young muscular types.

Sherry

Sometimes that digging is my only exercise. That & hauling off sod, topsoil, and the dang 100 tons of ^$&*# river rock the previous owner of my house put everywhere! We just finished eliminating another patch of grass in the back yard for next spring's new bed...YAY!

As for sneaky, I control the credit card bill and do the ordering. I let my DH know that I ordered the roses he wants, and then I go with the "one for you, two for me" rule after that...lol. Now I just have to figure how to get them all planted next spring before he counts them.

I feel your pain!