I have a couple of hulthemia hybrids which I am definately looking forward to. Despite the ugly name - 'Eyes for You', one of them has a fascinating colour break,(lilac/purple) looking almost like a tree paeony. As is to compensate for the terrible name, the other hulthemia sounds more romantic and promising - 'Alissar, Princess of Phoenicia'. E4U has arrived already - have dared not put it into the ground as I think it will need really considered planting so it will spend a year in a pot.

I'm looking forward immensely to receiving Cl. Lady Hillingdon and the beautiful and mysteriour Zalud House Shingled Rasberry. The only person I know of who has the latter rose is Pam (mendocino rose) and she seems to regard it highly. That's recommendation enough for me.

Ingrid

P.S. I'm not a passionate Austin roses fan although I really like some of them, but I would like to have Young Lycidas after seeing pictures of it. At the least I'd like to see it in someone's garden in order to see whether it's really as beautiful as it seems.

I actually think I'm not going to buy any roses this winter, for the first time since we moved to the farm. It's certainly not that I have all the roses I want. But last winter was discouraging, and I have a general sense that I've confined myself mainly to roses for some years, and I want to play catchup with other members of the vegetable kingdom. We planted a lot of shrubs this fall. Actually, I've put off purchases of new varieties of peonies (but have taken a sort-of census of those I have), and of lilacs, and I hardly bought any bulbs, so one might ask what we did buy. Shrubs mainly, mainly for fill. But there are some novelties: new varieties of box, escallonias, and myrtle, and a handful of other odds and ends. After this pause, I hope that next fall I'll be able to do some serious buying of new plants, roses and others.
Melissa

Melissa, your development seems like that of the rosarian friend I visited last Sunday to deliver a special rose. She has 600 roses, most of them planted too close and she has given up buying new roses at present and has started to remove and give away many of them. Her next project is to continue planting the arboretum she started when her kids were small. Her latest passion is magnolias. We took a wintry walk among her trees and shrubs and it was so beautiful. She has all the different conifers she could find, lots of trees with beautiful bark, shiny or peeling, or shrubs with bright red and orange canes. I was glad to see her mature pink stemmed Salix alba var chermesina 'Winter Glow' because mine is still very small, planted only this fall.

Actually at this point my main concern is to prepare new beds rather than getting more plants. Would not mind getting Snow Goose though, but it seems to be sold out at the vendor who carries it here (although it is right time for hardwood cuttings, *winks at campanula and makes puppy eyes*)

no problemo elemire - will pm you soon as. I tried to kill this rose with total callous neglect, leaving it in a tiny pot for 2 years - no food, no water. When I eventually decided to plant it - it went berserk. It is still blooming sporadically now. Hardly any thorns but twiggily untidy growth. Would look fab in a less formal garden (like mine).

I'm always excited about a new rose. Recently I ordered a rose called Carmenetta. This is a cross between Rosa Glauca and Rose Rugosa with bigger flowers and hips than Glauca and showy flowers. I'm getting a few of the Ducher roses also.

ooh, I know that rose well - it really is lovely and not only are the flowers bigger - the petals are fuller, more rounded than R.Glauca, they have the most delicious foliage which has that slightly quilted rugosa look but appear velvety. I have never seen your garden but it sounds rambling and slightly wild with some vivid lighting and meandering paths - I really can't think of a more delightful rose for such a situation.

I am not worried about it being messy grower ampanula - formal in my garden ends more or less at a few (more or less) straight lines. :D

I'm so glad to get a glowing report of Carmentta. I haven't seen it in person.

Is 'Carmenetta' easy to root? I was given cuttings this fall. And if I do get plants from it, is it tolerant of droughty compact clay soil? I tend to avoid Rugosas because I think they would hate my conditions (though 'Thérèse Bugnet' does well and I like her a lot).
Thanks,
Melissa

I can only remember one somewhat negative comment about it, from an English garden book I think, that talks about the foliage and overall look of the plant being coarser, from the inclusion of rugosa I would imagine, and therefore the plant being less elegant looking. I suppose that would also depend on the eye of the beholder. The flowers being larger seems like a definite plus to me.

Ingrid

I am looking forward to welcome the first yellow(-ish) rose in my garden :-)! So far I only went with various pink, mauve, crimson, lavender, purple and of course white roses. I love the roses that I have, but a couple of weeks ago I felt somehow restless and somewhat unhappy when I looked at my garden and then it struck me, I am BORED!!! So in comes a yellow rose! I just ordered Charles Darwin. Right now I envision him sowhere between my white roses and silvery companion plants like dusty miller and artemisa. It should look quite nice in my imagination.

Christina

Since I might be looking for a small climber to replace the Big Mamoo (Cl Maman Cochet), I noticed Mme Driout on Suzy's post of swag-suitable climbers. She's a deep pink striped tea, tall bush or small climber. A very exciting rose to me and just the ticket! Also, Pompanella which has the look of Raubritter with its round, deep pink blooms. Those are the two that are in the 'shopping cart' awaiting the trigger to be pulled. The temptation to add two more in order to get a free one is simply insane, right? I mean I not dying to have any others, so I guess my wish list is just these two.

Sherry

I've been disappointed with Mme. Driout here. Gets every disease, and blooms mostly ball up before opening here. Fair warning . . .

I receive your warning, kstrong, but I'd like to know how one comes up with a Tea from a sport of a hybrid tea. I hadn't noticed that before. Do you have bs where you are? What are the diseases she gets? Are you in a cool coastal area or where? Thanks.

Sherry

Sherry, you can either classify a rose by breeding, such as Tea X HP equaling a Hybrid Tea, or you can classify it based upon how it looks or performs. Very often, it all depends upon what the breeder and introducer feel will best sell the rose. Ralph Moore's Mister Bluebird is a self seedling of Old Blush, hence pure China. I asked him years ago why he classified it as a miniature. He responded, "Kim, thirty years ago, WHO bought Chinas?" Austin's Dove performs like a weak Tea or early HT. Weigand's Symphony (HP, 1935) is classed as an HP, yet by breeding, it IS a Hybrid Tea, though it resembles Hybrid Perpetuals. Modern roses are such a mixed bag genetically, there is often no telling what you can get from many crosses or sports.

I agree with Kathy. Mme. Driout doesn't have enough flowers, much less decent ones, for the plant and it wasn't all that healthy in my Newhall garden, where disease was the exception rather than the rule. Kim

Thank you, Kim, for the explanation. Its poor health makes sense now. It must LOOK like a tea but act like a poor hybrid tea. Oh, well, the dream is dashed. And I guess Pompanella gets too big. Something tells me I didn't really need anymore roses. You don't suspect Mme Driout longs for Florida humidity, do you? I suppose we'll never know.

Sherry

I am in a foggy coastal canyon, mildew central. That rose is one of my indicator roses -- the first to get diseased -- both mildew and rust, which are the diseases of choice here. And I've seen probably three blooms in maybe two years that didn't ball up with botrytis before opening.

We're talking about the list for Santa, right?

Pomponella
Bouquet Parfait (Berndoodle's photo got me)
Vineyard Song
Alchemist (sp?)
Gloire de Dijon (dang that Paul Barden all to heck)
Carefree Wonder
Bonica
Brillian Pink Iceberg
Eden

As you can see, I favor roses that will ball and rot or those that will grow on freeway overpasses.
If anyone would like to disabuse me of my misconceptions, I would much appreciate it.

Renee

Mariannese
I've always grown a variety of plants in my gardens, not just roses. I don't like "rose gardens": I think they're boring. But it's true that my collector's instincts are mostly concentrated on roses. I've never been able to bring myself to focus on looking for and paying for distinctive shrubs, but at least the thought's in my head now. We don't have the room, or, perhaps, the conditions to grow a large number of trees. I certainly would love to be able to have magnolias. They're one of my chief regrets among plants I can't grow.
Melissa

Another alba semi plena
- "Susan Louise" because it is the only rose I've seen bloom for 10 months out of the year, fully and reliably 10 miles east of San Francisco, California.
-cl.Cramoisi Superior" at the moment the only red rose I own is "Mel Hulse" and since I have no deep yellow or flame colored roses at this time because I've been spending all my rose money on Tea roses and Tea-Noisettes I'll need
a Pernetiana or two, my favorites are cl. "President Herbert Hoover" because it's the most fragrant of all Pernetiana roses to my nose.
- Duquesa de Penaranda" Dot 1931, which is the healthiest Pernetiana I've ever evaluated, it's grown in a local no-spray public garden where I volunteer, in the Pernetiana section, and I hope to get cuttings from it this winter. a lovely coppery-cantaloupe hue, with yellow. I'd like to see this healthy rose more often in commerce. If I strike extra cuttings I'll give them away.

Lux.

My own holiday wish is not for acquiring any more new roses. Instead I want to get the roses I've been gathering over the past few months planted in a hillside bed by the back fence. First I had to make space. I've slowly been transplanting out some young fruit trees, a three-year-old pomegranate 'Grenada', a two-year-old grape 'Golden Muscat', a one-year-old apple 'Gravenstein', and a three-year-old persimmon 'Izu' . Originally I planned this bit of geography was expanding orchard space, but decided it was too pretty and too visible to give it to anything but roses. Don't worry, food lovers; I have other orchard areas and made room for all these plants elsewhere in my garden.

Today I got the first new rose in the ground. 'Alchymist' is to climb the back fence. There are a dozen or so more roses in pots awaiting planting, and I have about ten days to get it done. Relocating the existing plants was heavy work and the hardest part, and that is now done.

Rosefolly

Actually, I have been severely tempted by the deals that both Vintage Gardens and Rogue Valley Roses are offering (sigh). I even made up a little (beginning) list of roses from Rogue Valley the other night (when our girl, Margot Rose, was supposed to be fast asleep). Here it is:

Velvet Fragrance (love those smelly red ones)
Bayses Purple
Marianne (a Paul Barden intro)
Purple Buttons (from Kim Rupert, for the front of a bed)
Secret Garden Musk (Wow! God knows where I can put it!)
Augustine Guinoisseau
Papa Meilland (but its out of stock ): )

Of course, if I had no limits (space and budget), who knows where it would end! (Has anyone noticed how shopping for roses in the winter is just like going into a pastry shop when you're hungry?)

"Has anyone noticed how shopping for roses in the winter is just like going into a pastry shop when you're hungry?"
Heh heh heh.

Good job, Rosefolly. And I was feeling pretty good about getting three six-packs of violas planted...

Renee

Sherry, Mme. Driout looks like a gorgeous thing! Why don't you just go ahead and get it? Nothing ventured, nothing gained. And there's a difference between Southern California and Florida...

Laura

Oh, Laura!!! You're gonna make me mad! On Sunday I tidied up Cl Maman Cochet. Chopped off that wayward cane, flipped others up on top where they are securely locked in place by her vicious thorns (those leaf thorns are THE WORST), trimmed others and removed a lot of dead wood. She's slim and trim now. So I have no place to venture or gain with Mme Driout. Alas, I did the right thing, but I feel a little less than good about it - now. On Sunday I felt wonderful. But I guess my ambivalence isn't your fault, so I'm not really mad at you, Laura.

Sherry