My obsession has waned somewhat. Although my mouth waters with desire when I look through the catalogs, many years of disappointment have hardened my heart to the promises of super roses.
I now look at the catalogs, then give them away or toss them in the trash. I buy new roses after the hype has passed and they have proven themselves.
I'm still hooked but I attend my RA (Rosaholic Anonymous) meetings and repeat over and over, "My name is Karl and I'm a rosaholic!"

Karl, as long as we're having a virtual meeting, my name is Mike and I'm a roseaholic. I know full well I can't just buy one, it just leads to one more and then just one more and........ So yes, I already have a short list, and I'm just deciding which vendors I'll choose. I won't be buying any "new" roses though. If a rose is still on my list from last year, I'll buy those. I still want:

Rouge Royale
Ghislaine de Feligonde
Rosarium Utersen
WS2K

Mike

Already ordered in September. Will decide on minis next month. Most of what I order I haven't seen at all. I did notice the other day that Witherspoon and S&W Greenhouse were open for ordering. And I haven't had a good look around Regans (but they ship so early I'm not ready for roses in January).

I know I'm in trouble, Devon. All I had to see was the beginning of your posting - "New Rose Catalogs On the Way" and the symptoms all kicked in - accelerated heart beat, ringing in the ears, and a twitching in the fingers as I ran for my VISA card.

I have so many roses in my mental queue already I cannot think about anything that is new for 2008! Fun to think about but I need to sort through the roses I'm already obsessing over first.

Kate

Austin's catalog came today. Me fading into sunset.

Carla

WEll I have succumbed to the madness yet again. Already I have 17 new roses on order for spring, that does not include my main order from Pickering. Oh what is a lost soul to do with all those offerings, I mean I am a mere human afterall. LOL

The Austin catalogue is out!!!!! Oh woe is me.

Valerie

And I will be there with a twinkle in my eye and a wicked grin on my face to cheer you folks on!

The Evil Enabler

I'm afraid it will be just rose porn for me. Between the drought and our finances, I don't think I'll be buying...But you never know.

I have some on a wish list and would like to replace my Lady Hillingdon that didn't make it. But as DH likes to point out, I do still have a pot ghetto...... I hate men.

Patrick, you can't touch this!

Carla

I usually succomb to at least one of the new releases every year. Hard to say what it will be this year yet. I've only gotten one catalogue so far. I'm not looking to add to my collection either. I'll just replace something lost or a few I want to shovel prune in the spring. Otherwise, I've pretty much maxed out my space and ability to care for them all at 75. I've even considered dropping that number to 50 what with the cost of everything going up and the lack of rain we had this year. I don't know if that will be possible though. Which ones I'd get rid of I'd never be able to decide!

There is always another rose for me, though I've really reached my limit of time, energy, and water. I am ordering a few more Austins. We are good friends with the Vintage folks and it is very easy to make another small order or stop by Garden Valley Ranch and look through the Vintage roses there just for fun.

Since I moved this year and left about 150 of 200 behind I am in good shape to order plenty of new Roses this year.
I'll be ordering quite a few with no regret, and I'm lucky because my lovely DW doesn't care.
Most of what I'll order won't be new stuff.
I agree with my old pal Karl, I won't order anything new until the hype dies down.
Peace,
Chuck

I already have 15 on order from 2 different places. I2 of those are new introductions for 2008; 1 is a limited release (full release for 2009); and 1 of thoses is a 2007 introduction.

However, I have been drooling over one of the catalogs I just got and I am sure I will get 1 or 2 (or more) new releases from there too.

In other words, No, I will not be strong.

There are a couple that I have on a "must have" list, but so far this year I want to order:

City of York
Summer Wine
Dublin Bay

These I have spots for. And they're not new roses either.

Others that I might consider this year:

Elizabeth Taylor
Tiahitian Sunset
Brigadoon
Mister Lincoln

These I may or may not get, yet. And these aren't new either. So far, the new one that looks interesting to me is Falling in Love.

Here is a link that might be useful: Gardening and Other Stuff

I rarely buy the new releases. This year I am concentrating on filling in some of my collections. More teas, chinas and noisettes for sure. I am also hoping to finish up with more of Ralph Moores. I think that will do it for me!

Trish

Well, I already have about 70 on order. About half of which are from Hortico. So, with any luck, half of those won't even arrive, so I should be ok. This is one of least amounts I've ordered in a long time. But then, I'm pretty much out of room.... I do love to try the new releases, especially the oddballs and stripeys. Of course, had to get ALL-AMERICAN MAGIC, ROCK & ROLL, JULIO IGLESIAS and that new semi-striped climber JACOB'S ROBE to put opposite CANDYLAND on my newest arbor.

Karl, what fun meetings those would be. The heck with the coffee and the smoke filled rooms. There would be roses, lots of roses. Where do I sign up?
My name is Nancy, and I am a roseaholic. That was easy to admit.
Regarding the question, if they aren't on fortuniana there isn't much point, it saves me quite honestly.
Nancy

New releases? Probably not. I got Gentle Giant last year (was it new last year or the year before?). It was buy one/get one from the Edmunds catalog. I'm a bit of a history freak, so older roses appeal to me more. That said, there's nothing quite like some of the newer roses to cut and bring into the house.

The pot garden is taking over, and they won't all be in the ground before it gets really cold. My Pallatine order will be coming in a couple of weeks -- more pots to overwinter. And the basement has lots and lots of cuttings under the lights.

I spent my first 20+ years as a gardener unable to grow roses -- our houses were in subdivisions with way too many trees, so shade gardening was my thing. Now that I have the sunshine and the acreage, I've been hitting the roses in a big way.

I am, indeed, a roseaholic. I readily admit it, and I enjoy every minute with my roses -- whether I'm in the garden with them, or planning and shopping for them. I love their different colors and forms. I love to paint pictures and create vignettes in the garden with them. What other plant can do so much and reward you with so much joy?

Connie

P.S. As a gardener friend of mine says, it's the roses in any garden that always attract the most attention.

Beth, you're almost out of room? isn't that the last horseman of the apocalypse?

Oh, ALMOST! ;-)) Never mind...

Always room for one more rose bush!
I always ordered 10 more than I had room for and it always worked out.
I do have 140 roses ordered from Great Lakes Roses that I'll pick them up at the end of February. They'll be repotted and sold except for one of each variety I don't have.

I already placed orders for roses in September and early October before I've received the catalog of those companies. Since than I added 1 rose from Ashdown (a must have for me), 4 trial from Hortico (no catalog); so I didn't even open the Edmunds catalog for various reasons.

Tom Carruth (hybridizer for Weeks) came to our rose club meeting and showed slides of some pretties that will be offered next year, so I've already started my wish list. Oh, well!

I've been working on my 2008 list for a month- ever since placing my Pickering fall order. Taboo is number one on my list, and it looks like I will be ordering from NC Roseland as they have several on my list, including Prairie Sunrise and Mirandy.
That said, roses are all about dreams, and rather than order roses no one knows anything about, I will continue to rely on the great gardeners here for their experience in which roses are healthy, attractive and disease resistant. Brandy

We don't mail order roses. Catalogs are given to neighbors after we check them. We have reached the limit (165) of roses we can take care of. There are only a few spots left in the yard suitable for roses. They are saved for some we continue to look for (Ramblin' Red for one) and some promising seedlings. Deb doesn't want to shovel prune any of the roses and the critters won't die in winter. Zero roses added in 2007. Looks like 2008 will be the same. We are happy with the roses have and it does not hurt a bit.

digger

Julie, where did you find Summer Wine?

Thanks,
Carla

Seil summed up my situation pretty acurately, as well. No more space. I AM a roseholic, but fortunately my pre-cirrhotic "rose-liver" doesn't allow me to indulge as much as I once did. I can window-shop with the best of them, though. And, I might occasionally buy a brand new variety, but I resist; I want to hear first how it has performed for others.
I realized after a while that even though I spend weeks or months mulling over choices to decide on "just the right ones," imagining the perfect roses to "complete" my garden, as soon as I've got them--or even just ordered them, the mystery is gone and my brain wants to explore other "new-to-me" roses. The addict part of all of this is that I seem to enjoy rose shopping as much as actually growing them (dare I admit, even more than?). If I were physologically healthy, I would be content to care for and pamper the roses I've got instead of constantly visiting rose "porn" sites. What do I do for a living? I'm an addiction counselor (seriously). Please don't tell my patients on me. ; )

LOL Mike!!! I think I'm the same way. I'm sometimes more excited about the actual purchase than seeing the rose bloom. It's all in the hunt. Trying to obtain certain elusive ones. I'm an obsessive collector. Like the cat collectors you see on Animal Planet. You know, the ones who keep "collecting" cats and end up so overwhelmed, they can't keep up with the mess and cleanup, and the cats become wild, running loose all over the house, while the owner has to move into the garage to get away from the turmoil. Yet they can't stop collecting.....

OMG!! That's how I am with the roses! I collect so many, I really don't have the room for them; yet I keeep on buying more. I can barely keep up with the ones I have, and often when I'm out in the yard, I look around and ask .... "What the H&LL am I doing to myslf??

(BTW - I just emailed Hortico last night and had them add 5 more to my order!)

And the universe is in balance again!

Carla, I believe it Roses Unlimited where I'm planning on purchasing Summer Wine, City of York and Dublin Bay. I believe they also have Brigadoon and Elizabeth Taylor as well. So far, Roses Unlimited is the only place I'm ordering roses this year.

I ordered six large tea roses for a ledge with a deck railing on one side and a steep dropoff on the other. It was only after they arrived that I started to think about how they would be cared for. Watering I can do from the top but what about pruning, mulching, fertilizing? I got so carried away with thinking about, choosing and ordering (and it was FUN!) that the logistics never occurred to me. Guess I'll be ordering crampons and a mountaineering rope next!

Ingrid

>

Just curious, have you thought about how you plan to plant there there?

I got two Summer Wines this summer from Heirloom.

Connie

P.S. It's a must-have rose, since I live next door to a winery. :)

Connie, what did you think of the first year with Summer Wine? I've been looking at this rose for a number of years but now have a spot for it.

I sure can relate to you, Mike in New Orleans. Not only am I retired from the Mental Health biz, but I went to school in New Orleans (undergraduate), and I am a rosaholic in recovery. I saw some recent research that reinforces the concept that acquiring something doesn't seem to bring satisfaction, but the need to acquire more! It's probably a throwback to our hunting and seed-gathering ancestors! I guess needing to get the hard-to-find ones and, hopefully, the best, is just a part of the whole syndrome. Most people can control the urges eventually - when their collections start controlling them!

Anyway, here's my plan to remain in recovery in spite of all the tempting catalogs. All summer long, as I spent long hours watering, spraying, feeding and trimming roses, I vowed not to get any more. But, I have a list of about ten which are not worth all the pampering they get, so they will be replaced. I show roses, but they don't all have to be showable. But, I have several which have had plenty of chances to show what they can do and continue to be disappointments. To keep my vow, I am going to write down which rose is leaving before ordering a new one. And, I am not going to dig them out of the trash like I did last year! Anyway, unless they are real dogs, I am going to give them to people in my garden club who like garden roses.

So, that's my plan. If every year I just replace the ones which are non-performers, I can satisfy my urge to add a few new ones that sound intriguing. But - what happens when they are all perfect? I have a feeling that will never happen!

Hi Snowheather! Your plan to only buy numbers equal to what you get rid of...I'm already there; that's what I meant my rose-liver cirrhosis. I literally have NO more room with adequate sun. I do have a back patio in dappled shade where I've banished a couple old garden roses that can deal with it best. But as for the front, I have to decide who to sacrifice in order to buy new. But stiiillll, it's hard to restrain myself. What finally occurred to me a couple months back is that I can simply delay committing to which source I'm going to order from and keep comparing specific variety options for as long as possible. If I commit to an order too soon in the season, I'll already want to order something else within a few months. My climate does not help this weakness, as I can plant roses hear virtually anytime (though June thru August are the worst). So my current strategy is to window-shop endlessly and ask the rest of you your opinions of this or that variety to keep me going without actually ordering. Occasionally this backfires, when there is a rose I know I want but I wait too long and the vendor nixes it from their line-up. That just happened with Hocus Pocus at Moore's : (
I have committed to buying 3 from Roses Unlimited this January. That's really all I "need" in terms of space limits in my garden. But I keep toying with the idea of 2 or 3 from Rosemania and/or Nor'east. I just started trying to root a couple miniflora stems I picked up recently. Can't tell you which, only their coloring. But I'm telling myself I have to wait to see if they root successfully before I allow myself to buy any others.

Mike

My new DAVID AUSTIN catalog arrived last week. FANFRICKENTASTIC!!! But I wasn't tempted. Too many other "classic" roses waiting to be tried first. For example I've already got two VIKING QUEENS on order and right now am looking to make room for CLIMBING LA FRANCE. I really want CLF in the worst way.

What catalogs?? I couldn't wait until spring. I already caved and added 10 roses between 9-17 and 10-29:) I have my Christmas bags ready to bag them for freezes.

I do have a couple of on a wish list for spring, most recently Louise Estes.
Les

I have already reserved my usual 30 + bare roots from S & W during their halloween double discount sale. Also received a coupon in the email from them for an additional 5% off so ended up getting them for $11.37 each.
They have added some 09 varieties now that i want - so going to have to order those too.

There are many I just want to try I have space for none of them. There are a few I truly want I have space for none of them and then theres the one I will probably order if it becomes available and I won't even mention it it's so hard to come buy! If I can't have it then I will prbably add a single Bourbon. The rose magazines are so compeling but then there are to Botnaical Gardens 30 mins in either direction I can go see so much at them and often thats enought to calm the rose fever!

About Summer Wine. I bought it from Heirloom about 7 years ago. It is one wonderful rose! The bush is healthy and grows fast. The blossoms are among my earliest and then the blooming time goes on for a long time. Their fragrance is mild but pleasant. It has the most gorgeous big orange hips on it all winter until a hard freeze. Mine was badly damaged last year when the winds of 80 mph blew the copper tellis with it over. I had to cut away most of the rose to get the trellis back up. Well, it bounced back like a rubber ball and was covered with roses this year, and is even now sprawling out and over the other shrubs. I may cut it way back once the hips blacken, because that does not seem to phase the plant at all! And oh yes, there is one late rose blooming on the tip of a vine that is hanging in the exact center of my office window. Over the past few days I have watched it unfurl and bloom in a brilliant raspberry orange. Summer's light and heat turn it to a lovely soft pink with buttery yellow, but I like the early and late flowers best with their more intense colors. This is one of the most disease free roses I have. It is also one of the first I would plant again if I ever had to move. Do give it a strong trellis though. There is nothing wimpy about it!

Right, Les. Who needs catalogs when we have enablers like Lisalily here! :)

I with the utmost sincerity I agreed with DW last year "NO MORE ROSES." We were "FULL" like the taco ad says. We needed to save money to travel to Seattle.

So why and how did I end up with three new roses? Go figure. The Devil made me do it. It is incomprehensible.

It worked out well and I wasn't even anointed with the infamous cast iron frying pan while I was sleeping.

This year I have been given the go ahead to replace some of the roses that have croaked and I have absolutly no enthusiasm for the project.

Here are the Possibilities:

Tamora - to replace a FAV.
French Lace- the same.

I would like to try Clothilde Soupert again, but I need something a little bit more hardy. I was thinking about Orange Marsdag, but I believe that is a zone 6 rose also.

I had better check out the Buck roses again, and see what we don't have yet.

There is still work to be done outside, so we probably won't get serious until we batten down the hatches.

Here is a link that might be useful: Orange Morsdag

Iowa Jade, what did you mean by having "absolutely no enthusiasm for the project" ...of replacing some croaked roses? Did you mean you're burnt out on rose shopping? Or was it that you'll be opening a Pandora's box of possibilities and won't know where to stop? Or is it some third alternative I didn't pick up on? Just curious. For me, the hardest part of rose shopping is stopping.

Julie22, there is enough room to plant the roses since there is a ledge there that's about 4 to 5 feet wide. No problem while the roses are small, but what about when they get to be monsters, like most tea roses do? How can I get around one rose to get to the other? In spite of that I have no regrets, I really wanted those roses and it will be a challenge to see how to handle the situation.

By the way, I'm puzzled that everyone is getting all these catalogs and I'm not. Yesterday I received a catalog from David Austen from whom I ordered roses, but then I also ordered roses from three other vendors and irises from a vendor but, no catalogs. I think they do have places on the web sites where you can request a catalog but it's never occurred to me to do so. Duh! Besides, I HAVE NO MORE ROOM.

Ingrid

I already caved in, and for each rose i buy, basically one has to go by next winter! So far, I have ordered;
Silverado
Royal Ascot
European Touch
Deidre Hall
Las Vegas
Thanksgiving
Purple Tiger
Crystalline
Gypsy Canival
Osiria
Paradise
Yorkshire Bank
South Africa

All these, plus all of the cuttings from UCD, and the cuttings my pal Beth is sending means lots of roses finding new homes next year. Some of these, like Brook Song, need to go because they are doing so poorly. Others, like Chrysler Imperial, will go because it's so common, and I am moving towards more hard to get HT's and FL's.

Just got my DA catalog. Has anyone tried Tea Clipper or Lichfield Angel? They look like possibilities to be planted next to Crown Princess Margareta. After that I am out of space!

Mike,

I won a free rose from Regan Nursery at a rose show. Now you know I am NOT going to stop at one (1) rose.

Should I also shovel prune DW's FAV rose and risk the frying pan? Do you know just how much space that rose takes up out of my garden?

It's HUGE!

Do you feel lucky? ----- Rooster!

While there is work to be done, I would rather be playing around in the dust bowl wandering from house to house begging for leaves.

There are also some fairly effective enablers on this form who have not even begun to get warmed up yet.

Be afraid! Be very afraid.

Foghorn

Here is a link that might be useful: Madame Pierre Oger

This has all been great fun to read and I see myself in so many of your comments that I've been chuckling all through it.

All this Austin talk has reminded me of one I'll be getting asap, Summer Song. Fell in love with it over a year ago when it was introduced on the UK Austin site and have been hoping and waiting for it to cross the pond. So if it pops up anywhere I'm grabbing it. Oh dear, I just thought of another one, Pope John Paul II, I nearly bought it last spring and then at the last minute didn't. DUMB! I'll be getting that one for sure.

There are a few others on my urgent want list (like Falling in Love, which I have heard very good things about) but like I said earlier I'm really trying to cut back not grow my collection so I'm only going to replace failers. Really, no kidding, I mean it, honestly, no more, I have enough now, I don't have ANY more room...