Hi: I am new here and have enjoyed seeing your beautiful gardens! Here is my "Berries 'n Cream rose bush which was still blooming here in late December.

IMG]http://i46.photobucket.com/albums/f115/sunsand/100_1774.jpg[/IMG]

Sorry! The link doesn't work. I will try again.

[URL=http://i46.photobucket.com/albums/f115/sunsand/100_1774.jpg][IMG]http://i46.photobucket.com/albums/f115/sunsand/th_100_1774.jpg[/IMG][/URL]

Here is my Winter Jasmine (Jasminum nudiflorum) in bloom now, in spite of the winter weather here in NC.
{{gwi:554393}}

{{gwi:554394}}

Nancy in Statesville

Gardenhopes: I cut and pasted the link into my browser to see if I could view it and it worked. Your rose is gorgeous! How do you manage to NOT have it covered with Japanese Beetles or the zillions of other pests that usually dine on rose foliage?
Nancy in Statesville: Blooms in January - how awesome! Is that one scented?
Aliciab: I love your Irises! I wish I could name the mystery iris but there are simply too many possibilities.

Winter jasmine is fragrant?

I think winter jasmine is not fragrant.

Thank you transplanted. I know my mystery pink purple iris is not Quaker Lady, nor is it Caprice. A lady on the Iris Forum said that she thought it looked like an iris bred in the 1930's.... Whatever its identity, it's a pallida descendent, that's for sure. I didn't even know iris could be sweetly fragrant before finding this one, so this iris was a nice discovery! Ever since then I've been interested in collecting especially fragrant iris.

i love the grape jelly smell of the really old varieties. mmmmm.

I wish we could go back and edit -- I think I've made every technical mistake possible.
{{gwi:554395}}

what do you mean, alicia? with the pics, planting, what? cause it all looks good from where i'm sitting. :) and, after all, who doesn't wanna go back and edit some things in their life in general. but remember, it's the mistakes that we learn from.

Posting the pics, lol. The preview wasn't working when I started the thread (due to the new hardware that iVillage or whoever owns the site was installing) so I screwed up the first 2 posts, then accidently deleting pics, shrinking them too much, etc.

I spend all of my spare time editing the garden itself. :)

LOL.... dontcha wish life came with an undo button? if staples sold one of those that actually worked they'd be a world monopoly!

Alicia, do you know the name of the purple/white iris in the most recent photo? Very pretty. I purchased Schreiner's fragrant collection this past fall and am looking forward to sniffing those blooms. Early June was when they bloomed in Maine. When do they bloom here?
Phooey. I've tried once again to insert just one photo here but I guess I still haven't figured it out. Well, I added a few more irises to the Webshots album so you can see them there if you wish.

Here is a link that might be useful: Sandi's album

Sandi, City Lights is a beautiful iris. The white shoulder makes the blue even more striking. Pink Taffeta is a lovely iris too. It looks very much a true pink in that picture.

Schneider's fragrant collection -- I envy you that! I think I will order that too now that we have a more uphill location.

The purple and white iris in the last picture is Jesse's Song. It's incredibly prolific and doesn't mind heavy ground, so I have a lot of it. Some iris are more picky about drainage than others, but Jesse's Song isn't picky at all.

For those of you that love iris you may want to check out the Iris Gardens at Swan Lake in Sumter, SC, just eat of Columbia. We went in late Feb one year (swans and other birds were incredible) and from the looks of the numbers of them coming up every where it must be an incredible sight when they're blooming.

Here is a link that might be useful: Swan Lake

{{gwi:554396}}
I did it! I did it! I finally beat the Insert-a-photo-into-my-message problem! Ta Da! The iris above was my favorite of all in my Maine garden. The person I got it from did not know the name but the color was sooo gorgeous, especially since there was one of those tri-color Willows with the pink/white/green leaves growing behind it. I'm afraid the name escapes my memory at the moment (what doesn't these days, sigh).
Rootdigger, Swan Lake sounds like a beautiful place for me to go. When do you think they might be blooming?

Swan Lake sounds very intriguing....

Beautiful iris Sandi! In piedmont NC iris typically bloom anywhere from mid-April through first week of May.

According to the website the Japanese iris at Swan Lake usually bloom during the last 2 weeks of May -- imagine a garden like that starting out as an accident. Sounds like an excellent field trip for spring!

Alicia, we loved it there and if you go there you have to take the time to go to the Gardens and Zoo in Columbia and in between Columbia and Sumter is a swamp with trails and it's awesome as well. The zoo and botanical gardens are connected, so if you visit one it's easy to visit the other. That's where I fell in love with edgeworthia (zoo). You just had to follow your nose along with everyone else. It was funny watching people catch a whiff of it and start hunting for it! At that time as I recall there were camellias, red buds, witch hazels, magnolias, etc. blooming. The bridge is how you get from the lake side to the swamp side. It crosses a busy road. That's one of the amazing things about this place. All that serene beauty in the middle of a town. They do have picnic tables (on the lake side) if you want to take a picnic along.

{{gwi:554398}}

{{gwi:554400}}

{{gwi:554402}}

{{gwi:554404}}

{{gwi:554406}}

{{gwi:554408}}

{{gwi:554410}}

{{gwi:554412}}
{{gwi:554414}}

Here's a photo taken a few years ago showing a few of the local frogs hanging out at the edge of my water garden. Some days I would count over a dozen frogs in that little pool.
{{gwi:554416}}

That is such a cute picture! the way four of the frogs are huddled around the model frog.

Here's what' blooming in my yard today. I hadn't taken a walk around for several days and it was so great to see color!

Camellia 'Professor Sergeant'
{{gwi:554418}}

Camellia 'Nuccio's Pearl'
{{gwi:554420}}

Cyclamen coum
{{gwi:554422}}

Jasminum nudiflorum
{{gwi:554424}}

Ooooooh! So pretty! I still have Camellias blooming and violas, too. Even with all the brown grass around here, sunshine and a handful of blooms in January beats knee deep in snow any day of the week!

"Nuccio's Pearl" looks like the perfect camellia. Very lovely.

This is a close up of a butterfly this past summer. And some of the trees on our property.
{{gwi:554427}}
{{gwi:554430}}
{{gwi:554433}}

Cool butterfly close-up and the Crape Myrtle is a neat pic, too.
Here's what I had to look at/deal with in the garden in January in Maine:
{{gwi:554435}}

{{gwi:554437}}

{{gwi:330216}}

{{gwi:227874}}

Rhonda, what is the name of the purple fuzzy flower? I have them in my garden and have CRS at the moment.

Nancy the nancedar

Mexican Bush Sage.

Those are beautiful pictures Ronda.

http://share.shutterfly.com/action/welcome?sid=0MbMXDNq4Yupg&notag=1

SIGH, garden in better days....P.D. (pre Drought)

Nice gardens and nice pics everybody!
These are the first blooms on this bush and the only thing blooming right now.

{{gwi:554438}}

{{gwi:554439}}

Yes, Mexican Sage. Late to start blooming but then goes until frost. The hummers love it!!

{{gwi:554441}}

Beautiful! So nice to see blooms in the middle of winter - not much blooming in my garden yet, but the daffodils are peeking through. . .
I'm sitting here about to lose my mind over those camellias!!! If anyone has cuttings they would be willing to share, I would love to trade or pay postage! :)

rosebush, Home Depot has camellias for less than $10.

Thanks, rainbow, I will have to check them out when I go for more potting soil.

Nice pictures, Tooslim, I really like the waterfall. Did you build it yourself?
Rosebush, I would be happy to try to root cutting of my Camellias. I have one that is still blooming with a double, rose-colored flower. The other is a single white but I think it has finished.
{{gwi:554443}}
I do not know the name of either; they were here when I moved. Unfortunately, the former owner pruned them quite severely over the years and their shape is quite ugly. They're also too close together. If I succeed at rooting cuttings, I may just cut these down.

No, we had someone build the waterfall....I already work my husband to death hole digging, I want to keep him around for a few more years....hauling stone would have just finished him off. :-D I wish I could
get camelias to grow, I have terrible luck with them...and after last year, the ones I do have look horrible.

Transplanted,
THANK YOU! I would love some cuttings. I'll send an email.
rosebush

Hybrid Musk Roses Ballarina (pale pink), Marjorie Fair (dark pink), Playgirl (floribunda) and a Golden Stargazer lily (which will have to be moved).

{{gwi:554445}}

The shrub rose Lynnie, backed by the climbing rose Pearly Gates and a veronica.

{{gwi:554447}}

The climbing rose Autumn Sunset - smells good too.

{{gwi:554449}}

The top of one "arm" of the pink garden showing the shrub roses Lynnie, the climbers Pearly Gates, the veronicas and backed in the distance by the tea rose Souv. d'un Ami.

{{gwi:554452}}

A baby Red Cascade rose. It has tons of very dark red small blooms, but is extremely vigorous and easy to care for - but the front steps is not a good place for this climber. It has long since become a hazard to anyone attempting to use the door. This is DH's rose - he has the pruning duty - if he doesn't get with it the rose will have to be moved. The blooms dry beautifully and are great to use in decorating.

{{gwi:554454}}

This is one "arm" of the pink garden looking east. The pink garden is roughly a big V and this is the most westerly arm. The two bright pink bushes are Peter Mayle bushes - they will reach 6'+ midway through the growing season. They have some of the best possible blooms for cutting.

{{gwi:554456}}

This is the point of the V in the pink garden. DH and I like to have tea here.

{{gwi:554458}}

Lovely.

Wow, beautiful roses Jody. You have the magic touch.

Jody,
It must smell heavenly when you're out there having tea!
Just breath-taking! :)
rosebush

Wow Jody! Now that's what I call landscaping with roses! Good job! Do the Hybrid musks look like that all season? I'm thinking about Cornelia for the railing on the front steps(it's supposed to be thornless).

rainbow_2007 - Hybrid Musks typically bloom in flushes and typically bloom more heavily in the cooler weather. That said you can (i) deadhead - a giant pain as you might imagine; and (ii) feed heavily - that will get you more frequent flushes - weather cooperating.

The intake is really more important than anything else. They need to have the energy to grow new canes/stems on which to bloom.

The bushes always look good - even now. They have thousands of small red hips on them in sprays that match the last bloom (which I did not deadhead). I've been using the hips with evergeens in the house all winter.

The problem I have with Ballarina and Marjorie Fair is that they overun their bounds inside that particular garden. We just planted three Hybrid Musks around a big stump and will allow them to make a big display rather than trying for control.

I'd try to find someone in this zone who grows Cornelia to see if it will behave reasonably politely on a porch railing. Just don't plant Red Cascade!

Thanks all for the words of praise. These pictures were taken in May at the beginning of the second season of gardening in NC. About half of the roses came with me from TN, about half I have purchased since. There is an east garden that is mixed colors; two smaller round gardens in mixed colors and the front of the house has 6 red climbers and approximately 6 red bushes. The property border is home to some monsters and once bloomers as well as a lot of other shrubs. I love perennials as well, just trying to get the roses in the ground and companion plants in place. This property has full southern exposure across the front, a shade garden in back and a small side yard on the west side that I guess can be classified as part sun part shade. I have a lot to learn as there is considerable difference in gardening in NC even though the zone is the same as I was in TN.

I have ambitions in the direction of having a tea in the rose gardens this spring. Trying to schedule that when the roses are close to peak is a dance with the weather and means I can only give short notice, but I'm going to give it a shot.

Rainbow -- another thornless climber to consider is Renae. I've got 2 Renae and I can vouch for their complete thornlessness, remontancy, and fragrance.

Thankyou Jody and Alicia, I'll look into Renae.

Jody, a rose garden tea party is a lovely idea.

Jody, your garden is spectacular! You certainly know how to grow roses.