Wow, it's stunning! I love the way you have everything all mixed together in such a great tapestry of color! Since I have rose envy I always like to ask what people do to avoid Blackspot. I'm collecting information in case I'm ever brave enough again to plant something other than a Knockout Rose or my New Dawn climbers. ;) Also, what is it in particular that makes floribundas your favorites? Just curious. Thanks!

Rita, your flowers are beautiful. Wish I could grow roses like that. I'm only brave enough to try the knockouts. I just put in one of the double knockouts. I love it.

In your 3rd picture ~ did you build that fabulous stone retaining wall? When those Daylilies, Asiatic and Oriental Lilies bloom that garden space will be breathtaking. What do you have planted at the edge of wall?

Please post more pictures as things bloom.
Vikki

No, I did not build it but had it done earlier this spring. Before that the hill just sloped all the way down to the sidewalk and was grass. Not much grass left here.

The little green plants you see right by the wall are Four O'Clocks. I bought a bunch of Four O'Clock tubers and planted them 1 foot apart all the way down. In the past I start Four O'Clocks from seed but I knew I would never get to it this year as I had so much to do. So I just bought the tubers.

Everything looks so healthy. You've done a wonderful job and boy has it paid off. I can't wait to see more pictures throughout the summer.

Mary

Ummm, fresh blackberries... Delicious and beautiful!

I don't think I have ever seen healthier roses. What is your secret? Do you have a regular spray program and what do you use?

This rainy spring has been disastrous for my roses.

BTW, I meant to say it is just beautiful.

Oh my! You are so fortunate to have the skill and great garden to grow so many beautiful roses!

Black Cherry is perfect!

What kind of blackberries do you grow? That's so clever to incorporate them into your garden. Are they thornless?

Cameron

Yes, the blackberries are thornless and not as close to the roses as the angle of the picture makes them look. I have Apache and Arapaho. They make really huge berries. If you pick them before ripe they are slightly sour. But if I have the patience to wait until they are ripe they are sweet and so wonderful. Of corse the birds and squirrels think so too and help themselves to some of the fruit. No matter, there is plently for all.

I have planted things here to attract backyard songbirds, butterflies and bees so I never use insecticide but I spray my roses like clockwork on a two week schedule with Bayer Advanced Funcicide. I don't have Japanese beetles or Thrips, so that works here. All this week I have been watching the Chicadees and House Wrens which are nesting here, picking aphids off the roses. Safe for them to feed to the babies because no insecticide used.

To the fungicide I add Nepture liquid Seaweed fertilizer so that those roses get fed lightly every two weeks. If I did not spray in hot humid Long Island, my roses would have no leaves.

IN spring I use Rosetone on all the roses. This spring I also used the greensand which I think is great stuff. Finially I also put down humic acid which comes in liquid or powder. I used the powder which is a type of shale. It is not a fertilizer but rather does marvelous things to the soil so that plants can use nutrients in the soil more effectively.

Plus we had lots of rain. The roses loved the cool wet spring we had had this year.

And I break all the rules and plant them REALLY close together about 18 inches. Access would be from the front and around the back of the bed. I prune REALLY hard each spring, I don't have a shrub rose or a floribunda over two feet tall after spring prunnning. You can see that they love it and grow back loaded in bloom.

I forgot to answer that I like Floribundas and shrub roses because I get a lot more bloom than with my hybrid teas. But I have Hybrid Teas also, just in another section of my yard.

Newyorkrita,

I saw your other pictures posted on the Roses forum (which were beautiful also) and wanted to ask you about Golden Zest. I just planted one this year (bareroot) and can't wait until it blooms. Is it as wonderful as J & P makes it out to be?

Thanks,
Mary

Yes, it is better than any hype they could possible put out. I have some yellow english style roses, Austin Mollineaux and Austin Golden Celebration. Golden Zest is better than either of them. Better thicker form and doesn't blow in two days like an Austin. I love it and in fact I have two of them. Tried to find another this spring locally but just didn't find it. You will not be dissapointed with this rose.

My favorite is the Black Cherry. I love the way your roses spill over the block wall. Hope my new carpet roses will eventually spill over the brick gardens as your's are doing!

Lorna

So . . . your roses aren't beautiful just by accident. Thanks for sharing your regimen for keeping them so healthy.
I'm going to adopt your program - it can't hurt !!

Carol

I think a big thing to remember is that you must stick to the every 2 weeks spray like clockwork. I know sometimes people think oh I have something else to do, I will get to them in a day or two. Doesn't work. Let it go even a day over and you get some blackspot. I mark it on my calender so I can't forget. I watch the weather. If we are expecting rain, I ALWAYS move up the spray date, not push it back. I also let a good amount of the spray drip down like a drench so I am sure these roses get some systemicly that way too.

I watch the roses. If you see some blackspot then shorten the interval between sprayings. I used to have to shorten to almost weekly in the worst of the humid summer when I used another product. So far hasn't happened with the Bayer.

The Bayer Advanced is an exceptional product for me. Plus I always mix in the liquid Neptune Seaweed Fertilizer. My opinion is that another brand is not as good, I really believe in the Neptune folliar feed.

Last year I skipped the Neptune folliar feed and I had less bloom. Not that my bloom was bad but this year is so much better. I use a lot of compost and really not that much Rose Tone. I decided to give them all Greensand this spring and I think they really loved it.

From the time the roses were young and small, I prune extremly heavily in spring. Its tempting not to prune a small rose but I have found it makes them stronger and fuller.

Now this works for me in my garden. Not saying it would be the thing for everyone. Just my way of doing things.

Your roses and gardens are lovely. I really like wall surrounding the roses! Very pretty!!!

Beautiful roses! I especially liked that BeBop rose.

Rita, they are beautiful!!
In your first pic, what is the dark red rose all the way to the
right?
Alida

It is Scarlett Velvet and its a stunner. It is one of the Robert Clemments introductions from Heirloom roses that I planted last spring.

I have some other Clemments roses in that section but you can't see them in the picture. There is New Orleans, Star of the Nile and Louise Clemments.

In fact I love Clemments Roses so much that I bought a bunch more this spring and have planted them in a grouping which is in back of those in the picture.

Here is a link that might be useful: Scarlet Velvet at Heirloom Roses

I am seriously in love with Black Cherry......oh, I don't have the energy to make a rose garden this year.........maybe next year. I always swear I'll never have roses again - so hard in this climate, then I see pictures like yours. I am perhaps best to lust from afar. lol!!

Nancy.

I particularly love your Black Cherry rose, but all of your plantings are just exquisite. You are tempting me to try my hand at planting a rose.

Beautiful, Rita! Everything is so lush and green - yum! I am a floribunda lover, too. They are the perfect rose for a cottage garden, imo. They look like a rose and most importantly most of them smell like roses. Many, like Day Breaker, Julia Child, Outta the Blue and Easy Going, bloom almost continuously and they make good cut flowers. Livin' Easy is proving to be a bloomin' machine for me, as well.

TFS!
Diana

I took some more pictures so here goes -

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The same section of roses as in the first picture above.

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Looking towards the street from the roses.

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Longer view of the front yard beds.

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More.

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Florabundaville.

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Shrub roses in front.

Rita ,beautiful gardens.TFS What part of N.Y. state are you in?? My sister would love your gardens,she's in Washingtonville and does a lot of gardening also.
Kathi

I am on Long Island on the North Shore in Nassau County.

Once again Rita! you have outdone yourself. How beautiful!
May I ask what zone you are in? I am in PA and I am in Zone 6. I have no idea what to plant. Also in the winter everything looks so depressing. What do you do in the winter with your garden?
Thanks so much
Sharon

Zone 6 really. I don't do anything in the winter in the garden. As far as the roses, I just plant my grafts deep and many of them have gone own root by now.

Did I say before that I prefer your own photos to those done by the professional guy?
His could be any catalog and he doesn't give their names.
Your photos of the garden show how you appreciate the results of your efforts. So do we.

My grandson goes to school at Kings Point, LI, NY. Well, right now he's at our house and will go to sea on Am. Pres. Lines for six months,
but he'll be in school after Christmas. He is the second generation Kings Pointer in our family.

Sharon, you could start a new thread asking what others in cold zones do for winter interest.
Evergreens in the snow are one thing I've seen, and hardscape.
There are some folks here who can show you very interesting winter gardens, enjoyed from inside.

Nell

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Black Garnet blooming today.