hi daniel.. welcome to GW ... novice gardener??? first.. why is it in that small pot ... and why indoors .... that is two strikes against you real fast... these things thrive in full blistering sun .... and mine.. the seeds of which which dropped from the plants last fall.. started blooming yesterday .. i just happened to notice ... and they are about 10 times larger than yours .... and the 3 inches of rain in the last few weeks sure didnt hurt .... yours looks slightly anemic... yellowish.. but that might be a camera trick .... if i were you.. i would move it outdoors.. the north side of the house... insure it NEVER dries out.. and watch it take off with more vigor.. as long as you dont forget to water it in that smallish pot ... dont know where you are ....[ could you go to your members page.. and change that NONE next to your name.. to the largest big city .. so we have a clue where you are]... anyway .... annuals are sold in spring.. you will be hard pressed to find good stock this time of year ... and its way to late.. to be sowing seeds... plants need to be well established by july/august ... to make it thru the heat of that time of year ... selfsown seedings annuals that i have in my MI backyard include: CA poppies rose campion johnny jump ups larkspur morning glory celosia columbine and i will see if i can come up with some other names ... now.. i gave you common names.. your assignment.. is to google the latin names.. and learn all about them .... you might even get some peeps to send you seeds for the cost of a stamp or two .... in the mean time.. you should build a nice garden bed.. for next spring .... so you can do all this out in mother earth.. where it should be done.. its so much easier.. it took me 20 years of practice in the garden.. before i perfected growing things in pots... so you are starting the hard way ... good luck ken ps: there is a winter sowing forum... for the real hard core.. its a way to get into perennials on the cheap ....

Mme. Alfred Carriere is first to begin to bloom, often at the end of February, where we live, c. 7 miles east of San Francisco. Then all the China and Tea rosebushes bloom: starting with: Duchess de Brabant and Westside Road Cream Tea Archduke Charles Followed in c. 2 weeks by the rest of the Old Garden Tea rosebushes. Celine Forestier blooms then too, a rose I am madly in love with, so pretty with those large shallow cupped blooms surrounded by fresh pink rosebuds... and the fragrance!!! oooh-la-la! Gloire des Rosomanes begins bloom at the end of March, and I love its light but lovely and spicy scent. It was one of the first red roses I ever loved because I thought red roses appeared somber, but those artless cherry red blooms with their China rose white streaks seduced me. I found one bloom during the first week of April on my 'Belle Sultane' usually the Gallica roses bloom at the end of April or during May here. My Albertine has a few blooms too. Our bloom season for China, Old Garden Tea roses extends from the end of February through mid-December, we often get a warm spell during mid-January and most of the Tea and Tea-Noisettes will put out a medium flush c. 1/2 to 2/3rds of the main spring flush of bloom. Compared to Hybrid Tea rosebushes, I was delighted to see (though I feel I should feel abashed about this feeling, mea culpa) my neighbors front yard with only Hybrid Teas and modern roses has not a single bloom in it while my yard appears garlanded with an abundance of fragrant old garden Tea roses of pink, ivory, lemony yellow, peach and white all in mass profusion. While my friend and neighbor has ...poor thing... only rosebushes with leaves to show. She will have a garden of glory in late April when her Florabundas bloom fully followed in a couple weeks by her H.T.s. My companion flowers that begin to bloom in late March through April , and re-bloom several times each year ( in our warm climate) include Johnny-jump-up violas which surround Lady Hillingdon as do Forget -Me-Nots, I have several 'Electric Blue' Geraniums that Luanne gave me last year that are blooming around Mme. Berkeley. and re-bloom steadily. Parma violets bloom in winter here when the last Tea roses are blooming. Hybrid Tea roses with long stems bloom for an average of 28 to 33 days per flush X 3 flushes per year for a total of nearly 3 months a year. Florabundas bloom for a few days longer per flush: an average of 30 to 35 days per flush x slightly more than a month per flush, with an average bloom span of 3 and 1/2 months per year to nearly 4 months per year. Lady Hillingdon bloomed for more than 180 days during her first flush of the year with never being dead headed, and always with 33% to 100% of bloom output during that time. ( I had a spinal injury and had nothing to do for 2 years but count rose blossoms in a large garden ) Other than the China and Teas no one can match them for days of bloom per year but a handful of Tea-Hybrids, including: Pax' a white Hybrid Musk bred by Pemberton. 50% Old Garden Tea This blooms in winter here with the Tea roses, mentioned in January. Souvenir de la Malmaison' a Bourbon that is also 50% Old Garden Tea it has the shorter pedicles typical to Old Garden Teas which makes for rapid re-bloom. We just ordered a remontant 'Mock Orange ' (philladelphus) which is called 'White Sensation' I'm very excited about it, as it is the only re-blooming mock orange that I am aware of existing. I have a yellow chrysanthemum called "garland Chrysanthemum' that I got from a seed bank locally, and it blooms from April through late Autumn, it re-seeds easily and it provides a saturated yellow missing from the Tea rose class. It grows taller and wider than I'd like, though. Lux.

I found it interesting enough to resurrect this thread that the 'Indigo' of commerce in the U.S. appears to have quite possibly come from Mottisfont itself. Assuming the truly indigo-colored 'Indigo' grows there, I think we probably have the right rose, at least. See this link for one piece of evidence of its importation. It seems that the coloration of the Mottisfont clone was also problematic in southern California from the beginning: "...just a notch or two closer to purple than the default OGR phlox-magenta" sums it up nicely. In another thread on Gardenweb, our old friend Pete Flowers suggested that David Austin may have introduced the Mottisfont clone through his nursery. See here for that link, in French.

The flowers of the lacecaps last just as long as the fuller mopheads do, but because the flowers themselves are different, the appearance after they fade is different as well. The large, sterile flowers (like the mops) on the outer edge will hold their form well and go through a variety of color changes as they age like George and creech mention. The tiny fertile flowers in the center of the inflorescense do not hold up as well and their tired appearance late in the season may be what you object to. Personally, I find the mature, aged flowers of the lacecaps rather appealing and well, lacy looking :-) I hestitate to cut them off until my spring clean-up as they look very attractive in winter with frost on them, etc. Right now, my climbing hydrangea and other lacecap hydrangeas are only starting to look tattered with their old flower heads still attached, but then we have had considerable rain lately and a fierce windstorm this past weekend and everything that has held up through winter is looking a bit worse for wear. Major clean up is on the horizon! My opinion may be biased by the fact that I prefer lacecaps over the mops, too :-)