Greetings fellow rose enthusiasts! I just wanted to take some time to introduce myself. I reside in Orlando Florida, recently graduated, and purchased a new home back in late February. I finally have the perfect yard I've always wanted to build a beautiful, landscaped garden so for the next few years my main focus will be to raise a lush tropical paradise mixed in with lots of roses! My house faces a NW angle so most of my rose garden will be in the backyard which faces the SE allowing for plenty of morning sun.

The last 2 months I've been lurking on the forums reading and absorbing all the useful information many of you have shared and admiring countless photos of all your beautiful roses. A while ago I saw Pappu's posts showcasing her spring flushes and my jaw about hit the floor! I had NO idea that roses could be that plentiful and beautiful so I told myself I want THAT right there!

Here are some photos of several of my current roses in bloom. Most of my rose shrubs are still fairly young at about 2 to 2 1/2 feet tall but hopefully I'll have more gorgeous full shots to display in the next few years. I hope you enjoy them :)

Angel Face - Floribunda

I consider her to be quite shy and quiet but she's a very kind rose showing off gentle ruffled blooms

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Catherine Nelson - Climbing Rose

You may not have heard of her before because she's a special rarity. The best place to get roses for those residing in Central and Northern Florida is Nelson's Roses up in Apopka. Mr. Nelson had this beautiful climber specifically created for his wife Catherine. I consider her to be quite the bold pink diva so I'm planting her between two Don Juan climbers that will hopefully return a grand opera of bold climbing blooms :)

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Chrysler Imperial - Hybrid Tea

My favorite magenta red rose - I didn't have any perfect single blooms I could capture so I just got a shot of the whole young shrub

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Actually . . . here's an early bloom of one. I love how perfect and prolific the blooms are. I just wish it wasn't so frustrating to photograph the accurate dark magenta red of this rose.

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Dick Clark - Grandiflora

These roses smell like cinnamon! How cool is that! The shrubs are fairly newborn just under 2 feet so the blooms are really tiny . . . like I dunno maybe 3 inches in diameter but I'm hoping once he matures he'll reward me with 4 to 5 inch blooms as advertised. Regardless I love the crescendo of creamy yellow to bold magenta blushes. I ended up getting several of these that I plan on doing in a mass planting.

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Don Juan - Climbing Rose

Ahhh yes . . . Senor Don Juan . . he's quite the romantic red rose and all the lady roses long to be with him . . . but Mr. Don Juan has developed quite the crush on Catherine Nelson and has his sites set to woo her over. He'll have some competition though because his twin brother Don Juan Number 2 also has developed quite the crush on Catherine. I have an upstairs wood deck balcony overlooking the backyard that is supported by 3 beam trusses so the plan is to have these 3 climbers - Red - Pink - Red climb up these 3 trusses over the next few years.

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Granada - Hybrid Tea

I struck gold with this one. Mr. Nelson had this rose in a 7 gallon pot and the shrub was huge! Like almost 4 feet wide and 3 feet tall and I got it for only $30. I consider this to be the perfect Florida tropical rose. Bright mixed blooms of Pink, Gold and Apricot.

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Heirloom - Hybrid Tea

One of my favorite violet roses. She has great contrast of light violet blooms amongst rich dark green foliage.

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In The Mood - Hybrid Tea

I saw this rose for the first time in the rose garden at Leu Gardens and was in love with how perfect the blooms were and how true the red was. This photo doesn't do the rose justice because the shrub is still fairly young. That's Chrysler Imperial lurking in the background.

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Love & Peace - Hybrid Tea

This is hands down my favorite bicolor rose. I just love the rewarding yellow to pink mixed blooms. So far out of all my roses this shrub has the healthiest, green glossy foliage. This shrub is about to explode with several blooms. I'll post more pics when it blooms in the next few days but this single bloom happened to be early :)

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Paradise - Hybrid Tea

The actual rose is more violet with purple edging then what this photo shows. My iPhone has a harder time capturing shades of red and violet accurately. Regardless this rose is taking a lot of extra TLC on my part to get healthy again. The blooms haven't been the most perfect and I'm having to force prune the overall shrub into a more healthy growth pattern but I'm determined to make it work because this is one of my favorite color variations out of all the violet roses.

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Shocking Blue - Floribunda

The name of this rose amuses me. Where's the blue! Haha, Yes I've recently edumacated myself on the whole Blue Rose fascination but I guess they named this rose as such because the edges are shocked with variations of darker violet. This shrub took a lot of work but it's about to explode with a dozen plus blooms. I'll try and post updated photos on its progress.

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Boomer the Rose Guardian

Haha I know he's off-topic but I wanted to post a picture of my 10 month old red nose pup Boomer. This particular morning he was watching me like a hawk while I worked in the backyard. He loves to run around in the backyard chewing up sticks of wood and chasing lizards while I tend to the roses.

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It seems like I have an over abundance of red and violet roses but I promise I do have other colors! I have 3 yellow Walking on Sunshines that I ordered bare root and planted a few weeks ago but so far no blooms yet. I also have 2 Cary Grants that put out the most gorgeous orange blooms you can imagine but for the moment it's between flushes so I'll post pics of those later on. All of the creamier, old English colors I'm saving for my 2nd or 3rd year of roses when I've gained more experience and can afford to purchase several Austins. I'm pacing myself with taking on 2 major landscape projects a year. I hope you've enjoyed my roses as much as I have. They are a lot of work but I love the rewards the reap :)