I have La Reine and Salet in my garden and yes they do smell divine! I just love the old smelly roses. Beautiful pictures! Kat

Thank you Jen for your kind words. I always tell my two girls that they are the prettiest flowers in my garden :o) Florence, Thank you for you sweet comments. My little one just loves to smell any flowers, when I'm at the computer browsing pictures on the forum, she climbes all over me to try and smell the flowers - lol, she just copies what she sees big sis and mommy doing - she does not know the difference of fragrance yet .. Thanks Char Rose - I got both mine in the garden early - they did not have a choice since they wanted to be with me, so I'd have them out in the stroller or playpen while I was planting, and they kind of got into it that way - both girls love to "help" me water and dead-head .... you can imagine how that goes!!! lol Gary, I totally agree with you on Ronald Reagan - I try and plant roses with fragrance, but every now and then I get one just because it's so beautiful - Ronald Reagan is one of them. One of my top performers - I'm always amazed at how long the blooms last - on the bush and also in the vase. Carol - Ronald Reagan really is a great rose - I can't say about how it will survive your winters though, since we have the mildest winters here ... and I also adore my Flutterbye, love the way it changes colours ... aprille

Thank you both very much for the compliment. Lilyfinch I don't remember when I planted most of my roses. I have 23 antique roses and some knockouts, but the oldest I have is Mrs BR Cant which I planted 8 years ago in the spring, I can't remember if Lamarque and Climbing Pinkie were planted the same year or the next. Once I planted my first 2-3 roses I was addicted and bought usually 3-4 roses every year, I haven't planted any new ones in the past 3 years as I just don't have the time to spend in my garden like I did. I have found my climate here (can't speak for anywhere else as this is the only place I have ever gardened before, but Noisettes (which originated here in Charleston), regular tea roses, China roses and hybrid musk roses tend to thrive quite well and can get quite large fairly quickly for some. Peggy Martin (I did a post on the antique rose forum about this fantastic rose) is a found rose so I don't know what background she has but she seriously thrives on neglect and I do very very little to her. She is believe it or not the youngest rose I have! I have a lot of heavy clay soil so working with it is back breaking and slow which is why I haven't added anymore roses as of recently. I have some roses that grow quicker than others and in my garden here are some of my slow growers; Madame Alfred Carrier is one that is always touch and go, Mrs Dudley Cross, Maggie (I threaten to dig her up every year but she is looking for promising this year so we shall see), Cornelia (another touch and go rose that I have threatened to shovel prune but keep giving her a chance and she too looks better this spring)...While Lamarque, The Charlestonian, Peggy Martin, Belinda (not to be confused with Belinda's Dream), Duchesse de Brabant are among the fastest growing then there's Mrs BR Cant who hardly did a thing the first three years and then took off into one monster of a rose. The rest seem to grow at a fairly normal rate. I had to laugh a bit at your saying hoping to stay long enough, I have wanted to move to a bigger home for awhile but my garden keeps me from doing so, I just can't leave her and anytime I tell someone we were thinking of moving they would gasp and say you can't leave your garden what about all the hard work you have done. My daughter laughes at me because in the winter I'm all about moving, that is till spring comes and I'm like I can never leave. Haha I think she right! But I would say in general it will take about 4 years to have them really start filling out again though it just all depends really in end on a particular rose. ;) So I didn't intend for this to be so long lol, but I hope that helps you some. What roses did you plant if you don't mind my asking? I would love to know! All the best of luck and happy gardening to you!~Meghan

Here's an example from Gardenweb. Someone in southeast Asia put up a picture of a beautiful HT. But I knew that HT had only been introduced eight months earlier (I knew the hybridizer and that he was no where near se Asia.) So I asked how the poster managed to grow that rose. I got an on line response that was dripping in snottiness to the effect that I was stupid for not realizing that he could grow great roses and maybe I didn't know the country he lived in. I responded with my reasoning that even if he got budwood, it was unlikely that he could propagate a budded rose big enough in the time available to produce that large and perfect a bloom. ( I then emailed spike about the problem.) To my knowledge that poster wasn't heard of again. BUT , off line, I got an email from someone I recognized from Hawaii, and she included a link to the photo she had posted, and pointed out how the troll ahd photoshopped her image to match the petal colors of the rose in question. Why did a troll do that? Boredom? Wanted to hook up with someone in this hemisphere? I doubt we'll ever know.