Thanks Olga that echos what i've read. The roses they sent me are so small, Yolande D'aragon was one of them. i'm afraid to plant them in the garden.Cabbage rose is the only one that looks big enough to plant out. They look like they could use a year in pots. They look very healthy though. Don't know if i'll order from Hortico again......mark

There is a staff member at the Huntington Botanical Gardens in California who has written a book (as yet unpublished as far as I know) about using roses in making desserts. She has used the roses to make rose water as well as using the petals in cookies or other goodies. Her name is Judy Polinsky (sp?). I went to rose events where Judy served many of these desserts (they were DELICIOUS) and happened to ask a bunch of questions about which roses were in what, which roses tasted good, which bad, etc. She told me they had tested at least 2,000 varieties of roses the Huntington grew to see which were the best. I don't remember all the info she shared. I keep hoping that her book will come out. You could call or email the Huntington to see how to contact her for more information. One of the desserts I liked best were cookies made with rose petals, yum! Judy told me the petals were from the Austin rose William Shakespeare 2000. There is also some information on Help Me Find Roses about a man in Germany who liked rose hip jam and how he raised a bunch of roses in order to select ones to make the jam. Some of his roses have been or are in the process of being imported to the US by Angel Gardens in Florida. Melissa Here is a link that might be useful: George Ruf and rose hip jam

That is way too funny, me thinkest thou dost protest too much. Who you trying to kid by under rating your photographic accumen ? I think you have a fine shutter digit as evidenced by your beautiful roses :-) Your Mr Lincolns put my one to shame since mine has assumed that nefariously all too common one cane wonder distinction :-( Just to humor you however, consider this as my 4 day notice of impending 1 week vacation :-) I am kind of the head of my wife's family now that her parents are gone and by executive order I declared a yearly family vacation for all. Boy do I need it after building the nieces deck last w/e. Last year was our first and we rented a big house at the ocean and it was such a hit that everyone is really excited for this year. It's a totally different venue with lots of fun activities.

Dutch painters liked to use a very full pink rose in their floral paintings. This rose was nicknamed The Cabbage Rose but it's correct name is rosa centifolia.