I love how she lined her blue bottles along the low-hanging limb! So pretty. wonder what she drove into the limb to hold them on that would be secure in a heavy wind? I have such a limb on a tree outside my dining area window down at the cabin..........and a bunch of blue bottles down there. I may have to try that.

Oh yes, Julia, these plants do indeed like the rain, but so do the weeds and grass!! I cannot get in there to work! Nancy, I have no idea how much rain has come in but it has been a lot!! Many of our counties are on Code Red alert which means flash flooding and dangerous flooding over roads. I am liking Forest God very much also-it came from Laura last year. Kay, the blooms have shown great color although as I told you if you get close to them, they are very much rain damaged!! I think the plant you are talking about in that bed is Lady Dragon showing the last of its blooms. Debra, Tall Dark Stranger may be more reddish if it ever sees sun! Truly, since it has been blooming, it has been cloudy and rainy!!

I am a huge fan of Munstead Wood and grow two of them. In fact, Munstead is my favorite Austin and takes heat and cold like a trouper, blooming continuously every month from May to November. Last summer was our hottest on record and it does get hot here, as well as dry semi arid desert, zone 7). Diane Munstead in June Munstead in July Munstead in August September

Jackie I have not had that problem with Madame Isaac, but I have with I have had great success with another Bourbon, Souvenir de la Malmaison which I only grow in it's climbing form. I balls a lot for me and I have do do the same thing. It seems to me Malmaison has thinner petals. Souvenir has the first blooms in my garden which are white, light pink shading, darker outer petals. It has a strong, and unique tea fragrance. Once you smell it you will never forget it. The flowers are large, 5inches, very double, and are borne in mostly solitary, small clusters, cupped-to-flat, with a wonderful, quartered bloom form. This is a perfect flat cabbage rose. It blooms in flushes throughout the growing season and can even have blooms in December and January. As mentioned already this rose has a problem with flowers balling, especially the early ones in late winter and early spring. It grows without thorns on long, strong canes which I pegg vertically for more flowers. Like all bourbons this rose is best grown on it's own roots, and will clump into a loose bush. I also get short runners on this rose, too, when its on its own roots. I have had mildew problems with this rose, especially if I over fertilize it in and it's a wet spring. Souvenir can take the Texas heat, but the flowers can suffer a little in direct summer sun. They are long-lasting flowers when you leave them on the plant. Thrips seem to like this rose too. It was grown by Jean Beluze, (1793 - 1869) who lived in Lyon, France and was introduced in 1843. It is said to have obtained its name from its introduction in Russia where it was supposedly grown at Pavlovsk and Tsarskoye Selo in the Imperial and Grand Ducal gardens there as a memory of Josephine's garden in France. Alexander I of Russia was good friends with Josephine and visited her at Malmaison during the war with Napoleon. The Tsar sent his mother plants - especially roses - for her gardens at Pavlovsk from France in 1815. I imagine that Josephine would have given Alexander plants from her famous garden for his wife and mother, but I have never seen this documented anywhere. Roses and lilacs were very important in the Imperial gardens, some plants even had full time guards to protect them in winter. Enormous care was given to them, Nicholas and Alexandra used to visit a rose in their gardens that was said to have dated from the time of Catherine the Great and was over 100 years old. I am not sure how Souvenir might have gotten back to France in 1843 to be released under the name. Alas, I suspect the origin of the name in Russia is a romantic legend.