Yasitha, I am admiring your roses, particularly the dark, velvety one. It looks like some stripes are emerging on one petal. It reminds me of some rare stripe roses that are sports and often revert to the non-striped form. The blooms on these roses are usually pretty small. Take a look at HMF (Help Me Find Roses) search for striped roses. Check out Simsalabim (hope I've spelled that correctly). Another neat one is Memphis Music. Good luck with growing your beautiful roses. Diane

I think Diane nailed it with Lion's Fairy Tale. I just looked at all of the pics of it on HMF, and many (not all) showed the same unique substance to the petals that I noticed from your pics. Kudos to Diane for her great sleuthing :-D

Looks like the bark appearance changes as the tree ages. Mine is 17 years old max. Lots of variation given for height but this is another case of someone planting a tall tree too close to the house. Guess Im lucky the driveway hasnt lifted yet. Ugh!!

Yeah it would be the oak actually, the habit photo shows Quercus-like branching. Otherwise I thought bracts were being shown without fruits attached. Instead of fallen leaves.