I myself am addicted to Clbg. Old Blush...that's interesting that you had such a great rose year, Melissa! My spring flush this year was kind of...well, I hate to say "blah", but everything opened in a sort of spotty, gradual manner, Instead, the flush of spring 2014 was BREATHTAKING in my garden. However I, too, this year am still getting flowers. I hate this "monstrous anti-ciclone" though. It's nice to have some sunny days, but I am so scared by the spectre of drought,and wish that they could forsee good rain in the near future.

I had always avoided Old Blush - Chinas had usually been less than stellar for me and, although I love that particular clear shade of pink, I was wary...but may indeed, in the light of my unexpected woodsy china success, make the attempt again...and as you say, all I need is a healthy sprig stuck in the ground and I know just the college garden (and gardener to harass) where I can get one.

Infuriatingly, working solidly throughout May and June, I missed the best allotment summer for years, spending it in someone else's house clutching paint brushes (although it did pay for my robbery proof (I hope) shipping container.

As ever, there's always next year.

Old Blush is a tough rose. Highly recommended unless you get LOTS and LOTS of PM, ALL through the year. That would be more than I'm getting and I love that rose. I love the way you can see buds and blooms and hips on the plant all at the same time.

R. indica major is even tougher, stronger, bigger with better formed blooms but a once bloomer. No idea how hardy it would be in the UK but it might be worth a try in a woody environment.

Melissa, could you for once at least TRY to show us a pic of your loved noid rose?

Sigh, I second Nik. Melissa paints such beautiful word pictures that there is all the more the desire to see what she's describing. I remember her raving about Mme. Antoine Mari, and from looking on HMF could never understand what the fuss was all about. It wasn't until I saw one of your rare pictures of this rose near your house, Melissa, that I decided that I had to have it. By next spring I hope to have a sturdy enough plant to stop removing the buds and show pictures of my own. You must have hundreds of photo opportunities in your large garden. Think of the welcome change here from my constant pictures of the same views and roses of my little plot. It would actually be a service to humanity.

Old Blush - I wonder how old it actually is? The Brits "discovered" it in China (probably purchased it at a nursery!) in 1793, but evidently no one knows how long it was grown in China before that. It is wonderful that it is such a successful garden plant, all over the world.

Jackie

A rose depicted in art and mentioned in writing, dating back to B.C.E. times in China, is very similar if not identical to 'Old Blush'. One of its parents is 'Slater's Crimson', thus that must be even older. I smirk a bit when I remember this as I read British authors describing certain European cultivars like 'R. gallica officinalis' as being the "oldest still in cultivation", when in reality, 'Old Blush' or something very much like it is over a thousand years older. There were two centers of rose development in the world -- Europe and China -- but many authors seem to date the Chinese roses by when they were introduced to Europe, thereby ignoring how long they were grown in their homeland.

:-)

~Christopher

Listen, folks: I'm flattered you want to see shots of my garden, but someone is going to have to pay me a visit, and bring their camera along. There are lots of enthusiastic photographers in the world. You will be welcome: we have a spare bedroom and everything. The sad fact is, I don't take pictures. No one is perfect.

I see 'Old Blush' brought a lot of response. It's a cheerful sight right now. Bart, I agree with you: this weather is almost uncanny. I think water is less of an issue with us than in your garden, and I must admit I would like any rain to hold off until we get the plant order that's arriving tomorrow in the ground. No do I love the gray and darkness that usually come this time of year. But we need rain and fall weather, not this 180 degree turn back toward September.

Ingrid, I hope 'Mme. Antoine Mari' does well for you: she is such a beauty, and such a good rose. By the way, DD said this evening that Teas are her favorite rose, and she doesn't like modern roses because they look like plastic. We discussed the merits of Gallicas vs. Tea roses. So she has been paying some attention.

Melissa, you may have an old rose lover in the making. She's a girl after my own heart since I feel the same way about roses. In all fairness, I think the modern roses being bred now by people like Tom Carruths are a good step away from the "plastic" roses of earlier decades, but that's not what you usually see in most people's modern gardens, alas. The lollipop on a stick is still alive and well.

When I saw the title of this post, I instantly thought of Angel's Camp Tea (Octavus Weld here in Oz). I'm surprised it doesn't get more of a rap here, because, to me, the blooms are ethereal. Mutabilis can be (and often is) smothered in blooms, but my eye is drawn to ACT.

Although here I am in a metropolis - well, the outskirts of one - I have very, very few visitors who do more than glance out the window. Yes, and even if they do ask to see it (which I suspect is sometimes out of politeness!), they have no idea of the triumphs and disasters.

I am lucky to have a neighbour who notices and enjoys my garden. And, increasingly, my daughter does too.

I never commented on Ingrid's thread about tiring of my roses, but I do at times. But I'm lucky to have some seasonal changes. I look forward to the first camellia flower, and am thrilled that after 3 years, the achillea are actually not flopping, though as we've just had torrential rain, this is probably no longer true!

Melissa, you expressed it so well, as always, with your comment about the combination of the plant, the moment, the light and your mood. And some blessed times, I can sit in the garden for an hour or more, just enjoying it.

Another thing that brings me great joy are butterflies. there are so few here any more, and I have planted to encourage them (though I did rip out the valerian which they loved, but was more successful than most weeds). When I see something other than a cabbage white, I am thrilled, and accept the price of the caterpillars voracious attack on the penstemon flowers etc.

My visitors mostly do not take more than a cursory notice of the garden. They might mumble something like 'wow lots of flowers' but that's it. I have stopped trying to make them interested... But I have this nosy neighbour whom I quite dislike since he has a view of most of my property from his second storey balcony which I have made many an effort to reduce but mostly in vain due to the geography of this place. Well, a few weeks ago he came up to me and told me 'I sit there and admire your garden and your roses. You have done wonders with this place'. Now, this neighbour has been around longer than I have so he has seen the place during its slow transformation.. It was the best thing someone could have told me, no matter if it came from a nosy neighbour..

Nik, perhaps (hopefully) he isn't nosy, but just enjoying the view of your garden. And he'll enjoy it even more soon with all your new additions.

Visitors? What are they?

You don't get to cultivate curmudgeonly reclusiveness for a couple of decades without seeing a tail-off in the visitor numbers...and since most of my friends and rellies are dolts (although not Tories at least) this is little surprise.

Chinas - yes, I was surprised too, whacking in a forgotten handful of sanguinea cuttings I had done for a customer (who - surprise - changed their mind). Not in the deeper green of the poplar understorey - some of which I have not even managed to penetrate yet - but along the rides where I felled a number of trees leaving us with overhead sunlight between noon and 2pm and dappled shade thereafter.Only their second year...but no disfiguring blackspot.

Nothing is robbery proof to a determined thief but they would need plasma cutters and oxyacetylene torches...and the container is in our farmer's security lights so fingers crossed.