Wow! It's lovely - and so neat. If it were mine, I'd have beans growing up that fence!

Linda

Oh Rebecca, that's so pretty. And, everything looks so healthy! Very nice.

Thank you, Linda! The beans are growing up the trellis on the right. The problem with the fence growing anything is that it is in shade... So I have the lettuce against it and that does fine because it gets a few hours of sun in the evening.

Thank you, Towanda! I got such a late start on the vegetables because I didn't finish the garden until just a couple of weeks ago. I have wonderful dirt mixed with compost so, it should be fantastic next year. As it stands, I have roses and baby cucumbers so far. So much fun!!!

Rebecca

wow, what a beauty. Not bad for her first year!

Thanks, SoFL Rose!! I have to tell you that I planted these against the fence and a month later yanked them up and replanted them... So they have been through a lot and are still blooming like crazy!! I think I'm gonna love this rose!!

Rebecca

What an interesting and original garden project--love it!

Wish you well in your retirement. I'm loving being retired--and busier than ever in my retirement! : )

Kate

Thanks, Kate! I can't take total credit for the design. I asked God for help. My husband suggested the construction of the patio be left to the professionals which was excellent advice. That patio got designed and re-designed many times. Sometimes I would wake up at night with new ideas. I had to wait for workmen over the course of 3 months and during that time, my plans changed at least 6 times.

In the end, I am happier than I could ever imagine with the whole thing. It's so restful and peaceful to sit in that spot. I still have enough garden to grow and enjoy, but not enough to freeze and go door to door to try and get people to take the stuff. :) AND the roses are the icing on the cake!! I love the fragrance of Crown Princess Margareta! Here's a photo of the same rose just hours later.

Rebecca

I'm glad you made it work for you. We grow roses to make us happy. And you're living the dream. :)

Your CPM looks great!

Carol

Wow! That looks so beautiful!! Love CPM. Her color is gorgeous and everything looks sooo manicured. Love love.

Congratulations both on the retirement and retirement garden! You've done a fantastic job on the hardscaping of your patio to maximize the fun and minimize your work for you and your plants. And I'm truly impressed with the blooms on your CPM. Mine only blooms about 1 year in 6, since it only seems to bloom on old wood, so I've never seen that kind of exuberance on a young plant's canes for her. Nicely done.

Just thinking ahead, your CPM might appreciate some winter protection in zone 4. Not necessarily that she wouldn't survive the winters - mine has been pretty hardy - but it's better with surviving cane and that's uncommon for me.

Cynthia

Nice patio and garden combine. :-)

Thank you, Carol!! I told my husband today that of all the gardens that I have had in my lifetime, God saved the best for last.

Thank you, Pretty Petals!! I do love CPM!! I had her before in my front yard and she was bright orange inside with white petals on the outside... I wasn't crazy about the color. But I decided to try her out back and I think the soil is a little different, and the results of it are perfect. The first blossom from a week ago is still on the plant and looking great... No drooping on any of the blooms. So fun!!

Thank you, Cynthia for the compliment and the advice!! I used DAR rose fertilizer on them and used the amount they specified for new roses. Then I dug them up and replanted them when I changed my mind, and they still took off and did this. Amazing!! I plan on putting wood chips around and maybe a bag of them directly in front of the roses to cut the wind this winter. I did plant these deep, even though they are own root, about 3 inches below the soil line. Maybe that will help. We usually have total snow cover in that area, but you can never quite count on that. We are supposed to have a very cold winter starting in December, so that will tell the tale. I won't be surprised if I end up making a tent around them and putting a heating pad out there to keep them warm. :)

Thank you, Summer!! I had the best time building it and it really got me into shape. :)

Thank you all for enjoying this with me. I wish I could have you all over and sit and chat and snap beans when they are ready to be harvested.

Rebecca

Beautiful! I have mine for three years now and it doesn't thrive at all. This year is the most pathetic. Very small thin and weak branches. I really want to give it more time or I will have to sp it.

Thanks, JJ!! I'm so sorry she isn't doing well for you or Cynthia. When I had CPM before, she was in the coldest, windiest part of the yard. I didn't protect her and the following year, I couldn't contain her for all of the long canes she wanted to throw. I used DAR food then, too, instead of my usual Osmocote. I think I will continue DAR food with these CPM's as well. Maybe that's the key. Or it could be the dirt, or the brutal winters. Or maybe because I started off with the huge own root plants from DAR. One just never knows with this stuff.

Rebecca

Thank you for posting! It's nice to here from fellow cold zoners that grow roses in ground! Your CPM looks amazing!

Thank you, Kelly!! I'll let you all know how it fares over the winter, and post pictures again next year. I also have The Generous Gardener in the same garden that is going to bloom in the next few days. I'll post photos when that happens. I think the secret to this first year bloom may be in the fertilizer from DAR. Who knows...

Rebecca

JJ - FWIW, my CPM never has anything but small flexible canes, and it's around 6 years old. It might do better with surviving cane as Rebecca has, but even own root and relatively well fed and protected I don't get that. She's terrific at covering an obelisk and does so easily with winding around it multiple times, but she's never gotten thick canes. For me she's 3" tall and 8' wide without supports. I once left her canes on the ground to weave around other roses and she never once put on laterals like most roses do in that circumstance.

Rebecca - I'll look forward to seeing your TGG. Mine is a reluctant bloomer as well but this year is better than some years. I'm sure yours will look nicer!

Cynthia

Yours is far prettier than mine I've had her three or four years. for me she's a black spot magnet and thrip home. I'm about ready to dig her up. My blooms don't look as large as yours either, likely because the plant is so tired from fighting blackspot and thrips! Love your container boxes, the hardware is a great look.

Mzstitch, I am so sorry that CPM does not do well there. Our season is short and winters are cold. The summers are usually hot and dry. I don't have problems with diseases, but I can't grow those lovely climbers that you can grow, that I would love to plant and have them eat my house!! I guess these are the next best thing to those and tea roses, that I would also love to have. I have learned that it is best to grow what does well where you live and some Austin roses do very well here.

The raised bed corners came from Plow and Hearth... I got them half price at the beginning of the season.

Rebecca

You're so right Rebecca. I wish I had educated myself more with local growers here when picking roses Some of my Austins are just fine, others really need to be shovel pruned, but I don't have the heart to do it after all that work planting them!!! In recent years I planted a tea garden and its my favorite part of my yard now. Okay, enough chatting time to go browse Plow and Hearth!! lol

So funny, Mzstitch!! Get that shovel out and dig up those roses that aren't making you happy!!! Plant more teas and be done with the diseased-do-nothing-slugs that are taking up valuable real estate!!! I moved out 12 Morden Blush to make this garden and gave them away. They looked pale next to the fence and the raised bed garden I had them in was waaaaay tooo much work for me now. This garden is the end result of that. So plan another new garden and plant a tea or two for me, and be happy!! :)

Rebecca

p.s. The raised beds are made of cedar to last longer.

My CPM is blooming much better than last year. Last year it bloomed once that was it. It was the first year I had it. This second year I cut it back just a little after the first flush. Now its blooming even more. Maybe this one does get better w age.

Hey Jasmine! Thanks for the comment. Now we know CPM does well in zone 4 and zone 9. It's just in between that she is not so happy.

Rebecca

Here's my final photo of CPM in full bloom for the spring flush. Both roses are now blooming and I have harvested many roses for cutting. They last forever on the bush and forever in a rose bowl. I couldn't ask for a better performing rose for this setting.

Thanks all for enjoying this garden with me and for all the comments!

Rebecca

Beautiful! I have to have one!! :-)

Thank you, Summer!!! You will love her!!!

Wow!!! Beautiful!!!! Well done!

carol

Thank you, Carol!!

Rebecca

I am planing to buy CPM. Its available here in Canada at Loblow. Did it survive the winter in zone 4? How much winter kills it had? how is her repeat?

thanks

What an attractive and functional layout, Rebecca. Raised beds are the best, look good and easy to maintain. I keep coming back to look at those brackets on your planter boxes, lol! They look so substantial and well made.

Carol and Fadi, CPM would not stay small for me... every cane grew tall. As a matter of fact, the two I had in my garden got shovel pruned... they just wouldn’t stop growing tall and blooming... they took over the entire garden. The one that was next to the garage did the same. However, we had -26F for a stretch this winter and then freeze and thaw. There might have been growth possibilities waaaaay down on the root, but I yanked it out and replaced it with John Davis. I am tired of caring for roses that are not cane hardy!!!

Ben, those brackets are holding together like a tank!!! Thanks for the compliment! God does the planning, I do the grunt work! :)

Rebecca

Rebecca - I don't like the sound of that. I assume they grew tall, lanky and droopy? Why did I buy this rose. :(
Carol

Carol, Can you put CPM on an obelisk placed into a large pot? She would be pretty that way.

Sultry - well, last fall I ripped out Strawberry Hill (even though I loved it), because I didn't want to be bothered with droopy roses that I had to train around something. I'm wondering if I could plant it in my raised bed against the house. I could dump a whole bunch of dirt over it in the winter. Dave's Garden says it's zone 5. Nah, I think it would die. Oh well, I'll give it a try in a pot and see how it does.

I just had a thought that maybe if I got a large 6" (diameter) dowel that is tall...I could wrap CPM around that. I just found it a pain to use a tomato cage, but a dowel may be okay. Hmmmm

Carol

Carol, I am planting John Davis in obelisks this year... I am just putting them in the dirt and letting him take over. I don’t plan on doing any winding. I just want good support for the canes when they come up so they don’t lean on the ground. I think CPM would do well on this obelisk in a pot. What do you think? It comes in 60 inch and 72 inch. The 60 inch would be good for a pot.

https://www.hayneedle.com/product/borderconceptsobelisk.cfm

Rebecca

Sultry!!! I am sorry. I totally blew right by your post. Don’t know how I could have missed it. I agree. I’m all about obelisks this year. I have 5 and I am thinking about number 6!!

Rebecca

All I can say is CPM was a well-behaved rose the first year. Beautiful blossoms. Strong canes. Great scent. That winter we had incredible snow and they were covered with a bank of icy snow up and over all the canes that didn’t melt until May. There was total cane survival. That spring was when they took over the entire part of the garden. Huge canes. Stupendous bloom. Great perfume. But no space to even walk. That is when I decided to take them out. The remaining one that was by my garage was near winter kill this year, so I took it out. I won’t plant it again. Lovely, lovely rose. Just not for my space or my zone, in my opinion. Tooo ify on survival unless you always have really good snow cover.

Rebecca

Rebecca - it's beautiful...but it's more than I want to spend. However, I do have something that might do. But do you think that CPM can actually be big enough to train on a large obelisk like you showed?? I just read your last post! Holy Cow!!!! You're in zone 4, and you had that much growth on it??? I'm in shock. Okay...I'm going to try it on an obelisk!!! Thank you!!!

Carol

Carol, here it is after the huge snow storm winter with total snow cover and total cane survival... this is two CPM planted 14 inches apart. First flush.

Second flush on large canes.

Here is the one that I had by the garage with clematis Durandii. Smaller plant because it had no snow cover and winter killed to the ground. Still canes were at least 4 feet high. Roses bleached from heat reflected from the garage. Temps 90’s and 100’s F. most of the summer last year.

All in all a monster plant for zone 4. I wouldn’t have kept it even if it lived. I don’t like long caned roses that don’t survive in my zone anymore. Too much trouble struggling with canes. I am planting 4 more John Davis to add to the 2 that I have already. Low thorns, smackey pink, full blossoms, cane survival, sweet smell... what’s not to like?

Rebecca

I think those CPMs looked fabulous, Rebecca and Carol. John is lovely too.

Rebecca - sure looks wonderful!!! It's a bloom machine!! I have lots of room for my pots...so I'm going to try it as a shrub...then if needs be...as a climber. For some reason my 10 year old John Davis died over winter. Really strange.

Carol

Sheila, those CPM’s were fabulous. It’s just too large and boisterous for my now smaller garden. And, too unpredictable for my zone 4. Of course, Carol just proved that John Davis can be that, too!!! I am so sorry to hear about your JD, Carol!!!!! I loved the photos of that rose and saved them to my planning notebook on my iPad! I’m not an easy crying person, but that would make me cry!! I kill anything in a pot, so in the ground is the only way for me to go. :)

Rebecca

Rebecca - I don't understand why it died. Really weird. It's not that we have horrible winters that should kill a JD. Maybe a critter got in the bed. Unusual for here too.

Carol

For me, the key difference between Rebecca's experiences and mine with CPM are the words "snow cover". She had total snow cover and total winter survival, where I usually have no consistent snow cover and no cane survival (though it's root hardy for me). That's why my CPM never blooms. The temperatures below the snow never get below 32 degrees F so that's why the air temperature can be well below zero and the rose survives fine. We're too dry to get consistent snow cover in the winter so my CPM never has surviving cane. I agree that she's not a rose for a small space, though she grows well on a obelisk. If you get consistent snow cover and/or bring it inside for the winter with the obelisk you might get blooms.

Sorry to hear about JD, Carol. My John Davis only hangs in by a toenail every winter in my zone 4 pocket but isn't quite dead after several years. I've never gotten him big enough to bloom though.

Cynthia

Cynthia - My JD is against the house in a raised bed. She bloomed exceptionally. But last summer she started to go downhil. I'm surprised it doesn't survive for you in zone 5!! But you're right...no snow cover. Darn. Yes, mine will be going in the garage. So hopefully she does well here...I'll keep you posted. :)
Carol

So beautiful, I’m in love with CPM and need to add to my garden