It's good to hear from you; thanks for getting in touch!

I don't care for Hzzzz either. But I've gotten used to it, more or less.

I'm missing:

Jeri - I hope she is well.

Lou in Texas - He's been gone a long time.

Campanula - I can't wait for her to come back. i want to tease her about being "landed gentry" now that she has 5 acres and I still only have a half. Just as well though. I would kill myself trying to garden more.

I am astounded at Nik's depth of understanding of the structure of the US government. I tip my hat.

Garden 2015:

We had 5 mature trees come down, the first unintentionally.I saw it fall. Spectacular. But what a mess. It took the arborists more than 3 months to come. A small garden of white roses had the top 10 feet of tree fall on it twice, 2 different trees from 2 different directions. The roses survived.

We have had 2 hard Winters 2013/2014 and 2014/ 2015, then a long cool 2016 Spring doing the "Scottish Sword Dance" back and forth over the freezing point. I love long cool Springs because they are filled with flowers (because each flower lasts longer) but roses don't so a lot of roses were lost namely:

La France - croaked quickly, likely needs more warmth and lighter soil

Aimee Vibert (cold)

Bolero (cold)

Don Juan (cold )

Oklahoma

Gruss an Aachen - will replace

Don Juan

Munstead Wood

Intrigue

Etoile de Hollande

Fragrant Cloud

The last 5 probably due to voles.

And revised down my opinion of others:

Pope John Paul II - smaller every year

Bolero - the same, both seem to prefer a warmer climate

Pax - stuck in neutral, losing its best cane in each of the last 2 years, first to cold, ,then to injury - possibly deer

Princess Alexandra of Kent - couldn't take the "Scottish Sword Dance", looks dead

Yong Lycidas - ditto

Thank you Cath. Hoping for a really good 2017 for you.

It has been a period with considerable difficulties, I see: thanks for the report! I hope that you and your relatives are doing well. One goes through these periods of suffering and losses.

Gardeners are like horses: they can't afford to break a leg. But you've continued busy in the garden. I see you grow mostly modern roses, many of them HT types, I think. You don't love the once-blooming old roses, I take it? Many of them are tough plants, I don't know whether suited to your conditions. But you have to love the roses you grow, otherwise it's not worth it.

I'm a little surprised that you can grow hellebores but not peonies, since they both do well here. And grow roses but not peonies. One of those garden mysteries. Clematis are a complete mystery to me.

Congratulations on your new dog!

Here we're having a nasty drought in what is supposed to be our rainy season. No rain since November, and not much in the fall. Oh, well....patience.....

Melissa, I do grow peonies. They just don't grow as well as I know they can. Where I grew up there was 3' of top soil. Now those were peonies! Hoping for rain for you.

Cath

Sheila, thank you for your kindness.

Cath

Welcome back, Cath! Carol

Three feet of topsoil..... I can't conceive of it. Is it something like, being able to stick a shovel in the ground and bring up a spadeful of soil? What would plants growing in such earth be like?

Cath, I just wanted to say hello. I'm new to the forum but have a bit of experience with roses. That experience, however, was in North Louisiana and now I'm in North Florida. Though the weather is similar (milder winters and a bit cooler summers - mid 90's are the norm rather than 100-105*) the soil is very different here, so I'm learning.

I am so sorry you lost your parents. While most if us expect to outlive our parents, that does not make it any less painful.

Good for you for getting the Collie. I greatly respect people adopting troubled companions. Hopefully she will out grow, physically and mentally, the peeing when startled. I have a standard poodle who has a very gentle personally. She had to stay with a friend of mine for a month when she was a puppy before I could go get her. My friend's husband is loud and dominant toward dogs, not mean at all but very loud. Anyway, my poor Viva came home a traumatized girl. She peed anytime someone interacted with her. She is now 21 months old and hasn't submissive peed in months, even when my husband yelled at her for taking our 2year old son's sandwich.

On the roses, your list sounds glorious to me. I'm impressed you keep Crimson Glory. After four years with no blooms, I would be very frustrated. Secret Garden Musk sounds wonderful. I have decided to make scent a real priority for the roses I choose this time around. I will never have the room or physical ability to grow the number of roses you have, but oh how I wish I did!

Mystery Rose, thank you for your warm welcome.

Melissa, regarding the top soil: Yes, a spadeful and more. When my father who was from stony New England first saw it, he was ecstatic. The interesting thing though was that his first crop was a disappointment. He then had the soil tested and discovered that it was deficient in a single element which he then supplied. After that the harvests were bountiful.

I do have a number of antique roses that I did not mention, a number that I have had that died and a number that I selected and cared for over a number of years at a public park.

Have:

Rosa alba maxima

R. centifolia muscosa alba (on order)

R. filipes

R. helenae

R. gallica officinalis

R. g. rosamundi

Unnamed moss

Unnamed damask (possibly Bella Donna)

Unnamed pink

Mme. Plantier

Mme. Alfred Carriere (2)

Souv. de la Malmaison

Paul Neyron

Mme Pierre Oger

Reine de Violettes

Indigo

Blanc Double de Coubert

Cecil Brunner

Paul's Himalayan Musk

Then it depends on what one considers an antique rose, e.g. hybrid musks, Austins, hybrid perpetuals and old hybrid teas:

Pax

Prosperity

Ballerina

Secret Garden Musk

Darlow's Enigma

Young Lycidas (if still alive)

Sharifa Asma

Tess of the d'Urbervilles

Lordly Oberon

The Generous Gardener

Princess Alexandra of Kent (likely died)

Stanwell Perpetual (on order)

Katharina Ziemet

Clothilde Soupert (bush and climber)

Gruss an Aachen (climber - I intend to replace the bush lost late last season)

Belinda's Dream

Long John Silver

Mme. Caroline Testout

If you wish (and have the patience) I can list those that I have had both at home and in the park.

Cath

Dawn Marie, I appreciate your sharing the experience you had with a fearful beloved pet. It was comforting.

My patience with the Crimson Glory stems from my experience with growing own-root roses here. They seem to take a very long time to even decide to live and an even longer time to thrive.

If this post is short, it is because this site is infested with gremlins tonight. The cursor keeps jumping. Do any of you have this problem?

Cath

Love love love the old roses. I have quite a few of yours. What I've figured out over the years, or, at least, this is my current state of knowledge, is that the once-blooming old roses of European origin are by far the easiest and healthiest is my garden, and since I also think they're some of the most beautiful of all roses, I have a lot of them. Not at all surprising that they thrive here: they're the descendents of our native R. canina, R. gallica, and, in the case of the Ayrshire ramblers, R. arvensis.

Roses that have a lot of Multiflora, which includes a large portion of modern shrub roses including the Hybrid Musks, have issues; so do warm climate roses. The ones that do really well for me are perched on backfilled terracing where they have relatively light soil and good drainage. We've been lightening the soil intensively for some years now, having seen the essential bankruptcy of our first five years of so of planting of these roses, but I'm not sure we'll ever be able to amend it to the point that these roses will be truly happy. Well, we plug away at it. I wish I could have another twenty years or so to get the garden really right, but that would take a miracle, and they don't often come along.

Tell me more about your old roses. I'm glad you're back and posting.

Melissa, I should have known you have patience. You are a gardener! The hybrid musks do well here. They have a little bit of partial shade and our summers are likely rainier than yours. Yet, I wonder if you tried them near the foot of your hill, where they would have the advantage of ground water moving down the slope, and partially shaded by your woods whether they might work for you.

The roses I no longer have (AKA died at my hand):

Zephrine Drouhin - Survived in total tree shade for c. 30 years. Died after 2 hard Winters. The shade probably prevented her wood from hardening sufficiently.

Mme. Isaac Perriere (2) - both died within a year or two. Probably due to blackspot and shade.

Louise Odier - Lived about 20 - 30 years, weakly, at the foot of a mature maple (south side). Never in love with her.

La Reine - Died within a few years.

Old Blush - Not warm enough for it here and I stepped on it.

Sombreuil - Grafted, it lasted 5- 10 years. Own root, it only lasted a few years. I may try it again some day although we may be a little too cold for it.

Marie Pavie - Died its first winter. Did not like its scent. Michael's riff on its poutiness was perfection. (Probably in the archives now).

La France - Grew weakly (or maybe just small). Died in the 2 hard winters.

Rosa alba semi-plena - Lived and thrived c. 35 years. Killed by an insect/worm tunneling between bark and wood.

Belle de Crecy - Truly a "ramblin' rose". I probably killed her by putting her in an impossible situation but she was tough.

Mary Rose - Tried her twice but never really liked her and she did not like our clay,

not a union made in heaven.

Aime Vibert - Died in our "Scottish Sword Dance" spring.

Rose de Rescht - Crowded by Japanese anemones and too much shade. May try again if I find a suitable spot.

Maggie - Died promptly

Frau Karl Druschki - Stiff, somehow strangely unappealing.

Penelope - Always a weak plant but took about 10 years to die. Too similar to Prosperity to replace.

Buff Beauty - Survived awhile but smallish blooms and not wild about the color.

Cynbeline - Liked it. When first open the scent was vile, in a day or two, exquisite. Didn't like our heavy clay. Might have survived but for the 2 hard winters followed by the difficult spring.

Charles de Mills - Liked it. Good scent and blooms.

Variegata de Bologna - Blackspot . IIRC. But if you have plenty of room it is worth having, It had a certain indefinable something all its own.

Weisse Dawn - Is the sport of New Dawn. White Dawn is a seedling. Died in deep shade. Didn't seem to be as tough as the other two but individuals plants can vary.

Dr. van Fleet - As tough but no tougher than New Dawn its sport.

Herb (Public) Garden Roses:

Apothecary Rose - R . gallica officinalis

Rosamundi - Sport of AR

Fantin-Latour - Long lived, 35+ years. Blackspot.

Autumn Damask - Long lived, 35+ years.

Salet - Repeat blooming Moss. Untidy flower

Comte de Chambord - 35+ years. Lovely bloom form, button eye.

Jacques Cartier - 35+ years. Similar to CdC. OK bloom. Better plant. Better repeat.

Striped Moss - Weak plant. Tried twice.

White Rose of York - (R. alba semi-plena). 35+ years. Tough.

Felicia - Just does not make it here. Twice in this garden, twice at home.

Boule de Neige - 35+ years. Some blackspot. Sweet blooms.

Unnamed Damask - Possibly Bella Donna. Survivor from an old farm. Unmatched scent!

Fr. Hugo's Rose (Harrison's ?) - Hard to establish. Tough, enormous, spreading.

Maiden's Blush - No scent so maybe misnamed. Scrolled buds, survivor, clean, 35+ years. From old farm.

Conrad Ferdinand Meyer - Not recommended. Blackspot. Never looked good.

Crested Moss - (Chapeau de Napoleon) One of my favorites despite awkward growth and blackspot. Exquisite buds.

Stanwell Perpetual - A workhorse in near constant bloom, arching growth, attractive plant. Individual blooms not show stoppers. They removed the healthy attractive well groomed 35+ year old plant last year. I know not to where.

Mme Ernest Calvat - A survivor. Some blackspot.

Blush Noisette - Near constant bloom, more upright than Stanwell. Worth having.

That's the list. A floribubunda that I would have again is Spanish Sun. Good repeat, smallish scrolled flowers (HT form), a parent of Sunsprite, bright yellow. Hope it is as good as I remember. Though I have nowhere to put a bright yellow.

Cath

I have almost all your once bloomers and most of the Hybrid Damask types. Have never been fond of the Bourbons, which reciprocate by not being too fond of me. They're too prone to fungal disease. Any rose that gets black spot here in a normal growing season is too susceptible for my garden. 'Variegata di Bologna' is perched in an unfriendly spot where it grows just slightly faster than it dies back, but I think it is making progress, very slowly. 'Stanwell Perpetual' is an example of a rose that refused to grow for me, though it was in a spot where, it seemd, nothing much else grew, either, so it's not a fair trial. I had it in Olympia and liked it.

I love the Centifolias and their close sport relatives like 'Crested Moss'. They are big open lanky roses, thorny, and very slow to get on their own roots. But they have long-lived canes, and their blooms are superb beyond words. The rose I call 'Centifolia Alba' (it was sold to me as 'Vierge de Clery', but that may be a distinct, different variety) makes me happy every year when it blooms in June. It has a long-lasting flowering late in the season, and the blooms, strung all along the long canes, are superb. I managed to wrest a sucker off this fall before last and am hoping it will settle down and make me a new rose.

No Rugosas here: they get cane girdler and don't like our gray clay. No early spring yellows, alas, except for a R. hugonis sadly mutilated by cane girdler. How magnificent it was before the pest found our garden.

I notice you don't have a lot of moss roses. No 'Common Moss'? no 'William Lobb'? I keep trying to get 'Comtesse de Murinais' going, but fail every time. It was good in Olympia. But the first two are great.

The Gallicas are my single favorite group. They're so healthy and so easy, and they come in such a variety of colors and forms, and they smell good, though not as good as some of the Damasks and Centifolias.

About the Hybrid Musks, I think it's the too heavy soil that gets them, not drought. Our average rainfall is good. I remember Michael's post on 'Marie Pavie'. She's amiable here, and I like her scent.

Cath, thank you for your updates. I don't post often, however your rose input is interesting, even several zones away. Thanks, Nancylee

Nancylee, thank you for your comment. I am pleased to know that any of this can help someone.

Melissa, some of these old roses were planted in 1980 and so I forgot that I did have the Common Moss and its white sport too, White Bath, and also Fair Bianca which grew weakly. Centifolias and Damasks get crud here and so I do not have many. The unnamed moss was a hand-me-down in a daughterin-law's family. Her grandfather used to grow it in an area bordered by concrete. I was keeping it until she and my son settled down but he is now in the military and she said that I could get rid of it. Her grandfather used to mow it down every year after it bloomed. Here it developed crud that worsened every year. Finally I mowed it. That year after, leafing out for the second time, it was spotless all season. Now it is mowed about every other year as I think that yearly mowing will weaken it too much.The mowing year it is beautiful, the non-mowing year it has a little crud but not nearly as much as it used to have although it stays shorter than it did, about 2/3 the height.

I have a weakness for bourbons which I really have not explored that much. So little time (and space) and so many adventures awaiting.

I am glad you posted and that I am back. Thank you.

We're not much troubled with fungal disease here; mildew is common, unsightly, but not serious, while other diseases pop up every once in a while but aren't regular. The white moss is a great beauty, though slow growing for me; still, it hangs on. The idea of mowing once every two years is interesting. It sounds like it's working fine.

I am very definitely glad you're posting again: I always enjoy hearing what you have to say, and it's good to know you're okay. Even if it is on Houzz, welcome back!

Some more roses I forgot in the earlier lists:

Cornelia - grovels on the ground, near constant bloom. Eventually I will try a tomato cage around her, but really, roses are supposed to grow UP.

Mlle de Sombreuil - Lost most wood most winters but recovered and slowly grew. Died in a hard winter.

Gloire de Dijon - Grafted. Grew weakly, died first or second winter.

Melissa, like you, I have been attempting to improve the soil over the forty years we have been here but the hill has proven especially challenging and is newer to cultivation than other areas. I think that Roseseek/Kim nailed it when he mentioned the possibility of compaction which is done to stabilize hillsides. It is the largest area receiving halfway decent sun on the property and so that is where most of the roses are. I do what I can and hope for improvement over time. Lie! I hope for immediate miracles and expect improvement over time.

Cath

Another I forgot:

Ash Wednesday - planted 2016. Have been fascinated by this for years and finally gave in. It is planted south of a mature maple. Hope the site is not too challenging.