Thanks for the great review VV!

Thank you, LL. I'm writing about these gardens not as an offering of eye-candy, but rather as a means of learning what does well in this area with minimal care. The stand-outs mentioned here were truly outstanding. I'm finding it's sometimes best to find roses that don't need coddling, so I don't mind having to take extra care of a few. I realize with such intense BS pressure, I'll probably have to start spraying something on some of the DAustins. It's just nice to have a majority that don't require it.

I love hearing about it because I plan on moving up a couple of zones in the future, the cooler the better!

thanks for sharing, my new Quietness is pretty healthy but something has been chewing on the leaves. It blooms well in the heat

I just go one from ARE in May and is does BS, : (, but I'm hoping it will outgrow it. The flowers were beautiful. The real surprise for me was Music Box!

the only Ping Lim I have is Kashmir, planted this spring, completely healthy and bloomed in flushes May to September. Dark red, hybrid tea style booms on a shrub shaped bush

ModestG, I'll have to look in the planting list to see if they had that one. I'm interested to know how it does for you next year, but it sounds like it's a solid beautiful plant. I revisited this garden in October and it was interesting to see what still looked good. I'll amend with pics when I'm at my notes. : ) My poor Quietness has continued to be a poor grower in a pot. Perhaps it will improve when planted out next spring.

Of the roses mentioned above, La Marne and Music Box looked outstanding in the Fall! One rose, I hadn't notice in the EK area (as it's also in the main garden) is Chuckles. This is a fantastic healthy shrub that blooms heartily in shade, EVEN the shade of evergreens. I don't know why this isn't more widely known and grown. It's hardy, as well.

Music Box:

I think I read somewhere that Rose of Hope might end up being earthkind, and I believe it. This is what it looks like today. This is the healthiest thing I've ever planted, and I'm glad I got two.

How old is your Rose of Hope? I've been thinking about getting one.

Planted it in may this year.

I had 3 roses left in South Carolina, after being neglected, hit with lawn mowers/weed eaters, and never even watered in at least 2 years. Sea foam, Caldwell Pink, and a tiny Belinda's Dream that I found searching around the yard. I caught it as it was growing back from being cut, and moved it here. When I moved it, I was hoping it was Easy Does it. I already have two BD, but it got saved anyway, and looks so happy. The funny thing is, roses are doing better for me here in a colder zone, and the only difference besides zone, is hubby isn't here all the time. I keep rubbing it in on him when he says how nice they look - "yeah ... that's the result of not being mowed down in cold blood" lol Well I did neglect them more in SC though, I got tired of fighting the fire ants. Not going to tell him that, because I don't want him near them. ;-)

There are two Chuckles on hmf, which one were you speaking about?

http://www.helpmefind.com/rose/l.php?l=2.1177&tab=1

thanks

What's nice about Chuckles is that it's stood the test of time.

Do you plan on visiting this year?

I do! I wish they were more helpful when I call as I'd like to try seeing the OGRs in bloom, but they're usually about a month prior. With this crazy weather we've been having I'm sure they're very late for bloom. P. S. I finally got Chuckles this year! One came from ARE and the other was a bagged Rose from Menards. The latter looked a little sad, but we'll see. I wanted 2 of them.

Oh, I need to read my own posts! I've been resisting Buff Beauty and cancelled Jasmina from my ARE order as I've read somewhere they blackspoted. Now I'm seeing both did beautifully in the Earth Kind Garden. Oh well, there's always next year. :-)

I just cut most of one of my Rose of Hope. I think it was canker. It even had a new cane coming up with it on one side. I don't think it's any fault of the rose. I'm going to have to move everything I planted there last year. I didn't realize how swampy that area is. I figured out when digging elsewhere, that I picked the worst spot in the whole yard to plant those first roses.

Perhaps you could create a berm of some sort in the future in that area. I have a very wet area and plan to get a repeating swamp rose to put there.