Hi Sun2shinie :)

Ebb Tide is a wonderful rose! New for me this year, it's been continuous blooming (which is great!). It has a strong, wafting, clove scent.

Ebb Tide

Munstead Wood is doing well for me too, also blooming it's head off...it is more of a wine red. It stays dark with some shade. Its also wonderful for fragrance.

Munstead Wood

Another nice one is Heirloom, the colour is gorgeous. Again, lovely fragrance

Last is Violets Pride. Also beautiful and fragrant :)

Munstead Wood & Ebb Tide have been disease free for me in my blackspot ridden garden. Violets Pride has a little and so does Heirloom. I can't comment on growth habit, or much else. All of these are container roses planted this year from various nurseries in my area :) They may do better with disease resistance as they get older, if winter doesn't kill them first!

Hopefully someone who's grown theses, and others (and is more poetic with wording of fragrance) can chime in.

My orange/apricots won't arrive until next spring so I don't have any for you there, sorry

Twilight Zone, Stormy Weather. Basye's Purple if you like singles. Let me think on this as I love dark purples. MW can be more fuschia in full hot sun. It was perfectly healthy last year, but riddled with BS this year. Consider Molineux and Golden Buddha for the orange-yellow.

Wow! Thank you so much! Beautiful. Love your pictures. :-)

Gillian- Hi! :-) Your Munstead Woods is fantastic. It's spot on the color darker purple shade I'm hoping for here. I'd like some lavender tints also, but I'm worried about both the dark and light purples looking too pink. I'm starting to guess that's maybe just a thing with purples? Which of your purples tends toward pink most often?

It's so hard for me to describe fragrances. So far I know my husband (Al) and I really like Abraham Darby.

Vaporvac- Me too! Purple is one of my favorite colors. And Al is super pumped. He's been pushing for Twilight Zone for a while now. lol I was trying to pick between it and Ebb Tide because I was afraid I'd go purple crazy. Limit myself. However my attempt at purple restraint has led to mostly purchasing pinks and yellows. Ugh. Thank you for your insight on purples. I must remedy this. ;-) I do have a tiny Diamond Eyes on the deck that should flower in the next week. I am excited for that. I purchased it when our grandson was born last month.

Nanadoll- Wowee! Yes, your Julia Child and Twilight Zone show the contrast I'm hoping to achieve. Spectacular!

And yes, we might not add Jude to this bed. Haven't decided. I already have one on order though. When it became available I had to get it. I really think Al will love it. Not sure at the moment where else to put him.

We also already have an Ebb Tide. Given your advice and as hot as it can get here, I may pot it until it flowers to figure out where he will live best.

Thank you all! :-)

We are looking at Midnight Blue from Northland Rosarium. Anyone familiar with it? We need to meet the two rose per order requirement and they have Twilight Zone.

Im also trying to be conscious of the size differences in the full grown plants. My hope is to mix them up and not have a bunch of big orangey roses surrounded by small purples.

Thanks, Sun2shinie. Twilight Zone is a taller grandiflora, so it should hold its own among the orangey roses. It didn't grow as fast as some, though. The big Julia Child next to it is 6 feet tall by 6 feet wide, so TZ is about 6 feet, but not nearly as wide as Julia. Maybe you should just buy two TZ and plant them together, allowing some space between the two roses. I love Ebb Tide and grow three, but it is smaller than TZ, though wider. ET has a lovely scent and a smoky purple color, but it does does fade out in the heat. Diane

Ebb Tide

Gorgeous Diane and Gillian!

I have tons of Ebb Tide and in my hot climate, they are always more magenta than Nanadoll's beauticious specimens. Incredibly vigorous, always blooming, but the colors are never the same. Lovely violet when it cools down though.

Midnight Blue is similar to ET but usually much darker, sometimes close to black with a velvet quality. And then sometimes look just like Ebb Tide. A little bit smaller bloom though but with a stronger fragrance here.

Jude can have everything from a light peach or pink to dark pumpkin here, rarely yellow. One of my favorites for fragrance, though the foliage may or may not be perfect in my no-spray high humidity garden.

A really tough peach is called Scent-Sation. Dug them up to move in 100 degree heat, cutting off half of their roots and they're already back to blooming.

I agree with Gillian and Diane that Munstead Wood and Twilight Zone are great dark purples and they are usually purplish rather than "pinking" out as Ebb Tide can do. If you like Lavender I'm becoming very impressed with Violet's Pride and second Gillian's recommendation. Usually I avoid the mass media type roses, but this one really holds its own and bushes and reblooms quite well even in its first year. Midnight Blue is among the darkest purple roses I've ever grown and it always has the grape popsicle color that you see in Diane's lovely pictures unless it's extremely hot (my TZ and MW and ET can be paler in summer heat). The only down side of Midnight Blue is a not very frequent rebloom, but the ones you get are jaw dropping:

Poseidon is a tall (6' or larger) narrow bloomer that likes to bloom at the top of the bush and doesn't seem to get very wide. It has pale grey-lavender blooms in average temperatures and can be pale greyish with some pink undersides in hot weather. It is totally disease free and hardy which can't be said about most purples.

Plum Perfect definitely tends toward pink for me, but I have mine in full sun where the others are in part shade. Here's a typical color - for me this bush is short because it's not cane hardy:

Quicksilver is only in its first year or so but at present it also tends toward the pink side. Here it is with a purple clematis to give an idea of the color difference:

Song of Paris has been an intriguing purple-pink mutable rose that was surprisingly totally cane hardy for me in zone 5 - I thought only Poseidon could do that among the lavenders. Here's a nice full bush shot in spring - so far though it hasn't rebloomed much, but it's still young and I wouldn't expect it yet:

Among the oranges, I'd say that Anne Henderson is my most reliable apricot-orange bloomer in a bushy shape. It's from Palatine and puts out blooms like this after the usual 5-6 week rest period all summer. It's mostly cane hardy too, which is also unusual in apricot roses. It never fades to cream in my experience even in hot sun, which is also striking in most apricots. I really love this bush and it stays around 3' for me:

Anna's Promise is also a nice bush and I think would be hardier for you than me. Mine died after a few winters, but I've replaced it. It stays small for me but is supposed to get bigger in warm zones. The reverse dark color is nice that it can show in cooler temperatures:

Hot Cocoa is another orange family rose that stays relatively dark for me, fading to rusty orange in hot weather but never going pale. The orange tendencies frustrate people who only want the russet tones that it shows in cooler weather like the photo below. I can see the russet against the dark purples as being delicious in combination for your plans:

If you like the look of Oranges and Lemons, may I suggest Garden Delight? It's a very tall Kordes bush that has the most intriguing mutable blooms. It can vary from mostly orange to yellow with orange tips to solid dark gold to cream with pink tips, frequently on the same bush. That variability can drive some people crazy but I absolutely love it. It's totally cane hardy for me, tall and well bushed out (6' or better) absolutely healthy resistance to BS, and an enthusiastic bloomer all season. Here's a photo showing the immense variability of the rose, with the dark orange blooms in the top left most frequent in cool weather, the gold blooms popping up any season, and the cream with pink blooms showing faded colors (as well as in hot weather), plus some dead blooms FYI.

Scottish Highlands is one that doesn't get much press but I've become quite fond of it over the years. It can be a true dark orange and it's surprisingly hardy for me. It has also gotten big and can more or less claim a spot in the knockdown drag out fight with the thuggish Sunrise Sunset, though of course it can't compete.

Here's a sample of the blooms by themselves in an orange mood:

Among the others you mention, I like Lady of Shalott quite a bit and it is one of the few Austin apricots that don't seem to fade entirely to cream. It isn't really orange but clearly peach colored. Pat Austin is a very occasional bloomer and while the colors are nice it only shows up once or twice a season and there are better Austins. I'd like to put in a plug for Sweet Fragrance, the Lim rose, that stays a glowing peachy-apricot and is totally disease resistant and hardy. I'd post a picture but I'm out of space - I consider Sweet Fragrance one of my top 10 roses out of all the ones I grow.

Cynthia

Hi! Sorry for the late response! :) (Always late to the party it seems!)

Let's see, my Ebb Tide definitely gets the magenta tone mentioned, it doesn't bother me too much as I have no pinks in that bed (why I have no idea) so I think it still sits nicely with the HF Young Clematis and delphinium near it. Also, the fragrance is amazing. Usually that's not a requirement for me, but this one never stops blooming, and I can smell it no matter where I am in the garden.

Violets Pride might bleach out a bit more towards pink with more sun. Mine is in 6 1/2 hrs of sun, and is doing wonderfully. I planted her there in hopes of achieving that lovely lilac tone I'd seen in pictures, and it seems to have worked! As Cynthia said, it reblooms well, even for a newly planted rose. Mine is into it's 3rd flush already.

I would go with Nanadoll's choice of TZ, I've seen TZ in person and the colour is spectacular. I would also go with Cynthia's choice of Poseidon...that one will hold true to colour and not get the pinkish tones. Both of these are also on my order list for fall :)

Who are we kidding...if I had room, and a place to plant with less wickedly cold winters, I'd grow them all!

Munstead Wood is a good choice ...I love mine, and always stop to fuss over it the longest. The pictures don't do it justice.

You have a fantastic assortment to choose from, and it will be so much fun to see your finished pictures! :)

This is my first year with Twlight Zone, but I am quite smitten. These picture were all taken mid summer when the blooms were closer to magenta.

Most of my apricots and oranges are new plants

Heaven on earth, blooms even in 90 + heat

Loving these too Nippstress, Modest, and Greta!

Violet's Pride is working out great here too and surprisingly, hasn't shown many inclinations towards pink, even when faded.

Oh my! Yipes! I have a problem. Good problem but nevertheless...

My sweet flower snob husband went a little wild on Northlands yesterday. He did get some things for the purple and orange bed, but several others too. I thiiink I've figured out where I'm going to put everything?

Add to this: Northlands contacted me today about one of Al's choices saying the "last few in inventory are quite small". They've asked if we'd like a refund or a swap.

After thinking about out where things will... (haha) I mean *could* go, I think a swap for another taller purple would be best. Here's what I've narrowed it down to:

Neptune

Love Song

Twilight Zone (this would give us 2)

What say you? Which do you think would pink the least for us?

Thanks! :-)

Here are some pictures to show the bed where we will plant the purples and oranges. A couple of notes: 1) For scale, the fence posts are 8ft apart. 2) The waterfall must be rebuilt, again (sigh), and most of the roses will need to be in pots until after that is complete. And 3) Maggie is one of my yard assistants.

Love that waterfall and your whole yard, plus you have a great assistant!

Neptune hasn't gone pink here for me, just kind of fades to grey. However, I've never had a bloom that looks as gorgeous as Nanadoll's Love Song ever!

I think that Neptune is supposed to have more fragrance and they have stayed small for me so far, which is what I wanted, as most things seem to get huge in my climate.

Oh, thank you LL. I was going to suggest Love Song, but see it's already on the list.

Sun2shinie, I love your layout. It will be stunning when all the roses are blooming away. I hope you post lots of photos of your progress. Diane

Love Song

Diane, your lavenders and purples are always among most blue and beautiful of anyone here on gardenweb. Anything special you're doing to get them that way? Can you tell us about what kind of soil you have? Is there some magical lavender blue wand at your house we can all borrow?

Thanks Diane and Lavender. The yard/pool has been a long time coming. I've been drawing pictures of my dream pool for about 20 years and three different houses. We've lived here over 10 years. The yard looked like the house was on a jungle safari when we bought it, with weeds up to my chin on all sides, no landscaping, etc.. It's come a long way. Hard being patient, but exciting to look back at the progress. Baby steps. I do most of it myself as Al travels frequently for work, but my son-in-law helps with the heavy/big stuff.

Here's kind of a before and after of the back deck. The before was about 3-4 years ago. The biggest thing we'd done at that point was clear the underbrush from most of the yard. The after picture is from 2 weeks ago after a storm went through.

Diane- I agree with BenT. Totally gorgeous. In all the searching I've done on this forum your purple photos smack me in the noggin each time. What can I do to even come close to what you've achieved?

Here are the choices we decided on for our purples and orange bed:

PURPLES- Ebb Tide*, Plum Perfect*, Munstead Woods, Midnight Blue*, Twilight Zone*, Night Owl*, Love Song*

ORANGES- Hot Cocoa*, Gypsy Dancer*, Anna's Promise, Lady Emma Hamilton, Lady Of Shallot, Strike It Rich*

(*ordered or already have)

You'll probably notice this is way more than 7-10. :facepalm: LOL That's because of the flower snob going wild and my indecisiveness. I'm pretty sure we have the space, but I wanted to be more careful since I'm new to this... Oh well at least I have a great place to go for advice. :-)

If it works out down the line, I still have Violet's Pride, Quicksilver, Queen of Hearts, Scottish Highlands, and Lady of the Mist on our wishlist.

Incredible progress on your before and after pictures Sun2shinie! Can't wait to see your new beds when they are filled.

BTW, after noticing that Violet's Pride has been consistently lavender this summer, today she looks more pink again. But a nice cool lavender pink, nothing harsh.

Yes, that's an incredible change in your landscape and is evidence of a lot of hard work. It's beautiful, and will only get better. I'm sorry to hear about the storm, though. Even though your husband may be gone a lot, you are lucky he is so interested in flowers and plants. Why do you call him a flower snob--heh? That's pretty interesting. And thank you for all the nice comments. I don't do anything special--lousy desert soil that requires constant watering takes up my time. I am so tired of watering. Ben, the soil here is alkaline and not very good, so it requires lots of amendments like manure and compost, and I never seem to have time to add enough. It just disappears into the ground! Diane

Thank you. :-) It has been very rewarding seeing the yard grow and change.

I still think I might give Violet's Pride a try some day, even with the pink. I think my hesitation with the color pink comes from having gargantuan assorted pink KnockOuts here. Just want a different color. Not to say I don't like pink roses, just not as much as my favorite flower snob.

Hahahaha :-) We call him the flower snob for many reasons. For one whenever we get any kind of plant for the yard his first question is typically "Does it have flowers?", followed by "What do they look/smell like?". For another he's always been so sweet about sending/bringing me flowers at work and home. He's very particular about how they look and often calls the florist to verify things. But now I'm not working and we live too far out for floral delivery... Then, when our oldest daughter who doesn't like flowers got married a few years ago, Al was the one who insisted that she had to have more than dried baby's breath and wheat. The wedding coordinator and I kept trying to tell her, but then the flower snob put his foot down and... that was that. ;-)

You have an absolutely lovely site and some great choices of roses for your color range. We'll look forward to seeing pictures when things settle in. You might gently remind your flower snob (smile) husband that lavenders and apricots are among the hardest to grow colors of roses so if they bloom at all you're doing an amazing job in the garden! In zone 7 it's not actually that bad and you may see much lusher blooms that I would here, but with someone who starts out with high expectations it is often best to temper them before the fact. You should also plant a lot of annuals and companion plants with the roses for the first two years, since it takes three years on average for roses to settle in and do their best. That way there can be a lot of color immediately for the short-term gratification. Alyssum comes in purple and there are vincas and impatiens in the apricot tones, and they would be a nice complement anyway.

Cynthia

I love companions plants no matter how large the roses grow. Penstemon comes in mauves and dark purplish blues likes the one shown above (you can barely see it) with Love Song. I love various campanulas and even the blue ones have a purple cast. I love purple coneflowers mainly because they are care free and not bothered by the heat. I also grow lots of purple/magenta snapdragons which are about my favorite flower. Dark purple annual poppies are fun, too. Diane

Thank you. You all are very sweet and helpful. :-)

Very good advice Nippstress. I have told Al several times that the climbers we've planted probably won't do much until at least next year, if that. He seems excited that we have tiny buds on the Iceberg and Joseph's Coat. I gather those are a bit different than other climbers like Eden or Alexander Mackenzie, but I haven't told him that part. ;-)

He loves all the petunias I plant, and I'm sure I'll do more of those. My granny says they can "grow in a closet".

This year I'm really enjoying a couple new things for us, purple basil and trailing lime herb... I think it's oregano? Can't remember at the moment.

There's Rosemary in about 12 places in the yard. And the trailing Rosemary has tiny purple flowers sometimes. I didn't know it did that.

On the reverse the lemon balm and spearmint have tried taking over in places out front. One of my daughters friends asked me why I was pulling out so much of something I paid for. I told her apparently I bought a weed. Won't do that again. Ugh.

I love the look of alyssum, but not sure that I've ever grown it. Need to correct that. We do have our first ballon flower that I picked up this spring. I think I'll try to add more of those too.

Phlox are one of my favorites, but I don't have any. Yet. I love snapdragons too, but I've never had much luck with them. Must try again. :-)

~Shannon

Sun2shinie, are all of those purples petunias? Do they have any fragrance? They look fantastic! I wonder if they would bleach to a harsh magenta in my heat like the roses do? How long do they bloom? Thanks!

Hi LavenderLace,

The petunias you want for hot weather are called prostrate petunias. The best for me have been the Tidal Wave series, and the Supertunia Series. They have a strong petunia scent.

The deep purple ones look very similar to the Supertunia Royal Velvet in my picture below. They bloom maybe Mar-July for me, before they succumb to heat. The color does remain completely true, no fading. The only two petunias I have found to survive my triple digit summers are TIdal Wave Silver and TIdal Wave Hot Pink, also pictured below. One plant can spread 4-5 feet. It might take a break in August and require a trim back, but then it will burst into bloom again in fall. If trimmed severely and sheltered over winter, they'll do the same show next year.

Supertunia Royal Velvet by itself:

Tidal Wave Hot Pink by itself (in a 3 foot urn) , fully grown.

Oh wow, thanks BenT! Supertunia Royal Velvet is just fabulous and I really appreciate all of the info!

Hi Lavenderlace.

Yep those are all purple petunias, except in the big pot with the lemongrass and purple basil. They are pretty much a glorious weed for me; I have always had good luck with petunias. I'm not sure the exact variety of our petunias. Our purple variety looks pretty similar to BenT's beeeeeautiful urns. I'd go with that.

Have found it's better for me to get the "Wave" brand. I think they are usually in pink containers? They don't require as much dead heading and grow fuller for me. Other brands can be leggy and not as pretty of a plant shape. imo Our petunias do better in full sun, and don't seem to be phased much by our sometimes 100ish temps. Keeping in mind while looking at my photos that I believe we have had a relatively mild summer in Arkansas this year. Not deadheading seems to cause the seed pods that form to slow further flowering and diminish the overall look of plant. We have two different brands of petunia this year that are growing very differently. I deadhead them more often than the solid purple Waves and they are leggy and sparse, again imo. I'll run get you some pictures for comparison in a bit. :-)

When my darling flower snob and I shop for annuals we purchase them from the local nursery or Lowes/etc.. We look for flower/color and planting location information on each plant. I don't usually pay as much attention or remember the specific names. Sorry I'm not much help there. Unfortunately I haven't been able to keep petunias other than as annuals, but I've been willing to spend $5-$10 for a multi pack of them each year because of the payoff. Maybe if/when we get a greenhouse that can be different. :-)

Thanks Sun2shinie, that's the cutest name by the way! You will have to keep us posted on your greenhouse adventures if you go that way please. I've been pondering one myself but haven't been able to justify it when we had blooms from February to December.

The first photo is two petunias planted in an 18" pot. The second shows 6 planted in the same bed as the 3 solid purple.

Oh. Please remember I'm just a "hobby gardener"? I'm certainly no expert, just lucky some of the time and learning from my mistakes most of the time. ;-)

I guess petunias do have a scent? Usually they don't to my nose. I do think they smell icky when I cut them back though. lol I'm not very good about describing scents (understatement).

They can be very sticky. I frequently wipe my clippers and fingers to clear the stickiness off, and my little lhasas come in the house from time to time with a fallen flower stuck in their hair.

Very nice and I like your use of stone too!

I love those purple petunias, Sun2shinie, and you are making me interested in petunias again. I kind of gave up on them years ago, but some great new types have been developed in recent years like your purple ones, so I should try again. In our heat, the older types would become leggy, and need a good pruning by July. Then it was wait for them to regrow thicker. We also had some kind of larva that fed on them every year. Hope those have gone away. I agree about the stickiness and smell--kind of musty. Nevertheless, those purple ones of yours are gorgeous.

Ben, your petunias are inspiring, too, with their beautiful colors and rounded shapes.

Diane

What a beautiful job you've done already Sun2shinie!

I have a flower-snob too :) they can be difficult to work with lol, (If you read this, I love you dear) at the moment he's obsessing over Alchemist rose. A once bloomer he plans on ordering from Palatine.

Your photos are beautiful, can't wait to see everything all finished! :)

Gillian

Thank you Gillian.

Oh my yes! You understand! lol My flower snob can certainly be difficult. Today he's been super busy at work, but the few times I've gotten to talk to him he's mentioned twice tearing out all of our KnockOuts and putting "real" or "better" roses there. :face palm: Ugh! First of all at least 7 of those KnockOuts are taller than I am. There's no way I can get them out by myself when I can barely prune them without them eating me alive. I told him he will just have to build another flower bed. Hmpf!

Btw, he's a 6'3" former high school football player who turned down a college football full-ride scholarship to serve in the Navy as a nuc for almost 10 years. Our daughters and I uuuusually only call him a flower snob around each other so we don't embarrass him too much in front of his buddies. ;-)

Please tell him that we're grateful for his service!

I've only a few of the ones you listed and only the oranges not the purples. Hot Cocoa was very winter hardy but had a weird angular growth habit and was very black spot prone. Strike It Rich didn't winter for me at all. Oranges and Lemons is lovely, likes to bloom a lot, has good hardiness and fairly good black spot resistance.

Some purples I like, Love Song is my favorite. Lots of blooms and strong hardiness. It does spot though. Paradise is gorgeous, hardy but sadly, not healthy.

Take a look at Dream Come True. Strong as an ox even in the worst possible location, half buried under Quietness!

Give the Laura Bush petunias a try! They are fragrant and will self seed and come back next year, even here in the cold. I started them from seed inside the first year, and they have come back every year since. Don't need to dead head either :)

Ooh, cool Dingo - I'm very interested in a reseeding petunia that can survive in cold climates. I looked them up online and Wildseed Farms has these in stock as well as some other intriguing reseeding annuals. I'm definitely going to order some for spring this next year, or even perhaps scatter some seed this fall to come up on their own after overwintering!

Cynthia

I grow an unusual petunia, and really love it. It's perennial for me, but also self-sows easily. I'm not sure that the seeds would overwinter, though so they might need collecting and then sprinkling around once the weather warms up, in cold climates. It only comes in white, and the nighttime scent is amazing. It is "Petunia axiallaris". I use it in bright shade, or morning sun. It will climb a few feet into its neighbors, if you let it. It is the original ancestor of our modern petunias. I could collect some seed, if anyone is interested. Lisa

You're list of roses looks great. If you ever consider growing any roses on fortuniana rootstock (like 2/3 of my garden), you might want to get Hot Cocoa on this rootstock. I have 2 and they are very large plants that produce ton's of blooms all season.

Wow Ken! Your Remember Me is gorgeous!

Our Hot Cocoa is own root. We've had a bunch of flowers, but the flowers and shrub are not as pretty as yours. It's had one flush, but the flowers were very small with few petals. I'm hoping the new growth will have better flowers with the cooler temps coming soon.