Hi Carol: Thank you for your positive feedback .. I love all the pics. of your garden, esp. of your little girl ... would love to see more! I have 52 varieties. I received 6 yesterday from Roses Unlimited, which makes it 58 roses. Roses in zone 5a stay small due to winter-die back, so I can fit them into my garden. Their being own-roots make them small too. My own-root W. Shakespeare 2000 is the size of a mini-rose. I thought I'm the only one, until Rosefolly reported growing hers in a pot. I'm happy that 2 of my large trees died during last year drought, which means more room for roses. Hi noseometer: In the English Roses Forum, RosarianPK's canal soil has a pH over 8, with temp. near 120 degrees. His favorite roses that bloomed at high heat are Fragrant Cloud and Meilland roses. Firefighter is also a Meilland rose, does well in my hot summer. Dry and hot climate usually have alkaline soil. Some tap water are alkaline due municipals putting lime to prevent pipes from being corroded. French roses like Meilland and Romanticas can handle alkaline soil and water well, plus loving the heat. I agree that Frederic Mistral is NOT good for hot sun ... his color get bleached out to blah, plus he's a water-hog in my zone 5a. When I researched on Peter Mayle for my rose order of next year ... I find people in hot and dry climate really like Peter Mayle. His color is deep-pinkish red, and smells great. Kate (Dublinbay) listed that among her best roses in summer heat. I also saw Braveheart rose blooming at the rose park at 100 degrees, but that has no scent. Roses with thick petals that last one week in the vase can stand up to heat well, I still regret not getting Bewitched Hybrid tea, that smells good also ... but I already have Frederic Mistral, vase life is shorter, and needs more water. If you google "Bewitched rose and HMF", it will show the info. that Bewitched rose is heat-tolerant. If you choose ADVANCED SEARCH option in HMF, click on GROWING option (zone, plant use, disease resistant, growing note), then scroll way down to page, and check the box next to HEAT TOLERANT, then click CONTINUE ... it will list the roses that are heat-tolerant such as: Angel Face floribunda, Stephen Big Purple, Bewitched, and Romantica Auguste Renoir. This post was edited by Strawberryhill on Fri, Jun 28, 13 at 13:43

You have some lovely summer blooms when it's often a hard time to find them. I especially like Koko Loco, Distant Drums, and About Face. They all have such subtle coloration. Your nasturtium is so cheery and reminded me of how I'd like to grow them again. Thanks for posting your pics. Diane

My favorites are your Mr. Lincoln and Bewitched with Dewdrops. I love that Mr. Lincoln red in yours. I think it's just as lovely as the darker red it usually shows as. Hey, I wish my Mr. Lincoln would have everyone's "exquisite formed"' Lincoln. I am absolutely crazy about mine, even though it's one moppy cabbage flowered rose--no exquisite form like JeffAurora's or pretty spiral like yours. I only got one classical shape in May! Only America out of all my roses gets the 100% consistent spiral. Second in line comes Gemini which is about 90% spiral but goes back down to 85% spiral when its flush is almost over. I am looking forward to more of your Frederick Mistral. It has such a nice dusky pink! which I am enjoying. It too looks very pretty. Mine is on the road to recovery from being grown in shade, poorly drained soil and tree roots, so I don't think it will ever bloom this year. But I'm just thrilled to finally see it take off! It's great to see Freddie, it's not a rose I have ever seen here at the gallery since I first joined in May 2009...

Diane - Thank you for nice comments - especially from such a great gardener! Just wanted to say a bit more about Leander's size. I often refer to the book below by Clair G. Martin who was the curator of the Huntington Gardens in San Marino, CA as a helpful guide to many of the older Austins. Martin has been very accurate in his descriptions of the size and character of roses like Brother Cadfael, Happy Child, The Prince, and Prospero to name a few. His guide distinguishes between warm and cool climates, and offered a more realistic idea of what a warm climate grower of Austin roses could expect given how different the climate of most of England is compared to most of California. Here's what he says about Leander's size: Stature and Habit: 6 feet x 8 feet (warm climate); 6 feet x 5 feet (cool climate) "Like 'Cymbeline', 'Leander' shares a problem with others of the same habit: It grows much wider than tall, and unless self-pegged, it flowers only at the ends of the long, sinuous canes. Self-pegging will help to control the size and encourage more flower production. Otherwise, this is definitely a rose for a low wall or fence where the arching canes can be trained to display the charming flowers to their utmost." He says a lot of nice things about this rose and he clearly likes it, but wishes the growth habit was different. Here's a collage I made of photos I took of Leander today using my weed bucket as a reference point for size. After six months, he's about 18" high and about 2.5 ft wide. The lower right corner shows how the blooms are sitting on top of the canes, which corresponds to Clair Martin's description. Leander and Brother Cadfael (which I've had for 5 years), share Charles Austin as a parent. My expectation is that Leander will be wider, about 5ft compared to Brother Cadfael's 3ft or so, but about the same height, 6ft as the tag from DA says. I'm sure there's someone out there who grew a 14' Leander but I'm going with Clair Martin's experience, and my experience with BC in my climate. Here's a lovely arrangement from the Celebration of Old Roses earlier this spring which was aspirational! I had already planted my Leander but was happy to see and smell this beautiful bouquet. I wish I could have talked to the grower; many people kept coming back to Leander to check it out and smell it. My Madame Ernst Calvat is a sport of Madame Issac Periere which is a darker pink version of MEC. Both are beautiful and fragrant, but typically I prefer a medium pink over dark pink. MEC is a bourbon rose and not a once bloomer; she has bloomed sporadically since the spring flush but she's still so young, and not too developed yet. I've heard that if she's "well grown", she'll do very well in terms of re-bloom, but we'll see. Recently a bird dumped a huge amount of poop all over her and I had to clean all the leaves after it had dried for awhile. So if well grown means poop cleaning, I guess I've done my part. :)) I have considered Chianti, but I'm afraid I don't have room for once bloomers. It's a lovely rose though! Ann