Lisa, I love cats, but the hubby not so much! Lol. My oldest daughter moved into my mother's house after she passed away, to care for her cat. He is 18 years old. Siamese that thinks he is human. He takes everything in stride. She has been caring for him for almost 2 years. She brought her old frosty face beagle mix and they are a sight together. Two old souls. She got a mini Aussie pup, and she adores Simon. He is so frail, but my daughter and her boyfriend spoil him rotten. She is a teacher, so is home with him in the summer. We have her house for sale and I know many have been turned off because of the smell, he doesn't always Ring the litter box now, but I just can't put him to sleep to make my life easier. (She keeps a spotless house, but .....) The first thing my mother said to the Dr., When she was told she was terminal, was "how long do I have, I have to out live my cat". He was frail then, and she didn't think he would out live her. 18 years, different states, that's a long time and I am going to honor her wishes.

Vapor turn on your messaging

Hi Gagal. Hubner’s Plot may be Rubens. It was available from the Sacramento Cemetary rose sale last spring and Jeri Jennings recommended it so I picked it up. I was surprised by its wonderful scent. Clean, fresh, sweet and fruity. It has grown very fast for me so far and the blooms have gotten even better, bigger and more frequent as it matures. Very dry heat tolerant. Thanks for the recommendation Jeri!

Here are some other photos from last week..

That colouring really blends well with other roses. I guess that's a rare one. I'm glad you're able to showcase all the wonders and get the word out about them. Gagal, my messaging is on as far as I know. I'll send you one.

Gagal, I recently had a really interesting talk with a coffee roaster in Beaverton, Or. (Longbottom Coffee, tasty stuff!) who told me he had gotten rid of the really bad cat smell his tenants had left behind by putting down a layer of coffee grounds (he did not use his fancy coffee, but the cheapest ground coffee he could find at Walmart) and waiting a day, then vacuuming them up... might be worth a try since a bad smell is supposed to really put off home shoppers. I myself use white vinegar when a puppy makes a mistake, but your mileage may vary.

Really good of you to take such care of an old cat, you honor your mother’s memory, and show she raised you right too. <g> In appreciation of your kindness, I would love to send you a small plant of Marie Pavie ( a good double cultivar from a non-RRD area) can reach me privately at whidbeyboatpainter at gmail.com

best

claire

Clair, that’s so sweet of you! I’m sure galgal will be thrilled. I just love seeing such wonderful gestures of kindness. The nightly news is so filled with violence, it makes it seem the world is filled with nothing but selfish, “bad” people. It’s little things like this that show there are still good, kindhearted people out there, you and galgal both. Both of you really warmed my heart! Lisa

Gagal and Claire, you are both the best. I agree Lisa; the kindness shown to others on this forum renews my faith daily.

Gagal, that is the sweetest thing about your Mom's kitty. My little one made it to 26! yrs old, so yours may have quite a bit of time left. We did physical therapy etc. with her in her later years and she experienced a total rejuvenation until the very end. I miss that snuggle puss so much.

A few roses and kitties this morning.

Sebastian’s fur is growing back in.

Millie, our 3 legged rescue is as sweet as ever.

The Leveson Gower bloom has faded a bit. It’s huge.

Clotilde Soupert needs deadheading.

Lucky you to grow plants outside all year! I brought my jasmine into the sun room and it's still pumping out blooms, so that's almost as good. When I open that door the smell fairly knocks me over. : ) Sebastian and Millie are such beauties each in their own way and are such unique individuals. I wish there were some sort of PT for Millie to help with her good leg. Is your CS the climbing version? I adore mine!!!!

No, Vap. I have the bush form of Clotilde Soupert, thank goodness. I’m swiftly running out of room for climbers. Now I’ve just been informed that the rose I bought at the auction, “Jet Spray” will be a climber here. I thought I was bidding on a dwarf 2x2 plant!

It is nice that things bloom year round here, and I like the cooler months best. The watering schedule isn’t as hectic and it’s nice to be outdoors during the day. My utility bills go way down, too. My zinnias and cosmos are still blooming and My freesias are coming up. It’s finally cool enough to plant things again. Yesterday Cream Abundance rose and Chartreuse de Parme went into the ground. I have some gorgeous Italian Ranunculus to plant. I can’t wait to see them bloom!

Millie has her difficulties, but she’s always so happy. We noticed a claw growing right out of the center in the pad of her remaining hind leg. My son brought her in to his work for a check up, and they cut it way back. If it continues to grow enough to be a problem, it will need to be surgically removed. This is a last resort, because she really needs full use of her only rear leg, and it would take a little time to heal.

I’ll see what’s blooming out front later today. Lisa

Millie looks precious as always and I love your little lion Sebastion's expression in that picture!

I'm not inviting any of you to my house, this I know. All these gorgeous blooms and I have pretty well nothing right now. Lisa, you have the most gorgeous roses, and your kitties are priceless. Sebastian looks so funny, especially the part where his fur is growing back over his toes. He does have really beautiful fur, whether long or short. Millie is precious as always.

Gagal, the coffee thing does work. I use it to remove musty smells, as well.

Lisa, I finally found the post where someone (you) asked about Anne Boleyn. I love this rose, but suspect she'd be FABULOUS in your area as she BSs terribly. She has a lovely, graceful open growth habit and is less than 4' tall. She ALWAYS has buds or flowers and they've increased in size, fullness and complexity over time. Originally she only bloomed one to a stem, but now has panicles of buds. She flowers from top to bottom and her blooms do NOT nod. This is often on a defoliated bush!!! I can't say if she's a water hog as we generally have plenty of that.Even with her faults (BS), she's a keeper.

Mine is a grafted cheapie NOID from Lowe's last year for $2.50! Her fragrance is lovely as is her colour change. She seems to glow from within and often displays a winking button eye.I don't understand why she isn't more widely grown. She also seems to hold her petals well, although this summer was cooler than usual. They blew last year, but she was under huge stress when I got her late summer and really only got one or two blooms before winter.

Here's a pic showing a bit more of the bush. I think you could fit one in! ; )

Also, I just wanted to note that Mme.N. LeV stays fresh on the bush for WEEKS!. I could show a pic from early Oct. and she'd look just the same. Again, I think this poly would do well in a drier climate as she's another that BSs, but continues to bloom!

Your Anne Boleyn is beautiful! I realize now that I was thinking of the other Anne B something. The rambler named after the woman who recently had a rose book come out. I wonder why I don’t hear much about Anne Boleyn? Where is it even available? Lisa

I think Beth or Ann grows it as well. One of them recently posted a gorgeous picture of it.

Gagal, it sounds like you should try a tea camellia. It isn't as showy as Camellia japonica or sasanqua, but the sweetly scented November blossoms dangle like fairy bells and adorn a nice, medium-sized garden shrub with evergreen foliage. And you can make tea if the fancy strikes! Carol

Clair, that is so sweet! I will certainly try the coffee grounds. He only has his accident next to the litter box, but still...thank goodness it is not all over the house. Lisa, your kitties are precious! Nothing wrong with 3 legs! Character!! I have to let you guys meet Simon. Here are a few pictures of him. He is frail, but also has a lot of get up and go! My daughter & boyfriend have been doing a bucket list for him. Things like giving him some cooked turkey and chicken. Little tiny pieces so he can chew it. Well, the rascal jumped onto the table the other day and got in the guacamole!

Portland, does that camellia have a weepy habit? I love those! lol I will check it out. I love fragrance.

Lisa, I look forward to visiting this site every single day. So much going on in my personal life that is "heavy", I just enjoy the beauty and the friendship here. Everyone is so helpful and I love how we don't take ourselves too seriously....it's fun to share our success stories and our failures...everyone has such a great sense of humor even when they are frustrated with a rose...just fun!

Claire, confession time...I saw your post about the rose last night. I teared up. Such a sweet random act of kindness...I just couldn't even answer at the time. It is wonderful how people are put in your path when you need them. Life has been tough the last year or so, with no end in sight..(family members illness, having several power of attorneys, taking care of 3 households besides your own) glad to do it, but overwhelming at times. So grateful for my friends here!! I adore each and everyone of you! Now, sappy time is over!! Lets all be excited that RFR shipped my Creppy!! Whoop Whoop!

Hey Gagal,

hang in there, life can get sticky, but “the family of the thorn” is here for you!

pm me with an address and we will fix up shipping your little rose, in the mean time, this is the cultivar I grow, she is much paler in warm weather of course, but has good petal count and form, and great fragrance!

hope the sun shines on you today!

best

claire

That’s a real beauty! I wouldn’t have recognized it as Marie Pavie. It’s not the usual one seen in circulation, is it? Lisa

I just went to Home Depot with my Dad. Good old Iceberg was well represented.

I gifted my parents a Felicia rose a while back, and she’s doing well.

Oh Claire... beautiful! Too excited! Lisa Felicia looks like she loves that spot! Big rose! That Simon is something else! He strolls across the floor and kinda drifts to the right all the while talking in that lovely Siamese voice!

I love talking kitties! That’s what I hear all day long:)

Alnwick Castle has a very peachy bloom today.

Lisa, thank you for all the shots of Mel's Heritage. I am in love with the photos! I still have MH on my hopeful possibilities list. I need to get some more beds carved out of what used to be lawn and get some of my potted roses placed before ordering. I'm wishing with all my might that I have enough room to let Mel mingle with the rest of the chaos. Shoehorn anyone? Carol

Better make that a BIG shoehorn, Carol! Mel’s Heritage is growing like mad with no signs of stopping any time soon. He’s at the very top of the slope.Sometimes I find a rose cane in the bed below and think, “What is that, and where is it coming from?” Sure enough, it’s MH weaving his way through another rose, 15’-20’ away. Love him, though.

My Louis Philippe has a nice bloom today. The color doesn’t look right in this picture, however.

The Pilgrim graced me with one of its rare blooms, today. I thought I lost it to gophers, but it’s recovering. Lisa

Lisa Mel is something!! What are the canes in front of Mel? They are running across the front like a fence. Very straight! Looks cool. Is it Mel or another rose?

That’s all Mel alright. I need to get up there and untangle some canes, and tie some more to the fence. It’s kind of a tricky place to get to, so I’m hoping that when more buds open, I can get up there and do everything at once. I hope to dress appropriately, gather my supplies, take pictures, cut some for bouquets, and tie up some canes. All with my favorite shovel in hand for balance. I go out of town a week, surely they will open before then....

Lisa said

speaking of Marie Pavie

“its not the usual one in circulation is it?” I don’t know Lisa, “Vintage Gradens Book of Roses”says about the one Vintage sold...

”This is the fine, fragrant, double form of Marie Pavie, not the rather blowzy one sold by some other nurseries.”

i think this cultivar came from Vintage, but not 100% as I got it from a woman here on Whidbey Island, and she was not sure...it certainly is very similar to the one I had from Vintage in my California garden. I would never want a garden without her! Interestingly, the first plant I had of Marie Pavie was sold by Roses of Yesterday and Today as Blush Noisette! Yikes! But that nursery was known for being a “little off “ on their ID’s.

best

claire

Claire, wherever it came from, it’s very lovely. My little first bloom was the first time I had ever seen a Marie Pavie bloom “in real life”, so I don’t really know exactly what’s typical. Mine came from High Country Roses. Does anyone else have Marie Pavie from them? Lisa

Claire, it is perfect!! I am so excited! You are an angel!

I was just looking back at your MFK, Cori Ann. I love the color and veins. Cooler weather often brings more interesting blooms, I find.

My Evelyn has two blooms today, and lots of buds. Her blooms are far more pink than in the summer heat. In the heat they are more peach colored.

I found a few blooms on Cornelia today. They are just as Nik said, “At the ends of long canes.”

The bush

Louise Odier is really budding and blooming again. She’s getting pretty big, too.

My flowering maple is beginning to bloom again. I love the soft double pink blooms.

Ruellia macrantha is really going now.

The Faun has been putting on a nice show.

Lisa, your garden is blooming up a storm, one beautiful rose after another. My The Faun has one or two blooms, that's it. Yours also looks prettier, mine is more of a salmon pink. By the way, I saw Anne Boleyn on a baking hot day in August at Barona Casino, and it was one of the very few of their Austins that was blooming and not wilted at all. Your Marie Pavie from Claire is the prettier one, and mine the ordinary one, as far as I can tell. I've never seen mine look like that. The flowering maple bloom is so scrumptious.

gagirl, as a rabid cat lover, I so enjoyed your thread. I'm so sorry to hear of the difficulties in your life, and I'm glad that being with us here is a comfort to you.

That's so beautiful. The more I see of The Faun, the more I like it! Any fragrance at all?

Ingrid, I'd just about decided my NOID was AB, but now I'm wondering if it's Eglantyne. Back and forth I go. I guess I just need to see a known plant of either for comparison.

Lisa, I think we both have the same Abutilon. Is that a 'Victorian Lady' Flowering Maple? A friend got me one recently to celebrate my being in remission, but I have a feeling it won't bloom until next year, since it's getting kinda chilly now.

Do any of you Californians grow the California Peony? It's native to the SW part of the state, and is drought adapted. I think it's pretty, but I couldn't grow it here- moisture at the wrong time of year will kill it, apparently.

Virginia

Carol, it's nice to see your Tea Camellia looking so healthy. I will confess that I used to have one, and it was the only living plant I've ever thrown in the trash. It was determined to let me know how "tea scale" got its name, and was surrounded by scale-free C. japonicas. I could've messed with summer oil, or what-have-you, but I just didn't love it enough. It's nice to see it in photos, though!

Virginia

Good to know, Ingrid. Ann Boyelyn must do well in the heat, then.

Vap, The Faun is great, but not very fragrant.

Virginia, That is indeed ‘Victorian Lady’. I love it, probably because the blooms look like pink roses! What a kind and thoughtful friend. I hope you are feeling great. Lisa

This is no glamour shot, but it will have to do for now. Mel’s Heritage has been slow to open in the cooler temperatures, but I trudged up the hill last night to do a few things. I cut some open sprays while I was at it. Here they are, still in my basket of supplies. Lisa

Here’s what I managed to take while on the hill. It was almost dark.

Go Lisa!! Way to take one for the team! We sure do appreciate it! Is Mel very thorny? Here are a few..all I have left to offer...

Lisa, I think Mel's Heritage is going to be the star of that part of the garden. It seems to have unlimited energy to grow and bloom.

I enjoy seeing pictures of cooler areas where things are winding down for the winter. It's good to get a glimpse of areas where it's not unrelentingly warm and dry. I spent part of my childhood in a four-season climate in Europe and then five years in Canada as an adult, and to see these pictures gives me a nostalgic feeling. Thank you for sharing.

He sure is, Ingrid! I’m afraid I may miss most of Mel’s fall flush, though. It looks like many of the buds will open while I’m away on a trip.

My Evelyn is growing a lot, and is budding and blooming right now, too. I think I like Evelyn best of all the DA’s I grow. Lisa

Ingrid, we don't get too much of a fall. We do get temps that fall to freezing and a bit below some, but not on a regular basis. I try to plant shrubs and trees for the color. We are surrounded by pines (my whole town) and old oaks, but not much variety. It is fun when you drive by the lake and see more there.

Evelyn is to die for, and I've always thought it was one of Austin's most beautiful productions. However, I'd also heard it could be a difficult rose to grow and bloom, but yours is a rose lover's dream. You're fortunate to have it in your garden, Lisa.

Things are still blooming here, things have just gotten a little crazy lately. Last night, just before dark, I went to lay the hose by Crepuscule. Since it was just a little further to Mel’s Heritage, I cut some of his beautiful sprays. I just plopped them into a vase randomly, but this rose always looks good.

I’m going to have to do some serious work up there on Mel’s Heritage. It is apparent he LOVES it here! I’ve never had a rose grow so quickly in such a short amount of time. He’s thornier than I remember, too. Still my absolute favorite rose! As I’ve mentioned before, this is the rose I want my children or grandchildren(if I have any) to grow to remember me by. I don’t know if any of you read my OT post about growing a gardenia in a pot with the ashes of a friend’s mother who recently passed. Last night while I was up there looking at my truly HUGE Mel’s Heritage, I began to laugh. It must have been pent up stress, because I couldn’t stop laughing. I must have sounded and looked like a crazy woman! I’ve had several big stresses in the past few weeks, some of them I’ve managed not to mention here. Let me tell you. The thought of my children planting my ashes under Mel’s Heritage in San Diego County, and not realizing what they were in for was just too much! I guess you had to be me, looking at MH, and imagining my kids wondering if it was my ashes causing all that growth, and the rose taking over the entire yard. I literally felt weak after all that, and thankful no one else was around:) Lisa

A truly breathtaking rose, Lisa. It's going to be interesting to see this amazing rose in another year or two. I'm sorry it hasn't be the best time for you, Lisa. I hope everything settles down. Methinks you need to get a lot of rest and an absence of stress. Take care.

Shucks! I wrote a long post, and uploaded many pictures and then my phone rang. When I had finished my call, everything was gone:( Try #2

Thanks for your kind words, Ingrid. Did you happen to read my message to you on the Annie Laurie McDowell thread? I’m still having my emails to you returned with the message, “ Unable to deliver your email because the recipients inbox is full”. I remember getting the same thing months ago, when I tried that g_g_g address.

I did take some more pictures today, including some of Mel’s Heritage from a distance. These pictures don’t really give a good sense of how large he really is. I’ve begun to think of him as “a nosey guy”, as he’s always getting into everyone else’s business. His canes are everywhere! It’s been too hot out for me lately, but now starting to cool down. About 10F less during the day, and I’m planning on getting Mel’s Heritage under control. More canes will need to be attached to the fence, some will need to be attached to small stakes along the slope(for guidance), and a few may need to be cut back. WAY BACK! He’s already climbing into Duchesse de Brabant at the bottom of the slope, and many other roses. I really cannot believe how fast he’s growing. It’s amazing and I have never seen a rose grow so quickly.

Felicia is also in bloom, and I love her.

Alnwick Castle is lovely today, but the blooms will blow tomorrow. They just don’t last in the dry heat.

Silver Cloud, a Ralph Moore rose is having a nice flush. Too bad my Irish Creme is still tightly budded. They make wonderful vase partners.

Chartreuse de Parme has such a big bloom on this tiny bush. I’m sure new growth is on the way, only in the ground a week or three.

Golden Buddha, a Paul Barden rose, is one of the rare roses that truly remains compact and short here in S CA. I wish it didn’t fade so much, but I do have it in full sun.

Abraham Darby always seems to have at least a bloom or two between big flushes.

That’s it for the moment. I will be back with some Bolero blooms. Not an OGR, but has DA type blooms on a tidy, compact plant. It’s always blooming in full sun and a great cut flower. Lisa

Your 'Mel's Heritage' is fantastic Lisa. I wish Mr Barden could send one over to me.

I also like your Ruellia plant, I don't think I've ever seen those, although I can grow Chinese Foxgloves [Rehmannia] which have a similar look.

Thanks for your kind words on the Austin thread by the way.