Wow, Souv de Pierre Notting is spectacular. Gorgeous photos. I used to grow scabiosa, like it a lot and should add it to the garden again...

Continuing on:

"Hoag House Cream" was as sumptuous as usual:

"Zalud House Shingled Raspberry" was the best ever. This photo doesn't capture how vibrant the color is, but shows how many flowers there were:

Here she is, in the sun, and this rose should be in commerce -- I've found it not hard to root:

Snowbird, snowing petals (Souvenir de Claudius Denoyal on upper right):

"Marlowe Soft Orange" -- another great rose that isn't in commerce but should be:

Gruss an Coburg, with Florence Bower's Pink Tea in the background:

And, finally,

Le Pactole, just starting what was a huge flush, with Marlowe Soft Orange to the right and, on the arch in the background, under the oak, Crepuscule,

'Geranium Red' (which is really, really orange) also had a good first flush though, as usual, is impossible for me to photograph well. It has stayed small (~ 2') on its own roots, but blooms regularly and the sceint is exquisite. The red China in the background is from the backyard of my daughter's rental in San Francisco and looks like Cramoisi Superieur or close to it.

Also, not a great photo, but gives an impression, at least, what Mme Alfred Carriere looked like this year, growing up into a pepper tree:

Comtesse du Cayla is so lovely! And Madame Alfred Carriere up into the tree is phenomenal. Thank you for sharing your garden with us.

Superb!! What a treat this morning to see such spectacular roses. So glad Ingrid asked!

All of the roses are magnificent so hard to choose a favorite but "Zalud House Shingled Raspberry" always catches my eye when you post pics of it. What an amazing rose.

(I had been looking forward to seeing you at Celebration of Old Roses this year and continuing the delightful discussion we had last year. If you made it to the event, then I am disappointed I missed you.)

Jo

So beautiful. It's hard to pick a favorite, but I really like Zalud House and Gruss an Coburg.

I am stuck for superlatives. What a glorious garden you have. I had Comtesse du Cayla, but found the blooms burnt by 11am, and yet yours is perfect. They are all spectacular, but I keep going back to your photos of Fred Howard (new to me) and Hoag House Cream.

I was at the Celebration, jo, and sorry to have missed you, too! Maybe next year, at the Geraniaceae table (another of my weaknesses), where I often hover first, like a moth drawn to flames :-).

'Fred Howard' seems like such a classic 1950s hybrid tea to me, titian, incredibly robust and floriferous on its own roots, with long stemmed blooms all summer long, heat tolerant as can be, yet, relatively and strangely neglected and unappreciated -- I have often wondered why!

Comtesse du Cayla's later blooms will get nailed by the heat by mid-day on any hot day -- that part of the season, I have to appreciate her beauty well before noon, because once the termperature gets to 90F, that's it.

What a joy to see mature roses in their spring flush! Thank you for sharing with us! Why the heck isn't Zalud House Shingled Raspberry in commerce? It is glorious! Jeez.

Catspat, thank you so much for sharing your incredible roses! I love them all. It is such a treat to have full bush shots of mature plants. I have to get out and weed and do some emitter checking after this inspirational start to my day. I'm so glad you have some of these rare treasures that someone needs to get back into commerce too.

Honestly, I thought they all looked amazing! My, how big is your yard?

Of the ones you showed Lemon Spice is the only one I have, a little bit of a thing as she was just planted in the fall. If she looks half as good as yours I’ll be ecstatic!

Thanks for the kind words, all.

Our lot is 1/3 of an acre but it's one of those lots that were cut out of the base of a hill, so there are two steep slopes on the north and east sides of the lot. The north slope and south slope in the front yard are pretty much all subsoil and I planted those as chaparral as a backdrop for the backyard and desert plants in the front yard. The east slope is not as bad (though not great!) and handy for rose varieties that benefit from looking up (e.g., "Arcadia Louisiana Tea") or are really tough and aggressive (Darlow's Enigma, Alba Odorata, Secret Garden Musk Climber -- grown as a shrub).

We moved here in March, 2002 and the first two years were pretty much spent in demolition of the existing garden, which featured "vintage" favorites from the 1970s (juniper, nandina, pittosporum, oleander, English ivy, etc. -- house dates from 1972), more than 2 dozen sick, nonnative, and otherwise inappropriate trees (original owners were from Finland and wanted the yard to look like that...), a lawn (gone first thing), and, where the chaparral was planted, a vast expanse of ice plant with the fluorescent purple flowers that hurt your eyes when it bloomed. The removal of the ice plant led to a new notice about the green bins from our garbage company, which appeared about a month after I put a series of large rolls, like rolled carpets, of removed ice plant in the bins. (Method of removal was to cut and roll, cut and roll...). It said, "Please do not put rolls of ice plant in the green bins." I guess they had trouble processing them...who knew? I called it "The Catspat Rule". Thank goodness I was done with removing the ice plant by then.

Anyway, following demo, I started planning and planting in earnest. As I am a plant/restoration ecologist, doing the chaparral was sort of like a "day at the office". I was also lucky in that Vintage was still around -- retail even-- and close enough to visit when I visited my mother in Santa Rosa. The other piece of luck is the borrowed landscape I have from my neighbor behind my backyard, which is the remains of the original homestead, about 7 acres, with lots of mature oaks and other trees. There's been some trial and error and setbacks (oak root fungus was a big early one, from a rotting redwood stump), but I am a patient person and have a wide variety of plant interests, though the roses are one of the main ones. I also have a lot of pelargoniums, including species, cacti, yuccas, and other desert plants, a lot of South African plants (I visit the U.C. Berkeley Botanical Garden plant sale area regularly), native species, and a lily pond which now also houses my late mother's goldfish, to name a few. There are also orange, lemon, pomegranate, olive, and fig trees, plus blackberries. Lots of stuff going on!

As far as care of the roses, they get a few handful of alfalfa pellets in late winter and weekly irrigation with weeper hoses once the dry season sets in, and that's about it. I do amend the initial planting areas for roses with compost, in most cases. I also tend to leave most of the leaves that fall from the roses, and any other plant, where they are -- mine is not what you would call an overly-groomed garden.

I don't have many more photos of roses from this year. Here is one of "Ferndale Red China", which is described as "short" on HMF, grown as a 9'+ pillar, with the right side of it hanging over a path (you don't even need to duck). I got it thinking it could be a front-row rose -- hah! Its look-alike, "Korbel Canyon Red China" is just across the path from it and is about 6' in height, so far.

These shrubs are incredibly beautiful! Thanks for sharing.

catspat, I began packing as soon as I read your latest posts. If you'll just give me your address, I can be on my way.

All right, I'm kidding, but your garden is the one I see in my dreams. A natural country garden in a climate somewhat cooler than mine, with a healthier body, more knowledge and boatloads more energy; given all that I could begin to emulate you. Since I'm lacking all of the above, I'll just have to hope that you'll post many more pictures, all year long.

I'm not a fan of red China roses, but since yours is more of a cerise color and it's big and beautiful, I'm all in. The citrus trees are great with the roses.

Are you near the UC Berkeley Botanical Garden? I am utterly in love with that place. I hope it's still as beautiful as two decades ago, which is unfortunately the last time I was able to visit it.

Catspat, I love hearing your garden story. Wow what a lot of work! I know exactly the fluorescent purple ice plant you were dealing with. Way to go with the xeriscaping! I have a tiny yard, but one hot corner in the front by the street is planted with native penstemon, buckwheat, lupine and a ceanothus. The neighbors on that side ripped out their lawn and put in a picket fence 5 feet back from the curb (per city easement) but then just laid down chips between fence and street. They didn’t seem to mind when I asked if I could extend my native plants around and into their side and I keep it weeded, which I don’t think they mind either. So I know about borrowing neighbors’ land to extend the garden. I love your Korbel Canyon Red China! Usually I am not drawn to China’s but it has a bit of a Tea look to it. I see that it is not sold anywhere anymore. What a treasure to have it!

Your roses are gloriously beautiful, catspat!

Ingrid, I'm about 45 minutes drive away from the botanical garden and the car knows the way by itself :-). I don't see that it's changed much, and they are constantly doing maintenance and improvements, which is good. The garden of old roses there is still wonderful. I drag my classes there every semester and am astounded that virtually none of them have ever been there before, as it is such a treasure and not expensive for students. One student once remarked, "Wow, this would be a great place to take a date!" Well, yeah.

Stephanie, as far as I can see, there isn't an ounce of difference between "Ferndale Red China" and "Korbel Canyon Red China" (and my photo is of "Ferndale"), other than that they were found in places a couple of hundred miles apart, and "Ferndale" is still in commerce. Both are pretty much always in bloom, even in winter, and are, as Ingrid notes, more dark pink or cerise than red. Both have a moderate cherry scent and aren't too thorny. However, neither are "short", as described in HMF -- just noticed this morning that "Korbel" is catching up to "Ferndale" and is now about 8' tall (with support -- otherwise I wouldn't have a path!).

catspat, it was that botanical garden that began my love affair with old roses when on my first visit I spotted a large plant of Mutabilis covered with flowers from top to bottom. I happened to see it at peak bloom and I could not believe this was a rose. One of the charms of the garden is that there don't seem to be that many visitors, and of course the location is beautiful in that hilly area with glimpses of the ocean.

There was nothing redundant about your photos! Absolutely beautiful! Thank you for sharing!

Thank you for sharing your beautiful roses! I am new to rose growing and am inspired by your photos!

Incredible! Thanks for sharing!

I particularly enjoyed reading the history of your garden.

Catspat, your roses are beautiful. I love the trees in the background. Wish, I can see more......

jin

Cat, I love your Hoag House cream and Zaled House Shingled Raspberry. I wish it was in commerce if not I am coming over ...lol. I have to read on Marlowe Soft Orange which is new to me. Beautiful !!. I am amazed by all of them.
I spot a red rose next to Snowbird. What rose is that ? It is very deep red and I can see very little . Could you pls show a pic of that rose. It looks very tall. Thanks...like I said I wish I can see more...lol
Thank you ! :)
jin

The red rose is 'Souvenir de Claudius Denoyel', jin, which is an HT climber. It has very good rebloom for a climber, and a deep, strong scent -- photo from last year, below.

As for seeing more, here are photos of my roses from last year: https://www.houzz.com/discussions/5275204/current-rose-bloom-in-livermore#n=24 (including the photo of SdCD below), and from 2016: https://www.houzz.com/discussions/3848761/landscape-with-charlie-and-another-week-of-roses#n=24. As you will see, a lot of the "usual suspects" -- these roses are so reliable, year after year, which is why they remain when other varieties have come and gone. ETA: here's another set of photos from 2016, showing more of the yard: https://www.houzz.com/discussions/3822196/some-great-rose-bloom-this-year#n=17.

Fabulous! Thank you catspat.

Thank you! How wonderful to be able to view your roses of previous years. Also wanted to add, I so enjoyed reading your comments in the last previous post of how your garden developed after removal of the hideously inappropriate "Minnesota garden" of the previous owners, and how you transformed it into the truly incredible and glorious garden that it is now.