Happy birthday to our dear Diane !!! May God absolutely bless you so much this year.I’m so glad you are our friend here and we get to enjoy your beautiful garden and friendship through this site . Have a lovely Sunday !!

Thank you all so much for your good wishes. I return my affection to all of you. What would I do without all of you on this forum? You are my rock, especially during this covid mess which is terrible n this area. I can still have my wonderful forum friends, and see the beautiful roses they grow.

Kristine, is that beautiful rose Olivia? Are you trying to rub it in--haha? Mine never has that great color.

Ben, what a stupendous, richly colored bouquet. I love it. Many thanks. I can still heft a 1.5 cu ft bag of compost (barely). I did about 24 of those babies a few days ago. And guess what, we woke up to tons of snow this morning? Earliest, ever and it's half melted already. Even worse, the trees are still dropping leaves and have many to go. What a sodden mess. But I'm happy. My chores are done for now.

Vapor, yes, I blew out all my candles--one exactly, on a tiny lemon cake. No one wanted dessert after that huge feast we'd just finished.

Thanks, Dingo. Do you have snow yet?

Thanks, oursteelers. Do you have Pennsylvania roots? I did have a great time with family.

Lily, thank you for the beautiful wishes. They are already coming true. And I've so enjoyed the story you've shared of your garden and family on the forum. No snow for you, I presume. That's a dumb joke. Diane

Happy Birthday Diane! We love you for your kindness and beautiful spirit. Thank you for sharing your gorgeous roses and garden. Without you I don't even know Augusta Luise, my most perfect rose. Here is a virtual bouquet for you. Augusta Luise is the giant bloom at the bottom right. Helen

Helen, thank you so much. And your beautiful photos and roses are an inspiration and wonderful resource, too, on the forum and HMF. I wish I could see the stunning bouquet above in person. What glorious variety. And I had no trouble in picking out Augusta Luise. She is covered in snow here right now (a record early snow with lots of wet leaves mixed in). It's a wet, soggy mess type snow, much too warm to remain. What are the gorgeous deep reds in your bouquet? Diane

Thank you Diane. The gorgeous deep reds are my most favorite red rose, Black Magic. Here are the rose names from left to right: Pure Posh (lavender), Rainbow Niagara (yellow, orange stripes), Black Magic (velvet red), Purple Tiger (purple, white stripes) Yves Piaget (pink), English Perfume (lavender), Marc Chagall (pink, yellow, cream stripes), Augusta Luise (ruffled peach blend) & The Poet's Wife (yellow). Helen

No Pennsylvania roots. My husband was born in 1969 and grew up in Alaska. Well the 70’s were the Steelers glory years so they became his team and when I say his team, I mean his TEAM😂

We love them so much our oldest daughter moved all the way across the country by herself just to live in Pittsburg. Yeah, I know. We have a problem...😂

Oh Diane, I’m slow today but I finally figured out your Birthday Wish. I agree, best thing about this year. And a spread from your favorite Asian restaurant, an amazing Bday indeed!

Ben - what a fantastic bouquet!!! Is that Fragrant Cloud front right?

Kristine - are those blooms Olivia Rose Austin? Such a wonderful pink!

Helen - sumptuous bouquet!!! SWOON!

Diane, I love your birthday being yesterday! Those chocolates sound wonderful, and lemon cake sublime. I was so thrilled but wiped out by it all and have not started my composting rose toppings yet. You really are the best line leader ever.

Oh, thank you, Sheila. I liked my bday being yesterday, too. I'll always remember it. We all were pretty stressed out last week. I know you'll get that compost slinging done. I'll bet you don't have snow on the ground like we do, so there's still time. Normally, we have very little snow, so it's just one more strange thing about the year from h@ll, 2020. Diane

Hi Carol

Yes, the orange in my pic is Fragrant Cloud. The others are Peace, Firefighter, Dream Time, Double Delight, Pink Peace, Granada, Buxum Beauty, Sheila’s Perfume, Just Joey, Neil Diamond, Love & Peace

Diane

That’s most impressive how much compost you moved. I hope you have a good wheelbarrow. Makes me want to buy aNd spread a big heap of compost, too!

Ben, I don't use a wheelbarrow, but tote the compost out to the roses in five gallon buckets. So each bag gets lifted three times: once into the buckets, then in the buckets to the roses, and finally I take a plastic dish and dish the compost out around the base of each rose. Often, I get down on my knees to push the compost around so it's arranged just right. Picky. Then, back to the garage for more buckets. I put compost around my hibiscus and peonies, too. At the end of February, it's time for Plant Tone for each rose, but that's a lot easier, because each roses gets a much smaller amount of Tone than the earlier compost. In early March, each rose gets the recommended amount of Lilly Miller organic granular fertilizer. Then those spoiled plants are ready for pruning, and they better bloom for momma. I'm sure you have your favorite routine for the world's most spoiled plants. Everything else in the flower beds is lucky to get some manure. Diane

Diane,

You sure get your share of exercise, no need for the gym! 40 cu ft by tote bags and dishes, you truly do pamper your roses. I would need at least a little Garden Cart , but my favorite is this Sport utility wheelbarrow , I’m all about having wheels! Yes, the roses get all the attention in my garden too, fertilizing, spraying, feeding, pruning. Most other plants must be rather ‘self sufficient‘ except for rose leftovers. And if another plant grows too well, I might realize it’s a great spot for yet another rose, and replace it.

Diane - what a lot of work!! But, man, it shows in your roses!!! Gardening helps us to stay healthier with all of the lifting and toting!! Good for you!!

Ben - so all of the reds are Firefighter!! They're gorgeous!! :)

Carol, you are so right that gardening keeps us healthier. I've had 25 years of terrible high blood pressure, courtesy of my dad, and I don't know how I'd get the same exercise without gardening. Walking is great, but it's the lifting and stretching of gardening that really pound the exercising home. I'm going crazy right now with all the wet snow on the ground and so much cleanup to do that I can't get to because of the !@#$ snow. How do you manage? I know you have your lovely streptocarpus, but I don't think they require heavy lifting--ha. Diane

Diane - we manage by not getting things done when the weather says, "Hey, you're too late!!" LOL We just shrug our shoulders and say that's life here in zone 3.

No, streps don't require heavy lifting. LOL...but I walk and do weights (we have a lot of machines at home.). And, obviously, I eat too much bad things, because I'm overweight by a lot!!

You take blood pressure pills, don't you?

Carol, I take many pills for BP, currently several each of four different kinds. I have a cardiologist I really like, young and laid back. He made some changes in my meds which really helped. My family doc had an awful time for years trying different meds on me, and she wanted me to see a cardiologist for years. I foolishly resisted seeing a cardiologist until two years ago because I thought I'd get some uptight OCD type who would put me through a bunch of tests and take over my life. At 75, I subscribe to minimal intervention and testing, and have an all covering "Do Not Resuscitate Order" filed with all my docs and the hospitals. If you can, read the article in The Atlantic Monthly (online) written by the oncologist--75 is long enough for him. He wrote the piece in 2014, and they republish it every few years. He's got 12 years to go.

I'm glad you've learned to be laid back about your weather. I could take a lesson on that. Diane

Ben, you are so right! I just transplanted a humongous black-eyed Susan and put Teasing Georgia in her place!

Vapor, black eyed Susan plants grow like weeds around here, so I would just toss the rudbeckia, but of course, put Teasing Georgia in her place. Too bad I can't mail you a few black eyed Susan.

Ben I'll check out the sport utility garden cart, and I'm sure its great in your large yard, but in my small yard, I hate using our cart. Many roses are in almost inaccessible places, not to mention that my front yard is like a slightly enlarged path, and on quite a steep slope, as is most everything around here. We are at the top of a hill. The method I've worked out works best for this difficult place.

Here are a few rudbeckia. The fancy ones are natural hybrids that have fixed themselves up without any help from me. Diane

Mine are just the natives and grow like weeds here too! I'm planting them where the roses died bye drowning and freezing. I wish I had some pretty ones like yours. I'm also trying to get the purple coneflowers going for a little contrast. I used to have tons of perennials but they were a lot of upkeep for me so between these flowers and hydrangeas I'm good. Just looking for Rock Solid flowers with the long Bloom time. The problem is as you know those that do well do really well!

Vapor, rudbeckia Indian Summer is what I like best, and it's a reseeding maniac that has a really long bloom period. It's technically an annual, but with the reseeding, you never know it. I think I bought maybe three plants of IS years ago, and now, they're everywhere. I don't care so much for the perennial rudbeckia like Goldsturm, a few of which I grow. They don't bloom nearly so long as Indian Summer. Purple coneflowers are great reseeders here, too, and I grow many. I wish someone would start a thread about perennials and annuals that are really easy to grow and do lots of reseeding. I have pictures. Beauties like hydrangeas don't do well here in the desert, so I am jealous of yours. I would like to see photos. Delphiniums are difficult here and the wind makes staking necessary. Even foxglove don't do well. These plants are meant for east of the Rockies and West of the Cascades. Rock solid here are snapdragons, penstemon, campanula, Jupiter's beard, brunnera, some cranesbill, and many others. Diane

Diane - I read the article. Wow...that's harsh. Not to get a flu shot after 75, and "no" to antibiotics. DNR at 75. I think he's missing the point of loneliness of a spouse, and that so many people are physically challenged at very young ages....should they follow his lead, because they're not "perfect." So I think he is biased in favor of being perfect/contributing, etc. That's just my first pass at this though. Everyone is entitled to their views. :) It certainly was a really good, interesting article...thanks for pointing it out to me...really got me thinking. :)

Those are SUCH beautiful rudbeckias!!! I've never seen the one variety before! So cool!

Carol, those rudbeckias made themselves. or I guess, nature made them, not a human hybridizer. Maybe I should name them....hmmm. I've had them two years and I hope they come back next season. They reseed like the other annual rudbeckias. They're not perennials.

I'm glad the article was interesting for you. I pretty much share the Dr's beliefs. And I had those convictions long before I read the article. I'll have to continue this discussion in private. But you make some valid points, but you're not 75. That makes a difference, believe me. Diane

Diane - it's true...I've a ways to go til 75...but stay healthy, please. :) :)

Carol, with the amount of pecan pie I ate today, I'm not sure how healthy I currently am. Boy, is it good. My friend came over and she had some, too. Then I sent a chunk home with her. Her husband has a major sweet tooth like I have. She's the only guest I allow myself during this quarantine. I've been friends with her since the second grade, and she's my gardening mentor. In spite of flexibility limitations, she grows a huge garden of so many beautiful flowers and roses....how is your weather? Ours is still coldish, but all the snow has melted, revealing a carpet of wet leaves. Tomorrow we have more snow and rain with a warming trend. So, it will be hard to clean up with all the wetness. That means I can loll about and eat pecan pie. I'm still working my way through Stephen Kings, "If It Bleeds". Don't you love the title? Here's a photo from two years ago of my friend's garden in spring. I don't know if you were back on the forum yet at that time. Diane

Diane - her garden is amazing!!!! The colors in the first picture blew me away!!! And then the sheer bounty of blooms in the other pictures...unbelievable!!! :)

Pecan pie!!! I'm so glad that you enjoyed the pie and your friend! I would love to have a friend for that long!!! We moved too much. What a special connection you two must have!! EXACTLY!!! A weather created EXCUSE to sit and eat pie!!! LOL

If It Bleeds...sounds like a poem I would write. LOL I love Stephen King and Dean Koontz. Although I haven't botten any of their books for awhile. I think the scariest book I ever read was Dean Koontz' Intensity....!!!!!

I think I read a Koontz book years ago, but can't remember it. I quit reading King for years because I thought his books had become overlong and overwritten. I always thought his short stories and novellas were his best work. If It Bleeds is four long/short stories. One of my favorite King books was written years ago under his nom de plume, Richard Bachman. the book was Thinner. I'll bet you could get a cheap copy on Amazon. Diane

I'll check Intensity out. I need some intensity. Diane

Diane,

You and your friend have the most incredible gardens!

In pic #1 , what is the mass of purple under the bare tree?

In pic #2, what’s the rose on the arbor (I’m going to guess Eden).

...and what’s the airy blue flower in the front of the arbor?

Thank you, Ben. I think your garden is pretty amazing, too, and I love your rose bed expansions. I wish I had the room and muscle to do that. I will have to ask Elaine what the purple flower is. She grows a lot of spring stuff that I'm pretty dumb about. Yes, that's Eden--she grows several. The roses out to the side are Austins, I think, but I forget which. Do your mean the airy blue flower nearest the path? That's blue flax, which grows wild around here. I grow a little of it, too. I'll bet you could grow it well it Texas. In places out back in the gully, it grows wild in big swaths. It suddenly blooms if we have a rare rain, and disappears after a day or so, only to return with the next rain. It's really tough. Diane

Thanks for the answers Diane. That blue flax looks beautiful where you are, I think we have it here, but it isn’t nearly so nice. We have a invasive little weed called Henbit, when I saw it in Seattle , it was nice enough to be a bedding annual. Unfortunately, our weeds look like , well, weeds!

Ben, we have the ugliest weeds you can imagine. I wish I could show pics. When I travel in kinder, wetter climates, I'm amazed at what the locals consider weeds. They are green and look like something I'd put in a flower bed. but thanks on the flax. Mine gets some water and blooms more than the plants on the slope. But they all go through a scruffy period. Diane

Thanks, Diane! I'll check out Thinner! I can't imagine having such gorgeous plants growing wild!! LOL...southern weeds are what you would plant in your flower bed! That's so true!!

I was trying to find a close up of the flax plant, and kept coming across other interesting photos like above, another vignette from Elaine's garden. Diane

Oh, that's fabulous...soooo sweet looking!!! Do you know what the rose bush (Austin?) is against the fence? She is a fabulous gardener!

Carol, I think it's Evelyn, and yes, she is a fabulous gardener. Her work ethic is beyond believing. Diane

Yeah, I can believe it! :) :)

Oh man, such beautiful roses at those prices. I wish I had known this back in the summer. I’m in the Sugarland area, and I am looking for Moonlight in Paris...can someone please guide if there is a similar price place in my area.

Sumera, I suggest you check with your Lowes. If you can't go, then call often and ask about new shipments. I didn't expect to find such a rose at Lowes, but stumbled upon a new shipment of several of the sought after new varieties last year. This was a first for Lowes in my area.

I found Moonlight in Paris at a Lowes in Montana in the summer...I didn't want to spend forty bucks on a rose that had been left out on the asphalt in 100+ temps and was fried to a crisp but now I'm kind of wishing I'd picked it up when I had a chance. But maybe they will have it again next year.

I think it is sometimes like pet rescue, Joey. You could give the rose a better home.

Sumera, check RCW roses in the Houston area. They have many different kinds and are an excellent source. If you dont find it in your area, order from Chamblees - they have it. Lowe's will probably get it eventually, maybe. It is a beautiful rose - I got 2 I liked it so much.

I agree, in Texas, check the local Lowes, they had Moonlight in Paris both spring and fall. I must confess in North Texas it’s my fault the stock wasn’t there for long, I showed all my friends pictures of MiP and they totally annihilated Lowes’ supply in about a day.

When I visited Certified they told me they were most pleased with the popularity of it and that all their stock had been promised to various nurseries much quicker than expected. So I’m happy they had such great success with one of their imports, and hope they do more !

Thank you!! I’m going to check Lowe’s.

Have a store here called Menards and that is where I bought mine in the spring. It was around the same time they had the cheap bare Roots but it was a potted plant that has done fairly well for $8. Mine is not nearly as gorgeous as everyone else is unfortunately though. I'm sure it's just my garden and care.

I found Moonlight in Paris in Home Depot as well. They sold out in a week or two.

@Diane Brakefield two things: 1) that Atlantic article is amazing. It echoes so many things I have felt for years but couldn't quite crystallize. I'm only 43 at the moment, but have had these similar conversations with my own family. 2) I'm just in awe of your garden and photos. I don't even know if all the photos you shared in this thread are of your garden, but the perspective you have/capture in these photos just makes me feel warm inside. What an incredible lens you have on the world, and I am so glad you share it with us here.