It is SO encouraging to read about your roses in containers on a balcony!!! I, too, have all my first Old Roses in containers on my balcony. They were all in bands from Vintage, three of them received in the Spring, and three more that I bought from Vintage quite recently. Because we went through a protracted move from Merced, CA to Sacramento, CA this summer, the Spring ones (which I had potted up when I got them) spent June and July in the garden of relatives here in Sacramento, but they are on my balcony now. The other three are also potted up doing OK. FIRST GROUP: Devoniensis - still with the relatives, but doing all right, not growing a lot. Mme. Antoine Mari - doing very well, in spite of my having made a few mistakes. Only a few flowers, but getting ready to give me a few more on longer, more vigorous canes. Nigrette - a small 1935 HT, doing very well, and with a lovely growth habit. NEW GROUP: These are not all Old Roses, as my sister wanted Oklahoma. Mlle. Jeanne Philippe - came with a few lovely little light yellow blooms on it (blooms should eventually be apricot). Hanging in there. Mlle. Cecile Brunner, the shrub - swinging right into action, making new branches, buds, etc. Oklahoma - also came with a bloom and bud, truly gorgeous in color, it is now apparently working on roots. I don't really have enough sun, either, but I'm going to give it a good try. So far I've been moving the pots around, trying to find the optimum sun conditions for each of them. Parts of my balcony get about five to six hours of sun, but it's afternoon sun and can be terribly hot in the summer. It was too much for little Nigrette in the last hot spell, about 3 weeks ago, and I moved her into the shade as soon as I realized it. To know that your roses have done so well in even a bit less sun has really made me feel more optimistic!! Thanks, Laura

Thank you Lilyfinch. Spice it Up is new indeed, introduced last spring. The plant has interesting behavior. The new buds open fully during the day into star-shaped flower of a more coral shade but close a bit (as shown on the picture) by the evening. As blooms mature, they fade to pleasant pink (shown) and open up less and less during the day each day, and eventually dry out half-closed. The rose does not self-clear, unfortunately. Flowers are somewhat small, about the size of a pink double knockout rose blooms, but my bush is new and still small (2 1/2 ft), will have to see what it can do next year.

Thank you everyone for the kinds words. Kublakan, mine is on own root and it's really healthy. I haven't seen it offered on Fortuniana. Lisa, I got mine from Burlington, too. It's a pleasure buying roses from her. Even though Stranger doesn't mind afternoon sun, I think most roses will like morning sun and afternoon shade especially you are in 10a zone. Helen

Darren...my instagram is: mrs.rosylady sharon....I agree about whole garden pictures...I love to see them too The style of garden that's my true love is cottage gardening...but it's actually so hard to do! That's what I started with when we bought this house 20 years ago, but because everything grows so rampantly here, I could never get a handle on the weeds and pruning. When I hired a landscape service, it was easier to have a more formal design so they could maintain it, and that's what drove my design for this rose garden: maintenance. I wanted it to be clear what was a plant and what was a weed, so I only have a few companion plants with the roses. Because this garden is so simple in its plant selection, it's easy to keep pruned and weeded. My landscapers comes every Thursday and I work alongside them for the whole day. I love them so much! We have all become friends :) I've mentioned this before, but I have an agreement with my husband: he lets me spend all our vacation money on the garden and in exchange, I go tent camping every summer for 10 days with him and my two kids. It's a win-win! We camp on Orcas Island in the San Juan Islands. I must admit, I spend a lot of the time reading gardening books by the campfire :)