Today I took a few more pics. The first one is rather similar to my previous shot of "Bermuda Spice", but this one shows a bit of its neighbors. Swallowing the raised deck railing near the upper left corner is "Nouveau Monde -- In Commerce As". It's not blooming, but it sure is growing! After its bloom, I cut its canes back to the top of the deck railing -- which, incidentally, is six feet from ground level. It more than replaced that growth, so what I've got will be kept. And what you see arching over the railing are actually laterals -- the main stems were trained in arches and/or horizontally along the deck railing. That encouraged lots of laterals -- which grow long and generally unbranched. I'll likely have to train it a bit better in Spring, however. To the immediate left of "Bermuda Spice" is 'Rose du Roi -- original. It doesn't have blooms now, but there are a few unopened buds hidden among the foliage. In the pots at the bottom, there's 'Mutabilis' on the left, and a sprawling "Ferndale Red China" on the right. Both are also bloom-less right now. I also shared a pic of 'Sweet Chariot' previously, but this shot shows the whole plant. This came as a band in June, spent some time "planted directly" in the ground, then was removed and repotted in a 2-gal container after I decided not to put it where I had it. It'll eventually go on the side of my house, helping to give some shade to the ferns and hostas and other things that seem to be getting too much sun there. This is 'Miss Lowe's Variety' in a 2-gal nursery liner, currently sitting next to "Bermuda Spice". The buds you see are actually mature, but were closed because it was so cloudy when I took the pics. In the background you can see lots of brown among the grass. I put down seed in the patches where the crabgrass has died off for the season, then topped it with Milorganite, then peat moss, then coffee grounds. Each layer was just sprinkled, and the total is still less than half an inch. I probably should have done this a month ago, but it's already starting to germinate. Fescue is fast. That tuft of blue foliage near the upper left corner is Dianthus 'Rose du Mai' which still has blooms. Above it is the one yellow bloom on 'Happy Child' which I show better later. There's also some blue foliage in the lower right corner. That belongs to Dianthus 'Horatio' -- not blooming. It sorta spills out onto the deck there, which I like even when not blooming. In the center of this pic is 'Nigrette', which is the same rose sold under the name 'Louis XIV'. I don't know which is correct -- perhaps 'Louis XIV' was reintroduced under a new name, or perhaps someone found an unnamed 'Nigrette' and matched it to 'Louis XIV'. Doesn't matter to me. This rose would probably be miserable in the ground, but when living in a 15" pot filled with my "magic mix", it grows and blooms and remains healthy without further assistance. There aren't open blooms on it now, but if you look closely, you'll find LOTS of unopened buds. I do hope they show their faces before a hard freeze. The pot in the upper right holds 'Oakington Ruby', which was once planted in the ground right from its band lined but later removed and potted up. It also has a couple of blooms on it, but they're rather ragged now. The pot in the lower right holds 'Chateau de Clos Vougeot', which isn't blooming now. It wasn't doing much for a while, until I realized it wasn't getting much sun. Since moving the pot to here, it sent forth two new basals that are a bit thicker than a pencil. All three roses came as bands this Spring from RVR. 'Lady Hillingdon' was hit pretty hard by blackspot this year, but then refoliated with those pretty plum-colored leaves -- and has a bunch of buds forming. This is the only bloom currently open. Those naked canes against the railing by the steps belong to 'Reine des Violettes'. It has lots of leaves at the tips, but didn't refoliate after blackspot hit. Instead, it just continued growing, and kept its leaves on the new tips. Here's 'Golden Buddha' with a range of ages among its blooms. I usually don't remove them until they start turning brown, which isn't for a week or more. But the initial color lasts only two or three days before fading to the off-white color you see on some here. Also note the foliage -- while it got no blackspot this year, I am noticing a bit of mildew along the tips of some stems. We had an unusually dry August, then a whole bunch of rain for a week in September, then it stayed rather cool and dry. That combination seemed to cause a bit of a mildew outbreak on several of my roses. I'm still studying how they do, so I'm not intervening. I'm considering using sulfur spray alternating with liquid castile soap for next year, and that's about as toxic as I'll go. Oh, and that photobombing foliage that doesn't "match" in the lower right belongs to 'Souvenir de Victor Landeau'. I pegged two of its long canes, and this one stretched about six feet. I'll probably nip the tip back so it doesn't overlap 'Prospero' (not pictured, to the right of 'Golden Buddha'). 'Clotilde Soupert' is having such a heavy flush right now, its canes are bowing over from the weight. A couple are showing a touch of balling, but overall, they're mostly fine. We did have a cold wet night somewhat recently, and I think that's what did it. "Sophie's Perpetual" is growing at a glacial pace, but I'm fine with that. I'll just have to surround it with annuals next year to fill all that empty space I left in anticipation of the size I thought it'd be by now. 'Honorine de Brabant' had "scattered rebloom" during the Summer, then stopped in August. I suppose if I gave it a haircut it'd done better with an Autumn flush, but I'm still in the "let them grow wild" phase. This was a band two years ago, and is already reaching the roof of the garage. I pulled this cane down a bit to take the pic. 'Happy Child" got hit with spotty leaves somewhat recently, but keeps sending blooms regardless. Frankly, for this time of year, I don't care about spotty leaves. We have just a few more weeks before most of the leaves will drop, anyway. 'Happy Child' is planted between Dianthus 'Rose du Mai' and 'Honorine de Brabant', with some other miscellaneous things. ......to be continued :-) ~Christopher

Thanks all! They aren't looking that great anymore - Ingrid and Marie Curie are dropping their petals but Black Baccara hasn't done much, still hanging in there. I think the buds were too tight. I am considering drying them because they are still pretty. Kublakan - out of all my roses, Black Baccara is my DH's favourite even though it has no scent. A beautiful classic HT form and excellent cutting rose. Sharlene

In my area of dry summers and comparatively mild winters a lot of lawns (that haven't been kept watered) and weedy grasses, other weeds don't really get going until the heavy downpours of typically stormy November. But northern adapted woody plants everywhere have an internal regulation system that results in most of the annual increase in root length happening when winter stem buds are present and mature at the shoot tips. With some species growing in dry climates or positions this physiological fall might happen as early as July. Winter for hardy trees and shrubs is a time of what is effectively hibernation.

katob - a neighbour across the street bought one a couple of years ago that has more color - maybe that is a Proven Winners one....? Hers is in the backyard and the tree's not big enough yet to be visible from outside the fence - but she says it-s looking very good this year. Ours seems to have got a bit more of the red-pink color as it has gotten older. DH took a nice close-up of the 'flower'heads - I'll have to get a copy of the picture to post here.... I'd love to have another one but I can't think where I'd put it...!