I really loved this Fig. Thank you.

@Sheila z8a Rogue Valley OR Glad you enjoyed it, Sheila. I love the FVGN newsletter. There is always info on roses I'm not familiar with, or rose history I didn't know. I just wish I were close enough to take part in their sales! lol

Good to see you, John. I hadn't noted you posting recently... possibly I was reading the wrong posts.

I thought seeing you in the newsletter was wonderful, catspa. I appreciate the explanation regarding removing FBPT. I do have that wonderful rose but more space. Your philosophy really appeals to me.

@Melissa Northern Italy zone 8 Melissa, I've just been soooo busy. I've been reading the forum in my rest breaks, but just haven't had the energy or motivation to comment much. I have been reading your posts (as wonderful as ever. I was an English Lit major, and only dream of having your way with words). I keep thinking I need to comment, but then another garden emergency comes to mind and off I go.

There is now more garden than there is *me* to go around. I have chronic back pain (not just "gardener's back") as the cherry on top. At this point, the rest breaks take up as much of the day as the labor. I'm going to have to face reality soon, and start cutting back.

Just not this year, lol.

@catspa_zone9sunset14 I loved the article on you and your garden. But I didn't realize it was *you* until I read your comment, lol. Your gardening philosophy is much like mine, though I suspect there's more contemplation and intent goes into yours. I'm an is-there-room-and-will-it-survive-there type of gardener. My garden is over two acres, and tapers and wanders off into untouched woodland and farm fields. It basically has no borders. So things can get a bit wild and out of hand, lol.

Sorry there's just the one rose. I didn't get photos during the height of Spring flush. There was just too much else that had to be done. Many roses are behind me in this photo, lol. You can't see it, but that huge holly to the right of the house has a Glenn Dale growing up the far side, which is the northeast side. It doesn't care about the shade, lol. But this was about a week before it started blooming.

EDIT: Forgot to mention that that is an alba rose, possibly Celeste, in the photo. It came as an unidentified cutting from a friend, who just knew it was pink, and bloomed only in Spring, lol. Some of the blooms look much darker in the pic than they actually are. In reality, they are all a very light, porcelain pink.

Thank you very much for your reply, John. Your garden is wonderful. Catspa, your garden is wonderful! I too was pleased to see you and your garden in the newsletter. John, believe me, I understand the maintenance problem. DH is eighty-seven, and, though he still pushes the motor scythe up and down our steep, steep hills, for how much longer? Our spring has been alternating rain and hot, often muggy, weather, neither good for working, and, right now, the whole place is an untidy mess. We never did get everything mowed, and DH broke the motor scythe twice: currently it's in the shop waiting to be fixed. I have areas I need to get to and do the most basic maintenance on......Oh, well. One does what one can. I have an area I want to get down to today, if I find some time. DD is home from university for a week or so, and spending time with her is also a priority.

John, your garden is heavenly. What perfection.

I am so glad to see Melissa here and catspa who are wilder than yours. I can only hope we can find beauty in the rough as well.

John, thank you so much for posting this. I do miss Vintage Gardens even after all this time. I regard my Vintage Gardens catalogue as one of my true treasures.

What a great thread! and how I can relate to so, so many of the comments here! John, your post warms my heart SO much-I myself am in a situation much like yours: too much to do,know I should cut back but can't seem to do so,pestered by the fact that my body just can't keep up with my desire to do stuff...if Houzz had emoticons, I'd give your post a big HEART,and then the one with lots of hearts and an embrace.

As always when I read about your garden, Melissa, I tend to think "me,too!". My DH is much younger but since he works full time has no time to do stuff out at our land-not even "cutting the grass" (what a joke ; it'd be more like hacking one's way through a jungle). This weather is ghastly; I grew up in the D.C. area, which is famous for it's horrible weather, but by now Italy has perhaps suppassed even that, since the sun is hotter and the days are longer over here.

Congratulations to you and your garden, catspa! I miss the Vintage Gardens website so much; smithdale, you are lucky indeed to have one of their catalogues. Someday I will have to check out their newsletter.

About Florence Bowers'-the loss of that plant is one of my biggest regrets. I had an own-root one from Becky and John Hook,and it was doing well, but I did not coddle it enough once I'd put it out in my garden. Fact is, I have begun to realize that own-root roses just take more than one or two years to become established out there,and therefore do require watering after their first year. Now I have no idea from where I could obtain another of this rare and beautiful rose.

"Jungle" is the word, bart! I was out this morning with DD, who volunteered to help me for a couple of hours. We have a pergola with ramblers growing on it that hasn't gotten any attention for a few years, and which is a mess. We sheared grass, and I cut out old growth and tried to begin rationalizing the pergola structure, which DH had last modified according to his own, eccentric, ideas. There are still roses in bloom, and I want to wait a little longer until they're all done, then cut out all the diseased old canes and have mainly vigorous young shoots for next year. I don't know what the ramblers are. I think they're mainly species or species hybrids, and some, I'm guessing, are Ayrshires or perhaps R. sempervirens hybrids. Anyway, there they are, exceedingly vigorous, mighty pretty. They're in an old slide zone where we've planted young trees, and are patiently waiting for the deep romantic chasm to come. It's a mess, but the young trees are growing, and the grass is getting taller, and the ramblers are bigger every year.

I've been lucky to have had DH working and helping me all these years. I don't know how you've done it all by yourself.

The Vintage Gardens newsletter gets better every time I see it! Well worth reading, always. I have one copy of their old catalogue, which I treasure and consult more often than other books - the "growth habit" info for all types of roses is especially valuable.

Melissa - your comments about your DH modifying the pergola "according to his own, eccentric ideas" made me laugh! Here in our garden we are still re-planting old roses we had to take off the house into our new deer fenced garden because of fire hazard. Right behind that garden is a very old pergola, with Fortune's Double Yellow on it. Next to that was a 60 ft tall "volunteer" privet tree. It was providing shade for an ancient (inherited from the ancestors) rhododendron. Well, the tree was also, I discovered, providing way too much shade for my new garden. So, last month we had the tree shortened to about 35 feet, which removed the huge bushy part at the top. It will grow back, I am sure, because privets grow like weeds around here, and are impossible to kill - I have tried. Anyway, we also just re-planted Belle Portugaise behind the new garden, between the old pergola and a new one we just installed nearby, so it can climb on both of them.

However, now the old rhododendron is getting very unhappy, as it has lost most of its shade from the tree. On the other hand, the Fortune's Double Yellow has put out 5 new basal sprouts (it was previously a one cane wonder, so I am very glad about that), each now over 3 feet tall and still going up like elevators. I has also sprouted new growth all over itself. The point of this too long story is that yesterday I noticed my DH busily building things, and erecting something in that area. I went to look, and what he was doing was extending the old pergola FDY is growing on towards the trunk of the privet tree, and out towards the new pergola we just installed, so that the now exploding FDY can continue to extend its empire at the same level, and also provide some shade for the rhododendron. I actually think that will work out, although the only reason I noticed what he was doing was because he was using noisy tools to create ornamental caps for the new corners of the extension of the pergola.

Jackie

Thank you, John! Sometimes I get so busy I forget to stop and read the newsletters. This one is especially good! I thouroughly enjoyed reading about your garden and your philosophy, @catspa_zone9sunset14, and devouring the gorgeous photos of your very special rose collection. And John, speaking of devouring photos, I think this is the first time I’ve seen your garden. Wow! No wonder Charles de Mills feels right at home. Your place is incredibly beautiful, a perfect setting for your lovely period house. So picturesque. The English Cotswalds can eat their heart out! I am so sorry your back is begging to differ these days. Do take good care, rest as you have been! Gardeners always plan to cut back a bit next year, but next year never comes. It’s like the joke about tomorrow. You never get to tomorrow because tomorrow always becomes today when it arrives. Anyway, it’s great to read your voice! Carol