Diane - you are a hoot. :) :) I feel like a slug a lot of the time too...but I still have my moments when I can do things....if I want...which I don't usually want. :) :) I hope your ice cream is good. You don't know how nice I feel that I'm not the only one with a disastrous perennial garden. It's not just me!! If you look on the seasonal thread you'll see my dried out old perennial garden that looks great in spring...but is an eyesore now. Hubby said he'll put drip emitters in there next year. Maybe that will help. I didn't need things like that just a few years ago.

Carol, I just had strawberries and ice cream. Oh so good. I wanted a second bowl and could have eaten one. Doing all that watering, etc, really does work up your appetite. One thing about my short, clumping Shastas is that once the spent blooms are cut back, the green mound of leaves left looks good for the rest of the summer. It takes a really hard frost to knock those green leaves out. You could try some short clumping Shastas around the outer edge of your perennial bed. Then cut back the tall spent stuff. I need to take a pic of the green clumps. They edge some roses nicely. I just wish my Shasta daisies bloomed longer, but not with our heat. I've got some nice hibiscus blooming now, which I forgot about--reds and pinks. I picked a little plonk of Tamora to see how she smells. No scent, which I think was blasted away by extreme heat and dry air. I should have picked the blooms in the morning, and I'll bet there would be some scent. But all I can think about in the morning is breakfast, coffee, and wasting time on the computer. Some gardener. My Rouge Royale, Munstead, Prince bouquet is different. Rouge Royale holds its scent in this heat and smelled wonderful. One of its big pluses, I think. Oh, I'm a slug when it comes to housework (except cooking and I get stuck with the dishes always). I hate cleaning. I'm a slobby slug. Diane

Shastas blooming, but the green clumps are left after I cut the spent blooms back.

Da Pwince. I am severely off topic. Diane

Diane , you are no slug . After 50 years of cooking and cleaning, it just gets old, really old.

Personally if I was rich I would have a cook. I am so sick of cooking.

My perenials don't look great either. I cut my snaps back and they are rallying for another go round. My penstamon is done and looks pitiful and it spread like crazy so now there is more that looks ugly.

Everything got a good haircut so atleast things kind of look tidy.

Kristine LeGault 8a pnw Agree with what you wrote: "Personally if I was rich I would have a cook. I am so sick of cooking." That's what I told my family repeatedly when skinny husband and daughter thumbed down my cooking.

Rose disappointments are nothing compared to cooking disappointments. Still remember when my daughter was 3-year-old, I spent 4 hours making pizza from scratch: kneading whole-wheat flour into a crust, grating fresh cheese, making pesto from fresh basil from my garden & slicing tomatoes from garden, putting expensive ORGANIC pepperoni on top, and my daughter refused to eat. She wanted the store-bought pizza.

With picky eaters, I feel like a total failure in cooking.

Back in 2012, I started a thread "what's cooking while you are slaving in the garden?" Many rose growers contribute recipes, including pinto bean soup in a crock-pot, that was delicious. I need to make the stuffed peppers recipe topped with mozzarella cheese, have too many bell and banana peppers from the garden.

Diane - I'm the same. I hate housework...and fortunately for me, most of it ruins me. Vacuuming ruins my neck and gives me a migraine, dishes ruin my back (I have to lie down for at least an hour after...I can unload...but loading for some reason ruins me), I can't sweep (back again), I can't wash walls (neck again)(not that I would...too lazy), I can't...so many things. So my husband insists on doing the dishes (No, no...let me LOL). And we have a monthly cleaning service. All I do is cooking and laundry. I can't drive anymore...so he gets groceries. Carrying things, though, helps...like buckets of water..it strengthens my back. I have scoliosis a bit. So, I'm a slug. Bug a happy slug. :) :) I'm glad you enjoyed the ice cream and strawberries (strawberries is one word...ice cream should be one word too.). That's not something that would tempt me. Not a big fan of ice cream. Thanks for trying to sniff Tamora for me. :) No, I have enough Shastas (I'm going to get my hubby to rip out a lot of them for me)...I don't need more. :) :) I want a Rouge Royale! But then we all do after seeing yours. :) Beautiful plonk!

Kristine - that's what I'm going to do...give everything a haircut. Plus rip out lots of repeats.

Straw - so true!! My oldest daughter LOVES everything I make...but my youngest daughter doesn't like most things I make. It's been liberating having Kedra not here...so much less cooking angst. :) :)

Fortunately my husband will eat anything and left overs all week, no problem .

So I make things in huge batches and then I dont have to cook for a few days.

My favorite part of cruising is someone bringing me delicious food .

Kristine, you still cruise? You're the hippest senior around. I am the chief eater of leftovers around here, so I aim for generous servings at the meal, but not a huge amount left over. I like cooking, but have really limited what I cook over the last several years, and have found true joy in store bakeries (not really, but I don't bake much now and am ashamed of that, as is my mother who haunts me).

Carol, I couldn't live without ice cream. I have to mention that Rouge Royale is wafting like crazy this morning. The scent is coming across my large bedroom to where I sit at the computer. It's the most wonderful scent, and there are about two blooms doing the whole thing. The other blooms, Munstead and Prince, have lost their scent in the heat. Diane

Hoho--I'm so out of it, Kristine. i thought you meant cruising town (back in the day) when a carhop might serve you some food, not boat cruising.

Carol, help, my room smells like Rouge Royale (that's a good thing). Diane

I'm sick of cooking too Straw and Kristine. I used to be a cook for 140 apple pickers , two group homes, and half a dozen restaurants , two bakeries, besides 50 + years for family.

My son is a food artist, he takes a his time to make his food delicious and gorgeous - he sure didn't learn it from me. I'm a crude beast; slap a few ingredients between bread , squash it together and wolf it down. My dog has better manners.

A favorite new 5 minutes of prep meal is Artisan Asiago cheese bread with Classico pizza sauce

and a few toppings- onion, olives and the expensive pepperoni from the meat department, or crumbled hamburger.

Diane , ha ha ha, yes still cruising the gut . If there is a milkshake involved , im in.

I dont even think that kids even cruise anymore. Can you imagine the boringness of cruising in their Prius's ?

Oh Berrypie, I can relate

I want quick. If I was by myself I wouldive on cereal.

Lazy tired cook that I am

Diane - WOW!!! RR is fragrance royalty!! I want one!! :) :) I smiled about your cruising comment...I thought you meant Kristine was cruising the bars. :) :) Ooooh....I wish we had smell-o-vision (that makes no sense...LOL) so I could smell the wonderful raspberry/rose fragrance of your RR!!

Carol, you nailed it. There is definitely raspberry scent in the smell of RR. It's been wafting ever since I posted about it above. I went to sleep with this luscious scent a few feet away, which is a nice sendoff to dreamland. I hope your wrist is better, and since you're posting, it must be. I just saw a pic of Proven Winners' Banana Cream Shasta Daisy, one of their most popular. Have you thought about trying that one? Diane

Rouge Royale July bouquet

No, I'm not disappointed in Rouge Royale. That rose endured the 100F+ temps to produce this bouquet. So I'm very off topic. Diane

Even though I somehow rweeked my knee, I dragged myself out back to finish fertalizing. It started to rain, oh joy. So we came in for breakfast and by the time we went back out the few pitiful drops were gone.

Buy whe in the back yard I took a look at tbat dreadful Violets pride and she just aggravated me so much that I ripped her scrawny self out and good riddence !

Now I am icing my knee

Kristine, you had an Idaho rain. That's about all we ever get. I'm so sorry about your knee, and it's got to get better cause there are more chores to do--pronto, knee. Still, you got the satisfaction of ripping the !@#$ out of Violet's Pride, rose ingrate..... It was 100F when I went out last night at 1:30 to do some watering chores. Today will be 102F, and then it drops to the 90s. I'll take anything. Diane

Gad that's supposed to be 7:30 PM above, not 1:30 AM. Diane

We are suppossed to be 105 but it doesnt feel like it will be that hot and it cools to about 65 once the sun goes down.

Another quick rain shower but I watered so when it was just a mere dribble falling from the sky atleast everything got a good drink

I am hoping that this is the last od triple digets but Sept can be pretty warm so who knows

Yow, your temp is worse than ours. We will break a record today when it hits 103F. I'll bet you broke a record, too. But tomorrow will be 100F instead of 90s--boo. It's nice you got a little shower. Hope your knee is better. Diane

I'm the worst rose gardener, because I have too little time to really tend to them...and have to go away for 5 weeks in the summer. It doesn't matter who I hire to water my plants, they don't do it at all or don't do it properly, so lots of things suffer. However, I see Diane mentioned Frederic Mistral, which certainly was my best ever monstrous, fabulous rose. I had to move it, and it never took off after that. I'd like to try it again but can't seem to find it anywhere. Does anyone know of a source?

Diane - yeah, I have to monitor how much I use my wrist for awhile. I was using it too much on the computer. But it should be okay. Such a good idea to have a plonk of RR in your bedroom. :) No, I'm ripping out about 3/4 of my Shasta Daisies...that is enough...I don't need any more white daisies...no matter how well behaved they are. :) :) I do love my Shastas...but they've spread (with my help tossing daisy heads in the garden for more plants) too much. :) Ooooh....beautiful July bouquet!! Love!!!

Kristine - your poor knee. :( Good that you iced it. How is it feeling today? We had a few pitiful drops of rain yesterday too. But, we're expecting 10 mm/4 inches next week!!! I'm excited about that!! You're not going to regret getting rid of VP...you've hated it for a while...so buh bye to VP. :) :)

Veda - well that's aggravating and disappointing for you to miss 5 weeks of summer!

rose canadian : Well, I don't miss 5 weeks of summer, just 5 weeks in Minnesota instead of NJ. I've started planting Buck roses up there and a few are taking off......I get to neglect roses in two locations!

My poor knee. I dont know what I did but it is sure letting me know that it is not happy with me.

Feel better soon, Kristine. It’s too damn muggy to be outside anyway

Veda, there are several US sources, including Heirloom Roses, for Frederic Mistral, but I think all these sellers sell own root roses only. Google "rose Frederic Mistral". I believe Fred needs to be grafted. Hortico Roses in Canada sells FM grafted on multiflora rootstock. I've had good luck with Hortico, though others give mixed reviews. My long lamented Frederic was grafted on Dr Huey. Diane

many thanks, Diane. I'll look it up. Heirloom keeps saying "It's growing....not yet ready for prime time."

We really only got a few pitiful drops Kristine. No real rain.

I think you do a much better job watering than I do, Diane. I really should have the hoses out more often.

Veda - LOL That's pretty funny. :) :) But then, with two places, you get to vet a lot of different roses and find the best ones a bit faster. :)

Oh, Kristine - darn, darn, darn! I hate it when I hurt myself in the summer. Can you walk? Maybe it's best to just keep your leg up and rest it with ice. I'm betting you hurt it when you were pulling Violet's Pride out because you had to brace with your legs to pull. :( :(

Not sure whether this should count as ”rose dissappointment”, rather a sad story. The bumblebee that was buzzing happily near Tiffphoney rose is caught by a mantis and meets its end. (Maybe not the same bumblebee)

Forever a newbie, my roses are hiding places for crab spiders who love to catch and eat polinators. What a beautiful picture of that mantis!

Librarian, thanks! So far I haven’t noticed my roses harboring predators, but I have only very few roses. Pollinator might fly above them but never stop.

Newbie, what a great shot !!

Carol, yeb, you are probably right about the huge fabulous roots on Violet's pride, said. NO body ever.

I have been icing it but it is still pretty bad. Right now digg3weeds and deadheading. It was probably from hoisting bags of compost. And I still have lots more to do. Maybe my grandson can help me

Kristine - oh, I was hoping it would have been better the next day. Now it sounds like your leg is going to be a problem. Yeah, I hope your grandson can help you. I'm sorry that your leg is still pretty bad. :( :(

forever a newbie - Mantids are part of the circle of life...just wish it would have eaten a JB instead. I wonder if they do eat JBs.

Carol, you are so sweet. My knee is a little better. I just need to baby it when Im outside and elevate and ice when I can

Kristine,

Glad to hear your knee is feeling better. Hope it continues to mend until completely healed. Praying to that effect. ⚓ We need our Kristine, a pillar of the Roses Forum, in tip top form.

BTW...My Sweet Chariots grew too disheveled, gangly, sprawling, etc., and were black spotters. Their fragrance was great, but in the balances, my Sweet Chariots' liabilities tilted the scale, so shovel pruned.

Moses

How does everyone send off your banished roses ? I'm hard pressed to find more people that will appreciate and care for the roses I give them , some die within a few weeks. My neighbors are fished out, most are not rose people. I should call the Humane Society thrift store and see if they might be able to set a few out in pots to sell.

Kristine, hope your kneels get well soon.

rosecanadian: well said! so true about mantis being part of circle of life. And a beautiful part, too. I don’t know whether they eat JBs. In my area their times do not overlap much.. Now JBs are mostly gone, and mantis just started to appear.

Moses , getting wild with the shovel lol adios Sweet Chariot.

Mine is finally earning its place

It took a while but actually is doing pretty well.

What gets to go in SC vacated space.

You must be feeling better if you are out willy nilly shovel prunning roses.

Thanks for the well wishes on my knee. Probably torn .meniscus and that just takes time.

My dud rose this summer is Jolie.

Her blooms are small and pink.

I would think that it is the wrong rose except that last year I had a couple of coral color blooms

Not sure what happened but she is pretty ugly and may need Mose's shovel

Kristine - oh, I'm glad that your knee is improving...don't do too much. :) :)

Forever - I doubt if a mantis could kill a JB anyway...they look pretty invulnerable...hard shell. And good riddance to your JBs. :) :)

I'm just going to be the annoying person who pops in to tell you that mantises have not just started appearing for you, they've been in your yard all summer long but they're probably only now big enough for you to notice. They start out super small, smaller than a grain of rice, and grow as they eat all summer long, then die when it gets too cold. They don't live beyond one season. Okay now that everyone has learned their mantis fact for the day, please carry on lol. @forever_a_newbie_VA8

@berrypiez6b have you considered putting up a post on something like OfferUp or Nextdoor or something of that nature for a free rose? I bet someone will come pick it up.

Magpie, thank you a lot. I have learnt so much! happy gardening

Magpie, you are a fountain of knowledge. Who knew that about a mantis ?

Have you considered teaching ? It sounds perfect for you

Kristine, I went to school to be an early childhood educator actually, did well and started shadowing teachers during their classes and helping teach certain parts of the class, but my son was very young at that time and we didn't have reliable childcare from trusted friends/family. I had sky high anxiety about leaving him even for a few hours with people I knew, so when it became apparent that we'd have to pay a stranger to watch him if I was going to finish my internships and start working, I quit. I threw it all away because I was too scared to do what most people do and trust him with a sitter. Sigh. All that training did later land me a job as a full time nanny for a very nice family, but when they eventually moved to a different state I just went back to being a full time stay-at-home parent. Which is weird to say because I was caring for this family's baby from home, while my two kids were still at home too, so I guess I was always a full time stay at home mom even when I was also working full time from home... man that was an exhausting time. Anyways, dreams get deferred sometimes, don't they.

Deferred but not forgotten.

Before you know it your babies will be more independent a.d older

Never say never

Sounds like you did an awful lot of early childhood education; you just didn't get monetary reward for most of it. I am sure it did them good!

Baby Praying Mantid.

;)

Carla in Sac

Carla - what a great picture...most pics here are of the adults...so good to also see a baby mantis. :)

I just happened to catch an adult one when watering today too-- who knows if it's my baby all grown up?

:)

What a cool insect...when you actually stare at the praying mantis in the picture...it's such a weird looking insect...impossible that it is...but it is. Thank you for the picture!