The cost for entering these three photos ended up being alot higher than I thought it would.

Twelve 8x10 prints at Walmart - $37.

Three mats and backer boards at Hobby Lobby - $28.

Total = $65 or Almost $22 per entry.

Would have been cheaper if I nailed photos the first time but it was hard to tell which ones would print well based on the electronic pictures. Turns out that nothing taken in the shade printed well.

Beautiful roses and beautiful Photos ! Hope you have a thrilling time.

Those pics. are gorgeous. You are an experienced photographer, and your roses look great !!

Good luck, mmmm!!! I really think your Dainty Bess shot could win you a ribbon!! They all look good...and good for you for entering! :) :)

They are all beautiful - pics as well as the flowers themselves! I tend to like the black frames as well, they seem to pop the colors more IMO. Very cool that you are entering the contest. Good luck!!!

Thanks all! I definitely regretted not going with my first choice on the black frame for Dainty Bess. My husband has a better artistic eye than I do and I figured the frame lady probably did also. But since it is my entry I should have picked the one I liked. But it is a good photo regardless.

We are up early this morning to see if we have any fresh flowers to take. It was 100 degrees all week (so crisping and JB), except the last two days where we had heavy rain and temps in the 40s. I looked yesterday and we have very little that survived that and still looks good. But this is just an experiment to understand the process so if we only have 1-5 blooms then so be it.

They all look great, for what it’s worth I also prefer the black. Good luck!!!

I love your Dainty Bess. What a fabulous shot. Sure to be winner.

I have to go with the hubbie on the white mat. It just looks fresh .

Good luck today !

Team black mat. Good luck! Did you get a heavy rain then? Ours has been light, but it rained continuously for like a whole day and night so I wonder what that added up to. I've enjoyed the cool temps to be honest. I didn't know there was a rose show going, I wonder if I should give it a go one day.

We're back from entering. We got there pretty late. We got up at 6 a.m. and got there at 8:30, with just an hour to prep and enter as they were supposed to close off entries at 9:30 but they let everyone keep going until 9:45..

I think my photos compared pretty well to the other entries. Most had black mats. In my glance at the selection, only one other had a white mat. I was surprised how many there were.

We entered 2 roses in the novice class but a whole bunch in the picture frames and bowls. Didn't really have time to do the fancy show prep. All our stuff was wet because it rained last night so we shook them off as best we could and dried them with paper towels.

These are the left overs that we have at home. The big ones are Pretty Lady Rose and honestly I think we should have brought more of these. They were growing on the east side of the house (not the main rose bed so I had forgotten about them) and my husband went and cut everything at the last minute so I only selected a few to bring. But some of these opened really nicely in the house while we were gone and I should have brought them to the show. The small ones (in the dish and the left white vase) were all ones we ended up not entering but had with us at the show.

We had really heavy rain Fri. night and it bent and broke canes, also bent alot or roses. Other people only had mist or light rain.

It was actually pretty fun. I haven't been to the Botanical Gardens at this time of year and it was really colorful.

The show opens at 1 so we may try and get back there around 2. Awards are at 3:45 and clean up is at 4:15. Now to have some lunch. :-)

Magpie, if you have time this afternoon you should go down to the Denver Botanical Garden and check it out. I bet you would enjoy entering. It was more fun than I thought it would be. I especially liked the picture frame class but there are arrangements, bowls and all sorts of categories.

Back from the show. I basically got a bunch of participation ribbons.

I think I was the only person who mounted the photos. Most people taped them to a mat with no foam board. The large majority of photos were out of focus, not centered, and cut off edges. I did learn that the preferred presentation of photos is a single rose on black (probably cloth) background with a black mat. Garden roses not preferred. So basically it is best to cut a rose, put it on a black background and take a photo.

I was very confused by Fred Loads honorable mention as that is the lowest participation award. I talked to the judges and they said the presence of Winnipeg Parks pink in the background was a distraction and basically eliminated it. Didn't matter that it was centered, in focus, great stamens and the lime green of the leaves was in the same intensity as the bright pink of the Winnipeg Parks and the bright orange of Fred Loads so there is good movement of the eye around the photo and a nice balance to it.

In terms of the crowd coming by I saw Dainty Bess getting lots of good comments. I think if it were a vote of attendees Dainty Bess may have won.

In terms of our flowers we got a pile of participation ribbons with first, second and third places. Didn't really expect much of the flowers. We had some better than others and some average. But I couldn't see the rhyme or reason to the judging. I saw some that were quite good that were second or third places with some mediocre judged ahead of them.

One really nice thing with shows is to see the roses that grow in the area and then query the person who brought them to see if you like the characteristics like winter hardiness, how much needs to be cut back in spring, flowering speed, bush form etc. I got some good information.

If there was one I would plant from seeing it at the show it would be Bill Reid. Loved the size of the yellow blooms and it got good reviews by the grower as fast growing. Sort of a medium on hardiness as there is some die back of longer canes but she didn't have it for more than a few years so maybe in future years it will be even more cane hardy.

These were the Bill Reid blooms I liked. They were very large. Can't really tell from the photo how big they were but I would love to have this rose in my garden.

There were a couple of others I liked that the owners said they die to the ground every year so I eliminated them.

Edit: I also really liked a miniature called Cutie Pie. I couldn't get a photo of it because it was behind some others. But I talked to the submitter and it seemed it would be a good addition. It had a light green foliage and the pink and yellow were a similar intensity. I was smitten by the combo. Here it is on High Country Roses.

https://www.highcountryroses.com/shop/modern-roses/miniature-roses/cutie-pie/

mmmm12COzone5

What a fun event, I bet you are tired out.

I'm sorry the judges were so picky, your Fred Loads photo is exceptional i thought. A handful of judges can be really biased. At some tomato festivals they let the crowd vote and tally up points for the winners - a much better system. Your display looked great, and you get to come home to the best show in your own yard. Thanks for telling us about your day.

Thanks Berrypiez6b,

I'm not displeased with my ribbons but I am discouraged about the type of preferred photos. I can't see myself ever getting interested in taking pictures of cut roses on a black background. I much prefer capturing a garden rose with the variety of backgrounds you find in that setting.

I'm also kind of bummed that I bothered with the mounting portion. It would have been alot easier to just tape the photos into mats as the other entrants did. However, they do look extra sharp mounted on the foam boards so it was a good learning experience if I ever enter a photography contest.

Vaporvac, I am also so bummed you didn't see this. You would have loved it and maybe we could have met to say Hi! Even though the rose show is over the Botanic Gardens is spectacular. I was kicking myself that I didn't take more photos while we were there. I was just wandering around going, wow, this is really spectacular!

Trying to decide if I want to redo the white one with the black mat so I can hang them as a group. Maybe mat some of my others also.

Probably will go get a black mat and backer board to give it a try. I will probably just reprint the photo instead of trying to separate the white backer board from the mat.

I thought I could get them cheaper on line as a bulk purchase but it appears Hobby Lobby has the best prices.

Pic of the assorted ribbons. I don't have all of them since some weren't with the entries. I think it is easy to pick up the wrong tags as they mostly look alike.

This is most of our entered roses along with the ones we didn't bring. A few were taken before we got to them. Someone probably picked them up accidentally or figured they were abandoned so took them home.

One thing I learned is that if you keep the cut rose in the warm house over night it often open's beautifully. We definitely should have cut our roses the night before.

Overall the experience was very positive. The Denver Rose Society members are really nice people. Learning to enter the roses was fun. We didn't do the serious prep work so our roses were mostly filler for the show.

The photography prep was an excellent learning experience. I've never done an art entry and it was really interesting going through the process of learning what to enter, how to enter it and then selecting and prepping my own photos.

@mmmm12COzone5 Congratulations on entering and going through all the steps in the showing process! What an adventure!

Your roses and photos are so beautiful ! I too prefer the look of a rose in it's natural garden setting over just a black background.

It's great that you got to chat with some of the other participants and find out more about varieties you like. I never thought about that but that alone would be a reason to go to these types of shows, even just as a visitor.

That botanic garden looks amazing!

I think they came out really nice! You can always hang them in your home somewhere, give one for a gift, etc. You learned a lot and it sounds like you had some fun talking to others about roses!

The County Fair just opened a few days ago. I wish i could have entered a few things but forgot all about it - maybe next year.

At a local Rose Show Erinnerung an Brod won first place in the antique division. I had mine growing at home; it was special to me but I wouldn't have thought it would go over so big to beat out the other incredible OGRs. Everything is worth a try.

The Hobby Lobby mats were half off today so I got a black one for Dainty Bess.

This is what all three of them look like together with the black mat.

I also laid it on the Easy on the Eyes spray. I really like this photo and may mat it also.

Yup, that looks great !

mmmm - Congratulations! look at all of those ribbons...there are a lot of first place ribbons!! And I love the idea of having all of the pictures in black frames and then hanging them on the wall. And, yes, I think you should frame/hang your Easy on the Eyes spray. :) :)

Thanks all!

I really like Fourth of July matted.

So the 4 I'm thinking of for display are these in this orientation:

Or this orientation:

Fred Loads, Dainty Bess, Fourth of July, Easy on the Eyes.

The two I'm undecided about are Neil Diamond (because the orientation in landscape mode isn't right) and my alternative Fred Loads photo (because I like the other print better).

Easy on the eyes had a white spot on a leaf so I corrected it with a photo editing program called pinta. Just copied a circle above the white spot in a super zoomed in mode, and pasted it over the spot. It looked flawless. Then I sent it to Walmart to print.

Since I was printing a new photo I experimented with a colored pen as the spot was the size of a pen point. I didn't work out so the photo is ruined. Then the one we picked up from the printer was completely different. Very light with all the colors washed out. Not sure if the photo editing program was at fault or if the print equipment was out of calibration.

Incredible photos

They look great! :) :) They'll look great on your wall. Why not just limit it to those 4?

rosecanadian,

Right now I like those 4 as a grouping. They all speak to me individually.

Dainty Bess has 5 fresh stamens. I though that was rare to capture. I've also got both Iceberg and Easy on the Eyes in the background.

Easy on the Eyes is one of my favorite looking roses and the photo has alot of depth to it. It's only flaw is the center flower has aged stamens.

Fred Loads isn't a favorite rose but it does photograph spectacularly. I really like the artistry in the photo with the lime green leaves and bright fuchsia of Winnipeg Parks in the background. I think both colors compliment the bright orange of Fred Loads.

Fourth of July flowers always make me happy with their explosive festive look. I rarely get a clear photo of a fresh flower so this one is a treasure. It is in a hot location in my yard so often the petals are crisping.

Entering this competition has changed the way I take rose photos. now if there is a empty stem nearby or a dead flower I will take it off before taking the picture. Can't bring myself to remove side buds though.

mmmm - in our rose photography (I never entered) they had a category for a spray where there had to be a range of aged blooms...so your picture would probably have won! :) I really, really love that 4th of July pic!!!