[Daisy]

Although it doesn't have a perfume, I could not resist planting Mutabilis two years ago. Here it is last May. It has grown a lot more since then. It has a few flowers on now, but I am dying to see it's full flush this spring.

IMG_3913 by Daisyincrete, on Flickr

Charithea, did your Pierre de Ronsard (Eden) rose flower last summer? Do you have any photos? I would love to see it.

Daisy

[Charithea]

Hello Daisy. Thank you for the lovely photographs of the tulips and roses of course. My Rose bush DID not produce any flowers. I suppose I lived in hope for a single rose although I knew that bushes in our  garden in our hot climate take at least three years to settle down. It is starting to get some leave buds but I have to be realistic and wait another year al least. The other roses are getting leaves as well and maybe I will get a photo on the forum. My Moschata roses however have produced twice last year and one of them is flowering now. This untidy scrambler took many years before it flowered. The Moschata plena which I acquired from the church nursery flowered the same year!!

[Pallas]

I wanted to share this photo of the first bloom on my Lady Emma Hamilton to open for some weeks. She is so ravishingly lovely -- thank you, Daisy, for your photos, which made me fall in love with her.

One of the nurseries here had a gaggle of David Austin roses, and one Lady Emma was hiding in the middle of it! So glad I spotted her. I also bought an Abraham Darby, who is also very beautiful.

I would love to see photos of Charithea's Pierre de Ronsard when it flowers -- I have just watched Charles Quest-Ritson's talk on Roses for Mediterranean Gardens (here: https://vimeo.com/127836157), which is incredibly helpful, and he raves about Pierre de Ronsard. My online-shopping mouse finger is getting all twitchy!

[Alisdair]

I look forward to seeing a picture of Charithea's Pierre de Ronsard too, Pallas! In the meantime, you might be interested in this photo that I took in 2012, showing about one-quarter of the length of a splendid planting of this rose at Aaron Penley and Graham Butler's garden of Willowsporn in the Barossa Valley, in South Australia. We saw the rose growing well in other Australian gardens too, in places exposed to extreme summer heat.

[Pallas]

Yes, thank you very much for posting that, Alistair, what an amazingly beautiful and healthy rose! All those flowers and look at the number of buds!!! Astonishing. It should do well here, so I may take the plunge -- just need to find the space.

[Charithea]

This is a test run as I have updated my iPad. The name of the rose is Gaitee fleurie bought from Avramis nursery in Northen Greece.

[Pallas]

Beautiful, I love the colours and the gently nodding flowers.

[Charithea]

Hello Pallas, I am glad you liked my rose.I am encouraged by my small success in growing roses and bought a few more this year. I am sending two more photos of the same rose taken on two consecutive mornings hence the colour change. My ' Eden rose' Pierre de Ronsardto my surprise, has a bud on it. The actual rose bush is just a long stick with a few leaves. Nothing lush like the beautiful ones one sees in pictures or in the neighbours gardens. I shall photograph it as soon as it opens and post it.

[Charithea]

Hello again, I thought of posting another 3 photos of our roses now, before the lack of rain and hot sun dries them up. Andreanna's parfum is a new acquisition, it is a thorn less Tea rose and has a beautiful perfume. The Golden climber is a three year old. Paid too much for it because I was seduced by the beautiful photo and informative label attached to it. The first two years I was rather mad with the Nursery lady but this year it is flourishing so I might forgive her.

[Pallas]

Lovely roses, Charithea, thank you for posting the pictures. I have found that some plants take about 2 years before they start to do well for me while some never break stride. I hope your roses will go from strength to strength now. I would love to see a photo of 'Pierre de Ronsard' when it opens -- I am almost decided to get one...

[Pallas]

I trained my rose 'Madame Alfred Carrière' in a new way (for me) in January and she seems to be responding very well, so I thought I would share some photos.

I read about how they prune/train roses at Sissinghurst, which involves bending, pegging and training the canes into arches, here:  
http://blog.lisacoxdesigns.co.uk/inspiration/visiting-gardens-in-winter-will-help-you-to-learn-about-design/

I bought Madame from Peter Beales as a container rose in spring 2014 (and received some helpful planting advice on this forum): the first photo shows her upon arrival. Last year, she made about 1.5 m of growth and flowered very modestly, maybe 10 blooms?

So this January, I pruned and pegged her according to the 'Sissinghurst method' that I read about -- stupidly, I have lost the photo I took of how she looked then -- but here is a photo of her yesterday with about 15 blooms open and lots of buds! Also, a close-up photo of one of the blooms.

She is clearly relishing the training: there are shoots coming out at all angles from the main arched canes, and so many flowers! I think it is a combination of the training and the fact that she's been in the ground for nearly two years now.  She is against a west-facing wall between our house and the neighbours', and receives maybe 4 hours of full, direct sun in the middle of the day (the gap between the houses is only about 8 meters).

I am so chuffed with how well she is doing; it's a delight to toddle out every morning to see the new buds opening (also, alas, white-spotted rose beetles in the newly-opened flowers; I pick them off twice a day).

[John J]

I am posting this on behalf of my wife as I took the photo and it's easier to transfer it onto my computer than hers, etc.
The rose came from Avramis Roses in Greece via Floralink garden centre here in Cyprus and is labelled as 'Flora Danica'.

[Fleur Pavlidis]

I (like Colin I believe) love yellow roses so I must remember to order this one next autumn.

[Umbrian]

What a memory Fleur, and yes you are quite right. My original yellow rose was bought for Colin from our local market and, as often used to be the case in Italy was just labelled "Yellow Rose". It has grown very big over the years and climbed into a neighbouring tree making it impossible to prune but it repeat flowers throughout the summer and is quite spectacular at times. The new one 'Chris' is also a climber and very strong and healthy with lovely bright foliage. I have trained it to arch over the adjoining path and the stems are full of buds as I write- it came from a Rose nursery in Scotland - Cockers, Aberdeen.

[John J]

The mutabilis rose would appear to have gone through a series of name changes of late but it seems we now have to get used to calling it Rosa x odorata 'Mutabilis'. Anyway ours, although still small, has produced a few flowers so far this year.