From your post I can tell you are over the moon :)

I love the look of the front of the house. The pine straw (we dont have that here) really dresses up the beds nicely.

I bet you will sleep well tonight!

Your picture of 'Bermuda's Anna Olivier' is gorgeous. I think that one is going on my list of must haves.

Here's to a cloudy day and rain tomorrow for you :)
Marleah

We don't have pine straw here either., In my minds eye, I'll call that "western bark." :-)
I'm so pleased to be able to watch your Bermuda Roses come along, because there are so many I've never seen.

Spring.
Roses.
Can't beat it.

Jeri

Sherry,
Thanks for sharing! Your garden will only get better--richer, more interesting, more complex--as you keep on working on it. It's young now, just think what it will be like when it's mature.
Melissa

Sherry
Your garden in so lovely. The pine straw really sets off the plantings, I'll have to look for it here and then figure out how to get it home with no truck :-)

The trick I've found to using newspaper is to keep the space around the plants large enough for rain/irrigation to get in. I don't think the newspaper itself is very porous, which is kinda the idea.

Someone brought up the necessity of oxygen getting to the roots which sounds right.

Thanks for the photos.

Denise

I wonder if your neighbors with the boring old wasteful lawns are feeling inspired. You've done a lovely job and I'm so glad that you are pleased with it.

Your gardens look so lovely and well-tended-----Oh how I wish my yard was that neat and perfect--

I also love your home --it looks like my idea of a cute "Enchanted Cottage"---I painted a sign for my house which says "Enchanted Cottage" but it is a plain brick rancher ---I'm just dreaming of course---it is difficult to make a rancher look like a cute cottage----

Your gardens are lovely
Florence

I like your house, too. The soft gray green is a perfect foil for your beautiful garden. Everything looks fresh and lovely. I can see it brings you much pleasure, and brings it to all the passers by as well.

Rosefolly

Oh, Florence, you touched a tender spot. Let me share (I'm sure someone will be able to identify this verse.) I love blue & white china. Over my kitchen sink I have a little 5' plate with a scene out of the old English countryside - a stucco cottage with thatched roof, an overhanging tree, a rutted road for passersby and a castle in the background with this verse.

As I was wandering oer the green
Not knowing where I went
By chance I saw a pleasant scene
The cottage of content.

I'm not into poetry but that one always brings a tear to my eye. Contentment is a wonderful thing.

Marleah, your best wishes for clouds really touched me, I guess because I sensed they were so heartfelt. I slept well just not long enough - as usual.

Jeri, I can't imagine this rose disappointing me. I think it's going to be a big one, but who cares. I was reading the Tea Roses book the other night and was grabbed by the photos of Etoile de Lyon. They are very much like my 'Bermuda's Anna Olivier'. The authors cited mix-ups with this and other yellow teas. They even mentioned Anna Olivier but I think they were referring to the other one not Bermuda's. I wonder could Bermuda's really be EdL - not that I want it to be. I'm happy with this name; it's easier to say.

Melissa, yes, the garden is getting better. Size and maturity definitely help. It's nice to have days like this in between the thrips and the BS.

Denise,
***The trick I've found to using newspaper is to keep the space around the plants large enough for rain/irrigation to get in. I don't think the newspaper itself is very porous, which is kinda the idea.

Well, that's not exactly what I did. In fact, I did the opposite. I put the newspaper over the rootzone, but I stabbed it lots of time with a knife :)) I use soakers so hopefully that will mitigate some of the problem. I'm just trying to keep my soil from reverting to blistering sand between waterings and maybe the lack of porosity will be a plus. As far as aeration I hope that's the one positive about sand that will help in that regard.

Pam, I love the emerald green of those lawns and loved it in my garden. It was a cool resting point for the eye, but maintenance was impossible. The gravel is nice but hot-looking and somewhat boring in the sun. I will be adding companion plants to overflow onto it eventually. I like the gravel better in my backyard which has more shade and curviness. But I'm very happy with it.

Rosefolly, the color of my house is almost the coolest thing about the whole garden. I picked the colors directly out of a house plan magazine. It was a Queen Anne style house, and the colors popped out at me. Indecisive me made an instant decision. I had no clue at the time that I would have a rose garden or that any plants would look this wonderful in front of it, but everyone seems to have the same reaction that I had when I saw it in that magazine. Also, I have always hated avocado green. They may call it something else now, but that's what it is. Life is funny! Actually, it's a very 'natural' color to plop down in the middle of Nature.

Sherry

Looks great.

How are your Gruss an Aachens troublesome?

What a wonderful garden layout! The pinks and greens with an occasionally dash of red and purple- very soothing, very happy. I like the way the flowers echo the color of the stones in the roundel.

About the color of your house- I think that any color that shows off your plants (which yours does) is the correct color- very nice choice.
happy gardening,
AValon

Michael, first off they stopped growing. They remained the same from last spring until this spring when they put out some good-sized canes not the skinny twiggy stuff. They stayed leafless, too. After the spring last year you could barely see them in their nakedness. Maybe that was a good thing. If they go naked this summer, they'll be replaced by Clotilde Souperts.

Avalon, ya know how you (well, maybe not YOU) do something that you think may look really tacky? Well, I was afraid that was what I was doing, but I needed filler since I was short of gravel. Well, who knew the pink paver pieces would play so well with the roses. I like your word 'roundel'. Now I know what to call it. I think more often than not a divine hand is calling the shots - thankfully.

Sherry

Sherry I love that little verse---I love blue and white china---My special aunt who died at 93 gave me all her old Blue Willow dishes that she had collected for years---

Have you ever seen the movie "The Enchanted Cottage" Robert Young and Dordthy McGuire----It is not in color but the story is special.I think you would like it--

Little cottages are my favorite thing to paint---

Florence

Sherry - Your garden is wonderful! It's a pleasure to see it after reading about the things you were planting. Did you decide to forget about another Mlle. Jeanne Philippe? Although mine had such a gorgeous first bloom, she has shown no sign of any more, so maybe you are right to do that - though come to think of it, neither have any of my others (except Cecile Brunner, little trouper that she is)! Could this POSSIBLY be the fault of the gardener (me) or the garden site (balcony).... It's all great fun, though, and exciting. You have really put a lot of work into your garden, and you deserve all the good results that show in your pix!

Laura

Florence, if I've seen that movie, it was a long time ago, and I don't really remember. I'll have to watch for it. They don't play many of the old good movies lately. And I don't mind B&W. And I like schmaltz. BTW, your first painting reminds me of the cottage on my plate.

Laura, I have not replaced MJP and probably won't since I really am full up now. I did just get a yellow/pink tea - Souv de Pierre Notting. There's a lot of similarity between them except that MJP may be smaller. Freight from CA is kinda high, too. When was your first flush? Mine came and went - stolen by thrips - and then all of a sudden it was starting again. Yours is probably just around the corner. How many roses do you have on your balcony garden? And which ones? Thanks for your best wishes.

We had rain yesterday and most of today! Yippee!! It's been light but who cares???

Sherry

Sherry - that one bloom was Mlle. Jeanne Philippe's "first flush", around the end of March. Since then, she is just hanging out. Seems healthy, though. Betty (old HT) bloomed just after MJP, with two blooms, then rested, and is now putting out more new growth, so more new blooms may follow. I loved both those roses, and don't mind that they have bloomed so little, because they are so young.
As to what others I have on my balcony: Mme. Antoine Mari, Devoniensis, Mlle Cecile Brunner, Angels Mateu (Pernetiana), and Oklahoma. All except AM and MAM have bloomed, but MAM can be pardoned, as I made some major mistakes with her last summer. She's hanging in there, though, and I just repotted her today. Angels Mateu is a rather peculiar-looking rose, so far. It sent up a new cane that is quite vigorous, with shiny apple-green leaves and the wickedest thorns I have ever seen. All seem healthy, but I don't think they get enough sun here. I'm going to give them this summer, and if they're not happy, I'll start looking for good homes for them. Sad though that would be, I can still get my rose fix at the Sacramento Historic Rose Garden, where I volunteer.
Laura

Sherry, your garden is really beautiful. You've done a lot of work and it shows.

The 'Jean Bach Sisley' bloom is great. I love the china roses.

'Cramoisi Superieur' balls for you and 'Clotilde Soupert' doesn't? Wow, your climate is REALLY different from mine. I never had a single bloom from Cramoisi ball on me, even in the spring. Clotilde Soupert was a total disaster in my garden, from constant powdery mildew to tight brown, rotting balls. I am so envious that you can grow Clotilde and I can't. I loved the shape & size of the plant & its near lack of thorns. Maybe I'll give it another try some day, when I'm feeling really bold and adventurous.

What an excellent looking daylily!

Wow, wow, wow on that bloom from your 'Mme Caroline Testout'. That looks like an old hybrid tea that I could learn to love.

Randy

Laura, it's too bad about the lack of sun on your balcony. Hopefully, with time they'll bloom a little more and as you said you have the Historic Garden for your rose fix.

Randy, it's really wierd about C Soupert. Almost every mention of her includes balling. Mine did ball some this spring but I'm sure it was thrips. She's about to bust out again. C Superieur balled totally when I had the climber and now the bush. If she survives this move and still balls, she's outa here. For a few years I always got my daylilies at Sam's in boxes of 13 for $13.88. This is one of them. Now I'm more picky. I want reblooming ones. But this one blooms a long time. Don't know it's name. MCT is pretty spectacular considering she's so young. Here's some of her spring flush.
{{gwi:271917}}

Sherry

Double wow on Mme. Caroline--she is seriously pretty. I saw the one at Sacramento Cemetary and the blooms were the prettiest in a garden of wonderful flowers. I too like the color of your home, just perfect but I'd call it slate green or Celadon(way to many art classes).
la

La, how does the one at the cemetary grow? Does she keep adding new canes at the topthat reach out to 15'? My trellis is 8' tall (and I'm thinking about adding brackets if need be) and she's a few feet longer than that, but she's still kinda "thin". I guess I'm expecting her to pile up some more growth at the top. She has really thick stiff canes so I've just been letting her go straight up. She's well armed with big & little prickles so I'd rather not be confrontational with her. She added 3 or 4 new basal canes this spring.

Sherry

"... so I'd rather not be confrontational with her ..."
I like the way you put that!

Randy

Sherry, I'm glad to see you have Enchantress. I have a band I've only had for a few months but already it has four beautiful buds. Strangely, mine has more variation in color from light to dark and my Jean Bach Sisley is a much darker pink than yours. It must be the difference in climate. I can't wait to see what your garden looks like next year. It's going to be awesome! You have such a great group of roses.

Ingrid

Randy, it's just another way of saying I wimped out.

Ingrid, Enchantress' first blooms balled pretty badly. Maybe it was thrips or temps or her being a baby in the pot. This flush is doing better, but I don't think I saw the finish of that flower. Souv de Francois Gaulain balled, too. It was not a good first flush really. JBS has not looked anything like she did last year. Her flowers were bigger and deeper pink in the centers last year. The second flush is about silver dollar size. Mrs B R Cant is starting her second flush, and they're normal buds and flowers but not as many so far. Ya know what Forrest Gump said about the box of chocolates? Well, that's been my garden so far. Even Louis Philippe is still balling. He never did that last year. Bermuda Spice looks terrible and has the tiniest flowers. Don't know what's going on but this year is different. Mme C Testout was about the only normal one. She just sailed through. And Souv de la Malmaison has been gorgeous. I just got 2 SdlM's in February and also the climber. I just put one bush in the ground today. Her flowers are wonderful. Oh, and Niles Cochet and Gen Gallieni were planted today as well. And I got soaker hoses down in two areas. It's been a very productive vacation. Didn't get the front feeding & mulching finished, but I got a lot of annuals/perennials in.

Sherry

Sherry - awesome!! You put your neighbors to shame!! This gardening obsession can be a beautiful thing! My Cramoisi and Louis Phillipe (perhaps one and the same) both have mildewed and balled up so completely this spring (a strange, cloudy spring with heavy south winds most days) that both of them had better turn things around asap, or they're being tossed.

Sherry - I may be mistaken, but didn't you share with us that there was a homeowners covenant (?) in your 'hood that stated you had to have some lawn? (or I may be mistaken, another senior moment?).

To echo others, I love the color of your house.

Happy gardening. And did you say you got rain? Outstanding, your area has been as dry as my town, which I'm happy to report received a nice soaking all day rain yesterday....which has reduced all blooms out there to moosh, but that's ok.

Thanks for sharing.

Patty

Well, Patty, (btw thanks for the compliments) yes, the restrictions do say you have to have grass, but they also say that the Board of our Property Owners Assn is not required to enforce the restrictions. It's their discretion. A POA is much different than a HOA. I didn't know that until I got elected to the Board in January. The POA exists to protect property values not to enforce nit-picky rules on homeowners. There are only 34 properties here, and no one has complained or maybe even read the restrictions. One owner's front yard is all shrubs and paths of mulch with potted plants - very attractive. Almost all of us in here are retired or thereabouts.

I do still have some grass on the other side of the driveway, but come fall it will be gone to make room for the Chestnut Rose and White Maman Cochet. It's not my property, but I moved a lot of the front grass to the slope of the retention area behind our house. It's spreading nicely. Unfortunately, I've already seen mole tunnels! @#%^#$#!!

We did get rain. About half an inch Thursday and Friday. FYI, Bermuda's Anna Olivier's flowers held up great in the rain and have lasted an amazingly long time. I would keep LP if I were you. I don't think there's a more consistent, tougher rose.

Happy gardening to you, too.

Sherry