I've been lurking for quite a while, but do occassionally post - more often lately. I've been growing roses for at least 18 years, but was a single parent until March 2007 so the number of roses I had was very limited, as was the size of my garden. I'm at over 50 roses currently (I don't want to count them because then I'd have to confess to DH just how many there are) and growing. I really like the mauve and apricot colored roses, but most generally I'm attracted to the fragrance and rebloom. I live in zone 5 (Nebraska) so I do have to watch hardiness as well. I'm definately a rose-a-holic. My kids keep telling me I need to go to flowers anon. Currently, my favorite two roses are strike it rich and bella'roma. I have some of almost every type of rose (no bourbons yet but there are a couple on my list for next year). I also really love wild flowers & columbines and have a number of different varieties. I couldn't root a rose to save my ... but I have tried. I'd really like to try breeding roses, but since I can't seem to be able to root one, I"m not sure how successful I'd be at that.

I"m at work so I have limited pictures available, but this is "butterfly corner" where the Fairy and Bella'roma live -= just not in bloom yet - very early spring- the fairy is almost always in constant bloom once she's fully awake

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the fairy in bloom (bella'roma is hiding behind the street sign)

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me and a very tired out helper

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I live in Central Illinois, I have 250 roses of all kinds.
I am the Illinois/Indiana Consulting Rosarian Chairman, a Master Rosarian with the American Rose Society, and President of the newly reformed Stephen Decatur Rose Society in Decatur Il. I have been growing roses for over 30 years

Hello Forum folks. I have been growing roses for about 15 years now and I am new to the Forum. I wish I found this Forum much earlier; it would have been a faster journey, and a lot cheaper exercise. I have at present a little over 100 roses of various types, not including groundcovers and hedges but I think I am going to settle down with that number. I did practice with a lot more. My undergraduate was in agribusiness, which would probably explain my passion for growing things.

I was into fruit tree growing before a certain Rogusa seduced me. I was thinking then that should the Big One hit us, we could live off the land. Well, that is what I say anyway when my buddies come. My object was really to produce fruits that are uncommon or not available in groceries. Thus the first roses I planted were between the trees and along the fence. I wanted to put color and fragrance to the yard. You know, once a tree is planted, waiting it to grow is not really very exciting. My backyard is big enough for a gardener to play with however characterized mainly by uneven terrain.

I am practicing retirement at the moment. Too young to coast along but too old to compete at the highest level in the marketplace. I decided to retire from global lending work a year ago when I could hardly catch my breath anymore, and lost that fire in my belly. But nobody told me that hitting the brakes as hard as you can is a healthy solution. Perhaps all I needed was a long sabbatical. Rose growing has kept me sane while working through those insane years.

I like playing golf although I have grossly neglected the game. I go to the shooting range with my son who is in the service sometimes. Living close to the Napa Valley, I enjoy wines produced in the area, and indulge in occasional Dominican. My wife loves to ballroom, so I go with her because I have to. Nothing is more difficult to watch than a guy with two left feet dancing American waltz. But my instructor insists that I show a lot of promise. I also try to go to the Far East each winter to check on a small tree farm and get some respite from the cold. While visiting, I do get a chance to scuba dive, my second passion. It is weird but those brightly lit tropical corrals would sometimes remind me of my rose hill at full bloom.

Thank you Tammy for giving us the opportunity to introduce ourselves. I am glad to be here.

Bobby

I live in the thumb area of Michigan and since I began to post a bit on some of the forums, I have been asked to post various pictures of my gardens, but I don't know how, so I will have to set up a Photo Bucket account and learn. I have been gardening for several years and I have rarely met a flower or plant that I didn't love. lol Since I always thought that roses were difficult, I am very new to those. I began with flower carpets and knockouts. The knockouts esp. add color in the garden when it is sorely needed. I have 6 Easy Elegance Yellow Submarine, a Bonica, 2 minis (unknown variety but supposedly grown in Canada which I thought meant they were winter hardy.), 2 Princess Marianna (?), one David Austin Pretty Jessica, and 4 Buck, Hawkeye Belle, Joseph F. Lamb, Earthsong and Quietness. I really love the look of David Austin and old garden roses. That cup shaped look. I am a retired high school teacher and now have more time for my hobbies which also include genealogy. I have just started to become interested in clematis and flowering shrubs as well. It is great to communicate with people who don't think that I am batty because I love plants and flowers.

Hi! I'm Jeri Jennings --

I live on a bit of hillside, along an often-foggy piece of Southern California coastline, in Ventura County.
DH and I have been growing roses for a bit over 20 years.

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We grow Old Roses, for the most part.
We had to figure out for ourselves that Tea Roses, China Roses, and Noisettes are the roses best-suited to our conditions.
We do some "Rose Rustling," in the service of preservation of rare and lost roses -- so, many of our roses have study names, rather than "official" ones.
We're invariably accompanied by a couple of Dalmatian dogs.

We're involved in the Heritage Roses Groups, and are members of the Heritage Rose Foundation, and American Rose Society.
We're both ARS Consulting Rosarians. I am the Editor of two Old-Rose Quarterlies, but my DH is the person who makes our garden "work."

Jeri

Hi All,

My name is Eileen and I am a lurker. I only post when absolutely necessary, but I read the site posts every night. I thought I should post tonight and say a big thank you for all the help I have received through the years.

I live in Santa Barbara under a blanket of coastal fog. (read mildew). My garden soil is heavy clay so my husband and I recently hired a rose consultant who hired a contractor to dig out an olympic size swimming pool-no concrete-lined it with gopher wire, and filled it with rose soil. It doesn't actually look like a swimming pool. We planted 350 roses and are planning on 200 more. The project took 5 months, mostly because it needed retaining walls. How about that for crazy? I mostly have Austins and Romanticas, and about 100 HT's. I am planning on OGR's for the next garden. I am going to follow Jeri around and learn as much as possible.

I come from a long line of rose women. My mom taught me at the age of 7 that you must cut above five leaves. My great grandmother washed her rose leaves with milk. I definitely have the crazy gene.

I have a wonderful husband who loves to have me spend my days in the garden, so I do. Assisted by my fabulous Akita. My main problem is that I can't stop my rose obsession. I still need more. I have a huge list that I need for next year. Yikes.

That sums me up. Love Roses, gardens, and dogs! Oh, and I am tinyrose because I am 5 feet tall, not because I like tiny roses.

Good evening all. I am Carlyn, from Carlsbad Ca. I have been growing mini roses for about 30 years. I just recently started growing the regular size ones. I have been learning a lot from this forum. I also grow plumerias and orchids. I find roses much more gratifying. There is always something in bloom most of the year here. I have been taking out a few plants and putting in rose gardens. I just love wandering around every morning and seeing what's in bloom.

My name is Melissa and I live in northern Santa Barbara County...fog, wind, not a lot of heat but tons of rust and mildew! I am fairly new to gardening and roses. I have only gardening for about 7 years or so. I don't have nearly the amount of roses that some of you do but I am pretty happy with my piece of earth. My garden will grow with me.

Jeri, I have to know....what are the two roses in your picture? Is that Sally Holmes?
~Melissa

Hi everyone. I live in northern San Diego County in a quiet, hilly area with few neighbors which suits my husband and me really well. I developed a passion for antique roses over twenty years ago, but also now grow some floribundas such as Julia Child, Ebb Tide, Wild Blue Yonder, Angel Face and Burgundy Iceberg. Fortunately we have no rose disease to contend with, just the heat, grasshoppers, squirrels, rabbits and aphids. I have about 82 roses which isn't much for our acreage but I prefer to leave most of it wild and unwatered, and have all the cultivated plants, other than some trees, around the house. I don't use sprays or chemicals of any kind, and just alfalfa meal for fertilizing. My garden is still fairly new and I'm sure there will be many changes as I assess my roses over the next few years. I've been on the rose forums since May of last year and have enjoyed it immensely. So much to learn and such nice people to learn it from.

Ingrid

Hi. Another Californian here, I live near Sacramento and have been growing roses for 11 years after that fateful purchase of Summer Fashion back in 1997. The kids grew up and left home and I needed something to take care of. The roses and daylilies do nicely along with DH and two rescued doggies.

I garden in a pretty small suburban backyard (California,ugh). I crave more space and less house which will come when we retire in the next couple of years. I grow about 90 roses. Of course, minis do not count. I love vibrant colors and am learning to like pinks. I grow modern roses which seem to fit better in a small garden, along with some Austins.

My latest passion is downloading music and am so enjoying trying out all types of music after a very long dry spell of hating popular music. Still do, but love indie. And, just recently I started downloading books--more fun. I need to seek out fun where I can, as I also work for child protective services. Hmmmm.
Kathy

My name is Brittney and I'm 21 years old. I live in Portland (north of Nashville), TN with my husband (married May 2008). I'm currently a senior at Tennessee State University where I'm studying to be a K-6 teacher.

My recent love of roses came about when we bought our new house. It had no landscaping what-so-ever so we got to start from scratch last Spring. I love roses, but around here they're pretty hard to grow so nobody does it. I was determined to grow some, though. I have 2 hybrid teas, 1 iceberg, 1 miniature, and 2 "I have no idea"! lol

This past summer I quit my job to focus on my summer courses, so I had a lot of down time to focus on gardening. I quickly fell in love with my roses (as well as the rest of my garden)and have plunged head-first into the world of roses! Needless to say, I'm a total newbie ;)

P.S. I'm with my roses so much, my neighbors think I'm nuts - haha

My roses:

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First Prize - back when it was lush and green

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First Prize - now, not as lush and green but quite a bit taller

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Iceberg - back in July during the drought

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Iceberg - now, after a week of rain!

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Iceberg - pretty, random pink buds thanks to the rain

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Iceberg - good luck ladybug

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Mystery Rose (?) - other than aphids, this one never gives my problems!

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Mystery Rose 2 (?) - this one has weird brown/purple blotches on it, but still beautiful blooms!

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Mystery Rose Bloom

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Hybrid Tea ______ (?) - lost a lot of foliage due to blackspot, but still pretty blooms

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Very fragrant hybrid tea

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Miniature I rescued from the Wal-Mart clearance aisle for $4. Can you believe it was almost dead?

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My husband, Josh, and I

I'm Leslie, I live in the hot central valley south of Fresno, CA and I grow about 75 roses. Of that number about 42 are Minis or Mini-Flora roses. I've always loved minis but I planted some larger roses as an experiment to see how well they would do in the heat here. Of the larger roses the Floribundas do the best during the summer months. I have a few other varieties of roses that I grow and I enjoy and they also do well here.

These keep me busy and other than a few more I've ordered for spring to replace a couple whites I'm taking out, this is about the number I'll keep.

Sampling of mine:
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Hey y'all! My friends call me Buff and I work parttime as a respiratory therapist. I have been gardening ever since I got married at 20 and my mother walked around my yard and told me the names of each plant and whether her mother grew it successfully or not! My paternal grandmother was also an avid gardener. I am slowly replacing my original roses (mostly Austins) with old fashioned teas and other old garden toughies! I usually follow the recommendations of southern gardeners on the antique rose forum, although this forum is having more interesting activity of late.
I have 2 toddler grandchildren with another expected at Christmas. I am teaching them about life in the garden, especially the bees, butterflies, lizards and birds, which they find more interesting than flowers at this stage. I never spray because of the critters which I love. This spring I have begun using only composted manure and alfalfa tea on my in-ground roses. The few that I have in pots receive Miracle Gro for roses every 10 days with AWESOME results! My DH is a golfer and takes care of our beautiful lawn. We have 3 grown children who live within 100 miles of us. Mike's parents live less than a mile away and our neighbors have lived next door for 30 yrs. We are very blessed!

Hello,

I'm Gilli. I tend to come and go on here. I live in Kamloops, BC, Canada and I have about 50 roses, both minis and full size. We have a bit of a challenging climate here. Hot in the summer (temps at high 90's to low 100's) and cold in the winter (temps usually between 14F to -13F). Usually in the summer there is a dry wind. The dryness in the summer makes for little PM or BS but does encourage the dreaded spider mite.

Last year I finally got some cuttings to root and planted 5 successful cuttings into the garden this past spring. This year I am planning on trying for at least double that amount.

My wish list is about a mile long and I probably don't have enough yard to house as many rose varieties that I would like. However, you have to dream don't you?

I will be 29 years old for the 20th time this year. I work full time (and then some) during the summer months which doesn't leave me enough time to play with and admire the roses I love so much. My goal is to work full time during the winter and then have the summers off instead. I am a small engine mechanic so I tinker with the yard equipment when I'm not tending my babies. We have 4 teenagers living under our roof so as you can imagine, I don't get any help with the yard work without bringing out the big guns. LOL.

Heritage and Hansa
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Climing Colette
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Gilli

Hey, everyone. I'm Lara, and my husband and I live in Colorado. We were also married May of this year (congrats, Brittney!) at the Denver Botanic Gardens. We've been in our house and gardening for 3 years, but this is only our second summer with roses. We have 14 roses, and as we learn more are moving toward hardy floribundas. I'm really starting to appreciate the look of older roses, but we really have no room for their, ah, needs. I've admired all of yours from afar, however! (Jeri, could that be classified as a MOUNTAIN of roses you have there?!)

We're also trying to be easy with the chemicals; we enjoy our bugs (see below), our terrible cat eats rose blossoms, and we are blessed with a mildew and blackspot free environment. And rust? What is this rust you speak of? I took to heart an article I read (on the Antique forum?) about a "Bath a Day" for roses. I figured in our climate it couldn't hurt, and its been great; we currently have no detectable spider mite activity.

Anyway, my husband Andy and I (see below) garden together, and it is our stress relief as well as much of our exercise! You should have seen Andy climbing our apple tree, Silky saw in hand, looking for offending branches to lop off...

Our latest project is a baby New Dawn climber that we're hoping to get to climb our apple tree. Its stretching out a couple of canes despite the very little sun it gets, so we have hope!

In non-garden life I work for a neuropsychologist doing cognitive and achievement testing with kids. I also freelance (can I call it that?) as a math tutor for kids with special needs. DH is an engineer (computer) and HATES it. We're looking to get him teaching high school math asap.

It's so good to read all of your bios! Everyone here has helped us so much to become successful gardeners, and especially rose parents.

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WOW, we have some young ones out here! Congrats to both Lara and Brittney. My name is Mike, and I am 51 going on 24. I currently have about 485 different roses, most HT's, FL's and Bucks. I have 4 kids ranging in ages from 8 to 27 (8, 11, 23, 27), so I will not be retiring until I am at least 72. In order to keep me in roses I have to work, which consists of running the Finance Dept. for a Telecomm company.

Besides my family, I have 2 other major passions in life;

1. Hockey - I once quit college just to move to Canada and try to make a junior team (no, I did not).

2. Alternative Music - I know some of the folks out here know my passion since we've talked about it. If you check out my garden page on HMFR, you'll even see an impassioned plea, in french none the less, for a singer to tour my area. It is not uncommon for me to jump on a plane and head to Vegas just for the day to see a concert that is not coming to this area (Detroit). One of these days I am going to get around to naming seedlings, and if I can find a rose with petals missing where they should not (like a toothless person) I'll name it after my favorite singer;
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Shane Patrick Lysaght MacGowan

Hi Everyone! I am Ann, and I go by Ann C., because there is another Ann on this forum. I live in the foothills of the Ozark Mountains in Arkanas. We have the Arkansas River and Lake Dardanelle. I lurked on the forum for awhile before I started posting, which makes me a newbie.

I quit my job as a biology instructor at a University to home school my 15 year old son. My son helps me garden. He complains about it, but one day I hope my love for gardening is passed down to him.

I started gardening when I was a small child. Mom always gave me a little spot to plant flowers. But, I am relatively new to roses. Fourteen years ago I planted two roses when I moved into my house. Then I basically ignored the poor things, and they are still alive. I can't remember the name of the roses. But this past spring I have really took a liking to roses. I have different kinds of Knockouts and the roses I can't remembe their name. Now I am addicted to roses! I see all the pretty pictures on the forum and I want them all. I have already placed an order for spring.

I would like to thank everyone for sharing their knowledge of roses, because I have learned alot about them from this forum!
Ann C.

missbrittany08, one of your "unknown" roses looks like 'Tournament Of Roses'.

Here is a link that might be useful: Tournament of Roses @ helpmefind

You know, now that you mention it, it seems like I remember seeing that all the tag and just thought it was the BRAND - hahaha

Oh me. :)

Hi - I'm Susan from the all-too-soon-to-be-cold Pocono Mountains of Pennsylvania. If you talk to me in June, I'll be gushing about one rose or another, prowling the Internet looking for bareroot rose sales, and checking out all the local nurseries for that one special potted rose, whatever it happens to be. But here we are in late summer, the time of year when I start thinking I should give up trying to save the roses from the Japanese Beetles, and stick to crookneck squash.

Lara, what a beautiful wedding pictureâÂ"and I love your praying mantis! I miss them here.

Congratulations, too, to the lovely Miss Brittney!

Here I am, along with some of this year's beauties:

Crimson Sky
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Prairie Princess
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Prairie Sunrise
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Strike It Rich
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William Baffin
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Mirror Picture
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Hi! So nice to meet ya'll. I am Lynn and live in the coastal plain of North Carolina. I am a retired nurse and have been gardening with roses off and on for a number of years. Currently I have about 30 roses, mostly old teas and Buck roses in my no spray garden. Thanks to all of you for your advise on which roses resist blackspot best in the heat and humidity. I was using the "trial and error" method, mostly error, and am so glad for all your recommendations.

I have many trees, large pines, oaks and about 25 understory native Eastern Dogwoods. Therefore I have to limit my rose growing area. I am a Master Gardener and have a variety of plants including 24 camellias, many hydrangeas, crepe myrtles, 30 encore azaleas, many other azaleas including one native decidous azalea. I am vice president of the local Camellia Club.

My garden has nesting boxes for Eastern Bluebirds with several broods raised each year. In addition I enjoy the hummingbirds, butterflies and other song birds. I am in the city limits on a small lake. Therefore we have much wildlike that I sometimes wish would visit someone else---many squirrels, occasional raccoon, Canada Geese that have forgotten how to migrate.

Fortunately our summer temperature has been much more pleasant than in 2007 and our rainfall has been plentiful. My roses show these improved conditions.

Hi everyone!

My name is Lyuba and I moved to Tulsa, Ok from Ukraine in November 2007. I used to work as a translator until I met and married my husband. I had my condo filled with every color of African violets, but I couldn't bring any of them over. My mom and dad, grandma and grandpa gardened. It is in my blood to continue the tradition. I planted my first 3 bare root Lowes climbing roses this April. By now I've joined the Tulsa Rose Society, have 5 climbers, 5 English roses, and the rest are HTs and floribundas, so far 21 total, but it is not final. I have big plans and wish lists and my husband warns me about addiction every time I bring home a new rose bush : )

I've never been on any forums in my life, so I learn as I go. Sometimes make my share of mistakes like posting my pictures in another person's blog, not knowing and with best intentions. I did this on the Rose Gallery Forum while trying to learn how to post follow-ups. I want to thank every one of the Rose Masters for their gorgeous pictures, they are of such inspiration to all of us. I find myself checking the Rose Gallery for new pictures every morning. Thank you so much!

I will post a few of mine. This particular rose is very special to me. My grandmother in Ukraine used to have a similar rose in front of the kitchen window, we collected the petals to make jam. When I saw the Spirit of Freedom in the local nursery I had tears in my eyes, it reminded me of grandma and childhood, and everything good and sweet.

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Pat Austin was purchased to commemorate my orange cat named Carson, he is a street kitty from Donetsk, Ukraine, that grew into the Feline King. We joke that Carson could teach Garfield a few tricks : ) His life here is great, except for one mocking bird that my dear husband named Deathwish. The bird follows him to every window, screeches offences and flaps its wings. Carson has to sleep with the blinds down : ) Life is never boring around here.

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I'm looking forward to learning more about growing roses and thanks again for sharing your great pictures.

Lyuba