I meant to add - this is my first year without spraying fungicides or anything else. So I had to delete all of the naked rose pictures!

What a wonderful lush garden you have---

the path looks so inviting----Would love to take a stroll through your fragrant roses.

Your orchard brings back memories of my childhood --

Thanks so much.

Florence

Why I love September -- after a horrendously hot and dry summer....if Ike doesn't at least give us a nice downpour or two..I'm counting on him delivering......however, it has cooled a bit and lookee here:

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Louis-Philippe (yesterday AM)

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My sweet Souvenir de la Malmaison, who is only about 4 months removed from being a wee cutting from a neighbor.

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Cramoisi Superior (sp?)...really starting to take off. I got her for $5.00 at a summer sale. She was a half dead twig

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Gratuitous kitty picture. This was when I was threatening her with 9 lives to QUIT PESTERING MY ONE AND ONLY TOAD that lives under the patio.

Thanks for indulging a proud mama. Summer this year did indeed make us suffer, but now it seems a distant memory.

Looks wonderful Carrie. Love that pooch and the JBS is gorgeous! I don't take photo's of the naked ones either :-)

Carol

Carrie, everything is looking so good! It's been the best summer here in my recent memory. I remember you being taken with the red new growth on Jean Bach Sisley and I'm thrilled you like it. I see your acidanthera is blooming..how about that fragrance?? Our gingers are blooming as well as the brugs..competing with the roses for "Best Fragrance".

Carrie, look how large and beautiful your roses are. Weenie looks guilty, is that from sitting in Your chair? He's cute.
September is going to be nice in my garden too. Goodbye beetles, heat, and thrips most of all.

Carla

Absolutely gorgeous pictures, I'm in awe. My garden is still trying to recover from the hot, dry summer which of course isn't over yet, but we're having a cool spell right now. And then of course there are the October fires.....

But it's very gratifying to see roses that are so beautiful and thank you for sharing, not to mention the doggie and kitty pictures.

Ingrid

I love your pictures, but do not like September too much. It is only because I have to work, and have run out of time to do so much that needs to be done.

How do you maintain your path? Do you have something special in it, or is it dirt. It really fits into your picture.

Sammy

Carrie, I'm glad that you love September and that your garden is so beautiful. Here in California I hate September. It is my worst month. After months of dry weather the watering becomes tiresome. The garden mostly looks worn out(like me) Next month will be better. Last year the fall bloom was in November.

Sammy, The paths are cardboard boxes covered with mulch. I can buy mulch for 4 bucks a truckload, and the old boxes are free. It's not something I have to do often - maybe once every 2 or 3 years (I'm just now having to re-mulch the original rose garden built in Feb 05). The orchard roses were a last minute addition, so their paths are not yet mulched. I'm working on that now that the cooler weather is here.
Pam, I am sure that neither you nor your garden is looking worn out! That was the most beautiful place I've ever been.
But my yard is a little piece of heaven right now, with the sweet olives blooming their heads off, so I'm not even envious of the mountains in Mendocino!
We had a hurricane blow through last night (OK, maybe I'm being dramatic - we had lots of wind and rain left over from Ike). You should have smelled the sweet olives smell being swooshed from place to place in the wind!
You literally can smell the sweet apricot fragrance while driving down the blacktop near my house!
Heaven.

Carrie, What's the difference between Sweet Olives and regular Olives? Are they a shrub? What zone is OK?

Pam,
They aren't real olives. They don't make any kind of fruit - I don't know why they are called sweet olives. Scientific name is Osmanthus fragrans. They are hardy to zone 7, so they would be fine for you.
Here's a picture of a hedge of them:
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They grow taller than that - I hedge them to 5 or 6 feet to keep them from shading the roses. My grandmother grows them hedged short enough to be under her windows.
An up close shot of the bloom (not showy - you wouldn't even notice it except for the fragrance).
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They are my 2nd favorite class of plant, the first class being banana shrubs which are Michellia figo (zone 8a). Both are my favorites because the fragrance waftes so intensely. One banana shrub bloom can catch you from 100 ft away if the conditions are right.
Banana shrub bloom:
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Carrie, I agree with you about the sweet olives and banana shrub. The blooms aren't showy, in fact you have to get up really, really close to the bush to see them at all, but the fragrance is wonderful. Mine bloom off and on year round but the fragrance is much more noticable when it is a little cooler. You can detect the fragrance all over our cul de sac when they are blooming.

BTW, which rose is the one with the red blooms in your photo's?

Carol

The red rose is Francois Dubreuil (sp?) with Mme Lombard looming tall in behind it. I think I have more of the roses labeled if you click through to Photobucket.

Wow--beautiful. Plants grow so much if it rains in the summer, though then there are the bugs. I'm hoping we'll get enough rain for a decent fall flowering: last year we didn't get significant rain until the end of October, too late to do much good. Your garden is lovely, and I'm going to keep the cardboard and mulch in mind. Thanks for sharing it all.

Melissa

I thought so! You have a beautiful Francis D.!

Carol

Thanks for the info and photos of Sweet Olives.

" I don't know why they are called sweet olives. Scientific name is Osmanthus fragrans"

Osmanthus fragrans was formerly known as Olea fragrans, and Olea is the scientific Genus of the common Olive Tree (Olea europaea). ;o)

Maurizio