I have just been out tying up Jaune Desprez. I was hoisting her canes up with plastic cord and ties and fastening them to the second-floor roof trim of the Tea house/garage, and beginning to train her across the wire we have fixed above the windows. I've been watching her canes lengthening for some weeks now and it seemed time to make some adjustments. She's getting to be a pretty big rose, and I'm happy. Next year I think I'll see her cross the front of the Tea house and meet Maréchal Niel--it too growing in exemplary fashion--coming from the opposite corner. I bet she'll grow over the roof, although training her there is a problem: the balcony and ladder arrangement I'm currently employing won't work.

Jaune Desprez isn't anyone's imaginary ideal rose. She gets quite a bit of mildew, the bugs absolutely adore her, and she is a thorny devil, the more deceiving given her delicate beauty. Also Jaune Desprez is never a sheet of flowers, at least not for me, though that may be due to my pruning habits. Well, who cares. I like Jaune Desprez's graceful habit, her fragrance, her general unfussiness, her vigor (my rose is grafted; I don't know how she is own-root), the way she keeps on producing modest clusters of flowers month after month. I'm very happy with my imperfect rose.

Maréchal Niel is also growing and blooming. I know I've written about my plant in terms that could inspire envy, but perhaps the reality is more modest. The flowers tend to ball, and they stay on the bush and turn brown--all this in autumn, while in spring the beetles just love them. Again, I don't care: I do get a lot of satisfaction from the Maréchal, and I'm happy to see that, like Jaune Desprez, it has reached the roof of the house and can start traveling across the wire and perhaps onto the roof. Of course, it could get cold here again one day and my roses might get frozen back: otherwise, I hope to see them go from big to enormous.

The weather continues very dry and warm for the season, and there's not a lot happening in the garden. Since the start of July (June was wet) we've had about five inches of rain, with none in the forecast. Since we don't generally water established plants there's no fall bloom to speak of, and this is one of the reasons I'm particularly glad of our Tea House climbers. We're still going ahead with fall planting and rose orders.

Melissa