Cherrykist, I agree with you. Digger and Deb's gardens are beautiful.

Digger and Dave can you share with us how you take care of your roses? From planting to fertilizing, spraying, etc. The whole story please.

Thank you cherrykist and irish rose grower :) One thing to remember is that Deb and I spend 10 to 20 hours each working in the yard every week during the growing season. It is a lot of work though we consider it play. Deb has had to carry most of the load the last few weeks. I've been working from before sunup until sundown the last 3 weeks. She took some pics yesterday after she pulled frost damaged petals off the roses (4 five gallon buckets - that is a lot of petals). The alyssum stands out more with all those rose blooms gone.
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I usually don't post photos of the drive because of the shack next door
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but it looks like the owner is going to agree to my offer and I'll be tearing it down soon. The thing doesn't look as bad to me knowing it will be gone soon :) Only bad thing is I have to figure out how to convince Deb we don't have room for more roses *sigh*.
Deb's Delight is what I named one of our volunteer clematis seedlings
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and I think it is a great name :) I'll have to check Hortico and HMF. I have never seen the rose.
I don't have time to answer much now. We do have pics of the yard before. Deb's grandparents built it in 1948. I'll have to scan them and that will be a while. Deb took pics of me on a backhoe (1993) when we moved in. I took out a foot to 2 feet of soil here and brought in the best topsoil I had found on jobsites. Those have to be scanned too. I have been meaning to for several years, lol.
I started growing roses in 1961 at the age of 9. Dad bought Mom a Crimson Glory and a Mirandy when we came back to the states. (Air Force brat) It became one of my chores to take care of them. Memom and Aunt Ann had me hooked on roses before that. Deb is a longtime gardener but she didn't grow roses until she met me in 85. She is one of 'those' people that can shove 5 popsicle sticks in the ground and 4 will take root. Deb is my garden sorceress. Naturally... she claims I am the garden magician.
The only plan I had was to have a couple dozen roses in the yard. 9 were here already. Then it was no more than 50, then absolutely no more than 75.... Deb is as stubborn as she is beautiful. The alyssum and clematis were her idea. I didn't want them in with the roses. Can you tell how much she listens to me? We haven't bought any alyssum in 10 years. The stuff reseeds itself without any help. Deb just shakes seeds over an area where she wants more. It grows out of seams in the driveway.... where ever a seed lands.
Gotta get ready for work. I'll get back here this weekend. I can tell you the 'rose elite' insist roses can't be grown as we do. I quit posting years ago about how we grow roses and protect them because of their crap. I will ignore any knowitall that replies our way of growing roses won't work :)

worn out ol' digger

Thank you Digger for taking some time from your busy schedule to reply.Your pictures always inspire. I think I am going to apply your attitude to gardening, if I like it I am gonna try it. I remember a lot of controversy about the JFK rose.... I loved that rose but couldn't get it to thrive in my part shade garden...now that I have moved I am going to give it another shot. How long do you keep a rose before deciding it isn't thriving in spite of your efforts? Do/did you ever have to move roses to enlarge your garden or because they grew bigger than you thought they would?
Thank you again Digger (and Deb) for inspiring us even more with the pictures you posted....Gives me hope for my own garden one day!

Tammy

PS I noticed a while back from HMF that you grow or grew a rose called Dara....how did that do for you? It looks lovely, I am still hoping to find it available one day for my friend Dara.

Hey digger, I love Debs clematis! I was thinking about you the other day and wondering if it had snowed yet. Nice to see you still have blooms! Tell Deb I said hey.

Carol

Glad to have found this thread...You have an awesome garden, I have admired your flowers and plants from afar for years now.

Jerome

Hi Dave. Thanks for filling us in on some of your garden history. And your getting the lot next door? That's great. Your clematis seeding is beautiful. I've never heard of anyone getting a volunteer clematis. They are so hard to grow from seed (I've read some of them take like hundreds of days to germinate). I think it comes down to Deb getting 4 out of 5 wood sticks to root:-)

If you get time, I would love to hear how you grow your roses. Promise I'm not "rose elite".

Rest up and have a good weekend

Digger n Deb,
Thanks for all the lovely pictures and interesting comments. I think they are an inspiration to us on the rose forums! Let me know if Orange Passion is available anywhere for sale. I love your pictures!
Kentucky_Rose

Thank you everyone :) I haven't forgotten. I did have a response typed up last weekend and a breaker tripped before I could submit. No, LOL, it was not a hot reply.

Hey Carol, Deb says Hi :) Only some light frosts so far. It is absolutely unbelievable having so many blooms this late in the season. Hope the neighbors didn't see me running around the yard last weekend taking pics of frosty blooms.
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is the only one I have uploaded pics of.
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I was scrambling around even faster once the sun hit the blooms.
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Wonder why the neighbors think I am crazy???

Tammy, I have never shovel pruned a rose. If a rose lives, we let it grow.
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is one of those that manages to survive winter and give us a few blooms each flush. I imagine most would have dug her up by now (8 years). I rarely move a rose once it is in the ground. The ones I have moved were because they were being overgrown and had to be moved.
I keep saying I am going to move the mauve monster
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because it is overgrowing Tournament Roses. Never thought I would have to move a mini because it was overgrowing a grandiflora *sigh*

Maureen, we have 4 volunteer clematis
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I think the rascals really like Deb too :) Little Debbie has become a monster. A name change may be in order soon. She has spread along 10 foot of fence. Pics of Nelly Moser show mostly LD foliage.
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The smooth foliage is Nelly's. The wrinkled foliage is LD.

I'll get back here and answer some more questions asap.

digger

Here is a link that might be useful: Deb & Digger's Garden

Ooops, glad I checked the link. Sorry about that.

digger

Here is a link that might be useful: Deb & Digger's Garden