Jaw-droppingly beautiful. That picture of Bebop made me gasp. I just love two-tone roses like that one called Cherry Parfeit. I don't know about anyone else's computer screen, but Sunsprites literally glows so brightly I expect it to hurt my eyes.

That glossy foliage on Amber Queen has my eye! I am loving yellow roses right now...yours, all of yours are just GORGEOUS!

Sunsprites are really very bright yellow roses. I personally love them. BeBop has done very well here. I bought it potted locally afew years back in August when the roses that were left over at a local nursery were marked down to clearance price. It has turned out to be money well spent.

Keep these rose pictures coming! They are simply the epitome of well-grown roses and how they should look..........I have not achieved that, sadly.

I am noticing something with your roses. I keep reading about keeping spacing so that you get good air flow all around the roses and yours seem to be pretty close to each other. It that an illusion of the photos or do you plant closely? It sure doesn't seem to hurt yours at all.

You can give us lessons here. I need them.

I do appreciate seeing them in all their glory!

Frankly Scarlett - I love that name. I'm writing down the names of some others in your collection. Thanks for sharing pics.

The experts say, if you plant roses closely together you get blackspot. However, if you plant one rose in the middle of the lawn with nothing around it well, you have to spray because, you guessed it, roses get blackspot.

I usually start spraying every two weeks soon after the roses leaf out. This year I was so busy with all the things I had to plant and move that I only sprayed for the first time this year a week ago Friday. I am going to spray again this Friday. You might notice that in spite of the lack of spraying, there is little blackspot. That would not last if I didn't spray, in fact just abit was showing up. Long Island is too hot and humid in the summer to go no spray unless you can stand yellow speckled leaves that eventually drop leaving bare plants. Not a look that appeals to me.

I plant my roses 18 inches to 2 feet apart mostly. I break every rule of spacing I have ever, ever read on how to grow roses. I don't like the look of a typical rose garden. The ones were you have a plant, lots of space like 4-6 feet and then another rose and so on. I want a continous sea of color and I don't want to see the mulch in between after the roses leaf out and grow for the spring.

You have to do more pruning doing it my way. This spring I prunned just about everything down to about 2 feet. Thats Hybrid teas, floribundas and shrub roses. You can see how they respond to the hard prunning, they love it and bloom like fools.

After the spring flush I heavily prune everything again but not as short as in the spring.

Rita ~ I love all of your roses, but my favorite of these today is Charles Aznavour. Sigh.....

FlowerLady

Thanks. My picture does not do poor Charles justice. This rose is a very strong bloomer. Starts in spring and just never stops till freeze. The colors range from almost white with just a blush of pink on the petal edges to a stronger pink with just a blush of white. Color intensity depending on time of year and how much sun its planted in.

Also, any deep red rose planted against Charles, the way I have done with Frankly Scarlett, just popps. I actually did that color combo by mistake but I intend to repeat it. I have two more CZ in my side yard bed and I want to move them to the other side of my front yard in back of BeBop and I want to make them a grouping of three by adding another Frankly Scarlett. I actually am in love with Frankly Scarlett too. My picture didn't show how truely beautiful she is either.

Rita, gosh they are all outstanding! Have you had to do a lot of "soil amending"? I have tried roses before and have not had good luck, I assume it's because the soil was not properly prepped for them, but I'm not sure. Also - how much sun do yours get daily? I've heard six hours, including morning, is best for them. Thoughts on that? Thanks!!

Well the more sun the better but 6 hours sounds fine. Most of my roses have some shade and as you can see, they bloom their fool heads off.

I don't know what type of soil you have there so it would be difficult to say. I do think its best to dig a large hole for each rose planted and then backfill the hole with some soaked peat, compost and composted manure. I buy them in bags and thats what I plant in. But it doesn't last forever. Mulch and water are also necessary so if there's not much rain then they need to be watered.

Plus they need fertilizer each spring. I use Rose Tone myself.

Just wanted to say thanks for the tips on how you keep your roses so beautiful. I will be implementing them on the four that I have.