Very nice roses. I have to laugh about your raspberry picker - a few years ago I was picking saskatoons at my brothers farm, right along side us was the dog, picking the saskatoons off the lower branches and eating them up. Then he discovered the pails of picked saskatoons sitting in the shade of the barn and decided that was much easier and helped himself to a few before we saw what he was up to.

We had a dog who did that with blueberries!

Northspruce, how do you overwinter these? or are they hardy? They're gorgeous.
Here's a pic of my tropicana with some of my baby's breath

Hi Bloomorelse, most of my roses aren't very hardy but some are. The grandifloras, floribundas, and hybrid teas need extra protection. What I do is stop fertilizing in August, then in late Sept I cut all the canes back to 6 or 8 inches and winter protect them. I was just discussing this with Laurie on another forum so I will copy what I told her...

My *spoiled* roses (that I like best) get wooden or cardboard boxes about 2' square, open at top and bottom, that I fill half with soil and top off with leaves. The roses in these are generally green to the soil line at least, but it's kind of a mess replacing all the soil in the spring. The roses I care less about or that I know are hardier, I just cover with leaves then burlap and hold it down with a couple of bricks. Some of these will die back to the ground but I know they will always come back so it doesn't matter.
More important than the actual covering I have found is keeping them dormant until the soil warms. I shovel snow over them all winter and keep as much as possible in place into spring to keep them frozen. I have made the mistake of uncovering everything too early and had inches of green canes frozen, dried out and dead.

Having said that, I have only ever lost 2 roses to winter, JFK and Angel Face (WHAT was I thinking?). Found out later these two can't really be expected to last here.

I uncover mine, I guess in early to mid May when the native trees start leafing out. I think in terms not only of keeping them warm, but keeping the roots moist too and April can be so dry for us, with the ground still frozen, it just dessicates the canes. My roses don't REALLY start growing until June regardless of the spring weather, and then they grow so fast it doesn't seem to make any difference if they had a head start.

Sorry that's long but you asked!!

Oh and your rose is just gorgeous too. Ummm... uhhhh, I am kinda embarassed to say anything but it doesn't look like Tropicana to me. I'm not a real huge expert but Tropicana from what I have seen is very red-orange. Unless that is an older bloom that has faded a lot? I'm sorry, I know you didn't ask and I hope I'm not out of line saying something. It really is beautiful, more so IMHO than Tropicana ;-)

Northspruce, thanks for the explanation. No offence taken on Tropicana. It really is more orangy than the picture shows. My camera doesn't take great shots of reds/oranges/peachs. This one is a more mature faded bloom as well.
I really love roses, especially hybrid teas, I guess I need to make wise choices due to the extra work of protecting them over the winter. Show us more of your roses please.

Not much to show at the moment, as I denuded most of the roses to give to Grandma - here's 2 shots of the bouquet though.

Contains Double Delight, Garden Party and Sonia, as well as some gazanias and gerberas.

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And here's a better shot of Montezuma. My camera has trouble with oranges too so this one's kinda screwed but the flower was better. The thing is dinner-plate huge but the colour's not my favourite and it doesn't smell.

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Bloomorelse, if you try just one non-hardy rose to see how it goes, try Double Delight. It seems to be one of the more cold-tolerant and healthy hybrid teas and it is beautiful in every way. And it smells like nothing else.

Northspruce, beautiful bouquets... and thanks for the tip on Double Delight. I have seen pics of this one and do like it very much. If I haven to find one I'll pick it up, but choices are not so great this time of year... although the sales are starting. Maybe I'll be lucky.

Gorgeous roses, Northspruce, and I love your sidekick :)

Cheers,
Billy