Everything looks good to me, but, i'm still searching for the lumps. lol
Eluane always looks good in photo's and wants to be front and center of the attention. lol

Nothin' lumpy or lop-sided about it Serena!! Your garden looks great. That's a beautiful rhody. And your Eluane sure is quite a "ham!"

Beautiful vivid colors. I don't think we can grow those lavender Rhododendrons here in the SF Bay Area in California. Your dog is so cute how she goes to right wherever you point the camera. - Becky

Lovely pics, Serena. Looks like your happy dog enjoys spring!

Thanks for the look - I'm one of those zone 3ers looking forward to blooms! Love your dog too!!

Carol

Awww, thanks so much Beth, Jim, Krista, Carol and Becky! You all really cheered up my day. I am having a terrible time...I was too discouraged to post at our gallery for a few days, instead of celebrating everyone's wonderful roses and had to play catch-up today! Both Penny Lane and Special Occasion were destroyed by rabbits. Three of Penny Lane's new basal canes have vanished without a single trace and several stems have been eaten (all within 2 hours after I posted my photos). Stores were closing, it was too dark to do anything and the morning I woke up, Special Occasion had also been destroyed by the rabbit. Plus! that entire day we had ceaseless rainstorms and I was forced to rig up the entire wire fencing in the blasting rains and mud. I was so frustrated!

O.K. one may wonder why someone who hates and fears rabbits like myself would not put up wire fencing for Special Occasion and Penny Lane. Well both roses are right next to my car garage-the side I always drive out of. Both roses are completely surrounded by "poisonous" plants, Rhododendron, Mountain Laurel, and then the path of my car of course. Eluane and I play soccer on the cement in that front section all the time. How an evil rabbit can attack within 2 hours and destroy Penny Lane is beyond me! Also the area is extremely difficult to put in protective posts and wiring and there is a fat drainage pipe to further crowd that area...

They always say that the second year of rose-growing is filled with "growing pains" especially when you have to deal with your first cold winter. Well, Monster Rabbit tops my list!

Lovely pics Serena! And what a GORGEOUS dog, is it a border collie? I just want to kiss its nose.

whoops, my self-pity rant (sigh)! The second blurry bloom became this pretty form 2 hours after my rant...Both 3" blooms are almost full normal blooms now. I am very surprised that blind growth can still bloom to this size. If you look at the thin tiny stem, on the upper right, that is the frail stem that is supporting this rose. I have 2 almost identical shots because I was battling with the wind. First one was on the Sports setting and has graininess as a result (smaller aperture, less light) to compensate for the wind. I love this shot the best in spite of the graininess because of the Lincoln-like color that shows up on the camera (how I miss my Lincoln blooms!) The other shot just happened to be "lucky-in-focus" with normal settings and shows Fragrant Cloud's true colors.

That's a great looking bloom with nice form!

Oh, poor you! Stupid rabbits!!

Maybe you need to get a chain link fence surrounding your whole front yard. Then the bunnies couldn't get in. I think Digger Dave had chain link fence everywhere, but it still looked terrific. Of course, that's just another expense!!

Good luck,
Carol

Hugs, Lovemysheltie! We are both huge fans of our dogs! Yes, Eluane is a purebred Border Collie. I compete her in agility. We get to see a lot of shelties at our trials too. With border collies, they are so fast that sometimes it can be a struggle to maintain perfect control over them. But they are such fun, loveable dogs!

LOL, Carol, I've got Kansas evil monster rabbits. Rabbits constantly slither under chain link fences. My dad and his neighbors have chain link fences and they are constantly attacked by rabbits. My backyard neightbor has also used hot pepper and none of it works on the rabbits. Their favorite food are the roses. So far the only thing to keep roses safe are the wire mesh. I still have concerns whether the rabbits are going to burrow underneath the mesh, because I'm trying to use alfalfa to jump-start new basal canes.

Carol, Digger Dave could have 20 Satellite dishes in his garden and no one would even notice because his garden is soooo beautiful, LOL! They'd be so busy drooling over his roses that they would be completely unable to notice anything else, hahahahaha!

LLL.....LOL, what's with your affinity for L-words? If I didn't know better, I'd guess the E in front of Luane was nothing but a ruse ;-)

Isn't it frustrating right about now waiting for roses ? I have tons of buds but nothing in bloom except for my earlier stuff. I posted a while back on the regular forum about getting to the nursery for an anniversary present and wanting fragrance. Tried to think of Gemini but couldn't so ended up with a new Double Delight and a new Sheila's Perfume.

I was going to post a few more garden shots onto Pre-Rosa but decided not to. I usually only post those until people start posting new seasons rose blooms. I added some new ones to photobucket in both front and back sections so since you know the way to San Jose, you are welcome to peruse :-)

Sorry to hear about your rabbit, fortunately I don't have that prob but ants just attacked and nested between my hot tub cover and the insulating pad......what a mess :-( I've got to be very careful how I solve that with my pups !!!

Hiya, Boxo! hehe even poor Eluane is limping too! She's got horrid stomach problems this weekend and I have to bring her to the vet. My L for lovely Border collie. my only redeeming garden presence, is now floored and very sick, poor little Ellie bear! I am thinking that maybe when she went to play with the neighbor's kids, their lawn may have had a treatment of grub killer. Eluane is very sensitive to grub killer, such as Merit, and she got similarly sick when grub killer was applied to my lawn (3 days after light rains) from last year. I am feeding her pumpkin and rice tonight!

Whoo-hoo, the KG stalker gets to see your gorgeous camelia and rhododendron additional shots! I can't stop drooling over the closeups of Thundercloud and but alas, I think you ought to post them! The Rose Gallery is missing a treasure house without them!!!

Had I had the chance I would have put up a special link of your lacy pink rhody as a comparison of someone who perfectly captured the heart of their rhody with their camera compared to my burnt out purple centers (camera nincompoop is my alias). But lol if you post it up for me, I will make direct reference to which photo I am talking about, LOL! it's the first photo on your Back album.

O.K. rabbits and those ants are a huge pain! Ants are actually just as persistent and can really swarm a place down! However ants, lol! are smarter than stupid bunnies. Ants are constantly building things and working like an "army" and strategizing where to take over! All bunnies know how to do is proliferate and drive Kansas gardeners berserk!

Boxofrox, Gemini isn't a fragranced rose; I just happened to have a sport-fragranced rose. It doesn't even look like the Geminis that I've seen either. It looks like its parent instead. All the Geminis are way lighter pink than mine was.
So I think you made a terrific choice with Sheila's Perfume and Double Delight. If you didn't mind old garden roses, there is one gorgeous red-and-white striped rose that I hear has beautiful fragrance but I'm not sure if your wife likes striped roses. It is known for wonderful, wonderful fragrance. I want to get this rose too, but have saved it for 2011 because my favorite vendors were not selling it this year. When I do grow it, I'll let you know if the fragrance is indeed what it is for your wife's 2011 anniversary. I know that Florence says that her Compassion is supposed to have gorgeous scent and I've seen her photos and it is an amazing beautiful rose (you have to go back a few threads to see it). I am getting this rose as well. Another very striking and beautiful intensely fragranced hybrid tea rose is Condesa de Stago. I hope Carla forgives me for linking on the google image I found.

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and another image I found of it

Condesa de Sástago

Compassion is like Tiffany in terms of being very fragrant but it's the Condesa which is the overwhelmingly perfumed from what I've read of it, so it must be similar to Double Delight in terms of knocking one over. Someone from Peter Beales is absolutely crazy about their Condesa and keeps talking about it all the time and Vintage Gardens also rates it as intensely fragranced. Not even Mr. Lincoln according to Vintage, is as fragrant as Condesa...???!

P.S. This spring will be awesome for my Mr. Lincoln. He is producing so many buds this year. I can't wait! and neither can Mr. Bumblebee!

I meant to say, " I can't stop drooling over the closeups of Thundercloud and Snowfountain".

and another P.S. You say "Isn't it frustrating right about now waiting for roses ? I have tons of buds but nothing in bloom except for my earlier stuff."

Well, I say, when we get to see your gorgeous beauties, many of us will say, hey why can't my roses look like yours, hehe! and the longer the buds take, the bigger the bloom they become. Here's cheers to your GIGANTIC, GORGEOUS, AND GLORIOUS ROSES! G-G-G instead of L-L-L, hahahaha! :)