Rita, I just asked you on the other thread to put more photo's of your garden on the gallery when you can and here they are. It is a blessing to behold your garden. Your use of color is outstanding! Everything is so lush and vibrant. A big THANK YOU for your photo's. A very beautiful garden it is and it nurtures the soul. :)

Oh my goodness---Rita---did you do all that planting by yourself?---Your yard is so lush and delicious--

I love your style house----Reminds me of my childhood there were many homes of that style.

Keep the pictures coming--I love them-----I didn't seem to be able to get a lot of pictures this year.

Florence

Thank you for the compliments, we have had a very wet spring both this year and last year.

The roses are only one of my garden interests. I have my yard heavily planted with bird attracting fruiting shrubs for the songbirds. Also lots of small fruit shrubs for me, like blueberries. Five butterfly bushes to attract the hummers and butterflies. There are about 400 daylilies here now and way over 800 lily bulbs. I love roses, daylilies and lilies. Plus many, many other things. What you saw posted was about less than half the yard. We did not got upstairs in the backyard or see the north side of the garden by the driveway.

It litterally took years and years to get to this point.

The hardscape, terrace walls and such, I had done for me. Everything else is just me. I planted everything. I started my garden redo in the summer of 2001 and have been working at it ever since. There is not much grass left.

Gorgeous garden Rita! It reminds me alot of what I remember of the gardens from my mom's old family home in Penssylvania. I guess NY & PA have similar climates and terrain. Been a long time since I've been back east. Thanks for sharing your beautiful haven with us!

Love it, love it, love it! So lush and inviting! (do people walking along pick your roses?!)

A terraced front has always been one of my favorites.....my yard is so flat. Lots of room but flat!

Thanks for the "long shots"!

Lynn

Rita, your gardens are so beautiful, thank you so very much for taking the time to share your wonderful pictures with us.

Oh, those glorious colors! It's all splendid!

As they say on HGTV,you've got Beautiful curb appeal!! Your gardens are fantastic,everything is so lush and colorful.
TFS
Kathi

I enjoyed your tour. Your gardens are beautiful!

Oh how beautiful!I love your craftsman house with the big trees, roses, lilies etc. and the front terracing. Everything looks very healthy, green and thriving. The last two shots are truly magazine worthy!!! :D Becky

Rita thank you so much for inviting us into your home spaces. You have such a wonderful treasure trove of excellence. Your garden is most certainly the jewel of the East. ... a beautiful sigh in your honor. :-)

Rita, I really enjoyed the walk with you! I love these kinds of photos. It really gives us a picture of the entire gardens.

Now, when you have the time, I would love to see the rest up on the hill.

You are doing a super job and I know it brings you great joy.

I just toured one of the gardens in town and their rose bed was filled with the most delicious lavenders, most smelling heavenly. I asked the name and have immediately forgotten, Blue was in the name and it was a J & P rose.

They also had a sign saying all were maintained with Bayer products....buy blue it said. No doubt some input of supplies from said company. I do seem to hear that over and over with well grown roses though...Bayer.

As Glenda said, photo's like yours really give us a good picture of how your garden flows around your house. Your roses are so beautiful, I can hardly wait for your Daylilies to bloom. You are going to let us see some of those beauties aren't you?

Annette

texaslynn - No, I haven't had any problems with anyone picking the roses. My street is very popular with walkers and dog walkers too. I see the same people going by walking their dogs twice a day.

I will do pictures of other areas of the yard when the lilies and daylilies bloom but don't think the rose forum is especially interested in them so plan to post at Cottage Gardening.

Rita,

Love the look and style you have created. The orange roses in the next to last pic are my favorite. Question: I only have a few Knockout roses, cause I don't want to spray.(not environmental-just lazy :)) Anyway, are there any particular roses, for a novice,that do well without spraying?

Spectacular gardens and wonderful pictures. Thanks for sharing your beautiful flowers!

The orange roses you mentioned are Gingersnap, a foribunda. Next to Gingersnap in that picture are some of my red Double Knockouts.

Each area of the country is different. It also depends on how hot and humid you are there. Also the issue of cane hardyness in zone 5 of which I am not an expert. Also it depends on what you can or want to live with, does the look of some blackspot bother you or not? I can't stand it if I see even the slightest hint of blackspotted leaves and need everything to stay pristine or it drives me bonkers.

Two excellent lanscape type shrub roses that stay in continual bloom and never get any desease problems are THE GIFT with small white flowers and CAREFREE DELIGHT with smaller pinkish flowers. Also there is a new shrub rose just released in 2009 called CAREFREE SPIRIT which is a redder version of CAREFEE DELIGHT. Again totally desease free. Of all the roses in my garden, those and ABIGAL ADAMS ROSE and LITTLE BUTERFLY are the only ones that stay absolutely desease free. Even DARLOWS ENIGMA gets a touch of powerdy mildew if never sprayed but it doesn't need much. Even the KNOCKOUTS get a touch of spray because they too can get powerdy mildew here.

Rita,

Your rose gardens are beautiful beyond words. I see you like lots of color. I do too.

Looks like beautiful country.
My family originally came from Long Island. They just kept on moving West. They ended up in Southern California where I was born and raised, and now I am here in central Oklahoma. Talk about cultural shock - gardening here is such a challenge for me, too.

Anyway, I love, love, love your beautiful home and gardens.

~Annie
...just visiting from the Cottage Garden Forum. Thanks for the tour!

What a wonderful idea to have a walking tour. Your gardens are just beautiful, as I imagined. So green and healthy, and your roses are so full of blooms. I can only imagine when your daylilies and lilies start their show. I will be looking for these photos. Thank you for this post. Sure wish I knew how to put my garden on the net. I LOVE to see everyones hard work. Lesley

Thanks so much for the tour! What an inspiration. I enjoyed this soooo much more than just close-ups. The colors are magnificent. Now I can dream that one day my roses will look as good.

Oh, Rita, you really know how to do it right! I can't wait to see the daylilies.
Renee

Usually takes me awhile to get it right. I am always moving things around until it suits me.

Wow Rita! Your gardens are just lovely!!! Thank you so very much for sharing them with us. You've certainly turned your yard into a paradise. I'm glad you can enjoy it, and thrilled that you decided to let us enjoy it too.

If this was a bed and breakfast, I would check in tomorrow for the rest of my life. I think I could find peace in your garden. :)

Everything is so lovely and green. I live in the desert so we don't have that much green. I love your roses and lillies. I have a dozen or so roses and over 75 bearded iris and 50 or so trees but we've only been here 3 years so things are still small. I like your idea of taking a walk through the garden. I think I'd like to do that with my home here as it is so pretty in the spring and we have the Sierra mountains as a background. Thank you for sharing. It's lovely.

It's a pleasant trip through your garden. Everything looks so lush and mature, just beautiful Rita. Thanks for sharing.
I love your terraces.

Carla

It is just beautiful.I have just one question.Since you live in around the same zone as I am .I see you have a climber at your patio.How you winter protect it? Thank you
for your help.
sincerely, Lily

I don't winter protect anything. I am much to lazy a gardener to deal with roses that can not make it thru the winter without extra fuss.

Around the front porch here I have two climbers, one of which is Westerland. Further down I have a Don Juan. In that patio picture I have three small flowered roses up against the house, the roses towards the back under the last window are Charles Aznavour floribundas. The little white flowered roses are not really climbers excect for Secret Garden Musk Climber, which is not cane hardy in my zone. It only keeps about 5 feet of cane and the tips die back. Considering that this rose should not even survive in my zone, I figgure thats pretty good. But the small white blooms you see against the house are both Darlows Enigma and The Gift, planted side by side and growing together. I like the way they look against the house.

I just recently started growing roses, I bought 15 own root this spring and I needed a goal. It is hard to know where to start, I am not good at seeing how something will look. WOW, you gave me lots of incentive, Your yard is sooo gorgeous! Walking in your garden pictures really motivated me!! I didn't know where to start and I think I just need to start planting. These pictures are three years old so I imagine your yard is even better now! So glad the pictures didn't disappear. diane

Absolutely Gorgeous!!! I can't wait til my husband and I can settle down and buy a house. You garden is a DREAM! :)

Wow just Wow. So much for spacing plants apart. I love the way they look but if I planted like that I bet one disease would kill everything. I wish I had the Courage. is there any room to prune them and etc?

Wow just Wow. So much for spacing plants apart. I love the way they look but if I planted like that I bet one disease would kill everything. I wish I had the Courage. is there any room to prune them and etc?

What a beautiful oasis of a garden ❤️

Rita always had gorgeous gardens. She grows gorgeous lupines. I think she started posting on that other garden forum.

your own little paradise..gorgeous