Oh my!! What glorious pictures!! I can almost hear the water running over those rocks. I do believe that if I had your gardens I would never ever come inside!!

Michelle

Awesome pics boxofrox! Looks like the leaves on that tree are starting to show some fall colors. Bad sign. (LOL)

JIM

With your gorgeous water feature and the huge rocks I feel a sense of wilderness in miniature, and a lot of your plantings reflect that. I hope you don't mind my saying this, but in your unique garden I would plant only wild and old garden roses. The regular roses seem too modern and tame for what your garden is saying to me. A rose like Mutabilis which looks so natural and still blooms a lot would be fabulous, as would some of the hybrid musks and ramblers. Sorry, I shouldn't be planting your garden for you, but I do have this vision....

Ingrid

oooo, those berries and scarlet and reds are making me hungry for that Indian Summer splendor that is YOURS, Boxofrox!!! THE Stalker is stalking like some berry-crazed bear, hunting in a paradise of splendiferous treats! I just love those berries! And of course, the delightful Dahlia and beauteous Rose blooms!

Thanks guys :-)

mommachelle, there is nothing quite like the sound of running water to help one relax. This is more of a rush than a run with 7,000 gph and 5 waterfalls. I can hear it in every section of my garden but the one on the other end of the house. Weather permitting, I'm seldom inside :-)

Ingrid, I've never done what I'm told, why would I start minding now ? VBEG I'm actually not adverse to adding either. If you recall when I posted some of my hardscape pics on your other visions thread, I mentioned that each section of my garden has a totally different style. The pond section was done first and I have intentionally allowed most of the plantings to naturalize as I finished the rest. Your "wilderness in miniature" description captures exactly what I set out to do in that particular one. There are only a handful of roses in this whole area and they are technically separated from it on the frontside of the pondside pergola. I've been entertaining different ways to tweak it. I'm really very sight lines oriented and I keep having issues with a couple of the spots. Given that many of these rocks are in the 4-5 man size range, the planting pockets are the planting pockets. Also, most of those areas are above the pond and the hillside is relatively steep, hence no fertilizer allowed that could leach down into the pond to harm my koi. I'm picking up what you're laying down though re your vision and would love to explore it further ;-) I could maybe show you the spots and you tell me what you envision.

KG, as always you make me smile and I haven't forgotten your honest Abe shots. He's all budded up again so we may get some more good ones yet and that new Falstaff is coming soon too along with more LEH :-)

Well Boxofrox, while I like summer, I get excited when the weather starts to change. In CA, summer extends to November every year and I love autumn so much! I love feeling brisk air on my face, the feel of a warm sweater on me and enjoying hot apple cider and soup. I hope you get an Indian summer though and Seattle has had a very warm summer this year, so maybe it will continue. Although every season has it's charms, I must say. By the way, your pics are great as usual. :)

Juliet

boxofrox, thank you for your gracious acceptance of my intrusion into your garden vision. I admit I was a little worried that I might offend, which is the last thing I'd want to do. I use alfalfa meal for fertilizer and wonder if that would have any adverse effect on your koi since it's strictly organic, and yet it really makes things grow and bloom. My garden is no-spray which is why I have scads of wildlife of every size and persuasion. Rosa palustris, also knows as the swamp rose, is the only one known to thrive in wet situations and is really beautiful even when not in bloom, but it does have a very long bloom period in the spring. Bermuda's Kathleen blooms all the time in single to semidouble blooms that change from light pink to dark pink and look like a tapestry of color with a very graceful growth habit, and it grows quite large. Lavender Dream is wonderful, semidouble blooms almost all the time, and a beautiful large shrub. How they'll perform in your area I don't know since your climate is so different from my sunbaked bit of real estate. I'm glad you've thought of sight lines since that's so important to the harmony of the garden, as in my opinion is also color compatibility. I have a feeling your garden is just going to continue to evolve into something truly special.

Ingrid

Ingrid we would love to see your gardens and wildlife...I had asked about photos too of your Rugosas...Photos paint a thousand words and I've always had a fascination with more rare roses. I am still waiting for Rosemeadow/Karen to again return with her rare, more unusual roses. You can always link to your garden through Photobucket as well, Ingrid so we can see and enjoy.

Another side note, though, I can't imagine Boxofrox's getting any more "beautiful" than what it already is, LOL! LOL! He will always be Landscape Architect Summa Cum Laude. Also, the dangers of growing all roses too as opposed to Boxofrox's scattering of several prolific roses amongst an abundance of other flowers and shrubs is the succumbing of roses to the dreaded BS and key rose diseases. I am thinking roses buffered by an abundance of other flowers and other plants keeps the garden more protected and ecologically balanced. Granted this is just a kooky theory of mine. But to me the more variety in a garden the less likely disease will keep spreading and infesting. I believe Boxofrox's has a particular style that is absolute perfection and goes beautifully for his climate and location and what his style is, is bold color and bursting contrast . Some people have more of a romantic, English sort of a garden with tumbling sort of roses, some people have a more austere-Zenlike Japanese Garden, some have that -Southern Estate Garden style. To each everyone has a very distinctive style.

Boxofrox I am very much looking forward to Amazing Abe (Lincoln)!

Ingrid,

The pond area is the hottest spot in the entire landscape so the right roses interspersed make sense. I agree with a wilder more rambling profile. Also once the temps drop and the rain starts, the fish no longer get fed and we spend less and less time there so deciduous is not so much of an issue. I've slowly been adding foliage contrasts because of so much green hence the variegated pieris and purple leafed physocarpus etc. There are also 3 different colors of daylillies. Lavendar is a no go for me ( I'd rather eat melba toast) but white or yellow or darker pink or red works. I had a number of cistus 'Brilliancy' that were great pop but I hated the foliage....notice they are now extinct :-)

If you look at the 4th picture from the last to the left of the Victoria ceanothus there is a sizable pocket where I could fit 2, possibly 3 depending on size. The spot is below the firethorn and the beautyberry. The iris in the waterfall is prolific and blooms yellow ( just to the left out of the shot). Also there would be room for some smaller growing ones in front and to the right of the ceanothus where the groundcover all the way to the ninebark. As a sidenote, there are no wet areas. The pond is sprayed in place polyurea with no margins or bog areas.

KG,

I wasn't talking about Abe Lincoln but Abe Darby although I may have a Lincoln or two before it's all said and done and you know I will share :-)

LOL! Boxofrox when you said Honest Abe, it was that Honest Abe nickname which our dear President Lincoln was known as in real life. Hence the mixup.

But yes, I dooooo remember stalking you for the Abe Darby. I just was associating Honest Abe for the Lincoln roses. But oooooooo, Abe Darby, woo-hoo! I am stalking, stalking stalking, and back to demanding, demanding, demanding! bwahahahaha!

Serena, I think you may have me confused with another Ingrid, who doesn't post here but has beautiful pictures of roses on HMFR. I have only two rugosas which are hybrids and will not be staying as they don't like the hot summers here. I completely agree that roses look and seem to do better with lots of companion plants around them. Also, few things are more boring than a garden comprised only of roses, especially the modern ones. Since you inquired, I'll be posting garden pictures a little later today and you'll notice lots of companion plants.

Boxofrox, I think I need to step back from interfering with your garden and just admire what you've done. I love lavender, which you appear to loathe, and loathe red and orange, which you appear to love. I hope you do get Abraham Darby, a beautiful, fragrant rose that I adore but can't seem to grow well here. Please keep posting pictures as your garden matures; it's such a fascinating place.

Ingrid

Ingrid,

Such is the nature of the internet, sometimes we assume that what we type articulated what it was intended to ;-) I quite like your input in this particular 'micro environment' of my garden, as I mentioned I have been looking at tweaking it in several areas. Color aside, as you said this area needs more of a natural free flowing shrubiness in a rose. Much of the rest of the garden tends to be more formal and more conducive to the types of roses I have chosen for there. I have a number of Abraham Darby along with a growing collection of DA's (20 and counting) and they are fine sited where they are but aren't suited for the pond area. Since roses typically aren't going to provide foliar contrast, the bloom color is the contrast in the sea of green. Just because I have no affinity for lavendar and you none for red or orange doesn't a total disconnect create ;-)

Well, I am really looking forward to your roses Ingrid!!! I just love a variety of gardens. One of the ones that looks like an English Garden that I really enjoy is Kristenflower's rose garden. She uses delphinium, allysum, phlox, Russian sage, catmint and for her roses: John Davis, the Fairy, Carefree Wonder. Hers are very different from Boxofrox's as well. A completely different style. Her garden has cool pinks and purples and they are arranged very much like an English garden.

P.S. I also got you mixed up with the other Ingrid, because she too has lots of unusual roses like you (ones that I haven't heard of). Please forgive my loopiness! Boxofrox always gets a big chuckle how I can never get my names straight whether it be roses or people! I remember dogs better than people names. LOL!

boxofrox, there certainly is no disconnect since I admire your garden and your hard work in creating it tremendously. One problem is that our climates are so different and I would hate to recommend something that does beautifully here and would be a rust bucket or blackspot disaster in your area. However, you could put a post on either this forum or the antique forum and ask for input for natural-looking roses from people who garden in your climate. I'd be really excited to see what comes of it and you'd have something else to do in your nanoseconds of free time.

Ingrid

We got seriously dumped on last night so I went out and cut some of the droopies.....

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Here's one of the several Abraham Darby in the bouquet

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Oklahoma
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LD Braithwaite and White Eden
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Hot Cocoa and Abe Darby
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Sounds like we are going back to the 80's next week so the change is going to have to wait to come :-)

Whoo-hoo! whoo-hoo! Abe Darby! Lalalalala! Boxofrox have you ever seen the animated movie Chicken Little? Well when Foxy the ultra domineering tomboy bully-of-the-grade-school-class gets zapped, she undergoes a complete change of personality, and becomes this dancing, petticoat, lace-umbrella, carrying "Goldilocks". Hence your roses makes anyone! be ready to do a happy, Lalalala! dance.

Such beauty blooms! Lalalalala! The stalker is very happy and doing her umbrella dance! Thanks to the rain "droopies" she gets to dance around Boxofrox bouquets!

And of course, I love your Hot Cocoa too!