Well, this might not be quite what you meant, but my best "rose experiences" have been with roses and people. My ultimate rose experience was when the hybridizer of one of my roses, personally chose a spot in my garden to plant his rose. That was the ultimate! And even though I was a bit star struck, he spoke to me at great length and I found him to be a really kind person. Since then, I have met many people happy to share their rose knowledge with me. This includes rose hobbyists, hybridizers, nursery owners and rosarians. There are always exceptions, but all in all, they are very warm people. Hopefully others will chime in with some great rose photos. They get me through the winter :) My roses were too new last season to share many photographs, but I hope to share some this spring.

Jasmine, that may not have been exactly what I meant at the time, but that is the most wonderful of rose experiences and I am so glad you shared. There is nothing better than to be able to "talk roses" with someone who shares our enthusiasm and has a vast knowledge from their years of experience. I have found too that rose people are about the nicest around for the most part.

..a lovely tale from Jasmine, I enjoyed reading that...

..mine is of a different sort, and simply refers to this rose below 'Lady of Shalott'...an Austin shrub... I'm not that fond of orange roses, although I seem to have one or two now... but I got this cheap, it was neglected in a container and was being sold off. I had to have it.... When I took it out the pot all the compost fell away... it was a hot day in July and I planted it as a grafted bare root plant,....in my hot dry border that barely has any soil, mostly rubble... it's great for Mediterranean type plantings...
...I cut it right back to almost nothing, just a couple of little sticks poking up, but 2 months later, mid September, it had grown into this...

..I was really pleased, considering the time of year, the neglect, and even with me I gave it no special soil amendment, ..... it's deserving of so much better but this was my only slot left at the time... it's even been offering me a flower or two in January... I hope for good things from it this season...

My experience is much like onewheeler. I live in a very urban environment, and it's not neighbor friendly. I'd met the husband next door, but the wife had never even acknowledged me in SEVEN YEARS , until i planted roses along the walkway up to the house. "The roses are beautiful! Good job!"

Since then she at least waves, and we have chatted a couple of times. Same with a woman who walks her dog and random people walking by as I am out watering or working.

I feel a little more connected to my neighborhood.

I couldn't think of any one "best" rose experience I have had until I read Onewheeler's comment. I am lucky to live by a sidewalk frequented by neighbors out walking, and I look forward to their happy comments, but one incident really stands out in my mind, and it didn't involve pedestrians.

A few years ago, I was in my front yard doing some gardening chores when I saw a long procession of cars drive slowly by, heading down the hill. My street ends in a dead end turnaround, so I was puzzled why such a large group would be heading that way all at once. I had a random thought, "looks like a funeral procession to me", and then I returned to my tasks, chuckling to myself about the lack of cemeteries along the short residential area at the street's end. About a half hour later, I was shocked to see the same procession driving slowly up the hill, slower, slower, until they all pulled in at once in front of my house. I stood gaping as they all exited their cars and assembled in front of me. Their leader very politely explained that they were members of a master gardener class, and wondered if I would give an impromptu tour of my garden. What a surprise--it was no funeral procession after all! I had a ball conducting the tour, and they were all so friendly and appreciative.

Later, I found out my daughter and two grandkids were looking down from a second story window at all the goings on below, wondering what the heck Nana was doing, traipsing around the yard with all those people following her!

A lovely thank-you note came a few days later, and I was invited to join the master gardeners' class. I declined, but the whole thing was such an upper for this old gardener.

Diane

Diane, what a lovely story. It is so nice when someone admires our gardens and all the work we have put into them.I love to garden and share the beauty of nature with others. One of my favorite stories is when I would take a rose bouquet to the front desk of my gym. Every few days I would change it out. When I went on vacation and returned several members told me how much they missed the roses. I was so happy that they brightened their mornings! Lesley

I love reading about your best rose experiences. Marlorena, I wish you the best with your Lady of Shalot, it's a beautiful rose. Valerie - You must have some beautiful roses and flowers, hope you are able to share their beauty again. Daylily, sometimes I have wondered if some of my neighbors notice or even care, but a few of them are complimentary and I do appreciate that. I have to remember I'm doing what I enjoy. Diane, what a great experience, that is quite a compliment to your gardening expertise. Lesley, I'm sure you've furnished some lovely bouquets with all your gorgeous roses, I always enjoy your pictures so much.

What wonderful stories and photographs :)

Mines a little different. Back in the late 1980's I lived in Winter Haven, FL. At that time it was still a sleepy little town. I had a friend who was in the hospital and I brought some roses in for him. One of the nurses was telling me about the Pediatric area never gets any roses for the children. BINGO!!!! Something special I can do. At that time I was growing a few(?) mini's and I thought, big roses, big people. Little roses, little people. I started taking mini roses over to the hospital for the kids. Their eyes would lite up. The parents really appreciated it a lot. Better giving them then letting them just sit in the garden for only me and Debbie to enjoy.

Ken - That sounds like a wonderful experience to me.

I loved reading everyone's stories! Mine would never compare, but after reading everyone's, it was the only thing I could think of similar.

My kids love to pick my roses. Even though I try to get them to let them stay on the bush..so they will live longer :) Well my two oldest kids were already in school, and my youngest had just started 4k, and she started the tradition of bringing her teacher roses out of my flower beds. So starting then, all three of my babies started taking their teacher's one rose almost everyday. The teacher's gave me such praises and compliments, it really made me feel good, even without seeing the bushes, my roses were beautiful! I even had a couple ask me how I got to have such beautiful roses, that her mom always told her how hard they were to grow! Well I told her roses weren't hard to grow at all and to give it a try. I shared all the information I could so early in the morning, and told her alot of what I learned here on the forum and through when I first started growing roses. I enjoy reading stories on here and having rose/ flower lovers who think very similar to me. I don't feel like the oddball anymore, when having people to relate to! Keep the great stories coming. :)

This is such a heartwarming thread on an otherwise gloomy day ! What a rememinder that roses and gardening are good for our souls as well as those we share with .
When we lived in pa we were in a small neighborhood with much more older people than young folks . I always received compliments from the ladies but my favorite was an older man who walked his much older mom in a wheel chair down to our house , just to see the roses ! Ahh what joy that was !! She had dementia and was so precious . But she would ask to see them and he would bring her down . What a great lady and sweet son .
There was another on our street with the most magnificent peonies and iris in the spring . How I wish I had done more than admire as I drove by !

Very neat stories by everyone! Mine doesn't compare, but I'll give it a whirl. I started out planting daylilies when I moved in. I like anything with colors that welcome me when I get home. Over the past few years, I have graduated a bit to roses. Every summer, I undertake a project in the yard. Last year I undertook some stone walls and edging. I thought it would be a great year to do it, because the weather was mild for Kentucky. Naturally, the two weeks I chose were the hottest of the summer.

I got the stone work completed and planted some roses on the side of the house along with an arbor and clematis and various spring bulbs. I live on a corner lot, so I have a decent amount of road frontage. A couple neighbors I hadn't met stopped their car to compliment the progress. One said she liked the roses best, my personal favorite in the garden.

Anyways, the neighbors next door to me were jokingly mad about the work. They said that it made them look like dead-beats. The past couple weeks, they've asked if I had already made plans for the garden. I told them I have, and that I ordered some roses (with help from Lesley and some others on here that I appreciate very much). Initially, I had hoped I could spark a little bit of desire in the neighbors to get rid of all the ugly evergreen landscapes, but I grew to enjoy gardening myself!

Every single one of these stories is touching! Great thread idea Sara-Ann! I haven't been growing roses very long but I can think of a few little things

- my MIL has the same name as a hardy shrub rose, and 4 years ago when her beloved dog had to be put down, I bought one and planted it where the dog was buried. She seems so happy with it, points it out all the time, and I'm so glad :)

- for my first birthday after marrying DH, he asked me what I wanted and I told him I wanted a rose plant :) I didn't know anything about them, and neither did he, and I was also thinking that maybe I'd be disappointed because it wouldn't be a surprise :) But I was so surprised and touched that he asked questions at a garden center and picked from the roses they suggested the one he thought smelled the nicest - the rugosa Blanc Double de Coubert you know - and we planted it together and now we notice the suckers that come up each year and transplant them around. It's sweet and I like seeing sort of a different side of him :)

- Actually it was that rose above that really got me into roses. I saw 'Blanc Double de Coubert' on the tag, but didn't know it was a name, thought Coubert was a store or something, anyway I googled a bunch of words on the tag and Pickering Roses came up. I looked at their catalogue and was so amazed at all the different beautiful roses and soon bought New Dawn at a hardware store (unruly heap of prickles...) and others, and on it goes.

- LOVE having an excuse to stop to talk to people in their front yards! This might be my favorite thing :)

Well I don't really have any awesome stories to share about roses but I love reading about all your experiences. It is nice for me to know that there are many people out there who love this plant. Sometimes I feel kind of isolated when I talk about roses and gardening to people in my life. There is no one really that I know in my life whether friends or acquaintances, men or women that love this plant so much. I just grow it for my own enjoyment. However, it is always good to know there are so many people out there that share our hobbies. Thank you for sharing with all of us.

Like Diane, we live on a cul-de-sac and there's not much traffic except for the few people who live there, and in rose (or tulip) peak season. I've seen people who are lost trying to find their way out of the neighborhood do a doubletake and go around our circle again slowly to have another look. I remember our neighbor a few houses down used to drive his mother by our house regularly so she could see the yard without having to walk that far. We learned many years later that our mailman used to drive his wife past our house in peak season (after he finished his mail routes for the day) because he enjoyed the flowers so much. Once I learned that, I made sure to leave him bouquets regularly by the mailbox to send home to her, and when he retired last year I sent some plants home for them to enjoy as well.

We're all here on GW because we love plants, but ultimately people are the best part of gardening in the long run (all of you included!)

Cynthia

What a thoughtful thing to do for your mailman and his wife, Cynthia. I'd love to drive by your house during peak season--and everyone else's as well. I would probably blow my "gaskets" at all the beauty. Diane

I agree, Diane - just seeing the variety of settings and roses and colors and companions in everyone's gardens would be terrific. The pictures here are wonderful, but it would be great to host a "GardenWeb national tour" like they do local garden tours. Of course, we'd have to get funding - perhaps we could divert some of the advertising money we support on this site? (smile) As for the mailman, it was absolutely the least I could do for the lovely gentleman who uncomplainingly delivered to my door all those immense boxes of mail order roses. He retired the year after Eurodesert closed, and had delivered over 75 boxes of very heavy mother plants of roses from those sales alone. I don't think that affected his retirement, but you never know... Regardless, sharing our garden is half of the fun of having it.

Cynthia

I have enjoyed reading about everyone's rose experiences. I know I would be awestruck if I were able to see your roses in person! I am amazed at how many gifted people are on this forum, Cynthia, I love your story!