..I love Dogs, including Greyhounds.... so no problem in talking about these too... lovely doggies, and thanks for all your comments...

..meanwhile, please forgive for indulging myself in this rose as I'm just totally in love with it.... here are 2 photos today, it's warmer and the flower has really opened up.... a medium old rose scent, and now it's the colour and form I really enjoy.... although I love it's red opening, it's changed again...I would hardly know it was the same rose... I do hope some of you like it too, but I don't mind if you don't....

^I just had to take two...

...here's my friend 'DJ' saying hello to you all.... he owns my garden, I'm just the tenant.... digs a super planting hole, messy but super...

...he's completely de-trained, and takes no notice of rabbits or cats unless one comes onto our property... although you can never trust a Greyhound totally, and we're very careful when we let him off the lead... it's rare and only in either enclosed spaces or isolated areas... but he never goes far and always keeps a close eye on where we are....

Thanks for that, ratdogheads . . . I sent the link to DH, tho I note that it is out of stock. They say you can order now for shipment in 2016 . . .

Marlorena -- When I met my DH, he had Afghan Hounds ... and my old show handler often carried Greyhounds. So I really appreciate the Sighthound personality. And what could be more elegant?

I don't know who could dislike this rose. Indulge yourself frequently. :-)

..thanks Jeri, yes they're gorgeous dogs and quite a personality.... I find him acutely intelligent, very knowing, and he talks to us in many different ways... very tactile, he loves to touch....

... I don't really like Greyhound racing but love the dogs that take part... this is our first Greyhound and he's been with us for 3 years... I think he's quite aloof with other dogs, he looks at many of them in quite a strange way... he does enjoy meeting up with his own breed we notice...

..when the rose is in full bloom I'll post another photo.... I'm really hoping for a good show this year... thank you...

DJ is a very handsome blue boy! Love the classic white tail tip. Yes, this brindle girl is here with us in a house of four cats to see how she goes. Very well, so far, but yes I would never 100% trust her. I really enjoy fostering them anyway, they are lovely easy dogs to have around.

..it's a great shot of them both brightstar, just love the way they're looking at you....

..I keep looking back at Jeri's photo of her 3, I can make out which is 'Becket', the one in the middle, but I don't know the other two names... the one on the left just makes me smile so much....

..I'm still indulging.... this is huge...and it doesn't flop....

Marlorena -- They are: (L-R) Katie, Becket, Tika. Katie has freckles on her nose -- Tika has no freckles. <G> They are real siblings, approx 1 year apart . . . Becket 7, Tika 6, Katie 5 . . . All rescues, from the same scumbag breeder in Texas.

Here they are enjoying the Celebration of Old Roses, in the Historic Sacramento City Cemetery, relaxing on a handy burial plot while I'm busy selling roses.

Jeri, I'm so pleased they found such a good home with you... I didn't know they were rescue dogs... they're so lovely, I think it's those ears that make me smile when I see them...

Oh, WE are the lucky ones -- and we feel it every day. And because we are so fortunate in them, we share them. They are all Therapy Dogs, helping people several days a week. Moreover, several of their likewise-rescued siblings are also Therapy Dogs.

..oh that's marvellous... I wasn't sure what was meant by Therapy Dogs.... I think they do us all a power of good.... our dog walks us, we don't walk him...

..the look on Katie's face just cracks me up by the way...

Oh, they visit people in hospital, and take part in a library program in which children read to them. And they visit convalescent homes and also universities and other schools, at finals time, as a stress-relief therapy.

..oh she's beautiful isn't she...and I bet they enjoy those trips out, meeting people...

... that expression and those ears.... thanks for showing us...

Another greyhound nut here! Our first grey boy was *supposed* to be a whippet, but he just kept growing. A blue boy like yours, Marlorena. A happy accident really, because we never would have discovered the joy of greyhound companionship otherwise. When he died, we adopted another grey. Here is our first boy, Teddy. He was the light of my life.

muscovyduckling....I'm touched by that....and he looks much like mine... I'm so sorry to hear that you lost Teddy... but delighted that you have another...

..I wonder how they manage in the heat of Australia, as ours here suffers when it's just in the 70'sF... we open all the doors and windows...as he tries to find the coolest shadiest spot...

...hates going out in the hot sun or rain, they seem to be his worst enemies...

WOW what a beautiful rose.

Thank you

Ted was fine with the heat, but he didn't like the cold. When it got up near 40 C he suffered, but we all did, so we would pull the mattress out and all sleep together on the landing right in front of the air conditioner. Laddie (our new guy) seems more sensitive to the heat, so I wet him down with the hose when we get into the 30s C and he spends a lot of time laying on the cool tiles in the kitchen! I keep a fan pointed at his couch for him, because he still hasn't learned the air conditioned landing routine :)

The rose it lovely, btw!

..funny you should mention that about not liking the cold... during the winter we notice ours likes to lay next to a warm radiator when the central heating is on... but during the summer he decamps to a cupboard we have, where it's cool and dark... I leave the door open as I know he always likes to go in there... my husband sometimes asks where he is, and I just say ''oh, in the cupboard, as usual''... perhaps it's like a kennel to him, as he's an ex-racer and spent his young life in a kennel...

..they're full of character...

Hahahaha, they're funny creatures aren't they?! We'd never had sighthounds before Ted, and we spent the first few years thinking he had doggy autism or something.

We had Ted since he was 6 weeks old, but our new boy was a racer for 3 years before coming to us, and I often wonder if his funny habits are a result of his upbringing or just another greyhound quirk :)

Beautiful rose, lovely dogs.

I don't have a 'TaB', or a sigthound or a long-haired Dalmation, but we do have Lucy, and I wouldn't want to be without her... She isn't exactly color-coordinated with the other photos in this post- soorrrry...

Virginia

..I love Lucy !... isn't she gorgeous, as are all the dogs on this thread, I love them all!...

thanks for showing us Virginia... she looks really sweet in that photo... and no problem about colour co-ordination... but just to even things up a little, I thought I would add this photo I took today of some of my Austin's as I think they go well with Lucy...

'Kew Gardens'..'Tranquillity'...'Summer Song'

muscovy...

...I think they're just quirky full stop... I wonder if yours is like ours in that he tries to get the better of us.. he knows our habits and when and how he can get what he wants... whether it's certain types of food treats or walkies... he plays us along I'm sure of that...

...'DJ' as we call him was a champion Marathon dog in this country until he retired 4 years ago due to injury... his racing name was 'Droopys Djokovic' (Droopys after the Irish stud that bred him, and Djokovic after the tennis player) - not our choice of name... but anyway he became quite famous for a time as he was in a marathon race over more than 900 metres and it was a triple dead heat - unprecedented in Greyhound racing... it was written about in the papers and was on the t.v.

...in case you want to have a look, here is a BBC report from the time with a short video recording of the race... 'DJ' is no. 2... I don't know whether you can view it from your country..

..about a week later they organised a re-run for just these 3 dogs and 'DJ' won the re-match...

Triple Dead Heat

Hehe Virginia, don't be silly. Lucy is lovely! She looks like a real lady in that pic.

It's just that greyhound people almost invariably start out as "dog people" and then they become "greyhound nutters", as I call it. A strange phenomenon, but there you have it. I'm sure if a bunch of scientists did MRI scans on a bunch of greyhound owners, they'd find part of our brains have just turned into a squishy pile of crazy in the shape of a grey. Hahaha.

Marlorena, I can't watch that video in Australia :( But I did watch one of our new boy's races, and it made me feel a bit funny anyway.

PS. I love Kew Gardens! How do you find it grows for you? Any fragrance?

Marlorena, thanks for the lovely warm-toned bouquet in Lucy's honor... and what a delightful view from the windows...

muscovyduckling, dog lovers sometimes do find a breed that just works for them, and if it ain't broke, why fix it? However, I do have some friends who adopted a rescue greyhound, but the next dog they got was tiny. It's funny to see them out on a walk together- such a contrast...

Virginia

Hahaha! How cool to see!

..I think my husband is a Greyhound 'nut'.... less so for me, in fact I think if we were to get another dog I wouldn't mind the smaller Whippet... there are a few around here and just so cute...

Muscovy...'Kew Gardens'.. is really a Hybrid Musk rose and it does have a light musky scent... not everyone likes that... mine is 6 x 6 foot and showing no signs of stopping... I shall have to cut it back this summer...

Very pretty indeed! Sounds like a great rose. Can you tell me about the growth habit of TaB?

You're lucky you've managed to keep your sanity! My husband always said he'd want a smaller dog next time, but when it came to the crunch he was the one writing to the greyhound adoption groups, hahahahahah. Bitten by the crazy bug :)

..I can't say about growing TaB as a freestanding shrub rose as I don't grow it that way... I suspect it would be rather sprawling in nature as the canes are quite flexible, which is why I grow it up a short obelisk as a climber, about 5 foot so far... the stems are thin and wiry and can easily be trained this way... like a short rambler even... I do wonder that it might be possible to train it up a smaller arch, say 6 or 7 foot... I think so...as the flowers hang down gracefully...

Great dogs (and that from a cat person...), but Marlorena, are you sure sinister Thomas is not a "dog rose"?

..quite possibly gdinie, as my dog does like to cock his leg up against it, and that certainly freaks me out...

Try some catnip around it. No dog could bear to so lose his dignity.

..thanks for the tip...

my rose is still going strong a week later... despite heavy rain a few days ago..

..any more doggies...? hope yours are all well....

That is pretty impressive. Do all buds have that striking look, or was it only one?

..this was the first one that opened right at the top... they're all coming along now each day but those lower down are perhaps a little smaller... hopefully they'll be all out soon... I'm glad you like it..

Gee it's doing well! I can't decide about the colour though, if it will work at my place. I often find it difficult to tell with the pinks/reds from pictures, especially when they change so much from year to year like your rose!

I really love roses in that color range -- the deep, deep reds, with a bit of blue to the tone. And Austin has played around with that color. One of my favorites is 'Prospero':

.I like that colour too Jeri, it really stands out in a garden setting.... I think both those are recommended for warmer climates and I'm not sure if Prospero is available here any more...

..I'm quite liking my 'Royal Jubilee' at the moment, even though some of the blooms droop a little, but I'm finding this one is growing on me quite a lot...

..very pink... very scented...

To me, Prospero grows like a China. Or maybe a Pernetiana. Might just not be cold-hardy.

I love the really dark blue-reds too Jeri and Marlorena. My fave is Munstead Wood. Like all my roses, I've only had it for one season, but it's a real doer here. Just keeps smashing out the blooms. But when I see pics of TaB and The Dark Lady I can't quite tell if they're that really dark colour like MW or more of brighter pinkish red.

Marlorena, I love those fat droopy heads on Royal Jubilee :) irritatingly, not available in Australia.

Well, The Dark Lady is changeable. Sometimes, it's a deep rose-pink. Other times, it's a darker red. But there is always that blue-ish tone to it. And the character of the bloom is very Hybrid Perpetual.

The plant, though, has been disappointing. When it was a new introduction, we bought two own-root plants from Heirloom Old Garden Roses. Those never grew well, and eventually turned out to be quite astonishingly afflicted with RMV, and also with root gall.

So, after we got rid of those, we tried buying a budded plant from Star Roses. THAT turned out to be:

A. Astonishingly afflicted with RMV, and . . .
B. An orange HT that rusted to legendary levels.
So, THAT went into the trash.

Then, we got two own-root plants, propagated from a friend's healthy plant. Those have proven to be very weak plants, and I'm about to give up on them and plant something in that spot that wants to grow.

I love your Royal Jubilee! I have that one on my list for next spring. I also really love the tones of Prospero!

..glad you like it sjn....

Jeri... you sound as though you've had your share of troubles with one or two... bad luck, trial and error I suppose.... however, I've got another one that I wonder if you might like this too, as I'm quite thrilled by it so far... it's another that starts out quite red to my eye, but soon shows signs of pinking... a light old rose fragrance...

'Sir John Betjeman'...

Muscovy...

TaB does start out quite dark red to my eyes, which lasts a day or so, then as the flower develops larger it quickly turns..fades?.. to pink as the bud becomes all frilly...

..do you like the one above...?

What's not to love about this conversation--deep red roses and sweet dogs! Incidentally, the leg-crossing is also shared by German Shepherds--I read once that it is common with all dogs who run a lot and a Shepherd's job in relation to a flock is to be a "running fence."

The colors of both these roses are gorgeous. What can you say about the quantity or severity of the prickles?

...TaB has a lot, all the way down. Not a rose to mess about with too much...

The others not too many, just average I would say. Royal Jubilee is sometimes marketed as low thorn but it has some nasty ones here and there...

Marlorena -- Are you the only person in the world that has TaB? I can't find a U.S. source -- and OF COURSE I would like to grow it!

Here is "Doctor Becket" on the job at our local hospital.

He has the most wonderful eyes Jeri, just love your dogs...and they clearly do such great work...

...as for TaB...yeah, looks like it.... it'll be on Austin's supplementary before too long...

It looks like Austin in the U.S. may be offering it, but the price is daunting. And I know it would be virused, which is equally daunting. Heirloom, which carries so many Austin roses, don't carry this'n.

aah well, that's a shame.... I'm getting another one to grow in a better place with more sun, but this rose suits me as it puts on a show even in my worst location....

....19th July...showing all its colours, like 3 in one...

Yes. I thought it might do that color shift.
So many Austins hate it here, I hate to pay what I would have to pay for it . . .