Oh, that's great - a new chair should help a lot!!

Carol

Agree with Carol: the right chair makes a big difference. I can sit on my chair for 8 hours with zero back pain, but NOT so with other chairs. I have been using this chair for 15 years and it's still as good as new .. a good chair is worth the money.

Khalid: Gorgeous pics. of your roses, esp. of Sheila's perfume .. perfect shade of colors. Your Ebb-tide is perfect bloom so many petals & nice color. I notice leaf-curl over and some yellowish splotches on the leaves of Chippendale .. possibly a magnesium deficiency ???? See below chart:

https://www.hydroponics.net/learn/nutrient_deficiencies.php

I moved the rest of the info. to the thread April 17, 2016.

I hope your roses are going to be stunning this year Carol, hope to see many photo's from everyone.

Khalid, this is so true: At some point we need to be contended with what we have..... Perfection is an ever receding mirage and can only be achieved by creator. We have limits..... and whole thing is about identifying and understanding those limits.... contentment is essential.

Thank you so much for the great info, Straw....so much to learn and so interesting!

Evelyn May, Ebb Tide, William Morris, Teasing Georgia...Troika...Tom Brown......too many to mention... (and...not available here of course... :-)... They are all soooooooooooo beautiful.......(!) Whenever I visit this thread I feel like planting another 10 at least....

Carol: $22 per bag of pea-gravel is way too expensive, I would return it, since you already got glacial-rock-dust. My pea-gravel is $3 for a 40 lb. bag. I went back to your worm-leachate thread to check on your potting soil .. it has "just a touch of minerals" .. that can easily be leached out with rain. Pots need higher nutrients due to leaching, so I re-post the info from University of CA. Note that magnesium is just as important as phosphorus, and calcium should be 1/2 of potassium.

For high balanced-ratios of nutrients in rose tissue in %: 5 nitrogen, 3 potassium, 0.3 phosphorus, 1.5 calcium, and 0.35 magnesium. For ppm it would be 250 manganese, 150 iron, 15 copper, 50 zinc, and 60 boron.

Straw: Thanks for the link on element deficiency table. Will post my detailed observations in the other thread where you are discussing about all minerals. Chippendale not only has curled leaves, it is also continuously suffering from mildew.

Fragrance has improved a great deal after the bud fully opened. Very nice shade and shape of bloom.

Bush is healthy..very neat foliage. I am hoping the fragrance will improve when the affect of excessive gypsum goes off with time.

Fragrance has really improved and now I can smell mangoes. The bush has weak stems but its a young bush, just a 8 months old graft. I think I am expecting too much from my Austin roses to be strong and doing everything perfectly in 8 months.... I need to give them time. Actually I should be removing these buds so that the bush grows strong in its first year. What say?

best regards

Khalid: Best blooms of Sheila perfume ever !! So many petals. For 3 years I have a hunch that decent calcium increase number of petals, which is confirmed by your zillion-of-petals bloom. For first-year roses, I put them in pots so I can shelter them in partial shade, plus pluck all the blooms off for root-growth.

Decent magnesium helps with mildew ... my roses in pots don't have glossy shine since potting soil has zero-nutrients peatmoss plus chemical NPK. But when I put roses into my dolomitic clay (high in magnesium), leaves get this glossy shine, don't have problems with mildew unless I mess up the soil with fertilizer with sulfur & high salt chemical nitrogen. Note the shine on Francis Blaise rose below, fertilized with alfalfa meal, I also put almond-solids (left-over from making almond-milk). Almond is high in magnesium.

Aha.... almond solids. Thanks for another idea Straw. And what a gorgeous bush of Francis Blaise. Your analysis on Ca seems to be correct but I think sufficient potassium in the soil also has a role to play. However, more petals come with a price tag and that is reduced fragrance. I think a fine balance would be the best thing to achieve, what do you say. For me personally, it's hard to compromise on fragrance. A rose without fragrance is just half a rose in my view.

Forgot to share this photo taken early morning today.... The fragrance of La France is out of this world. Such sweet pleasing fragrance and look at the classic bloom shape. La France blooms have a very long life and in good weather, they retain their shape for 5-7 days.

Pure elegance....... isn't it?

This rose is impressing me more with every new bloom that it gets. Very healthy, very vigorous and very fragrant. Haifz Zaman is a good one bred by the local breeder Ibrahim Changa.

A new cluster..... so many of them nowadays. Love this rose.

Quite impressed with Ebb Tide too.

Love the fragrance of St Swithun, moderate but very nice. It's doing well in part shade.

Getting ready for another flush.... Mary Rose

I don't know but I get far more pleasure while looking at the blooms of this cutting from last August which is now a full grown bush.

William Morris is really vigorous on own roots. Here is the bush shot and see one of the shoots is going upto the tree stem that is at least 4 feet away. This much growth in 8 to 9 months is quite satisfying. I have most of my Austin roses now placed under trees in my lawn where they get morning sun and dappled shade. My wife doesn't like the bricks under the pots as they look ugly to her but I think placing pots on the bricks is more safe..... too many insects get inside the pots. I will try to cover them somehow.

best regards

Khalid - I'm glad you posted your pics of Chartreuse de Parme - I'm getting this rose (bare root coming soon)!! I'm really excited about it!! And I'm glad that your rose fragrances are coming back a little!!

Jess - praying for your back. Hope your chair comes soon.

Carol

Carol: Chartreuse de Parme looks to be a very fine rose to me. Healthy bush, leathery dark green foliage that goes very well with purple blooms. Very nice fragrance.

A here is The Dark Lady. This small bush has gone carzy. This is the second flush...

Straw and Khalid, you have the most beautiful roses I've ever seen. thank you for sharing them with us :-)

reading and will be re-reading.....but this chair is not good for me...will write more extensively when my new chair arrives.

sigh sigh sigh...it really makes my whole being smile when I look at the roses in your gardens, also Samuel and Carol's roses...

Straw the Francis Blaise rose is beautiful, I can see the leaves are healthy and shiny...and Khalid your Just Joey has such beautiful petals... there are so many beautiful roses,La France, Haifz Zaman...can't stop looking at them.

Straw thanks for the fantastic advice....

Wow!!! The Dark Lady looks amazing!! Sigh - so much beauty! :)

Carol

Jess: So happy to hear from you ... can't wait until your chair arrive !!

Khalid: I'm in love with your "Dark Lady" rose. I fell in love with that bush at Chicago Botanical Garden .. it's the cutest one among 5,000 roses. Ebb Tide blooms has so many petals, can't count. William Morris is so good-looking in all pics. Your pots have very healthy foliage, amazing !!

Yea Jess good to hear from you. I hope your back feels better.

Jess: Good luck with the chair. Hope it arrives soon and your back gets better. Praying for your health....

Straw: I am very impressed too with The Dark Lady. This bush is a July 2015 graft which makes it 9 months old and look at the way it is blooming. I normally pinch the buds on younger bushes but this one looks so gorgeous that I have allowed it to grow as it is.....

Few pics taken today.

What a lovely fragrance.... love it. Such fruity sweet fragrance.... just like a very well made dessert. Love the globular form too.

Tom Brown getting ready for second flush..

Blooms all the time.... soft mild sweet fragrance.....

Nice old rose citrus mix fragrance.

Wow! Chartreuse de Parme is gorgeous .. the color really glow, and so many petals. I almost ordered that, but cancelled when I realize I have to winterize in the garage .. so I ordered more cold-tolerant Dee-lish instead. Tom Brown has very healthy foliage .. is that the pot without gypsum ?

I love the color of your Jude the Obscure ... and I agree that the scent is addictive like a fruity tropical drink.

Oh!!! I am so happy I'm getting Chartreuse de Parme!!!!! Yours looks amazing!!! Such color and form!!! Do you get many flowers from yours? wow!!

I just am ga-ga over your Tom Brown!! The intensity of the colors is amazing!! Whatever you're doing...keep doing it!!! Wow!

Carol

I can't get Chartreuse de Parme over here... (either) :-(

these roses are magnificent. Khalid, your Jude the Obscure is out of heaven itself....and you summed the fragrance up really well: just like a very well made dessert

Thanks everyone for wishing me well my back is much better since I've been avoiding this "chair" I've been using for far too long...

Khalid - I missed the description you gave. Just read it now. Healthy bush, dark green leaves and very nice fragrance. I can't wait!! Mine is on the way as we write!!

Carol

Carol: Good luck on your Chartreuse de Parme. I am quite positive you would like this rose.

Jess: Great to know that you are getting better and hope to see you back soon. I haven't smelled Hey Jude (and would love to do that one day) but three roses that I like for their quality of fragrance are Crimson Glory, Pat Austin and Jude the Obscure.

Few pics taken today....

Lovely fragrance....large size beautiful blooms.

Oooh!!! Paul Neyron is amazing!!! Is it an OGR? Does it rebloom? Swoon!

I also really like your St. Swithin!!

Wow!

Carol

Khalid: That's the best looking Paul Neyron bloom .. it glows with so many petals and the color is deepest ever. That's the most petals ever on St. Swithun, and Condesa D. S color is the best !!

Carol: Paul Neyron is a Hybrid Perpetual which is an OGR. Hybrid Perpetuals are one of the parents of earlier Hybrid Tea roses, other being Tea Roses. It blooms in flushes throughout the year in our climate. The other Hybrid Perpetual that I have is Black Prince which has wonderful fragrance and blooms whole year round. I really like Hybrid Perpetuals but not many of them are available in Islamabad.... rather only two I have been able to find. Most people I have seen just want a rose that looks good to them and do not really care what category it is. You people are lucky that so many old garden roses are available to you.

Straw: Yes.... Paul Neyron has strikingly beautiful blooms.

Few clicks in the morning.... one more day and then for 23-24 days I will not be able to post pics of my roses as I would be traveling.

Love the fragrance. I am hopeful by the end of this year it will be a wonderful bush.

Jubilee and Pat are nice together. I like the ruffles on Just Joey. Your foliage improve .. they look normal in those pics, I don't see mildew nor dry & twisted leaves.

If the mildew is from the salt in sulfate of potash, that can be flushed out (potassium is a 3, move down faster than calcium). If the mildew is from excess granular gypsum, then that can be scraped off from the top. Would love to hear about your Europe-travel once you get back !!

Straw: Most of my rose are ok. It is just 8-10 bushes that got infected out of perhaps over 120 bushes. However, less a few roses, most roses don't have good fragrance.

A very interesting point made by you in the other thread regarding Pat Austin leaves that thick leaves didn't get mildew and thin leaves were more prone to mildew. Tomorrow I will try to give a doze of Magnesium Oxide to my roses before I leave. Ah... I will be away from my roses for 22 days....will try to make up by visiting as many rose gardens as I can.

best regards

Great roses! Your Jubilee Celebration is spectacular!! Wowza!!

Carol

Few pics taken today....

First photo taken in full sun and second in shade. Lovely fruity fragrance that is getting stronger with time. Healthy bush..... have started liking this rose.

Love the bush of Bejamin Britten. Though the main flush is over and blooms are few nowadays, there is always at least one bloom on the bush.

This the first bloom on Black Prince cutting that was planted in mid January this year. Roses grow fast in Islamabad. The size of the bloom was pretty decent for a 3 months old cutting. Removed all the buds

Really like the fragrance of JtO. Very nice. Half open bud of Chartreuse de ParmeFragrant Charm used to have lovely fragrance that is just mild nowadays.

Those roses brighten up my day. THANK YOU Khalid !! I have been praying for your safe & fun 22-days-world travel. Would love to see pics. of rose gardens in other countries. My sister traveled to Europe and she was disappointed in their gardens .. she's in California so it's hard to beat.

Roses really brighten up any country when shown on Hulu-travel shows.

Another amazing shot of Chartreuse de Parme!! I love the dark/light shadings on the flower. I think I'm going to love this one!! I'm so glad you showed us this rose.

That's a great shot of Jude. Usually they don't look that full. Lovely!

Sheila's Perfume is a showstopper!!! What color!!

Thank you!

Carol

Thanks Straw and Carol. I am very glad photo my roses made you feel happy. You know I met a lady today (in my bigger family) who felt so sad and disgusting that she didn't have money enough to buy a 600$ dress for an upcoming marriage ceremony (this is a big money for a dress in Pakistan) and could only buy a dress worth 350$ (which again is on expensive side). And she felt so bad about it and cribbed a lot. I mentioned it to her that there are millions in this country who do not earn $350 in whole month and still, many of them live happily........ obviously she was furious on listening to this logic.

Happiness I think is a state of mind which can be temporarily achieved by all humans through certain actions and a correct state of mind. However, true and eternal happiness can only be achieved with the blessings of The Creator. I have no scientific logic to prove this but that is what I believe in. Yet there are people who would carve out unhappiness from anything and everything and the lady I met today was perhaps one of them.

Stay blessed and stay happy

Thank you, Khalid, for your wise words, much appreciated.

Thanks Khalid

It is so nice to see those great roses and find out how new a city Islamabad is. The parks and mountains and rivers to the north are beautiful. I am so thankful for your positive pictures too. Very good work.

Samuel

So true, Khalid! Life is a wonderful gift, and I choose to be happy with the blessings I get from The Creator. Happiness is a choice and a way of being. :)

Carol

Sam, Straw and Carol. Thanks. Before Oslo, spending a few days in Amman Jordan. Visiting the ancient mountain carved ruins of Petra today. Climate seems to be excellent for growing roses, bloom sizes are huge. Will post a few pics.

Khalid this is the best thread ever!!!

Sam

Ooooh!!! You're going to see Petra!!! Lucky you!!! Never been there, but it's such a fascinating place!!

Carol

Yes. Visited Petra, Mount Nebo (where Moses was shown the Promised Land), Baptism Site where Jesus Christ was baptised by John the Baptist and a resort on Dead Sea shore in past 3 days. Wonderful experience. Will share photos

Khalid: I look forward to that !! I'm into Bible history and geology.

I am going to look forward to that too.

How interesting!!!

Carol

My Friday evening treat. Khalid's amazingly beautiful Rose Garden....

so much to look forward to, hope the trip is wonderful Khalid.

thank you for your wisdom.

and about the price tag on the dress, the same happening here as well. with many poor people living on almost nothing and only a few living the "bling"-life.

I agree. Growing ground covers in the rose garden is a great way to cover soil without having to remulch. I had a rose with mint growing around the base. I was worried that the mint would strangle the Rose or at least complete with the Rose for water and nutrients because of mint's mass of surface roots. The Rose always grew well. I did finally remove the mint due to its unruly behavior, growing over paths, small plants and slow moving animals. The mint now lives in a pot.

My garden this morning, showing a bed where I'm using strawberry plants as a ground cover.

Very interesting video by Elaine Ingham posted by Samuel AdkNY. This is the first time that I have been exposed to idea that eating soil is a good thing. She says that the American Medical association in their journal says that we would need to consume at least 4 pounds of soil every year.

Yesterday, the temp in Islamabad suddenly rose to 44*C which is very unusual for this part of the year. My son reports that all roses are ok but I am not sure about the cuttings. I hope they are able to survive this sudden rise in temperature. Today, the temp came back to 33*C which is the normal temp during this part of the year. BTW, at the same time when it was 44*C in Islamabad, I was in Helmenkollen near Oslo where the temperature was around 0*C and it was snowing.

Khalid: Please tell us more about Oslo, Norway ... My Mother-in-law was from Sweden.

44 degree C is 112 F. That's super hot. So glad that your roses are OK. Our temp. in Chicagoland was around 40 F, or 4 C yesterday ... I told my neighbor I want this cold weather to last forever .. she disagreed. Roses make the hot weather more bearable.

I am also 4°C. Too. Next week 10°C at night. I hope Khalid has a picture from Norway too. That's ranked best place to live.

That's way too hot!!! 44C!!!!!

We're having balmy weather here in Calgary - 27C!!!! That's 10 degrees higher than normal!! I'm loving it!! And 8C at night!!

Carol

Love this thread ! beautiful rose pics and fragrance report . now I want crimson glory in my garden .

I'm amazed at the deep colors of Jude, Paul Neyron, Jetrude G., and Liv Tyler.

Khalid: What contribute to your deep and vibrant colors? Wood-ash, or is it a rich river-soil? Do your roses always have vivid colors before the wood-ash application? Thanks for the info.

Straw: Didn't see this thread since long and missed your comment. I think primarily it is the river soil that is the main reason for deep colour. It comes with lots of trace elements which are in the form of fine particles formed due to the crushing of mineral rich rock high up in the glaciers. I have observed that many of my plants, planted in plain river soil, do well for years. My potting mix contain mainly river soil (6 parts) and lots of humus material including home made compost (2 parts), leaf mould (1 part or a little more) and remaining is some chicken manure (may be 1/2 part out of 10), some cottonseed cake etc.

I would conclude that it is mainly river soil along with home made compost that is rich in Potassium, Calcium and trace elements.

best regards

Thank you, Khalid, for that fantastic recipe. Soil websites state that roots NEED oxygen to grow, and your soil mix is loamier than our dense MG-potting soil (mostly peatmoss).