My first rose was Pascali. The purity of its white bloom held me spellbound. I couldn't have been more than 14 years old then. It was a body bag rose from Sears. I can see it in my mind still.

I had an intense love of flowers/plants from the time I was 3-4 years old.

I don't know from where I got my love of plants/gardening. It was not encouraged or nurtured in the least by anyone during my formative years. As a child my immediate family was pretty much indifferent to gardening. All my adventures, or should I say misadventures into the plant world were solo, with no encouragement or support from anyone around me. I believe I was considered unusual by my family and friends. As I matured I realized they were the unusual ones, and I was normal, a bit plant-fanatical, but healthy and normal.

Perhaps my 'lone wolf-edness,' nature and the indifference of those around me then only propelled me forward. My zeal has not waned one bit all throughout my life, especially now, well into my old age.

My first rose was Oklahoma. Quickly followed by Belinda's Dream. Now I have over 130 varieties. They truly are addictive.

My very first rose was Tropicana which I had in my wedding bouquet. I purchased a bush to grow and it died promptly to my lack of care. Lol. Now after getting my kids raised I have the time to concentrate on my roses and it's crazy how much my taste has changed. I'm def into softer shades now and am addicted soooooo badly. I threaten any workers if they step on one or break a cane and tell them I will bury them with the others that have dared harm my roses. Lol. I'm truly crazy!!! Judy

Sentimental in a body bag that I planted for my mom. She was not a gardener. I suppose growing up on a farm and sleeping in the barn to keep the maple syrup stirred while it cooked down on cold nights was enough for her. I'm surprised the rose survived. The smell was so strong and yummy, I was hooked!

I've never heard of The Doctor, it's very pretty. I can see why you fell in love. What memories this is bringing back, thank you Daisy!

My first rose was bought two weeks ago. It was a Shropshire Lad and is now planted in the front garden. He's got tiny little pink buds on him and I'm so excited to see what happens - whether he thrives, how big he gets, how lovely the flowers are. As someone who has never had a garden until now, or ever wanted to garden, it amazes me how passionate I've become in such a short time. In two weeks I've bought:

1 Shropshire Lad

1 Lady Emma Hamilton

1 Scepter'd Isle

3 Alnwick roses

2 Spirit of Freedom

1 Marshmallow Delight

2 honeysuckle plants

2 'bridal wreath' shrubs

1 fern

6 Acanthus

2 Greek mullien

And I've got a list of other roses to buy that is about as long as my arm. I know nothing about roses except that I love them and I found a passion that will likely stay with me for the rest of my life.

Daisy, The Doctor looks like a rose I would like, it's lovely.

The first rose I ever planted was a Brownell Sub Zero rose I ordered from a company named Owen Nursery, called Victory. The pictures I see on HMF of it look pretty. I remember, I thought the blooms were mis-shapen and not what I was expecting at all. Could be it wasn't a suitable rose for my climate, or maybe it was because it was newly planted and still immature. I knew nothing about roses at that time. The first rose I fell in love with was Proud Land. I discovered Jackson and Perkins and ordered it and a few others from them. However, Proud Land stands out because the blooms were so gorgeous and the bush was prolific. I believe that was around 1985, a few years ago!

Kate0012- your garden is going to be beautiful! You picked really great roses. I think everyone wants Marshmallow Delight, but apparently we can't get it here, lucky you! Welcome to the rose addict's club!

Oh, I can only remember buying about a dozen roses as a starter, so it would be these plus a few more..

'Chinatown'..'Silver Jubilee'..'Frensham'..'Just Joey'...'Alec's Red'... 'Perdita'..'Heritage'.. 'Lavender Lassie'... 'Maiden's Blush'... 'R. Rugosa'... etc...

...numerically, things haven't changed too much... never heard of 'The Doctor' though, a new one on me after all this time Daisy...

My mother had a brief bed of hybrid tea body bag roses in our back yard growing up, but the Michigan winters pretty much trashed them and I never remember noticing any of them for long. That's not where my rose love came from, though both of my parents gardened. I get vegetable knowledge from my father and annuals knowledge from my mother, but roses are MINE, with knowledge gained from the school of hard knocks and GardenWeb of course.

My first two roses I bought to fill in some height in my previous house's gardem, and I put them in on a landscaper's recommendation. If Hansa had been the only rose I planted, I probably wouldn't have 1000 roses now. It was a mangy blackspotted winter tender two-cane wonder with maybe 5 scruffy blooms over 3 years. Fortunately, the other was Champlain and it sat putting out those red semidouble flowers all summer. That was my 'aha' that roses aren't that hard to grow, and from then on I was getting hooked.

Interesting that you had Tropicana in your wedding bouquet, Pretty Petals! You must have had bold colors in your wedding because that one certainly makes a statement! I remember having the rose Champagne in my bouquet, so it made me happy to find it for sale this year and I'll be trying to grow it (though it probably won't like our winters). I love roses with a sense of personal history.

Lynette, we are all grateful to Tiffany for getting you hooked on roses, since you have such exquisite taste and breadth in growing them that benefits us all! Gorgeous pictures too.

Cynthia

I cannot positively remember my very first rose purchase but I'm thinking it was a Mr Lincoln which my husband may have actually purchased. He loved the red and I, not so much so it was replaced with hundreds of pinks, creams, peach, and purples as the years have gone on. I went knockout crazy at one time and had well over 150 of just those. I think I may now have around 30 left. It's still hard to beat them for their almost continuous blooming which is why I still have a few left to have color when the others are in between. But I'm sure even they will go when I tire of adding or enlarging beds. It's truly amazing and crazy how roses are so addictive. Great thread Daisy! Fun remembering the beginning of the craziness!

April

I was 13 years old, and planted a Paul's Scarlet climber because my dad wanted a "red rose". I planted it for him the day before Father's Day. I had grown up with my hands in the dirt, but that was the beginning of my lifelong affair with roses. That was...ahem...46 years ago.

John

My first rose were some KOs just to add colors to my new home. They didn't trigger my craziness for roses at all until they got infected with RRD. I went online to read about it and stumble over this forum. I bet you all can guess what happen after that. Getting on gardenweb is a must every day now. I've enjoyed old and new posts from everyone of you. Thank you very much for all the info and pictures you have shared. I am very happy with the roses I got in the last two years. I cannot say the same thing with my husband. He has been very sweet to me but I think I am reaching his limit this past few days. He has been trying to make more garden space for my 25 coming roses ( I haven't visit the local nurseries yet) and he...didn't seems to be too happy. I will try to make my rose garden look so good so that my husband will forget all the hard works and money he had to pour in. I also made a promise to myself I have to stop after this spring. I have more than 200 rose to take care now. It should be enough. Please help me to keep my words.

I think the first rose I got was probably Gertrude Jekyll at the local nurseries , I was so obsessed with David Asutin roses after that ... that I had to have any DA I come across. The first big order I did on line was with Pickering nurseries, sadlly closed now\out of business , I got mostly DAs and HT ,out of the 12 or so roses I got on line less than half survived this was about five years ago....I'm still obsessed with DA's but something happened last year I found kordes roses at Palatine and than I had a thing\obsession with red roses no idea where it come from ...this year I have placed an order with Hortico and have realized most of them are RED DA's... my taste keeps changing

I wish I remembered the name of the first rose I grew. I remembered it was apricot coloured and it was beautiful. Unfortunately I kept adding fertilizer and peat moss during the hot weather and needlessly to say it died quickly.

My Mother, who passed away in 1974, loved Tropicana. I gave her whole bed of them for her birthday one year - it was a rectangular bed and was really beautiful. Even wrote some corny poem to go with them, she was duly impressed. I became interested in all plants while she was ill, 2 years before she died. I took care of all her house plants and hanging baskets and got hooked. Still have my first plant book that I bought at a horse show in San Antonio. Interest in plants started to nearly equal my horse mania. After Mother died, I started a rose bed at our farm - edging was creosote rail road ties. I didn't know to prepare the soil well and fought Bermuda grass that was impossible to control [this was before roundup!] I ordered 6 from Jackson Perkins - the only 2 I recall were Smoky and Pristine. The addiction has grown over the years - this passion will be with me for the rest of my life; I never get bored with it and am never too tired to work in my gardens. I will always grow the token Tropicana in memory of my Mother.

Judtih

My first rose was Crimson Glory, a gift from a long time ago boyfriend. Guys I dated soon found out I loved roses to plant, not to put in water.

daisy, The Vintage Garden Book of Roses (2006), p. 214 had this to say about the breeder of 'The Doctor':

"From the 1920s through the 1950s Fred Howard of southern California produced some of the most beautifully colored HTs..."

Howard's HTs, having been bred in Sothern California, ought to grow very well in Crete. Maybe Beales will resurrect more of them.

I don't actually remember what my first rose purchase was, but I think it was between, Mr. Lincoln and Knockout. After that I ordered alot from J&P and then got into Austins, and last but certainly not least I found true love in the OGR, with Hybrid China's being my favorite. I come from a gardening family, my dad was a farmer, but as far as when my first interest began in roses, I cannot recall it just happened, and I'm so glad it did.

Thanh Kieu - you express lovely sentiments and you have a gracious and supportive husband! Welcome to this group of crazy rose nuts who check GW roses daily (or get antsy if we don't). I'm afraid we're not the best ones to advise you on how to stop when you have "enough" roses, since few of us ever feel like we have enough. All we can take care of, maybe, but never enough!

You might make a compromise on the roses like I did in my yard, that I promised my husband that I would create no new garden beds and work with the ones I have. I still buy and plant a lot of roses each year to replace the ones that die (and I admit, pack them in tighter in the existing beds), but so far in about 3 years I've kept that promise. He might be more tolerant of your rose habit too if most of the rose planting came from you and he doesn't have to do much more than my husband does, which is shake his head in amazement at the rose boxes arriving, and remark "the flowers sure look pretty" on occasions when they're impressive enough for him to notice.

Oh, and adding (ahem, REPLACING) roses doesn't necessarily have to cost much if you get the hang of rooting cuttings of other people's roses. If you find other people locally who grow roses, you can trade cuttings and have new roses for no more expense than the seed starting mix you grow them in (which is practically nothing, compared to roses, eh?)

But I should stop, because I'm clearly a cautionary tale as far as numbers of roses go and I'm not helping you keep to your resolve any more!

Cynthia

Thanks Cynthia, I do feel a bit guilty after I kinda told my husband more than twice last year 'that would be it'. But I couldn't help drooling over all the beautiful rose photos. Five years ago we spend thousands to landscape our house. I already make him dug all the bushes out for rose. I have pack them tight enough that I couldn't stick anything else in there anymore. Now looking at all the beds are in progress I feel exciting and guilty at the same time. I know he won't want to dig anymore of his beautiful grass. I will try very hard to follow your step. But oh God, why is my heart aching...

What wonderful first rose stories. So vivid. I feel as though I am there with you in the past. Please keep them coming.

Kate and Jennifer, I have to confess to feeling some envy. To be young and just starting on this wonderful passion, with all those new discoveries before you. It makes me a little wishful.

Jennifer, be careful not to dig out all of your previous plantings. Enjoy discovering the roses a few each year. Remember that the best rose gardens always have plenty of companion plantings with them. Those rose gardens with nothing else in them, always begin to pall after a while, no matter how beautiful the roses are. Try googling Mottisfort Abbey Rose garden and Sissinghurst Castle Rose Garden to see some examples.

By the way, it may be naughty of me to point it out, but do you notice, that most of the best rose gardens do not have lawns?

Daisy

Daisy, you are right about the companion plantings. I am redoing some beds and am working on a rock walkway now, and plant to put in a few small clipped boxwoods, perhaps some giant lirope, blue salvia farinacea that comes back yearly and ??? Have had good luck edging the beds with daylilies and annuals in between the daylilies. What keeps this hobby/addiction so fresh over the years is the opportunity for creativity!

Daisy, thank you for your advice.

Alameda, please post some pictures of your garden.

I am learning from all of you.

Three lovely looking plants of The Doctor have just arrived!!! There is also a La France and an Augusta Luise. I am so looking forward to seeing them bloom.

I just hope that they can take the hot sun without frying.

Daisy

My grandmother, then my mother had a rose that I now know was called Glorie des Rosomanes. They didn't know the name of it and just called it, "the wild rose" This was also my first rose that I grew from a cutting of theirs. Its from 1825 but apparently it had been also used as a rootstock for awhile in California and some Western states.

After I moved from the West Coast I went without it for many years. One of the reasons I joined the roses forums was because I was searching for the name of that rose! I eventually identified it and got it back again last year. Its a baby in a 3 gallon but already with some 5 ft canes. I'm so glad it likes the humidity here. Its so silly but when I finally got that rose into my yard again, I felt like a little piece of my life had fallen into place.

Daisy, I envy your Augusta Luise! I wish that was available here. I'm sure your Doctor roses will be lovely in your garden paradise :)

~Sjn

I went to visit my neighbor a couple of years ago and she had a tall rose bush full of huge red fragrant blooms , I was hooked on rose growing. Found out later it was Mr.Lincon . one of my first Fortuniana roses that I planted in my garden . I still admire my Neighbor's plant .

When I tell my husband that this is the last rose order he just rolls his eues. He knows that I am a big fat fibber.

It was his fault really, he bought me my first rose for Valentine's day, Ingrid Bergman.

Then I started working at Jackson and Perkins and I was surrounded by roses and rose lovers.

I moved 3 years ago and left all of my roses behind which were all HT. That gave me a chance to start all over again, and yes, we have Ingrid Bergman, 2 actually . But now with lots more David Austins.

I think with my spring order I will be over 50 roses. My friends and family just shake their heads and wonder why.

I love this thread!!! I can't remember what my first rose was...I ordered a bunch at a time. But I do remember that they were hardy roses, because I lived in zone 2. I'm so glad that I grow only hybrid teas now...they are sooooo much more rewarding!!!

Carol

The first rose I remember is in my parent's garden in England. My mother had planted three or so Queen Elizabeth's in a bed in the middle of the small front garden. What I remember mostly about them is their bare canes sticking up. I didn't care for them. Though I do remember a teacher commenting on their beauty at the end of the school year, when my mother had very generously let me strip her bushes for the head mistress's end of year bouquet. The back garden was quite different, wavy beds around lawns - a Laburnum that I loved, peonies, iris, a flowering plum, and down the bottom, raspberries, strawberries and rhubarb etc.

I think it was Trevor Nottle's book, 'Growing old-fashioned roses in Australia and New Zealand', that I stumbled upon, that got me into roses. I hadn't realised till then that they could be beautiful shrubs. Souvenir de La Malmaison, Crepescule, Duchesse de Brabant, Mrs Dudley Cross, G. Nabonnand and Francis Dubreuil arrived shortly after, and I was hooked. Like others, it's a life-long addiction!

Lifelong love here too. I grew HT roses as a child in Minnesota that I mailordered from J & P. They included Peace, Tropicana and Mr. Lincoln. I guess I went the opposite direction of Carol when I moved into hardy roses later in Alaska. Now still later, life comes full circle when I moved here to rose heaven and I can grow everything. Now it is Tea roses and OGRs that drive me wild. I'm planting all the roses I read about and dreamed about all those years.

Sheila - that's quite the rose journey! What is it you like about Tea roses? I've never even seen a real tea rose...and I'm not sure what they look like - just more willowy?

Carol

Basically, Carol, it was Ingrid's photos. I had never really tuned in to Teas when I lived cold. What was the point? I first tuned in to OGR's in general in my reading over the years even though it was too cold at my location in Alaska for them too. Somehow, when I moved to warm, late 2014, I started to tune in more to the possibilities here. What appealed to me was the billowy, romantic look Tea roses have. The property I bought was also a factor. It is almost 5 acres, and larger plants are more in scale with the property, and look more natural. Somehow the wild, rustic type of garden seemed to go with an Italian villa. We are the same latitude as Italy. Jeri, Melissa, Bart, Daisy, Nik, Trish etc all provided inspiration. Tea roses also are own root here and could survive 100 years. They are also drought tolerant once established. The Antique Rose Forum has so many wonderful photos. I still have never seen a mature Tea rose, since I did this learning on line here, and many people even in this area are into more common types. I basically don't know any Tea roses growers except on the Antique Rose Forum. Somehow, I just fell in love with them, even though I didn't "know" them. I think they are even better than I expected. My rose books (except Australian Tea Ladies) usually gave short shrift to Teas, since they weren't climate appropriate in England. I am so enjoying them!

If you ever move warm, Carol, the same thing might happen to you.

I love Teas and Noisettes. I have collected quite a few the last few years. They are doing well here. What I like about teas and old roses in general, are they are nematode resistant here in the south and don't need a lot of babying once established. They get huge so my greedy chickens can't gobble up the blooms lol. The blooms are nodding and romantic. You can grow them up a trellis or tea and they nod and look down on you.

Hybrid tea climbers or huge shrubs, while nice, don't really nod. The flowers are upright so if they are climbers etc. you have to espalier or maneuver the canes so you can still see the face of the flowers.

I do love them all though, just for different reasons.

-To see some really gorgeous tea roses, google: Maman Cochet, White Maman Cochet, or Niles Cochet. I have a few of these but they are still babies.

Devoniesis Cl -a tea rose climbing up a trellis way above my head.

Marechal Niel -a noisette climber

Sheila - you did a great job of describing tea roses!

Sultry - so did you...I googled White Maman Cochet - yes!! Awesome! And I especially love the look of your last rose - lovely!

Thanks you two, :)

Carol

Wow, sultry! I love the Noisettes and ramblers too. I have Marechal Niel too from RPs that just got here. They have the billowy romantic look I am after. They seem to do well here. I didn't realize these were nematode resistant too. How great is that!

Daisy, I'm so glad you got your The Doctor roses. May they bring many happy memories to mind. Of course we want photos next Spring. Please DON'T show us Augusta Louise pix...we're already jealous on this side of the Atlantic, lol.

John

Love this thread!

I fell in love with roses as a child living in Portland, Oregon. We visited the famous International Rose Test Garden there all throughout my childhood. My parents not only didn't garden, they rarely even went outside! Our houses always had bleak landscapes that had a few rhododendrons and swaths of "barkdust". yuck!

I purchased my first rose on a whim when I was 23 years old at a Target in the Bay Area in California. It was Iceberg...of course :) The ubiquitous rose of California. I kept it in a pot on a deck in semi shade and expected it to die within a few months. That was my opinion of roses: beautiful but temperamental.

Imagine my surprise when it not only lived, it thrived! After that my best friend and I became hooked and started reading the Heirloom Roses catalogue obsessively and dreaming about the old fashioned roses we would plant when we finally had houses of our own.

One funny thing that happened during this time is that she lived in a house that had a HUGE very old climbing Cecile Brunner growing next door. The rose used to grow up and over the fence, through a tree, and over the path to her front door. We loved that rose and used to cut bouquets all the time for dinner parties we would have (we were cooking school students). One day I got a frantic call from her. She was crying as she told me the rose had been cut down! The owners of the house got tired of it and cut it down to 3 feet tall!

You've never in your life seen two 23 year old women so bereft over the loss of a rose :) I actually found a Hallmark sympathy card that had a drawing of a small pink rose and I gave it to her with heartfelt messages written inside.

Fast forward 20 years and I still love Iceberg. I planted 6 of them in the "White Bed" in my new rose garden. I know there may be better, more interesting roses out there...but it will always be a special rose to me.

That...and Cecile Brunner :))

What a wonderful story that you found a friend who shared your passion! What a gift!! I can imagine the 2 of you looking at rose catalogues and dreaming. :)

Carol

Roselady, what a wonderful story. I can just see you and your friend upset at the loss of Cecile Brunner. I would have felt the same.

I too love Iceberg. It never lets you down.

John, I will take loads of photos as soon as The Doctor begins blooming. Just ignore the fact that I now also have the beautiful Augusta Luise!

sjn, those are lovely photos of Marechal Niel and Devoniensis. Mine are also blooming now, in spite of the fact that they have been in shade since October and won't see the sun again until late March. I am glad you found your Gloire des Rosomanes.

Kristine, tell your husband to be glad that he bought you a rose, to start your passion and not a piece of gold jewellery. Think of all the money you have saved!

Titian, Your description of your parents English garden is making me a little homesick. But then I do love living here, as I expect you love living in your home.

pink rose. I agree, Mr Lincoln does have a glorious perfume. Love it.

Sheila, you won't have to wait for long to have BIG TEA ROSES. They grow quickly after the first three years.

Daisy

What a cool story roselady. My grandfather had a lovely rose garden that he used to pique my interest

But, I think it was working for J&P that really did it. At the end of bare root season all of the employees got all bundle of a dozen roses and and huge nag of bulbs. Aww, the good old days.

Daisy, I had a good laugh over your remark about saving money getting a rose instead of gold. My husband knows he has created a monster with a very expensive obsession. But at least my obsession is good excerise and brings beauty, but it can be spendy can't it.

I think it was 1995 when I bought my first rose, Graham Thomas. I planted him in a shady corner, LOL. He lasted that one summer. Then it was Peace because I loved the colors. It was in a body bag. I got two blooms. Of course both died the first year. That didn't stop me though. I went on the next summer to plant a few more, then I got the internet and found Garden Web. That was a few hundred roses ago!! I have moved 3 times and bought a few of the roses with me. I live in zone 5 in Nova Scotia close to the water but I have found many, many gorgeous roses that love my conditions and thrive with no winter protection. It can be done.

I love hearing/reading about your first experiences with roses.

Valerie

I have been re-reading all of your first rose, love affairs. They are all so good!

I am sure there are more stories out there. Please share them.

I planted the one that started it all in the autumn. The Doctor has not yet put on much growth, but has produced the first flower. It looks quite comical as it's bloom is bigger than the plant. I know I should disbud it to make it grow, but I don't have the heart to do it.

Daisy

What an enjoyable thread to read! That's a lovely rose, Daisy. It must feel like coming back full circle.

I bought my first roses when I lived in Texas some 20 years ago. Those were our spring field trips to see valleys after valleys covered with Bluebonnets, like magnificent blue carpets, that unexpectedly brought me to the Antique Rose Emporium and their lush rose garden. As ours was a townhouse with a very smallish front yard at that time, I was looking for roses suitable for pots and, knowing that I could grow only a couple of them, wanted to have a special rose with an interesting history. There are, of course, many such choices and I decided on 'Souvenir de la Malmaison'. I was also intrigued by a single-petaled 'Mrs. Oakley Fisher', an early HT with beautiful apricot pastel color, and it soon followed SdlM, also bought on one of the trips to ARE. I thought it was hugely challenging to grow roses in pots, which in a way it was for this novice, and still remember studying Peter Beales' instructions in his 'Classic Roses' on how to plant them. Each was planted in a large vase-shaped pot gracing both sides of the entrance door.

These two charming roses taught me quite a few things in life, how to be patient, how to adjust our plans in life to the circumstances beyond our control ... and it was an incident with SdlM that turned me into an organic lifestyle. At the first site of blackspot, I bought a chemical fungicide at a big-box store and carelessly, without gloves (!), tried to concoct it. An accidental drop on my hand caused such a huge burning sensation that I wondered how it would feel on this delicate rose. So, I tossed it, went back to Peter Beales' book instructions, and made a gentle homemade spray instead. This also made me rethink my own lifestyle, nutrition et al., for which I will always be grateful.

Still remember these two roses welcoming me and everyone else at the front door year after year. Beautiful memories...

Well, I never had a garden living in high rise building in Singapore. Everything was bought weekly like roses, carnations, chrysanthemums and so forth.

Although, my dad had amaryllis growing in a few pots. That's it.

When, I bought this house. I bought a number of roses like JFK, Miss All American, petunias, Coretta King Scott, knockout roses, lilies. Most died esp roses. Then I bought more and more..they stay for a season or 2 then died.

I got into roses because I was googling more about roses. I have never order on line only bought it from local stores.

It was a few of you encourage me to get and not to give up. Bec, every one been so supportive. Just from trial and error. A little knowledge goes a long way. My first purchase was from ARE for black Friday .I was so worried since it is is own roots and fortuniana was highly recommend. Talking to master garderners of Dept of Agriculture that assured me Antiques Rose's can grow in my soil . They show me data, researches from various universities herenin FL besides theybinly come in own roots.

One of my roses died. ARE was nice to send me another one for $5. They said it is dormant and it came from 2 feet of snow to 78 degrees here. Might be in a shocked. ARE send me another in 2- 3 weeks time. Been so busy in my backyard that I totally forgot about the dead rose..le Vesuve.

After some time, I decided to throw away the pot when I notice a small shoot. It was a baby le Vesuve growing next to a dead rose from roots. I Was Shocked. Like no way..omg.

Jasmin, I just read your thread and I agree with you 100%. I prefer old teas Bec of it..it can grow in any soil and Bec of it hardiness . It can survive in normetoes soil. And can grow from roots. So, now if I have to get HT it is only on fortuniana rootstock.

I am very, very happy with my roses but I do fear bec it is not mature and still young. But I do know it will make it this year and next.

This is my le Vesuve. In the pot was the one that died but regrow back. The ground was a replacement it has bloom twice already. So, it is 3rd bloom coming soon. The ground is wet from rain .

Jin

It was about 30 years ago that I purchased a rose for the first time. My parents had moved into a new house, and the yard was pretty bare. I was on break from school and my father told me to "plant some things." I planted a path border of Hidcote lavender, some post-holiday Easter lilies, a phormium, and Cottage Rose. On subsequent visits I saw that rose grow and bloom. I was not impressed. The flowers were quite small, and they were not fragrant at all. a few years later, my parents moved again, and I forgot any interest in growing roses.

It was 20 years later, in my first house, where I purchases the first rose for myself. That rose was Madame Isaac Perierre, based on its being called the most fragrant rose in existence. This was also a disappointment since the highly anticipated flowers fried within hours of appearing against the hot western wall where it was planted. Trying again in another area of the garden, another MIP just up and died. Fair Bianca was planted and is remembered as The Roses That Wouldn't Grow. It's a bit of surprise that I have so many roses now, when my beginnings were such disappointments.

What cool stories.

My husband and I bought a home in Eugene Or with stunning landscape and a dedicated rose garden. The former owner took the time to tell me all about the roses and how to water and care for them. The only one I remember was a gorgeous Peace rose. I am not sure how or why but they all ended up dead. I always felt so bad that I killed her roses.

30 years later in a diferrent home , My husband bought me an Ingrid Bergman for Valentine's Day, I think I got lucky and put it in the right location because it always did really well for us. So well that when we moved to our new home that was the 1st rose that we wanted to replace.