Still looking fab Ingrid!

I'm always impressed with your garden considering the heat there.

Steven

Thanks, Steven. I give all the credit to drip watering, since I'm noting a marked improvement over summers when I didn't have it.

Lisa, I wanted Annie Laurie really badly but have to admit that so far it's not a rose that really blows me away. The flowers are rather small and not very striking (apologies to Kim) although I like that it's a thornless rose. Of course it may improve after it grows larger.

I had to look up Lady Ashe, and some of the pictures are stunning, but I think I prefer this rose without the apricot tint. It's nice to have a choice, though. I hope yours perks up soon. My Rhodologue Jules Gravereaux by now had almost completely black canes in spite of a shade cloth on it, but now I see three green shoots coming out from the very bottom. This is absolutely the last time that I'll plant anything in late spring, and I have my doubts about this one surviving. I thought a 2-gallon plant from ARE would be tougher but my sun is tougher yet.

I'm sorry about your Carding Mill but if it doesn't make it La France would make a worthy substitute. Burling's is the real thing since she got hers from Vintage. I think RoundUp should be banned, I hate all these poisons.

I hope your RJG will be fine with new canes coming now, Ingrid. Once you prune off the bad portions, hopefully the plant can look forward. I just love these pictures. I see Lisa has joined the Ingrid garden groupie list I'm already on among many others I'm sure. I am hoping to imitate the reblooming iris too. I haven't been watering mine, partially because I thought they liked dry, but they don't rebloom here without water. I had a glitch with our water system we are straightening out. I guess it is always something and I need to get the iris online. Your Faun is lovely. I bet you might fall into ALM love over time. My two were tiny and the smallest one seems to be doing the best now oddly. The larger one might have had more than one cutting in the pot from Burling. I didn't try to separate the cuttings for fear of killing them. That larger one might have had a die off of the extra cutting(s) and is starting to grow. Still slow here in the ground. I'm hoping as the plant has charm in spades.

Sheila, you're too funny and have me blushing, but thank you for the kind words. As for the irises, mine are on drip just like the roses and they're blooming more than they ever have. In a drier climate they shut down without water and really perk up and begin to bloom when they get enough.

I think you're right about my ALM needing more time to develop before I can make a valid judgment. That's even more true with climbers, but just having some buds and blooms to look at is a thrill after all this time. Mine is also from Burling and I remember her making a remark about my band being rather small. It is the first and only rose that I ever grew on in a pot just to give it a better chance, but perhaps I should have potted it up rather than putting it in the ground after a year. The Mme. Franziska Krueger that I received a while ago from ARE is in its original pot and is not only putting on new growth but has two buds! Pretty exciting!

Love your photos and I am so glad that you didn't give up on your roses. Water really is essential, much as we tout heritage roses being drought-tolerant. The thing is, California has NO rainfall for six months or more and that's really brutal on most plants. We also don't have any luck planting in Sacramento in late spring - if it's not in the ground by February, it's really too late. March at the latest here.

I'd like to see you and your camera in Vancouver some day or anyplace full of flowers. Holland Michigan is on my list for flower photography.

My plantings are in more of a lull than yours so your 'fib' is forgiven. ;) Annie Laurie McDowell blooms (and cane actually) are nice even if the rose was a slow starter. Hope you enjoy them more and more. Those stout little buds on Aloha are rather charming. The unopened colors look like just this side of terra cotta and salmon. A vertical reach from the cypress trees reminds me of a Greek neighbor who used to have a row like that against their back fence. Seeing cypresses lift into the sky anchored the place.

Justin

Anita, having lived in Sacramento I know just what you mean. Inland California can be brutal and, you're so right, without water we're basically looking at a desert. I don't think your conditions are that dissimilar from mine, although you probably have more winter rain.

kitty, I've lived near Victoria and of course visited Butchart Gardens, and later also lived in Vancouver, but I didn't have a garden then and the antique rose passion didn't strike me until later, but I would love to visit some day, cameras at the ready.

Justin, thankfully that row of cypresses was already there when we moved in and helps to shade the sunny side of a small house on our property that we basically just use for storage. To me they're a very desirable accent in a Mediterranean setting to offset the many shorter bushy things that otherwise grow there. You said it well, with their tall stately magnificence, they do anchor a garden. I would plant more near the house except that they go up like Roman candles in a wildfire.

Oh thanks for reminding me about Butchart Gardens! I'd forgotten the name of the place, but sure remember how beautiful it was. We didn't have nearly enough time there,(according to me, my family thought it was plenty). The place was beautiful beyond words. Lisa