They are all lovely, even though you were away. I've had September Morn on my wish list for years. Can you tell me a bit about it, like size and bloom frequency? Thanks, Lisa

Lovely! Isn't it amazing how they survive just fine without our interference, lol!

That's too true. Sometimes I think my garden looks better when I haven't been fiddling with it too much.

Lisa, I've had September Morn for four years now, on its own roots. It's been a slow grower, but is now about four feet tall. It only really took off this year, when it needed to compete with another plant for sunlight. It blooms throughout the year for me, but is never a really heavy bloomer. If I hit the flowers with overhead water, they are sure to ball.

The plant itself is kind of awkward, but the flowers make up for it. I find them hard to photograph well--they are fat and decadent in an old school way, but they look better when you see them in person.

If I had left for most of July, I'd probably be coming home to a dead as a door nail garden. I'm guessing you had some rain while you were gone or another source of water since you have some pretty blooms and green-looking leaves.

I was fortunate in that it stayed pretty cool here, and I was home mid-month to turn on the soaker hoses. But I did have some casualties. Arrillaga and Marie d'Orleans died, and Madame Grégoire Staechelin and Heart's Desire are on life support.

Here's one picture I forgot to post--Buff Beauty looking almost orange this morning:

I have Al Barbier and La Perle and here Al is a lot more double and full flowered than La Perle. Don't have FF.

I have La Perle and Francois Foucard, but not Alberic Barbier. We're like a venn diagram with nothing in the middle. La Perle hasn't flowered for me yet, so I can't compare. Francois does repeat more than any other rambler I have, but that's a pretty limited comparison group.

Comtesse, I bought Bomarea hirtella from a large nursery around here (Annie's Annuals), so I think it was selected for doing well in our climate. I don't give it any special waterings, and it seems to do well with its weekly soaker hose wetting. It also survived for the several weeks this July without any water. I tried another Bomarea from a specialty nursery (Bomarea acutifolia), and it died pretty quickly, probably because it needed more water than I could give it.

And I agree, my experience is that Buff Beauty is more orange when it's cool. It's actually been cool here over the past week, while the rest of the western US is boiling. I was at a SF Giants baseball game last night, and I needed to wear a sweatshirt and a heavy coat.

Here are a couple pictures of Soleil d'Or. The bud last week:

Amazing, isn't it rbehs?

A couple more pictures from this morning.