I hope you had a chance to visit the two Idea Gardens at the back of the rose nursery - they are superb!! I was there Oct. 16 and of course came home with a bunch of roses. What did you buy at Chamblees?

How exciting to visit chamblees!! It's a dream of mine ( well to see any rose garden really! ) it would be so fun and I hope you took home some wonderful roses!

I visited petals from the past a few years ago and it was heavenly. My poor husband was a trooper that day!

Oh no, Alemeda, what is this about an Idea Garden?! What sort of ideas? I went there 45 minutes before the nursery closes, and honestly was rushing around like a mad person trying to get pictures, smell the blooms for fragrance, make it through all the greenhouses and loading up my carts (yes, that's plural) with plants. I must go back!

Do you live near Tyler? Lucky you! (Actually, I'm less than 2 hours away, so lucky me, too.) I passed by the offices of David Austin and Certified Roses...would there have been anything to see there? Are the growing fields viewable? How about other nurseries? Sorry, so many questions for you!

Lilyfinch,

I totally agree...visiting a rose grower that you've only seen online is a dream come true. Major props to you husband, I'm sure we would totally wear down a non rose fanatic at such places! I'm rather glad I went by myself ...four hours of driving, four hours at the Tyler rose garden followed by a frenzied visit to Chamblees, a whole day of nothing but roses (other than a quick break for lunch, only because sustenance is needed for viewing more roses)...I do think I would have lost any accompanying friend to my addiction.

First, let’s look at Chamblees Nursery. They have a nice little pamphlet you can take home:

But who needs a pamphlet when you can look, smell, and buy the real thing?

Since everyone likes a good sale, we will look at the ‘For Sale’ section at Chamblees. A plain sign shows the simple pricing scheme, $2.50 for an orange tagged roses, $5.00 for red.

What can you buy these days for a few bucks? Three full gorgeous greenhouses full of healthy plants, including Kordes, OGRs, and rare specialty varieties:

I bought the following:

Mme Anisette $5 for a 5 gal plant

Summer Romance $5 for a 5 gal plant (not in bloom, but huge, healthy, well branched).

Aloha (Boerner) $5 for a 3 gal plant (wonderful old rose scented)

Tupelo Honey $5 for a 5 gal plant. (Does indeed smell strongly of honey!)

Among many others, they had Kordes’ Earth Angel, Summer Sun and Winter Sun in 5gal for $5 section. I wish I could take them all home!

Here’s a size comparison after I took them home:

$38 dollar mail order rose in front in the big pot (bought somewhere else!) , a $5 Chamblee’s rose in back, lol!

I also bought the following:

Delightful Phyllis, 1 gal for $2.50: How have I never heard of her? Beautiful reddish pink and apricot in the center, light yellow petals tipped in pink. Nice fragrance, rose and citrus. Full petalled, quartered form, loaded with buds and healthy. Delightful indeed!

Kosmos, 1gal for 2.50: A Kordes Fairy Tail selection, white with apricot center, lush full petals:

Here’s Soul Sister (regular priced, 1 gal for $11.95):

This little trio looks good together already, don’t they?

I also picked up Beverly, Savannah, and Poseidon, more on those later...

They have supplements too, giant bags of Osmocote, Alfalfa, this fertilizer/root/ growth stimulant from Carl Pool that I’d never seen before:

After you buy everything, they carefully load them all up and you just drive away. Such awesome roses , such great prices, I quickly made my getaway, afraid they might change their mind. I feel like I robbed a bank, LOL!

Now lets take a look at their regular retail greenhouses:

Poseidon, looking fabulous, large blooms , great fragrance. A true lavender/blue like Sterling Silver or Blue Girl. One of these jumped into my cart, too.

Plum Perfect, also beautiful, but only slight scent, blooming profusely in 1 gal.

Pink Enchantment - it’s big , beautiful, and fantastically fragrant. Should have bought one, darn!

Dick Clark

Nursery shot, such healthy plants

Soul Sister (vibrant rich apricot)

Wedding Bells, stunning rose, great substance (how did I leave without one? Must go back and retrieve).

A section for Earth Kind roses:

Gypsy Soul - complex deep red color

Fiji

Love Song

Savannah - small plants, but very healthy

Pink Don Juan...only available at Chamblee’s so far as I know. Sort of hot pink like Miss AAB, nice scent. (Alas, this one, like Lady Ashe, also lost Fragrant Pink Climber battle to get into my trunk, to the insidiously fragrant Aloha).

Poseidon again...lush, big , fragrant, irresistible. Danger! Will jump into your shopping cart!

Ruby Ice

South Africa (unique amber color...very nice)

Lush beautiful plants of Lady Ashe, loaded with buds. I had the hardest time choosing between Lady Ashe and her parent Aloha. (A rosy version of Sophie’s Choice!) Finally decided on Aloha because it was blooming and the fabulous scent was screaming ‘buy me already!’

Apricot Drift

Lemon Fizz

Old Blush

Koko Loco

Ben you’re making some fun rose trip across the US this year! Thank you so much for taking us along. :-)

Ben, you made me want to get in the truck and head to Tyler again! And I haven't planted what I bought last time! You are going to want to go back after reading this post......The 2 idea gardens are at the Tyler Municipal Rose Garden - they are up on top of the hill looking down on the rose gardens in the corners - they are superb examples of what can grow in our Texas heat. I have a bunch of photos but not sure how to load from my phone onto the computer - if I figure out how, I will post some. They are well worth the time to go back and see! Take a picnic and sit under the pines - and the gorgeous ginko tree should be in its glorious fall colors now.

Harris Nursery is right down the road from Chamblees - they have a great selection of pumpkins, fall décor, wreaths and lighted Christmas yard decorations in addition to fall color - pansies, etc. and potted roses. Not like Chamblees of course but I generally find a couple I need. My last visit also netted me a tiny calico kitten that one of the staff rescued from behind the greenhouses - her feral mother couldn't find her, Cindy was bottle feeding her and was looking for a home. Sucker that I am, I took her. Named her Boo as got her close to Halloween and already have a calico named Trick or Treat. She is in a kennel in the house, cute as can be - will be an outside cat one day.

Breedlove Nursery is on Hwy. 64 and is a big gorgeous nursery with a neat gift shop and they carry David Austin roses. Going further down 64 is D. Austin roses on the left, but nothing there to see. They have the roses in cold storage, no gardens or potted sales. I impatiently wait for their catalog to come out and stop by to get it [which should be soon!]. I also order my roses and pick them up there to save on shipping. Just a bit further on the right is Hand Nursery - one of my favorites. Beautifully appointed, they have the best selection of annuals - gorgeous pansies in an array of colors and I always make the trip to buy my pansies here, and reasonable prices. Beautiful pots, stoneware and a gift shop. A must on my Tyler garden tour!

Finally....go out Hwy. 64, cross Toll Rd. 49 and go about a mile, turn left going to Edom [a cute town with a great restaurant, The Shed] and you will see Blue Moon Gardens on your left. Just a fantastic place - idea gardens, super gift shop in an old house, lots of great plants - cant say enough about this place, they have a website, look it up. Then, if we go back thru Tyler to go home to Lufkin, we eat at Mercado's Mexican Restaurant. I love to do this tour at least once a month, tho I find I cannot do it all in one day. I want to make one more trip before weather gets too cold to Chamblees - I tell myself I need to stock up on roses to plan for the winter! You might want to hang onto your catalog - Mark C. told me this will be the last catalog they will print. Your photos were gorgeous and certainly whetted my appetite to go back, even tho I don't need any more. Love to see what is in the sale bin! I have scored some really super roses there! Hope you get to go back soon!

Judith

Cori Ann,

Thank YOU for the gorgeous pics of Mme Anisette, Summer Romance and others. I don’t think I would have known that I needed these varieties otherwise. You are the Chief Kordes Enabler of Houzz, lol.

Judith,

WOW, there’s so much more, thank you. I’d love a cat myself, but travel too much for work. Will definitely need to go back...I was looking for a good Mexican restaurant while I was there, too. I passed Breedlove and really wanted to visit. There’s always next time!

Wow! Thanks for the wonderful tour Ben! I got that DELIGHTFUL PHYLLIS rose a couple of yrs ago from them. She's still small, but the blooms she gave me so far are just lovely! And I can't wait for my SOUL SISTER to look that good!!

That PINK DON JUAN CL comes from Certified Roses, also in Tyler. I've had mine for well over 10yrs. Had one on either side of my front arbor, but one of them died recently. Not a real great bloomer, and it's not usually very "pink." It's more like a paler red than its mama. Sometimes gets kinda rosey-red.

Here's a couple of pics of my "PINK" DON JUAN:

Beth,

I had to look up Delightful Phyllis on HMF and guess what I found...YOUR pictures, of course! Thanks for the PDJ pics and serving as an encyclopedia of obscure roses!

Just WOW! Thanks for sharing!

Ben - My Wedding Bells (bareroot this past summer) didn't get a single bloom on it....but the one you've showcased is out of this world!!!! Hopefully mine will be much better next summer.

Beth - your Pink Don Juan is gorgeous!!! I've never heard of a pink version of Don Juan....love it!

Carol