Truly a work of art of a garden, wow!!!

So very beautiful!

Oh my goodness. Just breathtaking.

Fabulous! Thank you for sharing pictures!

OMG!!!!!!!!!! and that Zalud...I'm practically speechless!!!

This is pornography to me (wipes drool from keyboard).

Catspat - just fantastic!!

The pic of Souvenir de Claudius Denoyel in your front yard could grace the finest gardening magazine. Just delightful. What trellis are you growing it on? And, is that a salvia at its base?

It’s been remiss of me but I have been meaning to message you to let you know how the Florence Bower’s Pink Tea that you so kindly gave me is doing. Oh, her blooms are just gorgeous! Like all teas, she’s not very happy with the lack of consistent summer heat but is coming along nicely despite that. She suffered a setback when her canes got sunburnt last year and I have to rethink where I will plant her. Thank you again for this fantastic rose.

Jo

And, it just started drizzling here. Don’t think it will be much but will certainly prolong the horrible black spot my roses have this spring.

Did it rain for you?

Jo

Sumptuous photos of your roses, so well grown and displayed, I also enjoy the tree and conifer backdrop..

I would be interested in knowing your opinion whether you find 'Fabvier' to be the same rose as ''White Pearl In Red Dragon's Mouth''.. or similar but different..

What a beautiful display! They’re just breathtaking. I love the arbor with Crepescule, and everything else too.

I'm glad Florence Bowers is doing well for you, jo-pyeweed. Souvenir de Claudius Denoyel also got some sunburn on his lower canes during that horrific heat wave last summer (110 degrees F), so that is why I moved the salvia over to be more in front of him, to shade those lower canes. The pink salvia is Wendy's Wish and it is a good one, blooms all season long. Another good salvia, which also blooms all season long, just barely in view on the right of that photo, is Amistad. Its dark purple blooms really look great with Souvenir de Claudius and of the purple ones of that type that I've tried, it has done the best (Purple Majesty really hated us...).

It feels a little drizzle-y out there this morning, though I can't see any visible moisture yet. So far, only Etoile de Feu has much blackspot (which only happens in this part of the year, if ever, here), but that is sort of a Pernetiana tradition -- they blackspot with any excuse whatsoever. (And Poulsen's Yellow -- it also always gets it in early spring.) The good amounts of rain we got the these past few weeks really, really helped. It was so dry, but those rains at least brought us up to around 75% of normal annual rainfall and, being late, will be beneficial going into the summer drought.

ETA, SdCD's trellis is just an 8' tall flat rusty-iron mesh type with a Palladian arch style top that I got from Alden Lane nursery, which is, both fortunately and unfortunately, just down the hill and around the corner (within walking distance and as easy to get to as a 7-11...). I've seen similar pieces at Berkeley Horticultural Nursery, too.

Marlorena, Fabvier is somewhat similar to White Pearl in Red Dragon's Mouth, but seems distinct to me. It has fewer petals (always more semi-double than double, really, while WPIRDM can be extremely double in cooler weather), and is a slightly brighter red (more "true" red) than WPIRDM. It is a more upright grower ("stiffer"?), so far, than WPIRDM and is notably less apt to be affected by powdery mildew or other fungal disease than any other red China in this garden (which includes Ferndale Red China, Korbel Canyon Red China, Cramoisi Superieur -both climbing and shrub forms, in addition to those two) and all have bouts of PM from time to time, but not Fabvier.

catspat... thanks for letting me know on this, it's just that I read somewhere that they had the same DNA along with a few other found red china's... I shall try and seek out my source, it's somewhere on my computer but I lose track of these things..

I would be quite interested in that, Marlorena, as they are distinct enough, to me, that I'm sure I could tell which is Fabvier, even just from the blooms. Very cool and interesting if their DNA sequences should be the same!

This does seem to be shaping up to be a pretty good year here -- every rose loaded with buds. Better yet, no withering heat waves (the curse of Livermore) seem to be in the forecast yet. A few more:

Your garden is incredibly beautiful, the sort of wild and yet controlled, magically wonderful garden I've always aspired to and will never have with the drought and increasing summer heat. However, seeing yours is pure, unadulterated pleasure. I hope you don't mind if I put all these pictures in a file to enjoy over and over again.

Oh, marvelous - your second set of pics!! That one with Cornelia and others <sigh>....

I am very glad we got the late rains when we did; it was looking really scary otherwise. Blackspot on the roses is a small price to pay.

Thanks for the info on the salvia. I am really not sure why I don’t have ‘Wendy’s Wish’ - I have wanted it for some time now. I do have ‘Amistad’ which I love as does my resident hummingbird. Got a second one late last year. I just dug out what I believe was ‘Blue Angel’ as it was spreading and taking over the bed. It also had a very short bloom period but I did love the color.

Jo

That 'Cornelia' photo is just fantastic.. well they all are..

catspat... I've found something of what I kept on the information about those China roses. I've no idea where I got it from, I'm still looking for the rest of it, it was very detailed and lengthy. I'll just post a paragraph here, I hope it's not copyrighted but I can't put a link as I've forgotten the source.. it was Old Gay Hill Red China, not the White Pearl..

Another group of suspected synonyms and sports that the results of this study
support is a red, semi-double flowered group based on the China Rose cultivar Fabvier
(syn. ‘Colonel Fabvier’). ‘Fabvier’, ‘Martha Gonzales’, and ‘Old Gay Hill Red China’
(C40, C10, and C16) all had identical SSR profiles. Based on catalogue descriptions of
the plants in commerce (see Table 1 for information on sources), the results suggest that
the found rose ‘Martha Gonzales’ is actually ‘Fabvier’, and that ‘Old Gay Hill Red
China’, also a found rose, is a taller growth form sport of ‘Fabvier’.

If I find the rest I'll post a link...

edit here.. actually I've found the link, it's in pdf form and thesis written by Valerie Ann Soules of the N. Dakota State University.. titled ''Analysis of Genetic Diversity and Relationships in the China Rose Group''.. the paragraph above is on page 37 and on page 11 lists all the China roses analysed..

It's very lengthy and complicated. I must read it through sometime when I have about 3 days to spare.. there's around 60 pages... I was mostly interested in what it had to say about 'Miss Lowe's Variety'...

link to Oaktrust Library

Catspat, wow just wow, Your garden is amazing, truly a feast for the eyes! Between your pics and Daisy’s I am in rose heaven. Thank you so much for showing us your piece of paradise on earth.

catspat, your garden is astonishingly lovely. Now where's that bucket?......

Catspat, your roses are superb! I love the setting too...in amongst the trees. I especially enjoyed the picture of Souvenir de Claudius Denoyel. I'd never heard of this rose before. I went ahead and ordered it after I read that it does well for Paul (Trospero), who is also in the PNW. I'm looking forward to it! Thanks for the enabling:)

Thank you, catspat! Absolutely gorgeous.

I am glad you will be enjoying Souvenir de Claudius Denoyel, Rosylady. Such large, fragrant, fluffy blooms, such a pleasing kind of red, and a good repeater, too, especially for a climber!

Jacques, 'J. Otto Thilow' is certainly a wonderful legacy from your family and still thrives in my garden. It astonishes me that it has so completely disappeared from commerce on both sides of the Atlantic (according to the listing on HelpMeFind) because it is a classic, excellent, trouble-free hybrid tea! Unlike so many hybrid teas, the shrub here is handsome even when not in bloom, being well-foliated and without fungal problems.

I would be very happy to share cuttings of it but it appears that sending budwood to The Netherlands myself would be a complicated, bureaucratic process that I would not be able to do on my own. One suggestion I have is to check with Gregg Lowery, who is now the curator of the Vintage Gardens rose collection (my plant was purchased from Vintage Gardens before it closed). They have helped restore roses to collections world-wide from their huge collection, the maintenance of which is now supported by The Friends of Vintage Roses (at https://thefriendsofvintageroses.org, there is a form for emailing Gregg there); see also their listing on HelpMeFind (at https://helpmefind.com/gardening/l.php?l=3.24099). 'J. Otto Thilow' is still listed as being in their collection, according to HMF at least. They would certainly know about exporting rose materials to Europe.

I do hope 'J. Otto Thilow' can make it into your collection, where it surely belongs. If cuttings are needed from me to do that, that would no problem, though setting up the paperwork, etc. to send them would need to be done by someone else. I can be messaged either here or on HelpMeFind or via letter to D. Petersen, 1432 Lexington Way, Livermore, CA 94550 USA