I'm seriously a rose glutton. I'm very organized in my yard I have everything in its place perfect colors everything matches and then I see one come up on someone's post and all of a sudden I'm like a crazed person. I'm looking it up online I'm trying to find it. I buy it and now I have no place to put it because it does not match any the colors I have it has no place to go and so the pot ghetto grows.

I bought 2 Blue For You and one all-American magic . I have no place to put them. Honestly , they don't match anything I have going and there is no place to put either of those. I had a place for Blue For You but somebody showed me their beautiful pictures of Earth angel so guess what went in Blue for You's future home . I couldn't believe I did that .

I didn't need blue for you I knew I had maybe one place for it but now I have to with no place.

So I guess my shopping style would be obsessive and compulsive and Gluttonous

I've always loved plants, but never paid much attention to roses until middle school and high school after I received a lovely gardening book on my birthday. From there on, I've been very obsessed with roses. I'd never have enough space or climates appropriate for all the roses I'd like to grow.

I'd suppose my shopping for them is intense, passionate, and erratic with no rhyme or reason with varieties selected in the end that are completely different from what I had started with. (Don't you love agonizing over a few varieties, imagining how they'd look and perform HERE). ***Weirdly enough, I picked up a Chicago "hardy" fig yesterday just for experimental kicks!

After starting with local and big box places, I began shopping at nurseries on-line and through catalogues.

What a difference. Cost be darned. There's nothing like the big, healthy, and more likely to be accurate roses from mail-order. If I can't afford them, I wait. I've always been lower income (despite even currently being a certified medical professional) and never noticed a difference when the market tanked in 2008.

I'll sometimes still get something if it's an older, hard to find type locally, but usually it's always the same old same old with high likelihood of being labelled wrong, so ROSE nurseries all the way! :)

Steven

I buy them all!

Actually I did that when I first started planting roses. But after a few winters, a few losses. A bad summer last year. I've become a bit pickier with them. I've decided that I will try and only plant roses rated to zone 5 at least. Zone 4 is even better. Which brings me to the david austins. I just love them! They do really well here. I have ideal summer temps for them. And adequate water from rain. Anyways, when I see one (or 5) that I don't have, I just compulsively buy it. I've done that more than a few times. My mind goes completely blank until I get home and realize I literally have no room for them! But they bring me so much joy, that I can't help myself!!! However, I do need to reign in it because I'm also a neat freak and like my garden nice and organized. So that does not go well with impulse shopping!

Since this feels like confessing in a rose anonymous group ( where none of us want help ) I'll admit all the money I should have spent on clothes all winter for myself went to roses . I'm a sahm and my husband and I have a money system different than most , and while it may seem strange I get an "allowance of sorts " that I don't have to track where it goes, so all that went straight to palantine , David Austin, hortico and roses unlimited. And random trellis and obelisks, I wore out my sweaters this year and my zipper broke on my coat so next year I'm probably going to have buy new ones ;)

when I did work , my husband would ask how it was possible to spend most of what I made at a garden center . I don't know how , it just happened ! I was a waitress so no major salary but it was enough for even me to wonder where it went too .

I keep a "short list" of roses I want so I'm ready to move on it if a vendor announces a sale and/or those roses become available for purchase. The word "short" in the list is only relative, since my short list is down to a record low 8 single spaced pages of roses listed. My list of roses I have is now officially longer than my wish list (but ahem, the list of roses I've killed is longer), and the wish list is mostly roses that are currently unobtainable in the US. Still, you never know - I just yesterday planted Stranger (a haunting lilac striped rose) that I have lusted after for years from Beth's incredible photos. Burlington has had it if you want to be on a wait list for it.

You'd think I wouldn't be ordering that many roses when I clean out the available roses each year from my wish list, but a) roses die that need replacing in a more protected area, b) vendors release roses that haven't been available for years, c) breeders keep introducing awesome new roses (like the Kordes roses lately). Also, I find that roses I've never noticed before can be awesome if I take a chance on them. By doing a bulk order with Roses Unlimited each year (so far), I end up sampling some roses that didn't sound exciting. So far, Mount Hood has knocked my socks off as a prolific and long lasting white rose, and Hotel Hershey - my word that is a bright coral orange rose that grabs you by the throat and says NOTICE ME (my kinda rose).

I am absolutely a collector and rose glutton - with 1000+ roses that's kinda obvious - and I only have repeats of a rose I really like (or I've forgotten I've ordered). Here's my (totally insane) semi-method for rose shopping:

1. When planting season is done (basically now in zone 5), start ordering roses for next year with vendors willing to hold them for shipping

2. Fall - order whatever catches my eye for spring shipping from the new listings of Palatine and Chamblees and Burlington

3. Early winter - start assembling my bulk order with Roses Unlimited in discussions with Pat and start discussing rose cuttings and availability with Linda at Long Ago

4. Later winter - supplement the above orders with whatever else looks cool or is on my short list from my other regular vendors (I systematically check about a dozen vendors and discover new ones on GW periodically). Adjust this timing year-round as needed for good rose sales.

5. Spring - as soon as the big box stores get shipments of roses cruise about 4 local stores as well as several local nurseries to supplement above orders as possible - I've gotten some roses unavailable anywhere else this way (e.g. World Peace)

6. Oh yeah, in the same local cruising by my usual annuals and vegetables to supplement the roses

7. April and May - plant all of the above, bare root roses first, and throw myself a party complete with massage if I can get everything done by Memorial Day. Looking good this year as I only have 25 band roses on my patio and I can get those planted this afternoon on a day off, with 18 late comers (mostly minis) waiting to arrive shortly.

Yep, totally insane, but you folks on GW Roses understand me (as well as anyone can).
Cynthia

The beautiful catalog that Roses of Yesterday and Today advertised in garden magazines intrigued me. Sent for it, pored over it, researched, then started ordering. After acquiring a few hard to find roses, I began looking at local nurseries, then the big box stores. Sort of a backward progression. Now I live near Northland and rarely order anymore.

I supported my habit by designing and writing knitting patterns and teaching classes at a local yarn shop. (This does sound like a group therapy session.)

My newly married son and daughter-in-law created a rose garden entirely with bargain and clearance roses from the big box stores, the cheaper, the better. Some were little more than sticks. I had my doubts and thought they should wait until they could afford good ones, but I encouraged them and held my breath for the day they all died or got diseased. It became one of the nicest collections I've ever seen, much nicer than my expensive roses that I'd given so much thought to. I couldn't get mine to grow or bloom and theirs was always a profusion of color on big, healthy bushes. I hope this will encourage anyone with a limited budget who wants to grow roses.

Lilyfinch, that cracked me up. A group that doesn't really want help.

You have got that right lol.

Blondie, I'm with you I like everything organized and tidy and my rose obsession sometimes gets out of control. In a perfect world everything that I keep buying would have a place in the ground . and that is not how it's working out .

Rose buying habits...I go from ooohhh pretty and then when I come back to reality I'm digging a hole for my new beauty. Cha ching. I can't stop. I have bought poorly in the past. As i learn I'm able to spend my money more wisely on quality. I've had alot of bagged beauties over the years but the majority didn't last. And I've learned so much and still learning that now I think I'm ready to grow roses. Everything I order from nurseries do much better than the bodybags in general. But forums like this, YouTube and HMF have been a valuable source of info.

After about 10 years this is the first year I have a real plan for my garden and know what I want in there. And yes I still can't resist a healthy bodybag when I see one!

Since I've been on the GW my rose buying habits have changed somewhat. Almost all of my rose purchases, with the exception of maybe a couple that I might pick up at WalMart, Lowes or a nearby nursery are through mail order. I had never heard of Palatine before, 2013, but quickly discovered they are one of my favorite nurseries, so as soon as they are available to order I will place my first order for the upcoming season with them, and tell myself that I don't really need to order that many more roses. Usually when I tell myself no more than twenty, it ends up being forty, like this year! There are certain roses that I feel like I can't be without and if it's one that I already have and it isn't looking so good, or i think there might be a problem with it I will order replacements. Like this year I ordered two Pink Peace bushes, now I have four, same with Tiffany.

So far from the way my Austins are looking, which is pretty good right now, I can see me ordering quite a few of those in the future, that wasn't the case before now, I ordered a few just to see, now I want more, more, more!

Then there are the own root sources, which used to be mostly Roses Unlimited, but now after discovering Antique Rose Emporium and Chambees that has changed too. If it's a Hybrid Tea that I want and it's not available grafted, hopefully RU will have it, I've been eyeing Heirloom's website frequently too the past several months. I like very much the selection of Old Garden Roses from ARE and the garden roses available from Chamblees.

I have a huge yard and have lots of room, but making some of the areas suitable for roses is a task I'm not sure I can undertake, so unless I decide I'm satisfied with what I have I'll keep putting more and more in pots, I think I've got about forty planted that way now, which is about one-third of all my roses.

I'm Linda and I'm a rose glutton too!! Every winter for awhile I don't think much at all about buying new roses. I think I'm done, cured, able to keep my money. Then sometime in January the rose bug bites and I'm back at it, ordering roses without a clue where I'll put them. I did pounce on some Lavender Crush body bags at Walmart but mostly I have not been tempted by anything in the stores. It is kind of nice to just walk on by the roses. It is a temporary state of enoughness.

I said this year I was not going to get anymore roses unless it was one of a short list of 5. I was looking for munstead wood, any other red austin, lady of shalott, young lycidias or perhaps an unsual kordes. Well I ended up getting 12 different austins this spring & our potted roses just started arriving at the garden centres! However, in all fairness my husband bought me 8 for mother's day. Because he knew I liked the ones that came in green buckets with gold lettering, lol! However, he didn't realize the size requirements of these. So we had to make new beds. I am limited by space though. We are on a 90 × 150 ft lot. Which is a good size for my area. But with 65 - 75 roses, 15 assorted trees & a lot of perennials it's going to become a jungle soon! Well I'm going plant shopping with a friend tomorrow. She needs some help, so I will probably be confessing here tomorrow night!

Oh you guys are sooo funny!!! And I'm going to send that Jim Carey picture to some friends!!!

Every year I say I'm done buying lots of roses. I've already said it (and mean it)...but I'm never done buying lots of roses. Never. Sigh. I love this thread!!

Carol

We never owned our home growing up- I loved the idea of gardening and roses in particular since childhood but we could never plant anything since we were renters. As an adult, my husband and moved back to my home state of NY after my dad got sick with cancer soon after my first child was born- we lived in a small house my family owned for generations in Brooklyn. It had belonged to a great aunt who'd gone into an assisted living home, and our family didn't want to sell it back in 2009 with the market so bad, so they generously let us stay there while we saved for our first home. It was planted with about 20 old roses that some unknown relative of mine had planted generations ago, including a stunning old Peace rose that blew me away every year when it bloomed- this started the adult obsession with roses and gardening. We were able to stay in that home for 3 years. When I bought my first home (a then-dilapidated Victorian we got for a steal at the bottom of the housing crisis) I realized that I finally had my own land (1/4 acre) to do with as I pleased, once I'd tamed the overgrown nightmare of a yard and dug up some beds.

I ordered my first batch our 2nd spring in the house from Heirloom- I took one look at the photos online of Jude the Obscure and Eden and thought they were like something out of a fairy tale- I had no idea roses could look like that.

After the first year through this forum I discovered Roses Unlimited, and I love the small-business feel of it- their plants are lovely, bigger and cheaper than a lot of bigger operations online , and you get the feeling they (Pat and co) really love roses. If I see one that really grabs my attention at a big box store or nursery I may snap it up- my now 8 year old daughter made me get a Rock and Roll from Home Depot last year because the color was so crazy and now I can't find a place to put that loud candy cane colored rose so it lives in the veggie patch. :)

Every May, for mother's day, I order whatever 3 or 4 managed to get on my wish list the previous winter from RU. It's a pricey hobby, along with all the other plants I've fallen in love with and planted over the years, but 3 kids, a mortgage, 2 dogs, 2 cats, and a full time job later, it truly gives me much needed peace and happiness to work in my own garden, so worth every penny. As I tell my husband, it's cheaper than therapy!

I love your story, Nicole.

Nicole, what a lovely history

I am so glad that you can finally Indulge your passion

Thank you! So grateful to have found this forum full of so much knowledge and shared enthusiasm!

I swear, an excuse to buy more roses was NOT my intention when starting this thread. But ooh, what enablers rose growers are. In the last year, I pretty much stopped buying roses. I said - at 120+ I have a ridiculous amount already, have severe time limitations and I really have no "obvious" places to put any more.

HA. This thread has shown me:

1. I am NOT alone. There are plenty of other apparently well-adjusted people who dote over their rose gardens, and get the kind of joy from each new bloom that I get from mine

2. I do NOT have an excess of roses - well. at least compared to folks on this forum, and that counts, right? Two with over 1000 roses! You kidding! I'm a small fry. And many of you guys work too - i figured anyone with masses of roses either didn't work, didn't work full time. or had professional gardeners. I apparently was quite incorrect.

3. You're showing me that not having a space for a rose is certainly no reason not to buy it! And now, if I get any of those looks, like - you've got to be crazy for buying MORE - well, honey - look at THESE guys in this thread? I now have proof, it could be worse!

4. There are a TON of exciting rose buying resources that I've never tried, listed right here in this thread for me to drool over and start making lists from.

I already see a volunteer pistachio tree in front of my house I've never liked, that if (when) removed would provide a perfect new bed space for more garden!

Thanks enablers!

In short, my rose shopping habit can be described with a single word 'Impulse'.

Longer story: I started out with the body bags and when they ran out of varieties for me I turned to planted roses at Lowes/Home Depot and nurseries (not many in my area) and I have bought one rose online.

I ran out of space about a year ago and now the roses are piling up in pots, waiting for me to dig out a new bed for them in the backyard. I have also started shovel-pruning roses that I have found disappointing either in growth or performace and replacing them with something else.

I don't have a particular plan in mind when buying roses, they don't have to have a certain scent or be of a certain color or color family, I just buy what I think looks pretty. My roses are planted along my front yard fence and it's a mixed row of roses, all different colors and shapes and sizes.

It also doesn't help that my husband is just as bad at impulse buying plant as I am. After saying he didn't think we needed more roses as we don't have space for them, he picked this rose up at a local nursery the other day and said 'I know I said we don't have a space for more roses, but I want it' LOL. Didn't need much to convince me.

Rock 'n Roll

I love my Rock And Roll rose it's just a cool rose and every bloom looks different.

hra - That's a fabulous picture!!! Oh my!!! :)

I really am enjoying reading these!

Carol

I can’t help but love crazy rock and roll! I just can’t find good neighbors for her. I was thinking of doing a “square pegs” bed running up the driveway of misfits.

I'm having the same issue with All American Magic.

What a fun post to reread! It reminded me about climbing chocolate sundae! I really need to find that Rose. There are just too many roses in this world 2 remember them all.

Update, Dark Desire got the boot and All American Magic got its place.

My husband gave me a new planting bed that he had wanted for a fire pit

That bed will feature my 2 Blue For You and roses yet unpurchased.

I wish I had a place for Fragrant Cloud . I will try to get creative.

When I started roses in 2016 my goal was to cram as much roses as I can in the space available . I removed lots of plants to do it , a lot of Hibiscus bushes , Petunias , small palm trees . Now that I have gone out of space the only thing remains is to dig out beds in the middle of the lawn but I am not there yet . Will need to convince my husband first !

meanwhile I have a little secret : I shovel prune my roses in 3 months of planting if I am not happy with them . I expect frequent blooms and a healthy bush . I am constantly checking my roses performance so I can replace them with newer ones . Like lilyFinch I am also spending clothes money on my roses !

My all year growing season and Fortuniana rootstock helps me in this .

I love this post!

I love this post too !!! It is fun to read . I definitely went crazy last year . I am trying very hard to be good this year. I did order some but so far very mild compared to last year. My goal is to work on companion plants next year . There were a few weeks where roses weren’t blooming so much it became obvious I needed other fillers in there.

Pink rose, I shovel pruned pretty fast last year too . Maybe quicker than I should have . Still a few are getting a second chance for now . Also this year my sweaters are getting pretty ratty so I may have to actually buy some instead of roses haha!!

I love reading everyone’s story!

My rose shopping habits definitely lean toward mail order. I want to be able to research before I buy. Fragrance and disease resistance are my top requirements and I swear every tag says they are. I’d rather know what actual people say. Not saying I never purchase from local nurseries but that is usually for perennial purchases.

I’m totally with you Lily on companion plants. Don’t get me wrong the roses are the star of the show, but they look so beautiful among all the other flowers, trees and shrubs! I have geum, cranesbill, beauty berry, ginkgo, love in a mist, irises, lillies, Foxglove, fuchsia, delfiniums, beebalm, calendulas and so on....I don’t think I’ll be buying any roses this season. Still this year has been really exciting reguarding roses, I have had the opportunity to grow out cuttings of a number of OGRs as well as grow out plenty of seedlings. I met a gentleman who wanted to take his landscape in another direction, he needed to get rid of some David Austin roses.... soooooo A friend and I dug up let’s say quite a few Austin’s that we’re mostly transplanted quickly to my yard. I’m still figuring out where they will all go. Good thing I collect nursery pots :) As for my purchasing habits I usually visit the local nursery’s and buy a rose here and there. I used to make the trip to heirloom at least once a summer and grab a few roses there when the store was open but my yard is filling up. My goal reguarding rose purchases for this next year is to only to purchase some rose hip tea.

I’m only 2 years in to having a place to plant the roses I want, and I “only“ have 19 so far. Since we just have a regular lot, I’m terrified of the day that they all decide to “leap” and our house is completely consumed by a rose thicket. I spend a huge amount of time online picking roses that will be perfect and healthy for my area, unless I am at a nursery or home depot and I see something pretty, then it’s retail therapy time and I just get it. I don’t spray fungicides and hate shovel pruning, but of course one of those impulses already had to come out. Roses generally sit in my shopping cart for months while I decide to buy them or not, haha.

What a treat to run across this thread! I thought I was the only one with this sick habit of buying roses I didnt have time to plant and kept in pots! My friends dont understand why I dont stop buying and work on planting what I have. I had an area fenced in behind my horse barn to house all my potted roses so they werent scattered all over the place. My creative urges overwhelmed common sense, and I had a garden shed built that I had been designing in my head for years - now I can not only plant roses in the new raised beds but house my pot ghetto in a section created just for them. Which gives me "permission" to go buy more! Dont feel the least bit guilty. Anything that makes me feel this happy - am not on drugs, prescription or otherwise, not addicted to alcohol, gambling, etc, dont need therapy [except rose purchasing therapy], provides exercise, increases my seratonin level, is a worthy endeavor. Like several others, I salivate over the newest upcoming roses, and usually have to have several. Currently am impatiently waiting for the 2019 David Austin catalog - [by the way for those interested - I called, wanting to pick one up while I was in Tyler and was told they are doing a new design for 2019 and it will be probably after Christmas before they will start mailing]. Am happy to know I am not alone in my slavish dedication to buying more roses, and no desire to be cured!

Judith

I'm so glad to see this thread revived! I thought this would be a "time-out" period for the rose garden - happy and content with my garden with excitement about seeing blooms from the 15 new varieties I added this year. But no, time-out isn't in the cards. I'll blame it on this forum - I thought I was going to go the winter without ordering, but then someone posted pictures of Crazy Love, for which my response was instant crazy love. And when you order one ... well ... who can order just one? And especially with a 10% discount with three and over. So - 4 more roses coming (I marked ASAP) from Regan Nursery. And, I'm intentionally holding off from more as I haven't done the big box stampede on bareroot roses in many years, and I think this year I'm gong to have to see how many varieties I find in these stores that I don't already have. Oh, it's good to be bad!

Oh, and Pink Rose - funny about the "digging beds in the lawn". Been there, done that. My back yard has a horribly unsightly propane tank in the middle of it (we're on acreage and available heat is either electric, or propane gas). So - I just made a giant rose garden out of the lawn, and now the focal point is roses instead of ugly propane tank.

In the space of 2 years, Ive purchased over 100 roses and I keep saying “that’s the last one, now”. Then I fall in love, and soon enough I’m buying more. Haha. No regrets.

I buy mostly on-line. DA roses. And the odd old rose. My biggest orders are usually during bare root season. Cheaper and each plant have a bigger and better roots than say a potted rose. :)

I discovered DA rose official website last January by accident. I was shocked that elegant looking old English roses are available to buy online (where have I been all these gardening years)! Before that I thought I only have access to florist cut rose or knockout/drift rose LOL. I quickly switched to my “research fellow” mode and spent night after night researching everything rose in front of my computer. Wow I discovered a new world - not only DA, but also Kordes, Meilland, Delbard and Tantau are dedicated breeders!

I soon ordered 6 truck loads of top soil (equivalent to 45 tons) and had it dumped at my driveway. My poor husband transferred the 45 tons of soil wheelbarrow by wheelbarrow and created two rose beds with me next to my camellia and evergreen beds in March. We mixed in about a ton of coffee ground sourced from local Starbucks and a few tons of “black cow” to enrich the soil.

As the Rose season started in early April, I periodically drove around (50 miles radius) stopping by almost every big box store I can find roses. And of course my local nurseries saw me a lot. I all of a sudden became a repeat visitor to the rose display garden of my local botanical garden. I took photos and notes at the roses I was interested in regarding color, size, shape and etc and followed their progress from May to August. By the end of August I had 99 hand-selected roses planted in the bed with drip system installed (thanks to husband again) and they were blooming on fences, arbors and obelisks. They consist of 1/3 Kordes, 1/3 Meilland and 1/3 DA roses.

Yesterday I just placed my first online order with Edmunds and more to order from Palatine, Chamblees, ARE, Northland and DA. I am under pressure as I know the sought after ones will be gone or are already gone. However my research on “what varieties to buy and what locations they go” in order to coordinate with the existing garden design can barely catch up with my spotting of new roses (new to me).

As my research goes further, I think I’m going to try some hybrid rugosa and maybe let them colonize in the woodland as I’ll eventually run out of garden space?

Like Lilyfinch said, I don’t want help. I just want to start doing what I did last rose season all over again.

I totally get the research fellow thing, my brain just soaked up this whole forum contents I think. Maybe you should offer services as a rosy landscape designer and attack other people’s yards now.

We all understand! Lol! :-) is that Summer Romance in your basket? I would love to see pictures of your garden.

Yes zzzone pleaseeee shade photos of your roses !!

I am trying to hard to be good. I really am . My husband and I decided to list our home , as crazy as it sounds. It’s goimg to hurt so badly to leave this home and garden but the area has grown and the money could really help us live comfortably. So if I buy ( which I already have 20 roses coming ) I’ll need to pot them until we resettle . I really want to place my edmusnds order . But I also know I have a lot of work ahead of me . I told him multiple times we need to move before spring to ease the pain .

Lilyfinch, how far are you moving ? Zone change? I know you will look at this as an adventure and an opportunity to rethink your plant choices and beautify another location

Because that is what we do.

Yes Kristine that is what we do!! And I finally feel at peace with it . We actually have been on the market a while but I couldn’t talk here about it without getting terribly upset. We will stay in Nashville area unless his job moves us but we plan on pushing further from the city. Same zone ! While I absolutely love this home, we have a 2nd story deck with concrete underneath and I constantly panicking when Lucia is out there that something could happen. Also we have a senior dog and the steps are becoming a problem for him , and I’d like a backyard I can just let Lucia out to play in and see her from the house . It’s not possible with this one. So these reasons I tell myself a different home will be better .

Lily I tried to do companion plants too, but went right back to Rose's. There are just to many more I have wanted for so long! I see one I want and just go for it! I really need to stop...but it's not happening...

Was just thinking........if I put on a pound for every rose I bought, I would look like a hippopotamus or worse........and leaving tomorrow to go to Tyler to pick up my 2nd David Austin order........at least my pot ghetto isnt full yet!

Judith

Amanda, that's not a bad idea. The gentleman who did my deck started out building his own and as he ran out of projects he did his neighbors; later formed a company and managed six teams LOL

Vaporvac, good eyes! Yes those are Summer Romance freshly picked last May. I planted 4 of them in the ground early April and got tons of flowers throughout the season. The fragrance is divine! They stayed "evergreen" for me this winter (we have a mild winter so far) but I did pull off all the leaves and forced them to go dormant - hope I did not mess them up by doing that (I am such a rose newbie)! I will be sure to post up photos of my rose beds in bloom this year (I have received so much helpful advice on here that I am very happy to share what I have learned). I did have a photo of one rose bed taken back in June - a total of 28 roses there, approx. half Meilland and half DA roses - bushes were still small with a few flowers, mostly green!

Lilyfinch, congratulations on your new start! I look at it as a "reset button" for new opportunities (of buy buy buy) LOL That way you may order all your favorite roses and the ones proven to be best performers all over again. And I am sure you will know exactly "who goes where" and "who compliments whom" this second round!

lilyfinch, I'm sure the stress has lessened now that the decision has been made and you can start thinking about a new home and new garden. You have much more experience now, and will be able to design something even more beautiful than before. It's a perfect time to move, before Lucia is in school and has set down her own little roots. I'm looking forward to following your progress.

Lily finch , I am so excited for ur new place and a new rose garden, I already can see rose mail orders on ur porch :)

Thank you everyone.. for now it’s nothing as we can’t get any offer ! It’s so bizzare . We’ve have multiple showings and they always seem to find a better home . I guess no one wants a view ?! Lol

i really wanted to be done with this so I could be planning a new garden now . Right now I’m afraid my orders WILL come and where will I put them ? :)

It really sucks being in limbo. I hope everything works out soon. I would just put them in pots but then what if fall rolls around and you haven't moved? Can you put them in the garage? ..Then if you have to move mid winter, then would you be able to dig stuff up? Just thinking out loud. I've moved many times so I guess that's why I'm real good/comfortable at growing stuff in pots lol.

I love your garden pics and 'view' !

jen, just pot what u can, kiss Lucia and see what happens

Sultry and Tina ..the ground doesn’t freeze here so I can pot them up anytime . I have a short list of things I must take . Then a long list if I can get away with them ;) I do plan on potting all my new ones for now but I really thought we would have moved by now. Hubby says if no offer by April then we can stay . It’s hard when all the ordering has to be done now . I don’t want to miss out on anything!

How could you possibly miss out on anything? Slowly turn the handle handle so as not to awaken her, creep into Lucia’s room and press a kiss on her cheek. Where ever you go, she goes.

The rest, we will all gladly enable. Either we will enjoy your flourishing garden or we will delight in all your new babie:)

I have enjoyed all of your "reasons" for buying more and more roses, they have certainly made me smile in recognition. Yes that's me too.

These last two years, my rose buying has changed though. I have always viewed the garden as a whole. Roses are certainly the main part, but companion plants, structure, ornaments etc all have a part to play in making a coherent whole. Now however, there is an unfettering in my rose buying. Because of a stupid condition, I know that I will not make old bones and waiting for a gap in the garden to put a new rose in is not enough.

I have been buying more large pots for more roses. It is great. I can happily order more and more roses, thinking I will squeeze them in somehow. It is very liberating!!!

I am planting two climbers together, fitting two roses of the same variety in the same pot and generally thinking where oh where can I plant another rose that I must have.

Daisy