ENGLISH GARDEN

WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE 2000

RADIO TIMES

This is a possible sport on my MARY ROSE

PAT AUSTIN

Hmmm.... thought I had a lot more already edited. Guess not! I'll have to add some later.

Love the 'roundness' of Brother Cadfael. and PRINCESS ALEXANDRA OF KENT is looking very lovely too.

Beautiful Austins Beth!

sounds like perfect temps for English roses

Incredible blooms, especially English Garden

Gorgeous! Love the color on PORTMEIRION and of course the sport on Mary.

Our weather has been cool too. Today we had some raindrops this morning! Normally, my air conditioning would be running like crazy this time of year. I am loving it while I can as it will change to being hotter than Hades soon for months on end.

Beautiful! Out of curiousity, why hadn't you fertilized previously?

Thanks everybody!

Outrider... I didn't do much fertilizing the last decade or more for several reasons. First of all, for about 8yrs I worked two jobs, 6 days a week, and on my day off often had to go take care of my elderly mom. One of my jobs was working on my craft shop, trying to get it going with my niece, who also took care of my mom. I just had so much stuff going on, didn't have much time to work in the yard. Barely got watering done. Also, I have over 1700 roses, and not only is it a major expense to buy the fertilizer, it's a major job to get to all of them. Plus I hadn't had time to weed or clean up debris much and didn't want to fertilize the weeds along with the roses! And for a long time, I never fed the new band-sized ownroots or the minis because I was afraid of killing them. I had a bad experience yrs ago when we lived in the mobile home park and all my roses were potted (I had close to 800 then). Killed a bunch of minis and immature plants with fertilizer. And not even using that much either. So, I've just always been over-cautious about feeding the roses ever since. Now I realize they really do need some feeding, but just using spare amounts. I actually only used maybe a couple tbs of granular off-brand rose & flower food, general plant food or even veggie food on the larger plants and maybe half that on the baby ones. I also used some epsom salts this yr. That was something I did every spring in the park, and it makes a big difference.

Beth: well that certainly is a good reason! And I had NO idea you had so many roses. My goodness! I think of the maintenance it takes just to keep my 50ish looking good! Are yours still mostly potted or do you have them in the ground? And now I'm really curious..what kind of space do you have ?! I would love to see how you have that many roses arranged!! :-)

Beth, absolutely stunning. Your Molineux is beautiful

Mine is still leafing out. I can't wait

Outrider, my property is approx 1/3 acre and is rather sloped, unfortunately, and there's several over-80ft tall scrub pine trees that make a mess all the time. About 75% or more of the roses are in the ground. Many still waiting, and many too small to go in the ground yet. Some of my beds are really crammed with roses. Some are just too close together, but I'm running out of room. I haven't done a lot of clean up for the same reasons I didn't do much fertilizing. Now that I have a tiny bit more time to do things (yeah right), I'm working on getting beds cleaned out. We have tons of wild blackberry, hypericum, Bermudagrass, foxtail, vetch and all sorts of underplantings that have gotten way out of control over the last few yrs, plus tons of pine needles. It's a nightmare. And I just turned 61 this yr, and I'm way out of shape and it's getting harder and harder to do all this. I've really made a lot of work for myself. Didn't really think ahead to getting older (or OLD) so it's kind of overwhelming. But I'm doing what I can. I do know eventually I won't be able to do it much longer. I developed sciatica last yr, and it comes and goes. Right now it's switched to the right side and is worse than it was last yr on the left. Makes it very difficult to work in the yard.

Beth. I just turned 68. When we moved in to this house 3 1/2 years ago I had fully planned to do a simple, easy landscape. Keep the yardwork to a minimum. Well apparently I forgot how old and tired I am and how much work it all is. Lol

I still work part time and as you get older the energy goes away. But yet here we are. And I keep buying and planting and expanding. That is why this is truly an addiction, but a beautiful one.

Lovely. Xx

All are beautiful, but it is a rare treat to see English Garden.

Beautiful. I love English Garden as well. How does it do for you as far as disease goes? Does it stay clean?

Beth, you keep on feeding those beauties! Love 'em! And when there is a batch of Austins, Radio Times always catches my eye--but I've never bought one myself. I'm not sure why. Now I'm out of space--unless one of them decides to go to that great rosebed in the sky--but since I really like the ones I have now, I'm not eager to replace any.

I have cut back several of the beds so that there is a little less work, but that's not any of the Austin beds. Fortunately several years ago I filled in any remaining empty spaces with some older kinds of roses that can take care of themselves better than HTs can--like Ghislaine de Feligonde, Felicia, Boule de Neige, Clothilde de Soupert, Buff Beauty, Cornelia---lots of blooms with a minimum amount of care--so lots of blooming out there even if technicially there are somewhat fewer rose plants.

Kate