Darren, you have some really good ones

I have Lady of Shallot and Olivia and love them both

I cant wait to see your new babies

So exciting! Best of luck! I don't grow those so can't help, but I will look forward to pictures :)

Darren - I only grow PAOK from your list (with Olivia on the way). She is fabulous, with unusually large blooms for DA, and a lovely fragrance. I believe the photo on the bottom was after an evening of overhead watering, thus the heavy nodding blooms.

Karen, that is a beauty!

I just planted 3 own root Lady of Shallott in front of my house early this year. They were among the last roses to start blooming (of all the new roses I planted this year). I was worry at the beginning but then read somewhere in this Forum that LOS does not like impacted, alkaline clay soil, which is what I have. So I gave them some soluble gysum to loosen up the soil. Low and behold they started blooming in late May. I won't say they are the most floriferous roses for this year but they did bloom consistently ever since. I am looking forward to next year. Hopefully it will do better. In the UK where most soil is acidic, I will expect it will do really well. Here are some of my LOS from this year.

Here in California LOS grows fast: mine get to 5 - 6 feet with some octopus arms. It is not as compact as Lady Emma Hamilton.

I love my baby Princess Alex of Kent also. All of my visitors commented on the huge size of the bloom and the fragrance. It has a very casual growth habit and not compact. Mine also grew some long but strong branches and flowered a lot already during its first year; got to about 4 - 5 feet tall this year (it is own root not grafted). I am pruning it hard this winter.

You are very ambitious, Darren! Only one I've ever had is Peace. It's always lovely but it is a bit tender for my winters. Every now and then I try again though. I wish you hundreds of beautiful blooms on your new roses!

Great list Darren! I can't wait to see how they bloom for you, I'm sure they will be gorgeous! I only have LOS from your list!

Great pictures posted! Kristine, your Olivia rose looks so beautiful! Krista, I love the color of your Princess Anne rose. And Rose, I'm inspired by the salvia you planted with your LOS! I'm tempted to add more to my LOS bed. They are mixed with a weeping santa Rosa plum tree and some Shasta daisies. Next spring I need to take a better pic of the tree in bloom!

Tiff. Your LOS is fabulous

What great color !

Thank you everyone for sharing in on this thread. If my roses grow as nice as yours i’ll Be very happy. Beautiful !!!!!!

Habe a magical Christmas everyone.

All my love,

D xxxx

Darren,

Could we see pics of your newly planted roses? Your English Garden pics are always so wonderful, even if the roses are too young to bloom. Besides, I love looking at pics of young plants, even bare roots, imagining all the beauty the future will have for us =)

Tiff. I think my all around favorite plants are salvia. Especially the Greggi, -they bloom non stop and the bugs seem to ignore them, the butterflies, bees and hummingbirds love them

I found a great variety and selection at High Country Nursery

Thanks Kristine! I just checked out that nursery. What a great selection! I remember seeing your salvia pictures from another thread and they were beautiful! Was it the burgundy seduction or raspberry delight? Both of those look quite tempting... I have a spot where I just transplanted 2 of my desdemonas to receive more sun. Now they will be bordered by 2 double delight rose trees with the desdemonas in the front/middle. I have some space behind the roses that would be against a hot wall (south facing) and I was thinking that one of those types of salvia with the beautiful magenta-ish color would maybe help the desdemonas from the scorching wall and make a pretty backdrop, especially with the dark pink/white blend of the double delights too. I've heard the greggis take the heat better than most. I'm thinking that would be a good bet! Thanks for the salvia tip!!! One of the dark purple ones would definitely look pretty with the LOS bed too, even the dark purple greggi might look good with desdemonas too...aaahh! Decisions (good problem to have). Sorry Darren for my garden planning tangent on your thread!

Hi Tiffany, love your LOS. Look forward to seeing your pictures next spring when the Santa Rosa plum tree is in bloom! The purple salvia I had in the picture above is Salvia mystic spires (sorry I misspelled it). Here is another picture:

I am also planning to plant these magenta salvia called Salvia Wendy's Wish in case you are interested:

I also just put in an order to David Austin to get the new Vanessa Bell (light yellow) and Dame Judi Dench (apricot/orange). I believe they start taking bareroot orders in the US yesterday.

Thank you Rose! Those are beautiful salvias! That Wendy's Wish is a stunner. Now I'm pondering even more places to try some of these salvias...the variety is amazing! I'm excited for you regarding Vanessa Bell, that one looks so intriguing! The color is so elegant. I just received the DA catalog today and I'm trying to control my ordering impulses. I have Evelyn and another Strawberry Hill on order already. I really like the color of James L Austin (and so many others), but I'm trying to see about expanding my flower horizons and getting other bloomers besides roses, like those gorgeous salvias! I'm thinking of some honeysuckles vines to plant with my soon to arrive Evelyn against a not so pretty fence. I found this variety at an online vendor, Easy to Grown Bulbs, I think this one may be a winner! I can't wait to see all of our beautiful pictures come spring as well! I appreciate all of these wonderful tips and photos, I love this forum and it's lovely members! Tiffany

Gold Flame Honeysuckle

My neighbor had a beautiful honeysuckle that draped over our fence and talk about a beehive of activity it was always buzzing with lots of be activity.

I have several different varieties of salvia and I have them tucked in a lot of places the greggi seem to Bloom the best. I even have a beautiful pink salvia that I probably bought somewhere locally and it blooms nonstop.

Tiff, the salvia that I bought from high country nursery is the burgundy seduction. I bought 3 of them and they were little twigs and in a month they had taken off and by the end of summer they had taken over so give them Room because they do really spread but non stop blooming. I have another one that I bought locally I'm not sure of the name it also bloomed non stop it's weird that the hot lips which is also a greggi did not Bloom non stop.

This is a different salvia, cant remember the name

I moved it because it was taking over Memorial day.

Tiff, I love your plan for Desdamona. I have 3 coming . I have great plans for mine too.

Darren---The only one I grow on your list is LoS. I had PAoK but it ended up with a bad case of "human foot in the middle of the bush" and didn't survive. Peace couldn't handle my winters.

LoS should become a rather large bush as each year pass'

stunning! Thank you.

and I love the salvia. I have caradonna. :D