Ms all America beauty

Ranunculus interesting fact: her Chinese name is “peony with celery leaves”. Mine is less “peonish“

Camellia

Gentle hermoine. Again many hate her scent but I love it!

double delight. Super fragrant, lots of blooms and fast repeat. Very tall plant

boscobel no blooms yet but lots of buds. Out of the 7 Austins I have this one has the best mannered plant shape. almost a round shrub.

Beautiful pictures Oliver! I'm waiting for my roses very impatiently here!

anytime now... i have not got out of the house for over a week... the waiting is driving me crazy lol

Oliver, these are gorgeous. I really didn’t know The Poet’s Wife was such a beauty!

Oliver, you have a lovely collection of plants and roses

Good job staying

Beautiful roses. It's raining now, so I'm constantly peeking out the window to look at my garden. There are a lot of buds so I can't wait when they are fully open :) Helen

I saw this picture online today...

Beautiful Oliver. When did you prune to have so many blooming already? I’m hoping in the next week for my Poet’s Wife to open, but Boscobel looks to be the next one of mine to open.

Those are all gorgeous, Oliver! And such a breath of spring!

Oh, Oliver...they're gorgeous!!! And I love how you made a point of mentioning the fragrance of each rose! Well done! True Inspiration is marvelously beautiful!! I love the sunshine on The Poet's Wife! And the bear!!! I've heard that a lot of cities and towns all over the world are almost being reclaimed by animals. Well...not reclaimed...but a lot of wild animals are roaming the streets, because they're so empty.

thanks for the positive energy everyone!

Yes indeed people have seen coyotes and mountain lions on the street of San Francisco...

Nick, I pruned my roses early Jan. Here are pictures of “Julia child” and “adobe sunrise” in mid Feb. I fertilize a lot. Chicken manure, fish emulsion, and other organic compost every week. btw thanks for the info about “feed&fuel”. I went to half moon bay and bought 100 lb of alfalfa pallet last month and already finished half of it! Lol

I found all of my Austins take at least three years to fully establish

Oliver....so many beautiful roses! And your fertilizing really seems to be paying off...you have really full looking blooms with beautiful color. That's good to know about your Austins...mine are entering their third season and most of them have been somewhat disappointing. I hope to see real improvement this year!

And good for you for staying home. I am having such a hard time with my husband who keeps wanting to go to the beach, go paddleboarding, go to the park. He says, "well, there's no one there, so it's fine!!" I get sooooo mad at him! I tell him, everyone isn't staying home and obeying the rules so that *you* can be the one person who goes to the beach safely! ugh

Being at home more isn't helping my patients level as I wait for mine to open. Turns out checking multiple times a day to see if a bloom has opened doesn't make it open faster. What's even more fun, not accepting that, and continuing to do it anyway. haha

I like the smell of pink jasmine, it's always blooming in our zone, though I did change mine out for star jasmine, I find it a little easier to control.

I'm with you Nick! In the summer, I check multiple times per day...roses are fascinating!!

Wow Olivier !! Beautiful photos . I love the pink jasmine fragrance . When I bought one at Home Depot, the cashier was complaining about the scent. Meanwhile I couldn’t get enough!!

Nick it blooms a lot for you ?!

I feel like us with gardens have pretty prisons at least . I too keep checking the buds and making lists for my big trip to a garden center when that day comes .

I agree. If this is home arrest, at least we are in pretty prisons. Haha just hope this ends faster but meanwhile we can stay at home and check our plants multiple times a day. ;)

by the way for those who live in San Francisco or Bay Area, there is this place to get green compost http://www.bvgrecycle.com they have great free compost. Just go there and help yourself. I have got tons of compost there. my rose field is always buried in thick layers of layers of compost...

Oliver your roses are fantastic. I am specially impressed with your Boscobel. I have multiple of that rose and NONE of them have such beautiful green foliage or as many buds. I love your roses and all your companions are beautiful. I am specially jealous of your bougainvillea =), that is one plant after moving to zone7 I can’t grow that I miss dearly.

Lilyfinch I am very happy in my prison :). I get to see every tiny little change in my garden for the first time. I can’t wait for things to get back to normal and we all can resume our normal lives again but I will treasure all my garden moments. My teasing Georgia has a half open bud, and I swear I go look at it like 5 times a day and tell her to please hurry and open up. Some of my other roses have started blooming but Teasing Georgia was new last year and I only got one ugly pale yellow bloom. Fingers crossed this year will be different. Stay safe everyone.

Oliver, that Poet's Wife and True Inspiration are my favorites! It'll be awhile before I have anything for show and tell. :)

dianela, my boscobel is getting better every year. I am convinced That most Austins take time to establish. And it seems most of them also need lots of fertilizing. Maybe yours is younger? as for bougainville, I had a purple one and a yellow (California gold) one. But the yellow one died two years ago due to the wet winter here. It was a young plant and could not handle the excess amount of water. I replaced her with the pink jasmine and am quite happy so far.

I wish I had a pretty prison....just cold weather and snow. Blech.

But at least I have pretty pictures from all of you.

Oliver...amazing blooms!!! What do you think of Miss All American Beauty? I almost got that this year, but I wasn't sure how good of a rose it is. What do you think of fragrance, and bloomability?

Rosecanadian, am sorry to report that ms all American beauty is not my favorite... I am constantly thinking about getting rid of her... lol

pros

good disease resistant. Mine was a bare root from Lowe’s. and surprisingly she didn’t get any diseases. always the first to bloom every spring. And decent amount of blooms. Very large blooms. 6inch or so. The first two years, no scent. Now (the third year) light fragrance. Compact. doesn’t get overly huge. 3 to 4 ft tall and wide.

cons

almost no fragrance. Ugly plant shape and foliage doesn’t cover the whole plant. I personally find the flower shape is a bit “loose” for my taste. I prefer very full, petal packed blooms. Her blooms do not last long. Also i don't think she repeats fast enough Considering how much I fertilize. I moved her to a shady area this year to make rooms for other roses. And she is doing very well so far. That made me think maybe she doesn’t like the full sun? I guess the last one can be a good thing because most of us struggle with not having enough sunny spots. i think my main problem with her is that the blooms are not sophisticated enough.

anyway, am keep her for now, specially that she is in a less desired spot...

Oh how lucky for you to get free compost !!

This spring I made my Fish emulsion and alfalfa tea . I didn’t end up needing all of it so it has taken me 3 weeks to get rid of it . I poured more into my bed. I let it sit in the sun to evaporate what could and I tried to just pour the liquid down the storm drain but alfalfa was in there too so I stopped. This mixture had been really stinking my side yard up and I wonder if my neighbors noticed! Finally I am down to a bit left that I can put in the green bin to be taken away in the trash and I am never making it agin . Lol

I mean 3 weeks of fish and alfalfa . 🤢

dianela I hope your teasing Georgia makes you so happy when it opens !!!

Hi carol !! ☺️ So glad to see you back !

I bet the snow looks beautiful too and you can do lots of planning now ! I wish I had ordered more seeds ... I have to see who can ship the quickest

Oliver: such beautiful colorful flowers. Not much blooming here so I enjoy looking at pictures and the reminder that spring Is right around the corner for my area.

I hadn't heard of Bayview Greenwaste, thanks for the heads up Oliver.

Lilyfinch, pink jasmine is always blooming up here, sadly star jasmine takes the winter and spring off. I used kelp powder in my alfalfa mix and it had an interesting ocean smell, I can only imagine how bad fish emulsion must have smelled!

Beautiful and that Boscobel is going to be amazing when those blooms open! The shape is lovely and foliage is so perfect!

Oliver - thank you so much for saving me from buying that rose next time it catches my fancy. :) Fragrance is huge for me.

Hey Lilyfinch - I'm so glad to be back. Yay!