The labor and preparation have gone on for months, now it's time for the show! Enjoy your roses! Ours are mostly past, except for a light rebloom of the Teas and Noisettes, and the red, red 'Cl. Etoile de Hollande'.

Wonderful your season is starting, Rick. Gorgeous photos!

Thank you ladies, I only have a small collection now and am learning to grow roses in pots in a new climate. I have a total of 22, including 5 long gone early English Roses that I grew once upon a time courtesy of John_ca and Palantine, as well as a few new rarities along with some of my favorites from my previous gardens.

I was just at my Mother in Law's home last week, she is 93 now, in the Fraser Valley on the Coast of British Columbia and roses that I planted in her garden in 2000 when we left for Eastern Canada were in bloom. I had long forgotten what roses we planted there, but two decades later they continue to survive and prosper. They were all blooming last weekend when my wife and I were working in her yard. They include Souvenir de la Malmaison, Compte de Chambord, Buff Beauty, Wenlock and Radio Times by my ID of the blooms, amongst others. Most grow in partial to complete shade with minimal care. All have survived for two decades.

There was also a mystery rose just opening its first buds, it was heart stoppingly beautiful! As it slowly opened, I was mystified, who might she be? I cut the earliest bud and put her in a vase. For three more days it opened and continued to become more and more gorgeous; peach, yellow, pink, red highlights, who might she be? Finally, on day four, fully opened, I recognized her, one of the earliest and most famous English Roses, Abraham Darby. I have a plant of AD on my own deck with mature buds ready to open later this week. It was such a revelation that I could not ID a rose I have grown in three gardens for at least a quarter century. I am fully stoked to see my own Abraham Darby in the next few days.

Sheila, since your are now an international member of the Summerland ornamental Gardens, this is an updater for you. I am going to be allowed back into the Gardens at the beginning of July with one other of my volunteers, The weeds, deadheading, planting of more than 100 new roses and mulching beds will no doubt be overwhelming for two volunteers, but we are looking forward to getting back to the Gardens for which we have a passion and doing our best to get them ready for a general reopening. Wish us luck, and plan to visit when the borders reopen.

Cheers, Rick

That is all great news, Rick. You are really making a contribution there. I am impressed by your previous planting doing so well too. Pots could be great in your climate there. I wish you the best getting through this pandemic. You have a great attitude.

Beautiful photos, Rick! Abe’s bloom can be so variable that he can be hard to identify.

Thanks for the Abe images noseometer, they look exactly like the bud I was first wondering about. I have been volunteering at the Summerland Ornamental Gardens for three summers now and still have a number of rose varieties there that I have not identified for certain. Once you loose, or forget the name, it can be a significant challenge to re-identify it.

Two of the images of Abraham Darby in a posey taken at my Mother In Law's home last week.

The top one is the bud I cut as it was opening indoors, just before, I figured out what rose it was. In the second one with the fully open bloom is obvious that it is Abraham Darby..

Cheers, Rick

Bless you ... that was absolutely poetic.

Here's another red rose for you (and an Austin, to boot) ... 'The Dark Lady'

Thanks Jeri, we have three plants of The Dark Lady in the English Shrub garden at the Summerland Ornamental Gardens and so i enjoy her there. Have you any new images of Prospero, which I know is one of your favorite English Roses?

I have three more young plants of Austin reds that are all getting ready to bloom; the original Willaim Shakespear from 1987, Tradescant 1992, and The Prince 1994. I am very much looking forward to seeing these blooms. Tradescent in particular, as I have not grown it before, but have always admired the imgages I've seen.

R

Oh, I photograph 'Prospero' often. Like The Dark Lady, it's a rose that really needs to be budded, and my original two were. I've never managed to get a budded version of The Dark Lady, and it's a dreadful plant here on its own roots.

I had Tradescant . . . bought it as much for the name as the bloom. But I have never, NEVER had a budded plant (J&P) that suckered as badly as that one. It produced a scant handful of 'Tradescant' blooms, among a relentless onslaught of 'Dr. Huey,' and we finally removed the horror. In fact, I think that was one of the last Austins we ever bought.

Anyhow, Prospero . . . He's bloomed beautifully, this spring.

Here is Orfeo.