The roses look wonderful, Sheila, considering it's so hot.

They are beautiful! I particularly love the shots that show sections of your garden and how you have used the roses with the other plants, it looks like a wonderful place to spend time!

Wow sheila !! So many beautiful roses you have. I so miss my flamenco rosita and yours looks so good . You have such a lovely garden and so many pretty roses to look at .

Sheila your garden just mooooves me. Its not so much each individual rose, its the whole you have created. Your choices in rose suits your garden, the light, the surrounding colors perfectly. how do i put this, but more power to you.

It sure looks dry and hot! It's amazing that your roses are doing anything with the heat you have. You sure do have some beautiful roses...I love, love your La France!! I would love to get that rose one day. I love your perennial, Black Adder agastache...the color...oh my!! You have such perfection on your Orfeo blooms!!! I love your picture with the Russian Sage and the white perennials and your wonderful La France!!! I especially love your Flamenco Rosita (oh my!!!). Your SoF and Laujauzan Tea are marvelous...and your The Alnwick Rose is a million times better than mine ever was. Well done, and I really enjoyed looking at your pictures. :)

This is a treat that I will come back to again and again. There are some of my old favorites and some new ones framed beautifully with lacy blue perovskia. Love how on the same bush, one Colette bloom can look so prim and proper and the other blowsy. I wish my Flamenco R would fill out like yours. La France has been a favorite ever since I got my first catalog from Roses of Yesterday and Today back in the 80's. Laujauzan Tea makes me swoon. I'm going back through a third time, now.

Beautiful roses and garden, Sheila! It looks like you have some shade, and that is SO helpful. In those few places I have trees and tall shrubs, the grass is greener and the roses are more luxuriant.

What a collection of roses you have, Sheila. Some (even Teas - a class I have pored over) that I have never heard of. I love the way you have put things together. Etoile de Lyon (rarely perfect for me, though when it was, was such a heartstopper), and La France with perovskia (which was a thug in my garden).

My poor little garden has gone backwards, but late this afternoon I was down there cutting up a huge split cane of Ms Tillier that I had removed, and a few luminous blooms of G Nabonnand caught my eye, and gave me so much pleasure.

Sheila, everything looks wonderful, even in our heat.

My Grandchildren are all La Frances. Seems like one of us should grow that rose

Sheila, would you comment more on feeding your roses in this heat? I assume you are having the same heat wave so many of us are having. I have put off my second feeding until it cools off, but it doesn't look like it will until fall.

I planned to feed fish and kelp this go round, same as you, but I was going to feed all my roses.

Thank you all for the support. I so enjoy all the efforts people make to share their experiences and photos.

Flowers, I bet your plants would love the fish/kelp even now. I only use the organic Tones usually and composted manure, so I could put that on everything now too but I have not due to too much to do. With emitters for water, my Tones would not incorporate until rain hits in the Fall anyway I suppose. I probably have only fertilized once per year in Spring really, although twice would be better I'm sure. I did decide to haul around some 2 gal watering cans of fish/kelp and put it on especially pathetic plants in select cases. Essentially the intensive care ward. This has really spurred some plants on, although own root Evelyn shows no improvement. I am going to pull it out this winter and pot it because it hates it's spot.

Basically, my "soil" is a work in progress. I have really outgrown my ability to deadhead everything. I love wild and naturalistic gardens, fortunately, but I have to stop getting more treasures and take care of the roses I have.

The maintenance of the perennials, weeding, and checking water emitters could all be full time jobs.

I really need to get my pot ghetto planted this Fall, then stop buying more roses. Wish me luck!

@Sheila z8a Rogue Valley OR , gorgeous roses as always! Thank you for sharing.

If you don't mind, would you please share pics of your drip system setup and links to the parts you ordered? I'm planning to redo my drip system to cover both the ground and potted roses and would like to know as much as I can what will work best. Thanks Sheila. Helen

Helen, We got a Hunter control box in the garage, and 12 zones in 7 valve boxes installed professionally with underground PVC tubing. Then my husband laid irrigation black tubing around where needed and we have punched holes and put in the netafim emitters (2 gal/hr woodpecker from dripdepot) where needed. I've tried to put two emitters on each rose. We cycled through spaghetti tubing that gave out, flag emitters that clogged, and ruled out burying the black tubing because you need to see it working. We also water during the day, again so we can see the emitters working. These days we are watering automatically for an hour a day per zone. Ideally, the emitters are punched into the main black tubing. We use well water. We strung one line of irrigation tubing down the middle of each side of the fence Tea garden, and around the inside of the black chain link fence I am planting. The stucco Tea garden has a loop with an extra length behind the roses next to the wall. One can splice in connectors and add areas as you go along. I have used spaghetti tubing up into pots but try to avoid it in the main garden areas. This system leaves some plants unirrigated, and others only watered in a linear area but I am doing the best I know so far. Obviously, the original professional help was essential. I'm crawling around on the ground checking things. My husband splices in new areas as needed. Does that all make sense?

@Sheila z8a Rogue Valley OR Thank you Sheila for the explanation and photos.

For my garden, I'm planning to run 2 lines, one for ground roses (water schedule 2 times per week) and one for pots (5-15 gallon pots, water schedule daily). I don't use PVC tubing, so I can do all the installation myself. I already have the ground line running so I will just need to run a parallel line for the potted roses and put it on a different timer. Helen

Thank you Sheila for posting your pictures. I always enjoy them....

Also your gopher damaged rose is a real trooper.... so glad it came back for you.

I ordered Molly Sharman Crawford from Rose Petals also. It got some terrible crud, hung in there for a year and then died without ever blooming. I feel less bad if it wasn't actually Molly.

Sheila everything looks so gorgeous!

What are the blue/lavender co/underplantings? Is it sage?

Chantal, I have about every blue underplanting there is. Nepeta Walker's Low, Rozanne geranium, lavender, Spanish lavender, Russian Sage, etc. I love the blue with the roses.

Helen, your system sounds great.

HU, I wish I knew what this plant is. I'm going to plant it in the Fall, as if it were a Tea, which I hope it is and see what happens. For all I know it will look entirely different next year. I agree, losing a plant that was not what you wanted doesn't seem as bad.

Sheila, I’m team blue underplanting too! My nepeta’s undersides turn yellow/brown though :( Is that from too much water?

I planted the white calamintha nepeta too, it’s still very small but I think it will look gorgeous too.

I just got baby blue jean sage but it’s already turning brown before I got to plant it ugh.

On my wishlist are delphiniums but I heard they are hard to grow.

The photo of the David Austin Oliva Rose (On the DA website) has a blue underplanting and I’m dying to know what that is!

Chantal, you really should get the Rozanne geranium. It always looks good. My Spanish lavender blooms earlier than the French lavender which is nice. The nepeta can get ratty. Some cut it back midsummer and get nice new growth. I never have and just put up with it. In my case I just notice what is looking good now and ignore the bloomed out plants. Russian sage is really the only one that looks great in Winter. I'll look on the DA website and see if I can identify the blue.

I think that is probably nepeta at it's freshest Chantal. My sages always look stiffer.

Thank you, Sheila, for the further info about feeding. I'm starting this evening. My roses are looking rather tired.

I hope this posts. They're disappearing as soon as I hit 'submit'.

Wow Shiela! What a collection of roses. I was so taken by your Flemenco Rosita... she’s stunning. Also... what is the frilly white flower that you’re growing in front of your roses... Is it Orlaya White Lace? Can you tell me more about this flower? Is it a good companion plant for roses? Does it last from year to year? Did you grow it from seed? I just got a seed packet of Orlaya White lace... and I’m wondering if it’s too late to plant it... if maybe I should wait until the fall?

That is the original Queen Anne's Lace, Ann. I have let the wild flowers do what they want here. I'm just letting nature run wild.

@Sheila z8a Rogue Valley OR All so beautiful but my favorite combination is La France with Russian sage and Queen Anne's lace beside... so frothy and creamy!

Sheila I let Queens Annes Lace grow too, my neighbors have been asking about the pretty flowers lol and I’m like; oh that’s a “weed” ;) I love the fleabane too, they look like daisies and looked beautiful with the roses. Spring looked beautiful with dandelions, buttercups, wild violets, periwinkle and thyme speedwell but all I have now is crispy clover :( I judge “weeds” by if I find them pretty and I look if they are beneficial to insects. I just really need a Summer flower and I think the Rozanne geranium might be it! I believe the Queens Annes lace is also a butterfly host plant! I let nature run wild too.

Hi back at you, Sheila. Baby Colette looks great. Mine was by far the earliest rose to start blooming, as usual, in early May, and she's still blooming in our inferno in July. I hope yours does the same. I don't know where to begin, given you have posted so many gorgeous roses and companions. I had to make notes. Flamenco Rosita is one stunning showstopper. I so wish I had the room for this rose (no wonder Lily misses her so much). La France is an elegant beauty; and the single bloom of Reine des Violettes is all you need--what wonderful color. I wonder if a grafted Evelyn would do better for you, but good luck with her in a big pot. She is kind of picky about locations--really wants lots of sun--I mean lots. Which you have, though. In fact your stunning setting is one of the best parts of your garden. I enjoyed your photos and description of your drip system. Your controller looks like ours. We added a tremendous number of various mini sprinklers to the emitter system to water all the annuals and perennials I grow in this desert. It takes a lot of maintenance, which is an area in which my son in law is outstanding. Now I'm wishing you the good luck you mentioned in getting all those chores done.

Flowers, I fertilize twice in late winter/very early spring (Tones and Lilly Miller). Then wait a while. I see by my notes, I did another feeding of Lilly Miller Organic for acid loving plants on July 9 and 10. Just before the inferno began. It really helped my roses, I think. Have fun-ha. Diane

Thank you for all of that Diane. I put in a grafted Evelyn in that is better than the own root one so far. The problem was my planting location here for those Evelyns. I chose hot spots inside the courtyard wall with poor soil and baking heat, but probably not the best sun. The ownroot one I am going to try to revive during the dormant season in a pot (like I did the Alnwick with no roots). Then, I can plant it out along the chain link fence in full sun where it will be happier if it survives. I should probably skip planting any DAs in the most horrid conditions. I somehow thought it loved heat, but not that poor soil/sand heat. Colette OTOH looks great and has a tall new basal and looks so happy out on the chain link fence. The soil is better there too.

The Evelyns probably thought they were in Southern California. I hope Ingrid is OK. I can see coping with baking heat is a challenge for plants and people.

Also, Diane, the mini-sprinkler idea would really help the second feeding to get to work. Here, with just emitters the top is too dry for usual fertilizers during the Summer. I'm sure they would really help but probably more than I can handle right now, anyway.

Oh what gorgeous roses! I second (and third and fourth and so on) all the compliments here. You've outdone yourself!

Sheila, your garden and roses (and other plants too) are looking absolutely splendid! La France is gorgeous and made my heart beat faster. Thank you for mentioning me, but I haven't been able to bring myself to visit the rose forums for many weeks as my garden is a complete shambles, and I mainly looked in to see whether Lisa had posted. It seems that every week another rose or two dies from the animals eating the leaves until only bare sticks are left. Plum Perfect, Evelyn, La France, SdlM, Rhodologue Jules Gravereaux and most of the tea roses are hanging on by a thread but probably not for much longer. I'm happy to see that all the familiar names are still here and hope that you will all stay safe. Warm best wishes to everyone.

Warm wishes back, Ingrid. I am so sorry your garden is under attack again. I have been thinking of you and Cecil and hoping you were staying safe.

I am feeling concerned for Lisa too. What a time to need an operation, but what can you do sometimes?

Check in when you can, and we will all hope for rain, restoration and a Covid-19 vaccine.

Thanks, Diane, for chiming in on your feeding schedule. Obviously, I have not been feeding enough. Regarding Colette - one up and died (I thought). Same story as Quicksilver. Big, healthy plant that has survived winters very well, just suddenly turned crispy brown to the ground in a late spring freeze. I was able to get Quicksilver dug out by myself, but I couldn't budge Colette. I severed her roots all the way around, and cut her canes to the ground (they were hard and dry) and waited until my husband could dig her out. In the meantime, she has grown back, looking healthy and strong. I did the same thing to an Eden I wanted to remove for not growing or blooming for several years. She also responded in a big way and is climbing her arbor like crazy. So, moral of story, give them the hatchet treatment, and they will thrive. Not really, but Colette and Eden responded that way. Roses are full of surprises.

Sheila, I just heard from Lisa today and she is well, although of course wishing that her recovery period were more speedy. She is bemoaning the state of her garden, but it's nothing that can't be fixed, and sweet Lilyfinch from Temecula is coming to help her. I hope Lisa will soon be enjoying the absence of her hip pain and much more carefree gardening in the future.

That is such good news about Lisa, Ingrid. I was getting worried, given all that is going on now. I'm glad Lily is going to help out. I know several people who have had this surgery, and never regretted it a bit, including a friend who has an enormous garden. I am so sorry to read about your garden. I know you don't want to do anything about the critters, but I couldn't stand by and not take some action--or hire someone to build some protective fencing. I have had a strange year--absolutely no deer have come around here all season to chow on my roses. They're very much around our village and the hills, so it's puzzling. I spent a small fortune on a big supply of deer repellent, too. I've used some early in the season, but I don't know if spraying the stuff in July is very worthwhile. Those blasted creatures are probably out in back right now laughing their heads off. I tempted the fates.

Flowers, I'm so happy your Colette is charging back. She is one of my toughest roses. I know she looks awful just before dormancy is broken, but I know she's alive. You know how angry I was with Brother Cadfael for his poor reblooming. At the end of August 2118, I chopped him down (sort of). He went from close to 9 feet to less than two. I think he liked being cut down to size, and for the past year has grown like crazy back up to nearly 9 feet, and he has been reblooming better this summer, but the heat just destroys the darn blooms. A gardener can't win. But yes, roses are full of surprises--not always good ones. I'm a pessimist. Diane

Sheila, gorgeous, gorgeous blooms and garden! Your Alnwick, Spirit of Freedom, and Colette have me especially swooning!

Diane, I'm not surprised that Bro. C had a change of heart after fearing for his life. I think they know more than we think they do. That chopping down business worked with another of my best roses, Cinderella Fairy Tale, a non-performer I wanted out. I chopped her down to the base, and I'm not kidding, by the time I got back out there to finish her off, she was a couple feet tall and perfectly shaped. I told her 'ok, you win', and she is now my best of 3 Cinderellas.

I am happy to hear the deer have moved on to some other unsuspecting gardener's goodies. If you can figure out whose garden they are devouring, they might buy all your deer repellent from you.

Thank you for the great news on Lisa, Ingrid. Here is a Hi from a couple roses today.

Ingrid...dang...that's so sad that you can't enjoy your wonderful roses...that there is not stopping these critters. I wish you could have a greenhouse...that would be a godsend.

Lilyfinch is a truly good person!! What a wonderful thing for her to do!! :)

Diane - I'm glad that you've gotten a reprieve from critters...hopefully they will stay away! Now you need some cooler weather. :)

Flowers - excellent!! Chopping down seems to work!! LOL about buying the deer repellent.

Sheila - I absolutely love your Mrs. Dudley cross!!! So you created this beauty? I am sooo impressed!!!!

Sheila, I came to this thread for your roses, which are spectacular!, but am so happy to read comments from Ingrid and hear news of Lisa. Ingrid, I'm sorry about your roses. I finally had to fence mine to keep out the critters although some are able to bypass them, but not enough to worry. With low fencing the roses eventually cover it, but the main stems and roots are protected. I so wish someone could help you with that as it wouldn't affect the aesthetics with a bit of time.

Vapor, I agree about fencing for Ingrid's problem. But I'm sure it would require hired help, which some of us are reluctant to use during this pandemic. California is very hard hit by the virus right now. But fencing would be the way to go. Isn't that wonderful to read the good news about Lisa?

Thanks, Carol. We're gearing up for another horrible heat wave. This is the traditional week for the county 4-H fair in the next county. It's always the hottest week of the year and !@#$ on the poor animals. They will get a reprieve this year, since all fairs have been canceled all around the area. Very sad. But the poor animals will still be auctioned off online to face a grim fate.

Flowers, I'm sure the deer are plaguing some poor gardener nearby. This person probably has a large veg garden and several bird feeders. There aren't many rose growers around here, but I can think of one not far away. The lack of deer sort of makes up for lousy spring weather. I hope your roses are doing well. Do you have any photos to share? We can hijack Sheila's beautiful thread.

Sheila, Henriette is gorgeous with her pale color and fluffy blooms. I had a great aunt Henrietta--love the name. Diane

Stephanie was on the verge of digging out her Mrs. Dudley Cross, so I had to post this, Carol. That is the rose's actual name. My only "creation" was a pink single.

LOL Doh!!! :)

Sheila, your gardening is magical. Some of the most beautiful blooms I've ever seen are on the roses you grow. And their shrub form is wonderful. They look so healthy and happy in your garden.