Oh I so agree!!! As much as I love Instagram, I definitely have fallen into the trap of comparisons. And feeling like I’m on the losing side with my little lot and potted mess . But here , it’s more than just the beautiful flowers, it’s the friendships and heart behind the actual garden!!! It’s the best ! If only we were neighbors to truly be there in person. ❤️

I agree, it is the friendship and support , sharing our lives as well as our hard earned gardens

Yes, I love that we are genuinely happy for each other when we share beautiful pictures and that we can laugh with each other over roses that hate us and mistakes that we have made. We learn, share, and grow in friendship!!

Great thread idea!!!

I love that I can connect with gardening friends from all over. It is so nice to see how gardens grow in California, Idaho, Texas, Massachusetts, the South, the Northeast, Canada, the rest of the Midwest and even European and Caribbean countries. It is specially nice to see that no matter how different our growing conditions may be we all share the same passion for roses and our gardens.

It’s like finding your tribe. That is how I feel.

ooooh!!! Well put!!!

All of this is so true! For me it's just having a place where I can talk about roses endlessly with out people rolling their eyes at me, lol!

I am blessed to be able to talk about roses, and about dogs -- both of which preserve my sanity in hard times.

In all times. :)

what would we do without our dogs

I've decided that rose gardeners are just the best. And there's something that just 'clicks' even tho our lives are extremely varied and different!

If only we could all embrace our commonality, doing so makes us feel good about ourselves and others - the opposite sets us against ourselves and destroys our inner peace

I especially like your last comment, austinkisses. Though there's not much in bloom in my garden now besides cyclamen and asters, I love the community with other crazy gardeners and rose growers. Thanks for starting this thread!

Seil - exactly!!

Jeri - that's a great picture...I love the full rose and the bud...that bud!!!!!! What rose is it?

Yes, I love my dogs. I'm even training the neighbor's dog. LOL

I’ve been obsessed with everyone’s posts, their absolute passion for rose gardening and finding out about this forum from someone I stumbled upon on Instagram called “hedgerowrose” was one of the best things to happen from using that app. I completely understand what you mean @Lilyfinch, with the comparison, whether it’s gardens or just daily lives. My garden is something that is so brand new, I came here for advice initially with so many questions I had, and I also never left. I look forward to checking notifications everyday from this forum and the amazing people in it. My (now ex) laughed when he heard I was using this so often and what I did on it- But that’s just it - people who don’t share this passion, just like I feel about people who don’t like dogs or animals in general - I feel like a part of you is unawakened if you haven’t enjoyed the sheer joy a garden brings. Watching something I put into the ground give me gorgeous blooms is something I can NEVER get bored of. My job is something that to be honest, has greatly taken a toll on my emotional and mental well being, worsened by this pandemic - my colleagues are some of the most cruel people I have ever met in my life.....my mom is fighting cancer - her 5th relapse but she will win this fight . I have so so much going on at any given time. My garden and this forum is more than a hobby.....it’s my escape and my sanity sometimes. It’s rare for me to find a hobby and stick with it Bc let’s face it, being a doctor doesn’t give me much time to myself....sometimes I work 38hours straight and I go home, sleep and get back to work the next day. I worked 2 years without a single day off already. I turned to rose gardening as it was something i have genuinely wanted since I was a child! This forum makes me feel not so weird about my obsession with roses! You people are AMAZING. Each and every one of you! Thank you for bringing happiness to people you have never seen, never and yet, things work when human beings have common ground - something each person enjoys despite being from so many different places around the world.

Oh look. I just wrote my first book (sorry guys) lol

So well spoken, RaeAnna. We need this community. I too have wanted to garden since I was a child. Many gardeners are Drs. It is such a relief to engage with the natural world. Good luck to your dear mother.

RaeAnna Thank you so much for sharing with us. Indeed that is also what I truly think and feel. Rose gardeners, and gardeners in general, are among the most lovely people I have met. The pandemic has made our lives so much more challenging, no matter what we do. It just feels incredible being able to share our loves for gardening with others. In particular, many of us are living so far a way from each other. Having this bond is truly special. Please take care. At the moment, doctors like you are our heroes. And, best wishes to your mother!

RaeAnna, I'm sorry to hear your mother has health problems. All the best to her. She is blessed that you are a Dr.

Well, I'm not a doctor, but I have been gardening since I was a child. We had a very small plot of dirt - I won't even call it soil - outside our tiny duplex when I was very young, and my mother, who loved gardening herself, bought a few pansies for me to plant and care for. Then, same as now, I'd rather be outside caring for my plants than anywhere else I can think of.

Someone brought the hat to me from Tijuana. My mother thought it would be a good idea for me to wear it since I sat out there in the sun so much, although I couldn't see what I was doing. Left of the little fence belonged to the neighbor.

Awwww thanks to each of you for your heartwarming words and well wishes, I really appreciate it 💗 I love your hat! I chuckled when I read the part about wearing but not seeing what you were doing lol thats moms for us! The scorching Caribbean sun has made me ten shades of roasted from gardening! But it’s a labour if love. Keep your stories coming! I appreciate so much, the fact that we all speak about life and other things, aside from roses. Wishing everyone happiness and best of health in this so very uncertain time.

Flowers - that's an adorable picture...you with your sweet pansies!

RaeAnna - having a passion is something that a lot of people don't understand. My parents never had a passion in their lives. I know so many people who go through life without that strong zeal for something. It makes our lives magical and wonderous...we'll continue for as long as we're able. :)

flowers, is there really someone under that hat?! So cute.

RaeAnna, I hope your mother recovers.

Carol, love what you say.

My Albanian friend once reported to me a saying of her mother's, to the effect that "Gardeners are God's people". I think that's true. I can honestly say I've never known anyone who was the worse for being a gardener: gardening may not make people perfect, but it tends to sweeten them up.

Titian - :)

Melissa - and fill us with hope and humility. :)

@rosecanadian: that's what I mean.

Melissa - :) so true!!! :)

Love these comments. I have to say sometimes I read the comments out loud to my husband so he knows I am not “the only one”. I hear you Flowersaremusic! I yammer on, watch people edge away and cannot stop! I am a retired teacher and discovered I treat my roses much like my former students: this one needs TLC, this one needs to buck up,, this one is the clown etc. I so enjoy this forum and appreciate all of your insight.

Mrs. Teakettle - I do the same thing...see, it's not just me! He knows that by now, but it's still fun to share with him!

I am so glad that i found this forum - I think I did by googling something about roses. I couldn't stop reading the various posts. Each one had an interesting question or facts about a particular rose or pretty pictures, or... I still want to read the old posts further and further back. I don't think I'll ever finish them.

I had no idea there was such a thing as an active forum with people from all walks of life and from all over the world who share their love of roses and gardening. Add my obsession with this forum to my obsession with gardening and my obsession with old roses and Austin roses and all my other obsessions. I'm lucky to have a couple of neighbors to share gardening with, but nothing to the extent of this forum.

I agree with everyone's sentiments - it's a wonderful little world that you all have created here. I want to live in it forever!

~Peggy

Melissa, I like the comment from your friend that gardeners are God's people. After all, he created the first garden. We are probably all familiar with this stanza from a well known poem,

"The kiss of the sun for pardon'

The song of the birds for mirth,

One is nearer God's heart in a garden'

Than anywhere else on earth."

Dorothy Frances Gurney

Trish, I agree that we can't look at a growing thing and not have hope. And, boy, how gardening humbles us! We've all been there.

Mrs. Teakettle, what a wonderful comparison of your roses to your students, all with different attributes and needs. Love that!

Peggy, I came here like you. I googled a gardening question, and was directed here. I've never left. I'd have to pay a pretty penny to take a class to learn all the things I've learned here.

Peggy - we're all so lucky to have found each other here....another little "family."

I think gardeners share a love of life. It leaps from the pages - the roses, the plants , the animal pets, the babies, the loved ones.

Gardeners tend to be generous and nurturing.

I love that I can have plants and still give them away. They grow.

I joke that the Garden of Eden is man's natural habitat.

Cath

Can you even imagine what the garden of eden looked like ? And the animals that were there, wow. It must have been magnificent