What a fun idea!!!

J: Just Joey! It's where my avatar name came from. My mom grew this rose when I was a kid and I finally got one this summer from the Roses Unlimited sale. I don't have any pictures of the blooms yet but hopefully next spring I will.

O: Olympiad. This is my first year growing it and I love the true-red color and the beautifully shaped bush.

E: Ebb Tide. Surprisingly cold hardy for me, delicious fragrance, and those indulgent purple blooms grab everyone's attention.

Y: Gonna have to cheat a bit and go with Harison's YELLOW. This piece came from the big one at our old house...that one was planted in the '70s from a piece that was growing at an old stage stop. When the old hotel building burned down a local rancher and his wife went and rescued the rose which hadn't burned and transplanted it to the ranch house. It had been growing at the stage stop for as long as anyone knew.

Good going, Joey!! Your Harrison's Yellow is unbelievable!!! Is it a repeat bloomer? Absolute stunner of a rose!!! No wonder settlers took it with them wherever they went (am I right about that...or am I thinking of a different yellow rose?)

No wonder you took the name Joey...really fond memories for you! :) I can't think of Oranges and Lemons without the song popping into my head. :) I hope you can get one soon!

Carol your Lasting Love is incredible!! I just looked it up and it seems like a real stunner! Thanks for adding another one to my wishlist :)

Thanks, Joey!! It's an Adams rose...like the bunch of Adams roses that Palatine is offering...Lasting Love is the reason why I thought I'd get a lot of their new Adam roses. :)

Carol: You are very clever !! Love this game. For my StrawChicago name, I'll start with

S: for Savannah (big pink below), amazing scent, always healthy (I don't spray)

T: for The Dark Lady, biggest bloom for Austin roses at 4.5" across, bouquet picked today Oct 20 at 40 F, wafting old rose scent (on right). W.S. 2000 is on left (stronger scent, violet and old rose), and pink Radio Times in the middle.

R: is for Radio Times, best damask scent that rivals old garden rose.

A: is for About Face, nice fruity scent, amazing deep yellow color

W: For my most favorite Austin, now 10th-year own root: W.S. 2000

C: for Christopher Marlowe, amazing carnation and lemon scent (much better scent than Pretty lady rose).

H: For Honey Bouquet, best honey scent in a bouquet, yellow that doesn't fade:

I: I don't have any rose with an I, so I sub with J for James Galway, best carnation scent. They are the pink cluster blooms on left.

C: for Crown Princess Magareta, best bloomer in only 4 hours of sun

G: Gruss an Teplitz, grows wild in my garden, never water this one, very winter hardy:

O: for Old Port floribunda, refuses to die after 9 years as own-root, I neglect it since it has light scent:

Here is mine :) Helen

H - Huntington Rose - I love the cabbage look of this rose' blooms. It's very healthy in my garden. It has the habit of throwing long canes so I will need to peg it.

E - Evelyn - This is one of my perfect roses. David Austin's roses often don't last long in a vase, but this one lasts very well in a vase and on a bush.

L - Lady of Shalott - This rose is a Julia child in orange. Love it.

E - Earth Angel - I love everything about this rose. It doesn't repeat as much as some other roses, but for its beautiful blooms I don't mind the wait.

N - Neil Diamond - One of my perfect roses. It has everything one could ask for in a rose.

Teresa - what a great group of pictures!! You went through your whole Avatar name!! Well done!!! I thought of this game at 5 a.m. last night as I was trying to go to sleep. LOL Hello, my name is Carol and I have a sleeping problem. Hi Carol. LOL

My favorites of your roses (so many!) are

- The Dark Lady, Radio Times (your pic is the most wonderful RT I've ever seen!!!!), WS2000, CPM (oh my!!), ALM, and GAT. Oh wow!!! Such Fabulous roses!!

Helen - Beautiful!!!! Your Huntington Rose is exquisite!!! In your 2nd picture of it, sure doesn't look like it needs pegging. Wonderful! Your 2nd picture of Evelyn is SWOON-able!!! There's not much that can beat a fabulous Evelyn IMHO. You really love deeply cupped Austins...and your JtO is a graet example of that! Earth Angel....oh my!!!

This is so much fun!!

Teresa - what a great group of pictures!! You went through your whole Avatar name!! Well done!!! I thought of this game at 5 a.m. last night as I was trying to go to sleep. LOL Hello, my name is Carol and I have a sleeping problem. Hi Carol. LOL

My favorites of your roses (so many!) are

- The Dark Lady, Radio Times (your pic is the most wonderful RT I've ever seen!!!!), WS2000, CPM (oh my!!), ALM, and GAT. Oh wow!!! Such Fabulous roses!!

Helen - Beautiful!!!! Your Huntington Rose is exquisite!!! In your 2nd picture of it, sure doesn't look like it needs pegging. Wonderful! Your 2nd picture of Evelyn is SWOON-able!!! There's not much that can beat a fabulous Evelyn IMHO. You really love deeply cupped Austins...and your JtO is a graet example of that! Earth Angel....oh my!!!

This is so much fun!!

Wow! Don't we all have beautiful names, lol!

My avatar

And my first name which is Sharon

Ooooh!!! Thanks for playing, Seil...and you used 2 names!! Awesome!

Sisters at Heart is really, really beautiful!! GASP!!! I love your LS and your AF so much too!!! Your AF really surprised me with the wonderful color and the beautiful shape...this is an exceptional picture!!! I love the soft color of Nancy Jean. And your Hot Romance is bright!!! Love!!! :)

Seil: I look over your pics. 4 times, that's how much I enjoy them. Your camera is excellent in capturing the variations in color, which I enjoy very much. Love your Ellle, Hot Romance, Sisters at Heart, Angel Face, Love song. How do you feed your roses to have such vibrant and deep colors? Thanks for any info.

Seil is an excellent photographer, isn't she!! :) :)

Thank you so much guys!

One thing I can say is that I use a real camera, not a cell phone. It isn't an expensive one (under a hundred bucks) just a small Fuji digital SLR camera. I can make some adjustments to exposures and that helps a lot with capturing the colors. The other thing I do is groom (like you would for an exhibition) the blooms before shooting. I check for bugs and debris in the blooms (a small artist's paint brush works great for that) and I check the background for distracting things as well. I try to frame when shooting but I do use Photoshop for cropping and touching up. I use the macro setting nearly all the time but I don't hold the camera close to the bloom. I stand back and zoom in to the bloom to frame it. That is what gives me the dark and/or blurred out backgrounds. I also nearly always use the flash for fill so I don't get sharp shadows across the blooms. Even in bright sunlight I still use the flash. Even with all that sometimes the reds and purples are really hard to get accurately. But sometimes I get lucky, lol!

So many gorgeous roses and great photography too!

I hope the third try is a charm!

M - MME ERNEST CALVAT

E - EASY DOES IT

R - ROYAL AMETHYST

L - LIEBESZAUBER

E - ENGLISH PERFUME

N - NEIL DIAMOND

A - ALOHA

Seil - when I use the flash..it always makes everything look white...so if the flash pops up, I cover it with my hand. Maybe it's because the camera is too close to the bloom??

Merlena - thanks so much for trying again and again!!! Your pictures are wonderful!!! Your MEC and Royal Amethyst are my favorites...incredible!!! Neil Diamond is a big WOW!!! We almost have pictograms/hieroglphics ... if we standardized a system where R is always your Royal Amethyst, H could be Helen's Huntington Rose, S could be Seil's Sisters At Heart, T could be Straw's The Dark Lady, A could be my August Luise and E could be Joey's Ebb Tide....we could post pictures (which I can't copy from your posts) to spell the word HEARTS...so our own secret language. LOL Or not. :)

Oh these pics are so lovely!!! I love this game Carol . Great thinking!! I’m gonna have to think on mind tho ...

Lilyfinch - :) :) Thank you!!! I'm looking forward to seeing which roses you pick!!

E - Eyes for You

D - Daybreak. I don't have it yet but have it on pre-order.

H - Going to cheat here, I am choosing the whole class, one of my most favourite - Hybrid musks. And a photo of Jacqueline Humery.

E - Ebb Tide

L - Lavender Dream

K - cheating again, using phonetics - Clarence House

A - Alba Maxima

Carol, yes, if you stand close or hold the camera close to the bloom it will cause a lot of reflection. I put it on macro and stand back about 4 or 5 feet and zoom into the bloom. That way the flash diffuses some before it hits the bloom. It's just enough to take out any harsh shadows with out causing over exposure.

I figured out why this wasn't working. Houzz had me signed out.

A-ugusta Luise

N-ahema

N-early Wild. Photo borrowed from the internet. Mine is a baby band.

I-spahan

E-rinnerung an Brod.

Edhelka (North Wales, UK) Your pics. made me miss Eyes for you (died in my zone 5). Love those unique roses you have, such as pretty Lavender Dream.

Andrea (flowers): All your blooms are perfect ... Love their colors & many petals. Which of them have the best scent? Thanks.

I's a toss up between Ispahan, a rose known for her scent and it is used in perfume making, I've been told, and Nahema, also known for her scent. Both of those are the kind that you keep wanting to go back to for more. Erinnerung isn't as strong, but it is an old fashioned, old rose scent, very lovely. Augusta is not strong for me - yet, but she is young and the scent is very nice. The only one that has no scent is Nearly Wild.

Your bouquets are blowing me away! I love the bright mixed colors but especially the soft pink and yellow ones. That's my new favorite.

Edhelka - I love your Ebb Tide picture...I find the half opened bloom in the background mesmerizing!! Oooh!!! Clarence House and Alba Maxima....drool-iscious!!!

Seil - I'm going to try that next year! I've never manually zoomed in on anything...but I'll give it a go! Thanks!! :)

Flowers - I'm glad you figured it out! Your Ispahan and AL....oh my!!! Those are super beautiful!!!