This is beautiful, Melissa. Thank you for sharing with us. I had no idea that Mrs B.R. Cant could climb -- I know someone who wants a pink, cupped, fragrant climber with good re-bloom and after seeing your pictures I am thinking that maybe she should try Mrs BR Cant. Your views are fantastic, and I love the light touch you have with your plants -- I get the feeling that you place them very deliberately yet you give them the freedom to be themselves. Does that make sense? I suppose I see your approach as a contrast to a very modern approach to gardening, that tries for control above all.

OMG Melissa, your property is gorgeous! The roses are amazing - I have most that you mention, and I surely hope they get as large as yours! (I planted them to be an impenetrable wall along the edges of the back side of the property.) And your views, what a fabulous setting!

Thanks for the pics, they are inspirational for sure.

Those pictures are a gift. Thank you!

Thank you, Melissa! I love your garden. I love the wild look.

Melissa, Austen's descriptions of strolls through the garden/woods/moors etc., while one or more characters are chatting/discussing/sunk in thought etc., are favorites of mine. In my head I can vividly recall several specific scenes - the trees, the bushes, the flowers, the dress of the characters - just as clearly as if I lived them myself.

My teas and chinas are mostly planted in loamy/sandy soil, but I have a few (Lady Hillingdon; Crepuscule; Louis Phillippe; WPIRDM) that are in more clay-like soil and they seem to be doing fine. Go figure.

Thanks Melissa. My teas are doing well, but then again I have a very sunny situation with lots of concrete around me reflecting heat. My friend is in a leafier neighborhood, so she might not get the sort of heat I get that makes my teas happy. Good thought!

Melissa, you write so beautifully I always have such an image of your garden that sometimes I'm happy not to have seen it often. However, the reality does not disappoint.

It’s wonderful to see these images to accompany your poetic descriptions, Melissa! Your garden and architecture are romantic, natural and very inviting. AJ is incredible! Please thank DD for serving as landscape photographer. Carol

Simply WOW! THAT is the way I love to see roses!

@Melissa Northern Italy zone 8 just flat out gorgeous shots! Thank you! PLEASE go post those to their respective pages on HMF. Posters are frequently lamenting the lack of full plant shots and these are spectacular!

Jeri, me too!

Thanks for the kind words, everybody: I'm glad you all like the photos. Vaporvac, that's a particularly handsome compliment. Carol, I'll pass on your thanks to DD. Kim, that occurred to me, too, and I posted the photo of AJ on HMF. I agree that there are far too few full-plant photos there.

'Archduke Joseph' actually isn't all visible in the picture: it continues on past the persimmon and climbs onto the end of the wisteria pergola behind the tree. Huge. The quality of the flowers has been excellent, though the flush is fading now. AJ benefits, I think, from its position under the terrace where I keep my potted plants: they get watered during the summer, and AJ likely profits from the runoff and from the potting soil that inevitably gets scattered about.

@K S, about the rose for your friend, what about 'Cl. Mme. Caroline Testout', or 'Awakening' (sport of 'New Dawn')? Both are at least mildly fragrant, reflowering, pink and handsome, and determined varieties. A different style of rose, bright pink, fragrant, that will climb if given support, is the Hybrid Musk 'Vanity'. This will make a contained climber, but has an open, angular form. Or--still speculating--'Noella Nabonnand': tall, leggy, sprawling, with abundant spectacular large blooms of extremely vivid fuchsia, though actually there's not a word in English to describe NN's unique hue. This last might require summer heat. It certainly offers color.

@slumgullion, I think it's a matter of degree. Our clay takes fingerprints. I'm still trying to come up with the courage to think of modifying our soil to a degree that Teas will be able to grow there: it will require terracing and quantities of organic amendment and sand. Idem for Hybrid Musks, a class I love, but that struggles in our heavy ground. I bought a load (three cubic meters) of sand a few months ago; now it's just a question of hauling it around and adding it where needed. Sand is heavy!

P.S. @K S, oops, just noticed the "cupped". 'Awakening', then, which has a particularly handsome bloom form.

Melissa, thanks for posting pictures of you mature roses. It is really helpful to see the overall effect when planning. I love your views!