Gingersnap

Koko Loco

Francis Dubreuil (Barcelona)

Mellow Yellow

Intrigue bud

Maria Shriver

They are gorgeous! Gingersnap's color is very striking, and I especially like Intrigue's shade of pink/purple. They all look great! 😃

Beautiful!.dot. And some beauties we don't often see. Thank you! I don't have any flowers at the moment but some of my cuttings are trying to flower I keep pinching off the bugs. That should be bugs BUDS

Thanks for the refreshing garden shots, because right now things in my garden are as asleep as Rip Van Winkle! Nothing much doing anything but the wind rustling the leaves left on the bushes...no serious cold or snow yet, just blustery weather with lows no lower than about 20°F....a mild year's end thus far.

Moses

Wonderful pictures!! I'm especially fond of your Koko Loco (oh, those colors!!) and Gingersnap.

Thanks for your kind comments. Anyone else feel free to add your current blooms :-D

Munstead Wood. In love with the hose - and why not? Water is life.

Moonstone (white). Dream Come True (large blend), next to Camille Pissarro (striped). Darcey Bussell. Our Lady of Guadalupe. Went for whole-bush shots this time.

And my favorite rose of the last two years - Memorial Day. Sublime.

Close up of Memorial Day - note the white-on-pink stripe at the top and the darker pink splash at bottom left! Love this rose.

You Californians are so lucky to have blooms to share. Susan, I especially love Gingersnap. I've developed a real appreciation the last few years for orange roses, and today, I finally checked out Gingersnap on HMF. I loved the variety of oranges in the photos there. The name of this rose is especially appealing to me because ginger cookies of all kinds are my favorites--molasses ginger cookies, gingerbread people, and of course, Gingersnaps. I'm getting hungry. Luckily, there are some pumpkin cookies in the pantry.

Sylvia, what a beautiful photo of Memorial Day in your last pic. I've always loved those scalloped petals on this rose. Diane

I love these full BoscBushBoscBush shots.

Sylvia, Memorial Day is one of my favorite roses. Alas, I had to give it away because it's too tall for me growing in 15 gallon pots. But it's a great rose. Also love your other pics!

Diane, I've been an orange fiend forever. I'm keeping my eyes peeled for my local nursery's list of bare root roses they're going to offer starting Jan 2, looking for your orange dude, Double Easy Orange. It's also Deborah's local nursery.

Susan, I'm sure Jackson & Perkins is selling Double Easy Orange again next year, so if you can't get it locally, you might try J&P. I grew Memorial Day for several years and I must have kept planting it in spots it didn't like--or transplanted it one too many times. It didn't do that well, and at the time, I preferred Frederic Mistral. So out came the shovel for poor Memorial Day, which remains very popular. Meanwhile, Frederic Mistral isn't available anywhere. Check out the colors of the new rose Desert Sky. There are only a couple of pics available, it's so new. I'd like to grow that one. My favorite local nursery's rose list will be out sometime in January. I'm thinking they may be carrying DA's Bring Me Sunshine, which also interests me. I have space for one or two new roses, and that's it. Diane

Orange Dude aka Double Easy Orange, a continuous bloomer right through our hottest months.

Slyvia - lol, it does look like love. :) :) I love how your Memorial Day bloom looks up close...that stripe is really unique!

Diane - mmmmm...I love your Orange Dude!! The last one has an Augusta Luise vibe to it. :) :)

The theme of this geoup, aside from being in bloom in December, is that they were all troublemakers that became favorites.

Secret. I almost got rid of it after year one when it wasnt doing anything except dying back. Realized the watering system was defunct, and now it’s one of my favorites. Huge flushes, very fragrant and no rust/mildew even this bad year. Loads of compliments from passerbys on this one especially and I don’t see it mentioned much.

I admit I was on the fence about Bronze star very recently--it keeps getting black spot and is growing pretty funky. But it keeps putting out flushes absolutely gorgeous and fragrant so it’ll stay. Maybe a good pruning can straighten it out, literally.

Sedona is one of the first roses I bought so of course it suffered the most. I made a lot of mistakes, including poor drainage that nearly killed it, but it’s now known as the Comeback Kid because it is one of the most free blooming in the garden, and has quite beautiful blooms, especially this time of year.

Lemon spice was hard to obtain after being on multiple wait lists, but once I finally got it, it suffered an errant toddlers little (pretend Dino) foot that I figured would kill it. It’s been a slow grower but is now making huge flushes and has one of the best fragrances in the garden.

Ryan, when I was out watering in the back yard this morning looking at my Secret in the ground that's still covered in blooms (as it always is), I wondered why I never hear anyone here talking about it. And now your comment... we're doing the mind meld. One of my trading partners offered me Bronze Star a couple of years ago, and I declined after reading about it on HMF... just not enough to push me over. Since then, I've regretted that decision after seeing several folks I respect (including you) praising it. I fell in love with Sedona seeing it at a colleague's garden, and bought it right away and have loved it ever since. Lemon Spice was my original rose mentor's favorite rose, so I got that one very early on after we bought this house in 1997. I think I have five of them now :-D

Diane, yes, J&P is offering Orange Dude, but at $40 plus shipping, I don't trust the quality of their mail order bare roots enough. I'll gladly pay $40 for a Witherspoon bare root, but they're maybe the best quality in the business. So I'll keep my fingers crossed for my local nursery. Last year, their most pricey bare roots were in the low $20s. I used to grow Frederic Mistral and loved it very much, but he got way too tall for me, so he moved to a friend's house :-D

Ryan those are some terrific pictures. Secret is so outstanding at my mom’s house that I don’t feel the need to grow it, because I can just drive to her house if I want to see it.

Bronze Star such a special variety. Glorious tangerine color and strong distinct sweet apple scent, a huge bloom, nothing else like it.

Ryan - That's a beautiful bloom of Secret!! Bronze Star is my fave of your pics...somehow it reminds me of a sunflower. Gorgeous!! I love the vivid color of your Bronze Star blooms!! I'm glad these former troublemakers became favorites. :) :)

Susan, my Orange Dude came from Jackson & Perkins, and was a very nice bare root which I ordered fairly late in the season last year. I think you can trust their quality. I remember all the things said about Hortico years ago, and starting in 2011 I ordered several times from them, and never had a bad bare root from them, either, including my Augusta Luise in 2012. You can miss some special roses by ruling theses sellers out. As far as I know, J&P is the exclusive seller of Double Easy Orange (according to Ben, I believe, who gets his info from Tom Carruth). Diane

Susan, I’ll admit after smelling Lemon Spice at the Huntington I wanted it but it was yours (and Ben’s) recommendation that made me try to look much harder and save space for it after I couldn’t find it and put it on the back burner.

Ben, Bronze Star is a keeper. I wish I could get the black spot under control but even a bare legged dame is pretty if she makes blooms like those. This 2nd fall flush (winter flush?) has been amazing. And Susan, I got mine from Heirloom at the same time as another rose, since I was on the fence due to all the HMF reviews too but needed a travel companion (why buy just one!?). Then the bloom on Bronze Star appeared and…well I can’t even remember which other rose I bought :) You won’t regret getting it.