Because of all the rain, most of my garden looks a mess. And what has not been bent by the rain, topples because the vole ate the roots. It's really a challenging garden year.

Still, there are nice bits and pieces, too. Louis is one happy rose. It defoliated completely after the first flush and is now covered in buds and fresh foliage.

@Marlorena

Every time I see your lovely photos of Desdemona Marlorena I begin to doubt my decision to get rid of it at the end of the summer.

Sorry you couldn’t get Gartenträume @Tack UK, but who knows what we’ll actually get with TCL in any case! Hopefully you will get Versigny and I will get Chippendale at least.

Ah, that’s interesting you don’t get any repeat with GdF, Elbfee. If the main flush lasted a little longer and it kept a healthy head of foliage for the rest of the season I would be happy with that, but I don’t think it would ever have reached Giverny levels here, Marlorena. Even at it’s peak, this was 27th of May, the small blooms crisped and shattered fast:

Aside from climate, my main issue is the soil, or lack thereof. When I say I’m planting a rose ’in the ground’ what I mean is planting in a bottomless raised bed on top of very shallow, stony clay. That means beds that they need constantly topping up with compost, plus keeping them hydrated in intense summer heat is a challenge. It’s like growing in giant pots, really.

ETA: Yes I still have ASG, Marlorena. It does OK, but is slow to fill out.

PeteS

..well Desdemona has survived all my culls and would remain into my last 5 roses, so that should tell you something. Perhaps give it another year?

Such a lovely photo Nollie, what a shame.. this rose has always bloomed continuously for me, in fact my young one of GdeF, which I moved just a month ago, is already producing fresh buds..

.. another that remains is 'Lambada'.. just look at this glorious foliage for August, which is unusual here.. and another good flush starting.. virtually thornless, long smooth stems, thorns mostly at the base. This one isn't going anywhere. I noticed a light apple scent today..

Out of 5 roses I have bought from Tanya's, I've got only one correctly labelled. Purely it's like hitting a lottery!

I am inclined to move my Constance Spry to the opposite side as the once flowering rose taking up the prime spot and I will chop down soon.

Constance:

Alnwick Castle:

I can only dip in here from time to time these days, and have to say the awful weather this year has not really helped. Thanks to everyone who has given me helpful advice and generally posted gorgeous rose photos. GC seems to be a bit of a mixed bag. Oh well. Do hope the weather is more to our taste into the next growing season.

I'm hoping for some rain so that I need not water the pots this week. Today so far, the weather is good though the wind is picking up now. A few photos before the flowers are demolished by the wind/rain.

Super Trouper

Sommerwind

Bad Birnbach

Othello

Pure Poetry

Ulmer Munster

Blauwestadroos

Royal Celebration

Vanessa Bell

Open arms

Papa Meilland

@Peter Aberdeen I think your compost area is about the size of my garden!

@Peter Aberdeen, my garden is very small - but if it was bigger I wouldn't be able to cope with it, so it's all good.

I've decided to dig up a climbing rose that has not performed well for me plus I think it is too big for my fence panel (I can't really remember what it was called but I know I got it from DA - a pale pink - maybe New Dawn). I will need to move some other plants around and dig out the soil as I would like to buy a bare root rose The Lark Ascending and plant in the same spot. I also have a large container that holds two DA roses, The Country Parson, that I am passing on to a friend. I love the flower on this rose but the thorns are horrendous plus the leaf is not attractive and always gets blackspot. I'm going to replace with two DA Trumpeter roses as bare root plants. I'm hoping this will brighten up the back of my garden which is all green. In the meantime, I am exremely happy with my new purchases of Belle de Jour and Molineux.

@Peter, what fuel do you exist on? I'd go through a lot of chocolate to get motivated to do all this hard core gardening. And the unit is bars, not pieces. I decided to buy compost and not sacrifice an inch of my garden for this.

Discovered that Orange Dawn is distinctly two toned now and The Lady blushes happily. My infantry for my Eyes For You standard. Perfect in colour. Only issue, the rose is not blooming. And another smothered rose. This white gaura is huge.

@Peter Aberdeen @ElbFee, no amount of chocolate nor coffee can motivate me to undertake such a huge task.🥺

Posting a few photos taken now in the fading light.

Louise Odier

It says Ruby flower carpet on the label, but it looks more like pink flower carpet - more than 20 blooms in that single spray.

Sweet honey

Cream Abundance

The Lark Ascending

Darcey Bussel

Eisvogel

Do NOT, I repeat, do NOT plant comfrey. I had do dig about 80cm deep and wide to get the roots out. In another spot I check every 5 days and dig whatever rears its head. And will be doing so for years to come. The roots are white and snap like asparagus. And then every teeny wheeny bit starts growing. Aegopodium podagraria is a piece of cake, chocolate cake, compared to comfrey.

Mr VineEye made a watered down fertilizer from it. But in my humble opinion not even a bloom explosion justifies deliberately handing over your garden to comfrey.

Fun to have a compost area, if hard work..

I'm down now to about 15 roses but I have a confession. I went to Dobies today and something caught my attention which I couldn't resist..

'Pacific Crest'... [aka 'Weg der Sinne' in Europe/TCL].. I thought it so pretty, love the 3 tone colours, red, purple and pink as I see them, and it has some scent.. it's a Kordes rose.

I also picked up a Fargesia robusta 'Pingwu', and a yellow Chrysanthemum.. these for my new patio area.

A few roses are putting their heads above the parapet now the temperature is largely keeping below 30c. Mostly Austins and all potted, interestingly..

William Shakespeare 2000:

(Guillot’s) Ventilo:

Lady Emma Hamilton:

Golden Celebration:

The Poet’s Wife:

(Zary’s) Honey Bouquet:

Munstead Wood, hasn’t stopped all summer, my best ever DA:

I think (finger’s crossed) I have finally eradicated the ants nest from my Avalanche Abricot pot, which really suffered earlier in the year and struggled to bloom. The foliage shrugged off the heat and looks fantastic though, with lots of promising shoots, which I’m hoping will give me a late blooming:

Stormy Weather joining the late party:

Very windy here @Peter Aberdeen, but no damage in the garden that I have found.

The forecast says 2 weeks of summer, hot and no rain. Well well...

I still have first blooms. Amazing. Had pruned Princesse de Nassau really hard as part of my hedge-is-gone redesign. A nightmare to deadhead but a beautiful lime green foliage throughout the season. A Reine des Violettes bloom for Peter to look forward to. Ilios is currently under vole attack. I stuff soil back to its roots, vole digs its way back. And we start again. I hope to win because Ilios has a great scent.

I have been fancying a standard rose, and this morning I was browsing the internet and found patio standards (3 varieties) at £20 each on Fryers Roses website. I fancied a trip out to Booths in Knutsford (I don't live far away) and I thought I would have a look at the roses and possibly save the postage cost.
I was shocked to find that they are still charging the full price of £54.99 at the nursery! With a reduction of £5 if you are a Diamond Club member.
I did mention it to a member of staff who offered to honour the online price if I purchased one, but as they were all rather weedy specimens I declined the offer.
I have copied the above from a comment I posted on GC yesterday, just for information and warning.

@Peter Aberdeen, unfortunately DA only seem to do full standards and I only want a half. But it was the difference in price from online to in the store that surprised me. I appreciate the amount of work that goes into a standard. But how annoyed would you be if you got home and decided to check out the pictures online of your lovely new rose and realised that you could have bought it £30 cheaper?

I have bought some standards from TCL. They came with a stake up to the grafting. I replaced them with taller ones to protect the fully leaved crowns in the windy season formerly known as summer. They do very differently. Mind Games was brilliant this year. Chandos a pleasure last year. Ascot has only one cane still alive. Scepter'd Isle, Papagena and Eyes For You are somewhere in the middle. But it was always the rose I had ordered 😉.

Just poured 10l of sunshine out my rain meter. So much to 2 weeks of sunshine as forecasted yesterday.

Some pink today.

Hello I hope all are well sorry I haven't popped in for a while I been rather busy with life . I've been learning to drive which stressed me out for most the summer but that's over and do with now I got a van a few week ago and managed to fill it with plants last week .

Sorry to see you've had a major cull of the roses Marlorena , maybe room for some other types of plants ?

On to the roses mine have faired very well , the constant rain seem to help . I've got some picture from earlier on in the year, they should be starting their 2nd flush very soon. The newly planted this year Mary delaney & iceburg have flowered and starting to make some good growth be a while until they are on top of the pergola.

Golden Celebration - think its going after this year to live on the garage site . I am fond of it but its never really proformed for me or got big

GDF marvellous as usual its a reliable repeater for me. Its still got flowers on now before a decent 2nd flush . Desdemona in the pot . I try to turn this area into a rose court yard garden well that's what I am calling it , the aucuba ( next to brown bin ) is to be removed when a new shrub rose is released I fancy.

Paul scarlet fantastic again 2 years on the trot , almost dug it out for having nearly no scent but really good since must of heard me .

Gabriel Oak its coming on now after looking like a dead twig for year , stem are very lax need supporting .

Not a great picture - Lady of Shallot and Generous gardener with a newly plant Delphinium faust.

Malvern Hills is really struggling I don't know what to do with it , its stem seem to split and eventually die back . I may have to take it out and rehome it .

The best rose for me this year is Eustace vye I am so pleased with it very health - prolific flowering smells great wonderful rose .

Perki, fabulous, you've done such a great job there and I've seen photos of your pergola too, an impressive structure.

Congrats on passing driving test.. I suspect you are the same age as I was when I took mine, i.e. the wrong side of 30.. I had 3 goes, but in my defence, it was in London, enough to make anyone a nervous wreck.

Your 'EV' looks much better than mine ever did here for some reason, and your clematis companions are spot on.

I'm as much into home furnishings these days, maybe I should start a thread titled ''show me your Oxford pillowcases'' or somesuch.. plenty of bare earth showing here at the moment but I hope to still be in the market for the occasional rose or something else. Easy going shrubs are on my agenda, but not Aucuba, - yes do replant that !..

As I've lost so many of my roses, I thought to use some of my photos for frames. I used a company called Postsnap, whereby you upload your pics - they need to be high resolution, at least 5MB, they then run them off and post to you at the size you want. They can be trimmed to fit the frames if necessary.

I had some old prints I got tired of, but kept the frames for this purpose.

'Mme Lauriol de Barny' in a 10 x 8'' frame..

I've also got another the same size of 'Cornelia'..

Clematis 'Star of India' in a 10 x 8'' frame..

..this is a 20'' x 20'' of my Crocosmia 'Carmine Brilliant'..

I might have a few more done before I'm finished. I didn't find it expensive.

Taking things to next level, @Marlorena, showing pictures of pictures of roses. Great idea to enjoy your past or present garden all year round.

My tool collection increased, too. I have 5 more vole traps. May they do their job, because the f...animal are aiming straight below every rose and now take the short route through my lawn. It all looks like a freshly plowed field.

Let's enjoy the roses while they are still alive. Including new to me Heidi. About the same colour as Laudatio but not as strong a scent. Wollerton and Louis cope very well in this dry and sunny spell.

I think that's the best Louis XIV I've seen, but then we don't see too many of that rose. Heidi Klum is rather nice too. I would like to have got the similar 'Fur Elise'..

Very dry here too..

Clematis 'Westerplatte'.. a good late summer flush..

Lythrum 'Dropmore Purple'.. flowers non stop despite dry conditions..

'Sally Holmes' never without blooms.. and remarkably free from sawflies and diseases.. this has become a must have rose for me.. not going anywhere..

Ceanothus 'Marie Simon'.. 2nd flush..

Heliotrope 'Marine'.. from seed, takes a long time to flower, lovely scent..

'Pacific Crest'..

'Lavender Lassie'.. scant rebloom but here and there, fairly non stop..

'Lambada'.. bright and showy,,.. 2nd flush.. another free of sawflies and diseases, virtually..

Great to see you popping in Perki and the rose courtyard is coming together beautifully.

Lovely framed photos, Marlorena, such a good idea.

Elbfee, your garden continues to impress. I kind of regret getting rid of Heidi because the blooms were very heat tolerant, but it just didn’t bloom enough for me and the fragrance was disappointing most of the time..

Having been fairly restrained with my TCL order I’m now wondering about adding a couple more. I was eying up Kordes’ Fräulein Maria to replace Flamenco Rosita simply because it’s outgrown it’s space, plus I’m just a bit bored with it. Hmm, Für Elise is another possibility, Marlorena!

A wet Spring gave me my best ever first flush, my alkaline well water is no substitute for rain. But things continue to improve after the disastrous big fry up in the sky burnt everything. Following the blessed relief of rain and a big summer prune, lots of new leaves and flowering shoots continue to emerge.

New flush beginning on Lady Emma Hamilton standard:

Hopefully more to come..

Hi everyone.. been a while since I posted.. but I do log in and check every now and then.. must have missed some posts as well🤔

Great idea to frame your rose pics @Marlorena

I am preparing my cull list here. I think I removed a couple already.. Louis XIV did not have that wow factor eventhough it bloomed well since going to the ground.. the blooms are small and take on a dark brown colourng after a couple of days.. others in the list are;

-Deltoffee.. single blooms which stays on for ages, but then the fragrance is medium at best for me..

-mislabelled? Gruss an Coburg

-Amour de marie Jo.. new release but struggling in fragrance and disease resistance..

-Marielle Jourdan david (same reason as above)

I think the list will grow..

@Nollie, I got Für Elise and Laudatio last autumn from TCL. Elise went into the ground and was suffocated most of the season by yet another Daucus Carrota tree. I had a single bloom. Now its under vole attack. Wheras Laudatio was potted and is an ongoing pleasure, colour and scent are great. If you want to add another rose to your order, I'd go for Laudatio. And Unique Aroma. Because it lives up to its name and cannot bleach in heat as it is already almost white.

I too still look in regularly but with no time to take pictures I tend not to post. I do enjoy all of yours very much.

I am looking at these rose recommendations wih renewed interest. My summer tends to follow a pattern and the last event is over so I look ahead again and start planning changes. My cull list is rather long right now but may change. Heidi K was on it but was a favourite with a couple of my recent visitors which made me appreciate it again. Nothing else I have has quite such organised petals and it is a great colour, blooms just enough but has a bad tendency to mildew, also some BS.

The patio pots are looking ok, not like the early summer flush but still blooming pleasingly

Soul, White Meidiland and Cutie Pie

Faustinia, Special Anniversary and Bring Me Sunshine

Dames de Chenonceau, Savoy Hotel and Pierre de Ronsard Std

The borders are colourful, spot the roses!

Bathsheba

Mutabilis

Super excelsor Std

Scarborough Fair

Blush Noisette is one of my best all round roses, love it

GdeF starts mixed in with Wollerton Hall...

and stretches forever down the side alley

In my limited experience of both, Kordes are generally a better bet than Noak roses when it comes to heat resistance, Elbfee, but I might heroically restrain myself . I do have other pinks/purples available (currently potted) that would suit that space.

Perhaps more time and maturity might bring out the fragrance Cooldoc? I must admit to being highly sceptical about Massad/Guillot fragrance descriptions but so far three out of four have matched the hype. Two out of four have not shown great BS resistance, so far, but it was a very wet Spring here, so they have a free pass for now.

Looking gorgeous and very peak rose, Tack, I still haven’t seen anyone surpass your pot growing skills. The only one I can say I grow well in a pot is Marie Pavie.

I'm loving @Marlorena in England's framed rose photos and @Tack UK's garden photos. Hope everyone's roses are fluorishing. I've been busy at home and work, finding very little time to take and share photos. However, managed to revive some of my potted roses, which had been affected by my non-watering for 2 weeks in the hot weather early this month. Here is Ulmer Munster with its crimson blooms, but not much fragrance.

Othello, which I haven't taken a photo of, has also masses of flowers in its third flush.

Honey Bouquet, vigorous and healthy but best at a distance as blooms don’t age prettily:

Versigny, love this rose:

The Poet’s Wife, very pale now, but still pretty. Didn’t like heat much and bad BS here:

First of hopefully revived Avalanche Abricot blooms opening:

The reds after the intense heat. My intensity, not Nollie's.

Another day with liquid sunshine💦. After 3 days of 30C a short break is ok, I guess. Yellow roses did well in the heat.

And some more. I am actually quite impressed with the garden at the end of August. The high amount of rain seems to be appreciated. The average temperatures are 2 degrees above normal. But really hot days have been scarce.

What different climates we have to contend with Elbfee. Yours is looking very lush and lovely, whereas scattered blooms with less petals are the best I can usually manage in August..

Boscobel:

Ladurée:

Ebb Tide:

Sharing with you a few photos I took yesterday evening and today morning 😁

Unlabelled

Heavenly Pink

Sweet Honey

Royal Parfuma

Timeless Charisma

Bordure Abricot

Love Song

Young Lycidas

Tess of the d'Urbervilles

Eisvogel

Two roses that are bucking the trend here and retaining both bloom size and petal count in heat are Versigny and (surprisingly) William Shakespeare 2000:

Avalanche Abricot (Delbard) slightly smaller and paler than usual, but at least it’s finally recovering from the ants nest in the pot:

So nice seeing everyone’s roses.

A friend gave me a ’Blue Diamond’ (‘Hi Ho Silver’) rose. Does anyone have it and how do you find it? It had a bad case of blackspot so I’ve defoliated it. I’ve never had a lavender rose, looking forward to something different next year in that sense.

Not much else from me (as usual). Roald Dahl is having a nice little flush. Very small blooms due to heat and lack of water.

Wollerton Old Hall is full of buds and starting a second flush as well

Anemone ’Honorine Jobert’

Dahlia ’Jowey Winnie’

A lavender rose for Athelas. Novalis finally with a proper bloom, thanks to little rain lately. Munstead with a hihgly untypical bloom. Very much appreciated though as its a sign of life after I rescued it from the ground as naked twig. Some do better in a pot. Vichy for Nollie. How does your specimen do? Maurice is the only Delbard painter rose I know that has a good scent. And Gräfin Diana with another of the spectacular blooms, look at that colour #nofilter 😁

Athelas, your Roald Dahl is doing so much better than my 2-yr old, which has defoliated almost completely with BS and given me very few blooms this year. I suspect it needs more sun, but if I give it more of ’my’ sun it may well burn!

Elbfee, sadly I don’t have ’Vichy’ because I was sent Thierry Marx instead. The latter badly balled in rain and burnt in sun and has languished with little growth.

Oh dear Peter. I long since gave up on the eradication of bindweed, ivy and ground elder, no point while the neighbours have it but with your walls and your work ethic I'd put money on you managing it. I can't imagine GdeF would sulk too long while young, it has plenty of vigor; my 4 yr old specimen today

Glad your Munstead Wood is recovering Elbfee, I don't know how you keep track of all your roses. My labels in the pots are all degrading and I must renew, this is another reason not to plant out too many in the wilderness, I wouldn't remember them.

Eustace, your variety is astounding too, shame you don't know what that first photo is it's very nice. I will look up what else I can add to TCL, your Bordure Abricot is exquisite

I have mixed luck with lilac colours Athelas but this year Eufemia performed well and is off the cull list, will watch Blue Diamond with interest, I don't know that one. Fingers crossed it does well. That dahlia is sheer perfection

I find WS2000 a good bloomer in full sun too Nollie, not a scrap of shade where it is on the balcony. Foliage is another story though

The other, and better rose in the same position is my find of the year, Eye of theStorm. A healthy continuous bloomer with a strong colour and good scent

Other newbies I am pleased with

Pear

Emma Bridgewater

I am torn as to what to do with The Prince and Soul. They both fry but are briefly so lovely . The work to reward ratio is heavily stacked against them.

Loving all the rose photos. 😊

@Peter Aberdeen, yes I think it is time for an Autumn thread.

Not even a drop of rain here though thundershowers were predicted.

The unlabelled rose was a cheap purchase from Tesco about 4 years ago and it is loaded with flowers since May. Not much fragrance though, I think it is Bonica. Photos taken at dusk:

GdeF here is in part shade and hasn't had its second flush yet. I don't see any buds forming 🥺

Almost all the red roses here have crisp edges in the hot sun - Till Eulenspiegel below. It's particularly noticeable in Proper Job and Pure Poetry marring the perfect rosette bloom.

Munstead Wood is the only red I have tried that has truly heat tolerant petals and continues to bloom whatever the temperature. So many reds have met the shovel because they fried. Soul does fine in heat for me, Tack, in fact seems to love it. Weird how roses behave so differently, maybe mine is just more acclimatised. Oh and it normally takes a break in August. The Prince fries badly and every year I consider getting rid, then relent. Same with WS2K but for the droopiness rather than the foliage.

Peter I am cursed with bindweed too, impossible to dig up because it just keeps regenerating from the tiniest piece of root. The only control that works for me is to allow a rogue outbreak amongst the plants to twine up a short bamboo cane, place a large, upside down plastic water bottle with the bottom cut off over it, then carefully spray glyphosate down into the bottle on a still day. It’s the only circumstance I resort to such methods in my otherwise no-spray garden!

Nothing new rose-wise for me either, just some new blooms on Versigny (deepest apricot yet) and Avalanche Abricot (in buff/yellow phase). My measly contribution is put to shame by all yours, especially Eustace’s delightfully continuous parade of beauties!

I think you start the thread add Roses and there is a choice to add Antique Roses as the prompts move along. I can try it.

Exactly as Sheila’s says, Peter. You start the thread first then select which topics to post it under.

So start by clicking back from this thread to the list of rose threads and enter the title in the box next to your avatar ’start a discussion’, write your intro then when you post it should prompt you to select multiple places to post it, so you should be able to click on both. Maybe you have to search and click ’follow’ both roses and antique roses in the explore discussions box on the left of the screen for them to pop up automatically for selection?? I follow both.