What glorious photos, Rick! I'm so happy it is clearly a good year for the roses even though there are problems elsewhere.

Such perfectly lovely roses, Rick, each and every one. Of course I had to choose my favorites, Dove and The Reeve, but they all look so wonderfully grown and groomed. It was a treat to see your posting today.

Those are amazing beauties!!! I agree with Ingrid about the Dove being a favorite...I also really love Lilac Rose. They're all such inspiring pics!! Mmmmm. :) :)

I think I know where i want to go next year! unbelievably gorgeous and so much improvement!

Thank you for sharing those photos! The roses and the setting are beautiful so serene. It looks so sweet and peaceful.

Gorgeous!

Guess I'll add a few more. This one is Allux Symphony, a great favourite of mine.

Golden Celebration

Evelyn again

The Dark Lady, whole plant images

And a couple of images of the garden from a distance perspective.

This rose garden is one of the five rose beds that we have in the 5 hectare ornamental garden. The rose gardens are being featured in a community garden tour that includes 11 other gardens in the area on June 21st.

Cheers, Rick

Thanks to you and the volunteers for maintaining and keeping alive so many roses including those out of production. Roses like Dove and Allux Symphony and The Reeve might be disappearing without the diligence and commitment of people like you. The photos are stunning and the setting gorgeous.

Cynthia

Perhaps just one more stunner:

"Mayor of Casterbridge" an Austin English Rose introduced in 1997. This one seems to be a favorite of some of my volunteers, as well as many visitors. Needs hard pruning in spring to keep her from growing to 3 meters or more, but rewards that treatment with rampant growth and a huge first flush of potently fragrant bloom that wafts.

Cheers, Rick

I love the beautiful whole plant shots too, Rick. I am so grateful you are conserving these treasures.

These images make me homesick for BC, even though I spent only five years there. So nice to see some roses that aren't talked about much like The Dark Lady and Ambridge Rose that were both in my garden at one time. Allux Symphony is splendid here and on HMF where it has an Excellent rating.

Lovely!

And thanks for coming back for another helping of pictures. And another after that!

The antibellan blooms of "Potter and Moore" taken this morning.

Another rose I grew at one time, and how lovely to see this beauty is still being grown. It reminds me of the older roses like Bourbons and Hybrid perpetuals, much more so than the modern Austins. I'm so glad you showed us P&M here, Rick. Nostalgia is a precious thing.

Here is Potter and Moore in my garden in 2015.

Such beautiful roses! Thanks for the pictures. I imagine the volunteers count working in that garden as one of thei highlights of the season.

Yes, Rosefolly, the volunteers work on teams with separate responsibilities and areas of the Gardens to care for.

I am so fortunate to have a team of 8 ladies, yes I am the token male on the team. They are all passionate about the Gardens and the fact that they helped build and expand the rose plantings has made them feel a sense of pride and even ownership me thinks. Some of them have been on the Rose Team since its inception. They almonst all now grow roses propogated as cuttings from the Summerland collections in their own gardens and know far more about roses and rose gardening than any of them will admit.

We and our spouses have get togthers and pot luck dinners a few time a year. The Gardens have built my team and turned them into friends.

Cheers, Rick

It sounds like a great way to make like-minded friends.

Rideau Rose - those are sumptuous Potter and Moore blooms!

Ingrid - yours is glorious, too!! P & M looks like a great rose!

Yolande D' Aragnon, a Portland/Gallica, from Vibert, France, 1843. New to the collection this spring form Fraser Valley Rose Farm. Thanks Jason!! She is impressing me greatly thus far. This is her second go at blooming and she is only a two year old plant. I did not know how well, or if she would rebloom, but this is a second flush and it is not yet July. Whooo Hooo, HRRD!

Rick

Perhaps I am overloading you all and this thread with images, but this summer is the first summer I can simply enjoy the rose collections that I am very fortunate to have access to curate and share. Yesterday was hot, even by Okanagan Valley Standards, 37 degrees C, or about 98 F. But we have only had one extremely hot day so far this summer. So when I went out on the back deck this morning, I was not really expecting the lovely surprises that greeted me.

The roses in this post are all from my own home. Mostly young plants that I am babying and growing on. That is the greatest privilege/blessing I have from my long association with John, Jason and the Summerland Gardens. I have access to and the joy of curating and propagating from a superb collection of roses.

This one is my plant of Allux Symphony, from a mother plant from California, now growing at Summerland Gardens with a second plant from the mother next to her.

This is Gabriel Oak, I lost the mother plant which came from David Austin Roses to the polar vortex two years ago, but luckily had a one baby safe in the greenhouse at Fraser Valley Rose Farm. This is one of the newer ones in the collection, but a very good rose, healthy, vigorous and floriferous. The image is not great, as this particular salmon pink colour is very hard to capture accurately in an image. The real bloom is far more beautiful. Sorry.

William Shakespeare 2000. this is from a 2nd year plant grown from a cutting imported from John's Garden in 2023. Creeping still in its second year, hopefully leaping next year.

And this is Spirit of Freedom, another cutting grown plant from California. She was not happy in the wet cool weather two weeks ago, a bit of reluctance to open and some damage to outer petals. But a few days of sun and yesterday's heat have perked her right up.

The first flush is now finished. Lots of deadheading and summer pruning going on right now. I have also stuck about 65 cuttings beginning in mid June, all from out of patent or un-pattented cultivars in the various collections. They are in propagating cloches in the Former Superintendent's House, sitting on tables in the north facing sun room. Fingers crossed for a good rooting result. A few will go into the various rose gardens. The majority will go for sale at our spring plant sale in May.

The roses are a particular favourite at the spring sale and sell out quickly. So I am trying to up production to meet demand. We make a large portion of our funding for the Friends of the Summerland Ornamental Gardensfrom our two yearly plant sales. So it is a job well worth the effort. Plus it helps me replace any varieties that are lost in the gardens for any reason. Pocket Gophers, polar extreme winters, or sadly we have even had a theft or two.

I hope I am not boring you all with this thread. I am enjoying sharing the ongoing saga and the beautiful roses I am privileged to take care off.

Cheers, Rick

NOT boring us, lol. So glad to enjoy the garden vicariously through your photos.

Rick, I love your updates on the garden. I was fortunate to be rose trading partners with John P for several years before he moved to Texas, and he told me all about the process and effort of getting the roses to you. You, John, and all of your helpers and contributors are a true gift to the rose world!

Rick - what a beautiful bloom of Yolande...mmmmm

Rideau Rose - oh, SWOON!!! I'm in love with your Allux Symphony!!! :) :) Those are all gorgeous roses (Gabriel Oak...mmmmm), but Allux Symphony is my fave. :) :) Nice to have another Canadian rose gardener. :) :)

Rick, Thanks for the update and beautiful photos of your roses. So exciting to see ones that are rare!

Nola