Not quite Spring but...

Spring equinox still a few days away but some roses are already strutting their wares I’m excluding the Teas here which didn’t stop showing off all winter.

The rugosas have been quick off the mark with Sarah van Fleet the most flamboyant so far. Weird but didn’t lose a leaf in winter

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A new rugosa Freycinet? (can’t be bothered checking the spelling) also in flower but can’t say I’m that impressed. Blooms ragged and loose and very quick to fall. Patience is a virtue I lack so it had better pull its socks up quick smart

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Blanc Double de Coubert flowering nicely but seems to lack the typical rugosa perfume – ah well can’t have everything.

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Uncle Dave Austin’s Pat Austin also didn’t lose a leaf all winter and has burst into vigorous bloom.

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30.C here yesterday and quite warm again today and the soil seems to be drying out quickly. The weather boffins are predicting another La Nina event this year. Hope they’re right. Don’t fancy coddling plants,watering and weeding in the summer heat – indolent sod that I am.. I already hear the weeds rejoicing

Larry

Its been a really werid winter. Some of our teas more or less lost all of their leaves. They are bushing up nicly now and flowering but I have never seen such a loss of leaves.

33C up here on Saturday with hot northerly winds that usually don't turn up until mid October. Still quite warm but it is supposed to cool down a bit Thursday.

My Rubens is flowering already. The Mme Alfred C never stopped. Was fully evergreen as well (first year I've had it so am impressed so far).Duet is flowering already as is Woburn Abbey.
With high 20s yesterday things are really bolting out the gate in regards to growth although some of the late planted bare-rooted ones are only just getting started.

'Freycinet' is very much like 'Roseraie de l'Haÿ'... quite like its raggedness.. looking forward to mine flowering. They say the main difference between Rdl'H and 'Freycinet' is that 'Freycinet' puts on a great show of hips.

Just to side track for a minute Larry, "in your new" collection/addiction to the rose, how many have we got so far. Regards David.

Good stuff, Larry. Great to see you getting your hands dirty again!

If your metal tripod gets stolen, you'll find it at my place

Roseman as you know once addicted to roses always addicted to roses.At various times have tried the cold turkey method of withdrawal but it barely lasted till the first catalogues arrived for the year.
During my various sojourns in hospital over the past few years my family reduced my rose population to three Jean Ducher, Crepuscule and Kathleen Harrop - the not so thorny biggies.
Since my discharge six months back I have been gripped by rose fever and now have - wait for it- 85. I figure what's the point of being alive if you can't wallow in the pleasures that make life worth living. Just being a bit more careful about getting scratched and handling my compost.

Dave - you leave my tripods alone.Most are in various stages of decrepitude anyway but my philosophy is whose gunna know once the roses cover them anyway.Belle de vous entendre à nouveau mon vieux copain

Can you name them and what the B***y hell is this giberish at the bottom of your post mate,

Name them? Just from memory old pal- I’m not a record keeper of my plants in any sense. Besides its already dark here and I’m not venturing out into the jungle I call my garden at this time – who knows what evil spirits are abroad.

Teas

Jean Ducher, Lady Hillingdon, Clg Devoniensis, Marie van Houte, General Gallieni, Duchess de Brabant, Monsieur Tilllier, General Schablikine, Mrs Reynolds Hole, Safrano

Austins

Golden Celebration, Lilac Rose, Darcy Busssell, The Dark Lady, Summer something or other, Sir Edward Elgar, Charles Darwin, Tea Clipper, Eglantyne, Tradescant, Kathryn Morley, Falstaff, Teasing Georgia, Pat Austin, Evelyn, Abraham Darby, Jude the Obscure, Will Shakespeare the second, Tamora, Ambridge Rose. Wise Portia. Crown Princesss Margarethe, Wife of Bath, Strawberry Hill, The Endeavour. Immortal; Juno

5 Brindabelllas Magnifica, The Pearl, Raspberry Swirl, B Bouquet and something Gold which already has a heap of Blackspot while all else in the garden is pristine – so much for blackspot BS

Alister Clarks

Restless, Lady Huntingfield, Marjory Palmer

Groundcovers

Pruple rain, Summer Evening,Amber Sun, Our Rosy Carpet

Rugpsa

Belle Poitiveine, Scabrosa, Rosarie de L’Hat, Freycinet, Blanc Double De Coubert, White, Frau Dag Hastrup, Delicata, Sarah van Fleet, Rugspin

Climbers

Lamarque, Kathleen Harrop, Zepherine Drouin, Pierrre de Ronsard

Misc.

Carabella, Gruss un Archen, Crepuscule

Missed quite a few I reckon.

Roseman our French cousins would be distressed to hear you describe their language as gibberish. I was just saying hullo to Dave.

A very nice list you have Larry, I guess there is not much room for any more

Larry,
A toi aussi, mon cher ami. Les roses, c'est la vie. La vie, c'est les roses.

Dave (Roseman) old mate since when did having the” room” enter into the equation when acquiring roses. My method is pretty simple – buy them and the space to plant them will somehow magically manifest itself. Things may get a little crowded but there’s nothing I like better than seeing two lovely roses entangled in a passionate embrace – doubles the view, trebles the pleasure.

Four more I forgot last night. DA’s Lady of Megginch and Munstead Wood and two oldies that were spared by my family cos they hidden by an orange flowering gum Fellemberg and Buff Beauty. Although I have a rather tenuous claim on BB. She’s planted on my side of the fence but contrarily she’s snuck through any gaps in the timber and displays all her blooms on my neighbours side. Also have a rogue Dr Huey which refuses to die so I let it have it’s head till it flowers (which isn’t a bad display btw) then hack it mercilessly back to ground level,even stomp on it a few times but it just laughs at my efforts and springs back in no time.

Dave (Clarky) you’re so right. Life is a rose. By turns tranquil then thorny, exquisite then scrofulous, sweetly formed then ramshackle and seductive then repellent. But it would be a boring old world if everything was perennially. smoothly serene. Perhaps given my personality that’s why I cannot escape their lure.

Just a few days into Spring now and a rose I completely forget about until it flowers because its growing through a big wattle is Lamarque. Tremendously vigorous - if you look closely you can see its flowers peeping out the very top of the wattle. Nice scent to if you can get close enough to a bloom to bury your face in it.

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A couple of reliables which never disappoint

Rosarie de L'Hay

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Alister Clark's Restless, No thorns,flowers forever and makes a nice small climber

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A few more rugosas - boy they are ugly in winter but from spring til autumn they are a delight.

Rugspin

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Delicata- almost my fave rugosa - in full flower she smells like a mixture of cloves, cinnamon and honey and the bees love her.

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Good ole dependable white. Has its own indefineable charm

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Larry are these new to your garden this year or left overs from before

Had them sitting in pots while I was in hospital Dave. Been in the ground since before winter - maybe nine months

Larry, have you seen 'Anne Hall' yet? It's new here this year and I'm keen to see how it goes and have expanded my rugosa quota considerably... pretty sure a lot won't flower for me this year but they inlcude:

'Scabrosa'
'Anne Hall'
Rugosa 'alba'
'Ann Endt'
'Therese Bugnet'
'Belle Poitevine'
'Rugelda'
and 'Kilmore Rose' (I have a series of struck cuttings of these that I will be distributing as well).

and about 10 rugosa seedlings.. really excited about one that I've been waiting 3 years to see a flower on. It's an OP Frau Dagmar Hastrupp from seed collected at Woolmers Estate in Longford, Tas.

Larry, Sarah Van Fleet looks really pretty, I love the colour. Also Blanc Double de Coubert very pretty. I don't have these two, well I did once but I lost them when it wasn't a good season. I would put them on my list for next year, but instead I will have to wait till I get settled in a new garden one day. I can't see the other two because of my lower internet plan.
Your photo of Lamarque through the tree is really beautiful. Is that Wisteria in the tree too, and what is the purple there as well. I saw at Meryl's place how beautiful Lamarque grows in Sydney.
I have Roseraie de l'Hay established but I will have to put the other lovely purple roses on my long time in the future list too.

Nope Simon - haven't seen Anne Hall as yet ( though have seen the Woody Allen movie of the same name - well almost) You'll love Belle Poitivene - just about the best of the rugosas in my not so humble opinion. Flowers big and buxom, scent to die for and a lovely shapely bush - only drawback not a lot of hips - if any.
Have grown Rugelda and it's a total dog. Flowers are reasonable but no rugosa perfume at all and is a martyr to blackspot. Bloody thing is a Kordes hybrid and like most of the rugosa hybrids which get too much modern rose blood flowimg through their veins lose that wonderful rugosa disease resistance. Another rugosa with the same problems is Parfum de L'Hay. Nice perfume but gets more disease than the weakest Hybrid Tea.

Hi Karen. Nah not wisteria growing with Lamarque through the wattle but a bougainvillea. Hate wisteria with a rather unhealthy passion. In return for that nanosecond of flowering you get a rampant monster that could devour a small city and that suckers worse than a wild passionfruit. Much prefer bougainvilleas which flower just about all year here. are easily cut back if they get too big and don't sucker. The purple is a rather humumgous salvia - a present from Meryl- another species I love for Sydney. As you can see my philosophy of gardening is to plant as much as I can per square metre and let the plants decide who's gunna thrive. Strangely most do and seem to love a bit of inter- specific cohabitation. Anyway - bare ground is an open invitation for weeds and having a jungle for a garden reduces the amount of lawn I have to mow which pleases me no end

Larry