Hello, I'm Back...

Well, I am back from my holiday in New Zealand (did anyone notice I was gone... ). No Mobile, No internet, totally cut my self off and enjoyed a nice holiday. Now I'm frantically trying to get through a back log of unread posts...

Visited Lady Norwood's Rose Garden in Wellington. Now, that's the kind of look I'm trying to get at my place, only I just need to move the boundry line back a bit .

Must have been pretty windy whilst I was away, as I returned to 2 snapped off "Ingrid Bergman" standards, and 1 snapped off at bud union "Queen Elizabeth", not to mention a lawn smothered in gum leaves so deep, I can't see it? Shame about my standards, I had 4 ties on each (2 black grid locky things, and 2 velcro), but the wind still somehow got it. I have ordered their replacements to fill the 2 gaps for late winter, but I think I will try the stocking rap-around originally suggested to me this time.

I did have enough time spare on my return to finish off 3 months of land-scaping design and research to complete this years bare rooted order for some new garden areas as follows (on top of the damage replacements)....
6 x Alba Maxima
14 x Coussin Essie
2 x Kathleen Harrop Cl.
2 x Zephirine Drouhin Cl.
2 x Vielchenblau Cl.
2 x Lamarque Cl.
1 x Pinkie Cl. (thanks to suggestions here on RT)
1 x Renae Cl. (thanks to suggestions here on RT)
1 x Cupid Cl. (or as Margaret has pointed out to me is really Katie Pianto's rose)
8 x Golden Celebration Da
2 x Graham Thomas Da (this one stood out to me more than any other Da's when I last visited Ruston's)
4 x Sea Foam Weepers

Another 45 Roses to add to the collection. Sounds like alot, but when its planted, it doesn't seem to take up as much space as you would think. I was thinking about adding to the order about 25 "queen of sweeden" Da, to make a hedge to border a straight line in front of a raised rockery, but haven't seen a decent speciman as yet outside of the internet so not sure how it will grow in my climate and if it is healthy variety or not. Does any one here currently grow it that may recomend it for my intended purpose???

P.S - picking up my pre-ordered Iris's this week to...can't wait....

Hmmm, my 1st choice for "queen of sweeden" doesn't look promising so far, as it doesn't look like I can get it in Aus. Funny, I might be getting a bit mixed up, but I believe it was an Australian book on "old fashioned roses" that relvolved around alot of talk and pictures from Ruston's roses, that show-cases "queen of sweeden" as one of its write-ups that originally brought it to my attention. I checked the David Austin Web site, and it doesn't show on their Australian list. Looks like its available in EU and US. Phoned around half a dozen or so wholesalers just in case, but no luck. I'll start looking for a subsitute that I can test drive in my area before doing another bed out of it.....

QoS looks a lot like 'Heritage' to me.