Watch This Space, more info coming.

I can only reveal that there is a LARGE announcement coming.

I saw your earlier email. I think it's the fault of Facebook. Farewell friends.

Thanks Barbara, its been a great journey. enjoy yourself and the animals LOL

Well done David, will be very sad to see it close.
Keep in contact so I can send you budwood from my bred "Natalie Treloar". It's orange in winter and very deep yellow in Summer.

Hi Bruce, how could I forget you, I have your email, phone, and home address, thanks for being part of the journey

Be sorry to see this forum go. The loss of interest in gardening seems to be the main problem as I see it. Plus the never ending droughts. In my case I seem to be finding it harder and harder just to keep what I have growing alive. I have very little spare time these days and that means no time for forums unfortunately. I trust that all former members are keeping well and still enjoying their roses. It is a great hobby!
Regards,
Ian

Hi Ian, yes the drought is having an effect on gardening in general. But to be honest I also think people these days are time poor and do not understand what a "rose" is. Younger houses seem not to be putting roses in and if they are it appears to be the odd standard and it is 'Iceberg'. A lot of people don't know of the older one's.
As you are keeping busy, how are the roses at your place, are you still working on setigera.
I will keep your your email address if that is ok?
Look after yourself.
Best regards David.

I honestly thought more might post and say goodbye. I can see another email coming.

All good things must come to an end. As mentioned by others, social media has put its mark on forums such as Rosetalk though I think there are probably other issues involved. As with others despite semi-retirement my spare time seems to have reduced not increased but I should not make this a reason.

As for roses I feel that as the “rose population” ages there are few to replace them. As house lots get smaller, gardens do so also and Council’s (apart for those which can see the attraction that roses have for their towns) seem to be hell bent on placing covenant on gardens and street plantings to restrict these to native plants only.

The drought and age of the owners have closed a few of the famous rose nurseries and the big hardware chains are making hard for the privately owned nurseries and thus the range of roses available is being restricted to the more “popular” varieties which appear to be punched out by the thousands with the vigour of the roses reducing every year.

Despite this however there are those that will continue on. Doing their own propagation and spreading the roses by goodwill (thanks once again Bruce) and the wish to see the varieties maintained. As for us we have discovered that tip cuttings in summer in sand is probably the best method in our climate. (Note for Bruce: We have managed to strike several Mrs Graham Hart and will work on several other rare roses in our garden as summer approaches).

As for Lee and I believe it or not we have actually pruned a lot of our roses this year. The ones we did back in July have shown remarkable recovery despite having received virtually no rain or other water. We are still pruning having done a few more on the weekend. Still there are only a couple of hundred left to go. Not sure if they will be all done this year but at least up here you can prune whenever you like and are not restricted by the climate.

I also intend (when???) to try to do some breeding using our Teas and other roses to see what I can come up with.
So goodbye to all my rose friends and thanks for the effort put in by the administrators over the years.

Oh and some photos. White Wings was one of the first roses we pruned this year. It looked like it was dead so I just cut it off about 6 inches from the ground and look what it has done. It has been covered in flowers. All about 6-8 inches across.

And the rest to remind us all why we grow roses.

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Thanks Gary for the farewell message. Yes forums have changed. As you say Social media have a lot to do with it. From the other platforms I look at, it has become a "photo" platform, no discussion, no history, not even how does that rose grow for you. Anyway again thanks for all your efforts and participation over the years. May I keep your personal details. The other thing if I may ask is if and when you have some budwood available of White Wings can I get some and pay for it please, I would like to try it on my Silver Moon, which I was given from a friend in Victoria.
Enjoy your semi retirement and the rest of your pruning.
Regards David.

No worries regarding the budwood. Send me an email with what you want and when can I do it and your address of cause.

Thanks Gary, I shall pop you an email regarding this and Margaret Furness, I had to contact her about an old rose enquiry from the USA.

Hi Everyone,

I am really sorry to see this forum close. Having only lived in Qld for the last 4yrs, I really needed this place to learn how to cope with my lovely roses up here.
I thank those who have answered all my questions while I have been on the forum.
Good Bye and Many thanks
Judy

It is a sad day, David. The wealth of knowledge I have gained from this forum has been tremendous. Wishing everyone all the best on their rose journey. I will continue to persevere in this climate and grow, show and breed roses as I don't think I could ever be without them in my garden. All the best and thanks to everyone involved in keeping this forum up and running.
Cheers,
Louise.

This is dreadful news. I have not contributed to the sight for quite a while but I refer to it time and time again.

Thank you David and all the other people who made this sight absolutely fantastic.

I shall miss you all,
Best wishes,
Chris (Matrice)

I haven't been here for quite a while, but I am sorry to see it go. I have gained so much information on roses on this forum and are thankful for it.
Best wishes
Happy roses

Sad to see the end of Rose Talk. What a wonderful site this has been. I have learned so much and enjoyed the photos and comments of so many over the years. Even though I have not contributed much recently, I have popped in now and then to check something or other, knowing the info will be there.
Thank you David and everyone else who has worked to make Rose Talk such a terrific place for rose lovers.
Sadly, farewell.

Basically two days to go.

Judy, Louise, Matrice, Silky, yes two days, maybe longer to someone takes the name, I am only guessing. Thanks for the replies, you have my contact details,
if not they are,
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Thanks David.

Bye all!

Bye all..... thank you for your time and effort to make this forum work.....proud to know you all...

Bye Gary and Bye John, thanks for all the help over the years. But there could be more . Will post later.