A few more Exquisite Roses

14 Oct '07 2:24 am

Hi Everyone, I thought i might drop in again to share a few more blooms with you from my Rose garden.
This year as i wrote earlier has been truly spectacular for blooms, the first flush is pretty much over which has been in time before our "suicide" heat month of October.
I have been suitably impressed with a great number of varities i have chosen with notable star performances from The Austin rose Radio Times and the Floribunda Lilli Marlene.You have a browse through and tell me what you think!
I have as a result of my good performance this year decided to increase my rose collection and after much rose treasure hunting found a few stars to add the are: Reine de Violletes,Pat Austin, Brass Band,Ambassador, Louise Oudier, Penelope, Grus An Achen, Cassanova, ( excuse the spelling), does anyone have any tips on any of these varieties?
Well enjoy the blooms will post more next week,
Mark
Very Happy

14 Oct '07 3:15 am

are lovely. I am particularly taken with the unusual Rhapsody in Blue. Is she always this bold and brilliantly colored? How does she perform in the garden? prolific bloomer? disease resistant? I really must check this one out...

14 Oct '07 1:14 pm

Rose in all their scrumptious beauty-what a beautiful sight on a day when gale-force winds are blowing over NZ,and everyone is huddled inside.Thanks for sharing the beauty.
I really love your tastes-they are roses I would choose-your season is earlier than here-I go outside every morning and pore over the little buds that are showing ,in anticipation.
I have Penelope-she has been shifted from her first position where she was hit by cold winds all the time-she happily settled in-she is very low-growing-almost arched-dozens of subtle-coloured blooms-healthy.I have sharif Asma,who has a tendency to ball-but O what a perfume !I saw Gruss an aachen in a couple of gardens and think it is so beautiful.
Your radio times is very much like my Leander-again an Austin rose-very prolific and a clear pink-Smiley does not usually care for pink roses (prefers red) but he always comments on Leander.
Let us know the varieties you are choosing to increase your display.
Dixie.

15 Oct '07 3:56 am

All your roses are just beautiful. I did not recognize a lot of the names, but I do have a Sharifa Asma that I also love for her fragrance and the lovely pleated form of her blooms. You mentioned obtaining Reine de Violletes in your latest batch of new roses. I do have that rose, but have not figured out quite how to prune it yet to get a nice bushy shape. Liza advised in one of her posts that it should be pruned rather aggressively to achieve the correct shape. Good luck with all your new choices and be sure to let us know how they perform for you.

15 Oct '07 5:17 am

Radio Times and Abraham Durby have some mutual parents, perhaps?? They look SO adorably alike!! Esther Geldenhys is such a darling!! Just Joey is a pure joy! But ALL of them are pure Beauties!!

4 Nov '07 6:27 pm

Somehow your post came and went without my marking it. Now I discover it as I return to the Rondel. Will reply more fully later! Meanwhile: what lovely pics, and save me some of Mary Louise Drool

5 Nov '07 2:06 am

Your not-Mr-Lincoln is lovely, and I'm certain the slight notch to most petals and the whitish stripe there must be diagnostic. But it eludes me - I can't think that I've ever seen it. Check with your supplier?

For those none-Southern Africans who admire Esther Geldenhuys: her code is KORskipei, and she is named locally after one of our South African Rose Doyennes. I think her 3 sports happened locally, but I speak under correction. They are Lisa (COWli) deep pink; Leana (ROElanda) apricot cream and Nicolette (LUDswenic) buff apricot. Ludwigs, our largest grower was definitely responsible for registering the last. They are stunning cut flowers and he suggests growing them together. (Perhaps a project,hmm?)

I love Grandmere Jenny AND your reason for growing her. Ludwigs no longer lists her in his catalogue Sad

As for Peace, it is not the rose it used to be. Confused

It is years since I saw the true rich colours of the real thing - mine in Johannesburg in the late 80s and yours too is a rather plain imitation of the original... There's another project: find and propogate a GOOD old Peace! I will try to find pics of what they looked like in my youth (said the old man Wink

)

Abraham Darby's colours get richer as the season progresses, and the best flowers are those in autumn. I love Bow Bells! And what a lovely shot of Rhapsody in Blue!!

PS: did I send you the pics I took for you of the David Austin bed in Queen Mary's Rose Garden in Regents Park??

9 Nov '07 8:27 am

Hi there all

Hope you are all keeping well, here in Zimbabwe things are basically going from bad to worse but spirits have been uplifted by a night’s rain that has just refreshed everything throughout the garden and taken that edge off sweltering temperatures which reached 38c on Monday.
I have taken a few more rose pictures and thank you all for your wonderful comments on the pictures already posted.
I truly have a passion for this “Queen of Flowers” and have over the years even had my own designed rose garden on our farm which consisted of over 375 bushes and 20 climbers, sadly with my change in jobs, I moved into town and into a semi-detached house that has a postage stamp garden, nonetheless I have managed to include 125 roses of which pictures you are seeing now and am still trying to further develop the collection with more roses of the past and from different classes e.g. Bourbons, Gallica’s etc. It is an incredible journey and I find my self consumed with information from books, websites etc and in my my mind I am planning and designing a dream rose garden of which I hope will be realised one day when I have access to a little more land.
To give you a little more detail on my rose garden, it is situated at the back of the house against the neighbour’s wall, it is very simple in it make up in that it is a long straight line with two sides and then I extended it along the whole boundary of the outer buildings. Initially I removed top layer of the soil from this area as it was pretty exhausted from the previous owners vegetable garden I replaced this soil which is clay based with compost and manure from the farm (it was both cow and sheep manure), it was dug into the remaining soil thou roughly and the watered and left for about six weeks. During this period of wait, I sat down with rose books and catalogues and started making list on roses that I wished to own irrespective of colour and then when the list was completed I categorised them into the types, English roses, hybrid teas etc and then in these classes arranged them into heights. I was a little particular on disease resistance and ability to bloom, as in such a small place I could not afford to have varieties weak in these areas as they would certainly destroy the overall rose garden.
The next step was a visit to my very good friend and rose nursery to see what varieties she had from my list and advice on my design concept. This was a challenge as here in Zimbabwe we have limited varieties and this friend of mine has been collecting for years in and around Zimbabwe and as a result has a reasonable collection.
As a result of my limited space I had no choice but to mix together hybrid teas and floribunda’s which I initially was not keen to do but in the end had no option, I then grouped the Austin’s’ together and there planting was to be kept separate to the ht’s and floribundas. I must just add here that things were made considerably more difficult as I arrived at the nursery at a time when here stock garden was in full bloom and if it is one thing that one should never do is go shopping for roses when the stock garden is in bloom it only adds to the confusion and totally disrupts a well thought out plan!!!!
Eventually after +\- 5 hours I came home with a truck load of beauties all ready to be planted. I had also during this visit decided to get two or three of each variety so that when blooming commenced it was full and prolific, I also decided against all I had learnt to plant the roses about 35cm apart, an experiment that today has paid off considerably as I have a near hedge of rose bushes that in bloom leave even the least interested gardener breathless.
This method of planting although not recommended if you have the space, is however ideal for the Austin roses as they tend to be a little more open in there growth habit and in this way you avoid those gapping holes.
The other thing I decided to do was to prune the new bushes back by half to get them all in sync and then into the beds they went colour coding as I went a long.
A slight side track here, the rose garden shares its space with our two German Shepherds and my new, at the time, Fox Terrier. This I must tell you should never be done until foxy is at least 15 months old or you may find newly planted rose bushes dug up and put out side your back door for your inspection every morning. Something I am glad to say has since stopped.
The roses now in there second season were pruned for the first time in the last week of June, today staring out at them over the lawn stand as high as the six foot wall, a feat I have never achieved even on the farm. As mentioned earlier I have been left a little befuddled by this as we have had no fertilizers what so ever available in the shops and we have had water rationing in which we get water for about 8hrs twice a week we buy in water for the garden but this is still limiting and I only used pig manure for the top dressing so I can only conclude that the preparation made in planting has played a major role and possibly heavier soakings less often have been more beneficial to the plants. I look forward to hearing comments on this?

I also wanted to reply to faerisweet on Rhapsody in Blue, yes the colour is as intense and does fade off as it matures, in this new posting I have included another Rhapsody in Blue picture, I think this rose is an incredible colour breakthrough and it is worth having in your garden, I find it does send out thick healthy canes that are about 1.5m tall so I think it could end up also being used as a climber, if I had a criticism of this rose it would be that I would like to see it faster on its repeat flowering after dead heading.

Jack thank you for your comments, I agree peace has lost its intense colour we are used to but on the farm years ago I planted a climbing peace and let me tell you its colour was more intense than I have ever seen, so possibly look into getting the climbing sport as I think it has maintained the intensity in colour not to mention it is a more upright climber so needs just a little support. I also wanted to say that in Peace’s case you need to get a specimen from a strong mother stock plant as for years I was successful with this rose, my rose lady got a bud stick from a nursery in the UK and this is where my new plants are from and let me tell you I now sing this roses praises it is a real pleasure to grow although in my Buzaki book he says that you should not prune t too hard and it makes sense as I have noticed there are less new basal shoots than other roses.
I relation to the Esther Geldenhys rose and here sports, I can only say Lisa is by far the best and I now believe she out does her mum.
Well all this is all for now, look out for another posting of some special performers from my spring garden later on.
Keep well and keep passionate
Regards Mark

9 Nov '07 11:25 am

How wonderful to hear of your great success with your new roses in spite of the draught conditions you have suffered. It sounds like whatever you did, the roses love it. I cannot imagine how you have fit in so many roses in a small garden. It sounds wonderful though. Keep up the good work Mark; and keep posting those beautiful pics.

10 Nov '07 8:18 am

It is great to see and hear how your garden is progressing, Mark. I know what an important element it plays in your survival kit! I love all your roses except one: there are two roses I can not abide: Pink Iceberg and Simplicity. Sad

Sorry. The other's are all splendid and either have or would get a spot in my garden. I agree that Limelight is weak - but lovely. I have twice planted it and lost it - once in Johannesburg, and now it has been one of many casualties in the Anniversary Garden. There is some serious rethinking of the two side beds happening there!

Red is a problem with digital, and I have received a long, technical and incomprehensible explanation why. Bottom line is keep your exposure as dark as possible, which usually means don't photograph in the sun.

I've included a bit on the origin of Courvoisier - one of my all-time favourite yellows too. Elizabeth of Glamis was of course the Queen Mother and a lady known for her delicious sense of humour. The rose itself is a stunner and a hard worker, salmon with a gold base and good scent. In fact I think I should find a place for the dear lady - she will enjoy my garden.

A few more Exquisite Roses

A few more Exquisite Roses

All your roses

roses

Beautiful roses

Indeed, very exquisite!!

Mark!

Mrs Lincoln I presume?

A Few More Exquisite Roses Revisited

Rose success

Splendiferosesious!