Roses

My roses never fail to produce some of their best blooms in the fall.  They seemed to struggle with the heat and drought this summer.  At one time (25 years ago) I had a nice sized rose garden with bushes side by side.  I spent a lot of time learning how to take care of them and they are needy.  I entered blooms in local rose shows and learned from the hard core rose enthusiasts.  The only ribbon I ever received was not for any of the expensive roses but for a Safeway grocery rose--a climber called Blaze.  Now I prefer to spread roses out in my garden, giving them space to show off without competing with each other.

A rose that I always have is Peace.  I remember this rose as a young boy probably 6 or 7 visiting my grandmothers garden and my Aunts Lil and Eve showing this rose to my Mom and talking about it as though it was person.  They were so proud of it--I have many wonderful memories of their garden.  Peace blooms age gracefully as you can see in these two pictures--youth and maturity.

This rose is Miss Behavin.  I'm not real satisfied with this one which means it will live a long time.

This my first carpet rose--Roseberry Blanket.  It has done surprising well this summer is really trouble free and blooms continuously.

The best cutting rose that I have is Black Jack.  I like everything about this rose.

I have had this rose for about 20 years--The Fairy.  I have taken rooted cuttings to my daughters gardens and it does better for them than it has ever done in my garden.  But it is a survivor and a pretty little rose.

These were the church flowers this week.

Two arrangements are shown below.  The first has some cuttings and yucca from my garden.

The ladies asked me to bring some cat tails and Magnolia branches when I brought my cuttings.  Look what they did with them--I really like this arrangement.