Here is a link that might be useful: Annie Laurie McDowell on HMF

I'm very happy to show you some photos of my garden. I would like to spend few words abut the garden and it's setting before... Well, if you don't know, Sardinia (you can read more about here: http://www.sardiniapoint.it/ ) is an island, situated just at the center of the Mediterranean Sea. We are surely more renowned for sea, beaches and food than gardens... all my neighbours are filled with cheaper gardens with Pinus,Acacia, Eucalyptus and Melaleuca in awful arrangements :o/ Climate is a tipical hot, dry Mediterranean climate (like the California chaparral), with long, very hot summers and no freezing in humid winther. Not the ideal place for Roses...

So, about 10 years ago(I was 17 years old!) I fell in love with Old Roses, looking for a "english-style" garden, with mixed planted borders, Roses, perennials, and designed by colour schemes ...
Step by step, I designed my garden in "rooms" where Roses are the absolute favourites.

Look at the surrounding landscape

I've started in 1996 with the now called "Rose Garden", where is the largest part of Roses in the garden
A vista in 1999

And some more recent photos ;o)
The central path

The borders

The pergola, with 'Little White Pet' in the foreground and 'Mme Hardy'at right

And the main entrance.To the left is 'Buff Beauty', and to the right 'Mayor of Casterbridge', with 'New Dawn', 'Albéric Barbier' and 'Céline Forestier' in the pergola. (The path was just covered with Nepeta... :oP)

(To be continued... ;o))

With this picture I won second prize in Pickering Nurseries garden photograph competition. I was so thrilled and they sent me five free roses of my choice. They had the picture up on their site for a couple of years. Unfortunately they do not do that anymore. I would not be surprised if someone from GardWeb came in first, seeing what I see here now! Of course I did not know anyone here then.

The start of the new bed last year when finding homes for my older and a few new roses.

Amazing how they came on by the end of that season 2006

......and 2007 even better - a couple of views from our bedroom balcony to give you an idea of the lay-out

Middle of August 2007 - showing the new bed - there was an annoying smudge on my lens which I did not notice at the time, but shows on these last pictures

New rose bed to the left in this picture

Just hopoing for fuller rose bushes this year.

As long as you are not bored, I have more which I could post but have to stop here for now. Unlike most of you, I have no roses on order, though I have made out a list and hope still to put an order in. Just had other stuff going on, but I can get back to thinking about the rose season soon.

OK, Next,please! Dying to see your gardens. Hope some of you who have shown us some great pictures before, would not mind doing it again. :)
Pauline - Vancouver Island

The big rose here in the first picture is Madame Alfred Carriere which was too big for the spot. It was engulfing everything. There in the picture it had recently suffered a hard pruning. It got so big, that you couldn't get through the little double gate there.

Last year we got rid of the green shutters which could not hold up to the sun, so the house looks a little different. Here is the angle from the street. That purple/blue flower there is Limonium perezii. Molineux, Day Breaker, Top Notch, etc.

Here is Sombreuil over the front door with Hoover hanging out waiting for me to finish taking the picture and water that poor brugmansia already. We'd had a wind storm the week before and Sombreuil half came down but there were so many flowers I just left it the way it was. This year it is more securely tied.

That's Altissimo the big red climber...French Lace and a baby Louise Clements in front of it.

Carol

Niles Cochet

But I would keep in mind that while Tea Roses can become this big, they won't do it FAST. It's going to take time for them to build up that structure. And of course you're not gonna be doing a lot of pruning.

Jeri

Pauline - Vancouver Island

Raney

This is view from my northeast corner we call the Sunroom

A stroll along the garden path

Knockout rose and Nepeta 'Walker's Low'

Drought-tolerant garden on top of stone wall.

Planter w/ Canna 'Pink Sunburst', Sweet potato vine (Sweet Caroline Bronze), and a Salmon-pink bicolor Agastache

Jim, it's easy to figure out generally what kind of soil you have. The USDA has done soil surveys for most counties nationwide and you should be able to find your county's Soil Survey at the library or at an Ag Extension office. Those things are loaded with more information than you can shake a stick at.

You can also do a mason jar test yourself. I did a presentation for our local rose society on soil hydrology and how to do a mason jar test so you can figure out how often and how long to water your roses. Take a quart mason jar with tight lid, and fill it about half way with soil from the garden. Then fill it the rest of the way with water. SHAKE it up well to break up and suspend the soil in the water and then put it down. Have a ruler and paper and pencil ready. After one minute, the sand will have settled out, measure that. After 2 hours, the silt has settled out, measure that. Clay can take days to settle out - you can either let it sit for a couple days, or you can measure the total height of soil before adding water and figure the clay is what's left after measuring the sand and silt.

Now you take your measurements and calculate the percentages of sand, silt and clay. Then you look at a soil triangle and find the intersection of the three lines - percent clay, percent silt, percent sand, and it will tell you if you have sandy loam, or clay loam, or loamy sand, or whatever.

The link below takes you to an online triangle with calculator, pretty neat! and there's a separate one for the Canadian soil classification system too.

Soil makes all the difference in how plants grow! it determines how water and nutrients are or are not available to plants, and the environment in which the roots are living. It's complex and opaque but we need to do our best to understand it!

Here is a link that might be useful: USDA Soil Triangle

BOURBONS:
The most beautiful, and heat tolerant roses in the garden were surprisingly in this class.

Maggie: lots of shapely, well-formed, fully petaled blooms that'll be remembered for a long time. I've seen a lot of photos of this rose, but none of them begin to approach the true beauty of the bloom color on Maggie. You have to see it "in person" to fully appreciate how special this bloom is. Heavily thorned.

Souvenir de la Malmaison: Like a heat-seeking missile. Like Maggie, made for Texas. Very productive here, especially during this time of year. Heavily thorned.

Souvenir de St Annes: The apple didn't fall far from the tree. Just beautiful. Nice foliage, shapely short bush, lots of big semi-double blooms. Heavily thorned.

CHINA'S:
Fortunately, the management of the gardens have the good sense to have included lots of this class in the garden.

Ducher & Spice: Among the very best bush forms of the china roses. Very full, with foliage all the way to the ground, and nicely wider than tall. Beautiful garden plants. Both are very lightly thorned.

Arethusa: Hey, this china is fragrant. Very substantial plant in size and fullness. Nice and unusual bloom color. Loose bloom form, but quite a few petals. Heavily thorned.

Cramoisi Superieur & Louis Philippe: There is no confusing these two. Cramoisi has many more petals, and a more shapely bloom. It is much more beautiful that LP to me. However, the plants themselves & their leaves do look nearly identical. CS looked moderately thorned, LP lightly thorned.

Napolean: Lawdy, this is a big plant in the south. Moderately to lightly thorned.

Caldwell Pink: Looks much more like a china than a polyantha, so I'll include it here. Extremely healthy and productive, with very thick bush growth. Covered in tight pom-pom blooms. Moderately thorned.

Mutabilis: This far south, this rose is at its best grown as a small ornamental tree, slightly limbed up. Grown that way, it has a very graceful, oriental look. To say it's a big plant is an understatement. Awesome looking specimen when viewed from a distance growing among shorter, smaller plants. And blooms are interesting viewed up close as well. One of the most impressive images I saw today. Moderately thorned.

Archduke Charles: The most interesting of the china blooms (except perhaps Cramoisi Superieur). Plant habit is a little zig-zag looking. Airy plant habit. Lightly thorned.

Hermosa: These plants are always too tiny when I visit, and always look like they are trying to get established. I wanted to be blown away by this rose, but I haven't yet. I'll continue to monitor it on future visits.

Old Bush: Interesting to me mostly for its history. I do respect this plant. Lightly thorned.

NOISETTES:
Several of them, but none of them held my attention. Perhaps it is because none of them looked fully established. Blush Noisette looked kind of nice.

TEA ROSES:
Two of this class clearly stood out to me. Madame Antoine Marie & Duchesse de Brabant.

Madame Antoine Marie: Lots of them, and I can see why. Everything that a true tea rose should be. By far the best plant form of all the tea roses ... short, fat, bushy, graceful plants. Perfectly beautiful, rich-looking, unique leaves. Much, much more twiggy than all the other tea roses, more like a china (a very good thing in my opinion). Of the purest, most unblemished bloom color. Lots of blooms. Bloom size is small in this heat and kind of starry on the fully opened blooms, but charming immediately upon opening from nice buds. I can't say enough about how impressed I was with this rose. If you would like to grow a tea rose in a large container, don't even think about which tea you should choose ... this is the one!

Marie Van Houtte: Always the picture of health on every visit to this garden. None were currently in bloom, but nice, large, disease-free plants. Moderately thorned.

Bon Silene: A tree. Huge. Moderately thorned.

Mrs Dudley Cross: What are they feeding these things? I've never seen so much fresh new growth in 90F+ weather. All new growth was beautifully burgundy in coloration. Not many blooms, but the ones that were there were large and more shapely than are currenlty on my own MDC. Extremely healthy foliage on their specimens. No thorns at all.

Monsieur Tillier: Big, thick, healthy. Small, but plentiful blooms of interesting color. Lots of petals, pom-pom shaped. Moderately thorny.

Duchesse de Brabant: Near perfection in a rose. Deserves to be painted by talented artist. The most exquisite blooms of all the teas in the Fort Worth garden. Also the most fragrant. Fruity. Why do they only have one specimen of this jewel? Moderately sprinkled with insignificant looking, small prickles.

Safrano: In my opinion, this tea is not praised enough. Blooms are beautiful in bud and when first opening. Interesting, soft color blend. Fading quickly when open, and maturing quickly to a loose form. Loved it. Lightly thorned.

Isabella Sprunt: Not nearly as captivating to me as the momma plant. I didn't care for this tea.

Adam: He appears to have died or been removed.

Comtesse du Cayla: I'm listing here in the tea roses, because after close inspection, there's no way this is a china rose. The thorns, foliage, and plant habit don't look at all china to me. There were a lot of these at the garden. All of the fully open blooms were fried, even in mid-morning sun. However, the buds and newly opening blooms were things of beauty, with very intriguing color. All specimens looked healthy. A light scattering of very large, thick, un-china-like thorns.

OLD EUROPEAN ROSES:
Always a rare privilege to be able to view up-close one of these roses in a Texas garden.

Ispahon: I must revisit the garden next spring to view the blooms on this rose. Photos I've seen of the blooms are incredible. The plant was doing nicely in the Texas heat. It was upright in growth pattern and looked healthy and rather happy. Not a large specimen ... it may not have been in the garden for very long. Moderately thorny.

Kazanlik: Looked to be doing fine. Not a large plant. Slim build at this point in its life. A fairly t***** ****** thing.

Autumn Damask: No leaves, just a lot of thorns on long canes. On this day, this was an ugly plant that probably deserved to be moved to another climate.

Madame Plantier: Not much plant there, few leaves, a new specimen. Lightly thorned.

HYBRID PERPETUALS:
Not a great class for Texas, and as such very few in the garden.

Marchessa Boccella: The only HP that has truly thrived over the years in this garden. It's a great plant, with nice blooms. Apparently the most frequent repeat bloomer of all the HPs in Texas. It has been in bloom no matter when I have visited this garden. Maybe it's really a Portland? Very thorny.

SPECIES ROSES:
A delight to see first hand.

Fortuniana: Lawdy. The biggest plant I've ever seen. Downright scared as I walked under it. Very few thorns.

Chestnut rose: Didn't quite know what to think of this one. I think moderately thorny, although it didn't hold my attention long enough to really remember.

Swamp Rose: How cool is this one! Very interesting. Architectural growth habit. I'd love to have the room to grow this one, in a kind of out of the way place. I want to return in the spring to see it in bloom. Must be fantastic at that time of year, because I loved it even now. Leaves like a willow tree! No thorns seen on its canes, also could not feel any prickles under its leaf mid-ribs.

HYBRID MUSKS: Although not technically a true OGR class, they definitely qualify as "antique" due to their age. And they belong in any garden of those who love old roses.

Bishop Darlington: There were several of these. Unlike the other HM's, they were really upright and tall. Loose, almost single blooms. I didn't care for this rose. Very thorny.

Kathleen: A lot of this one too. The single blooms were much more appealing to me that the previously mentioned rose. More lateral growth too on the plant. Kind of nice. Very thorny.

Lavender Lassie: A really big plant. Unfortunately, no blooms today. Moderately thorny.

Prosperity?: I think this is the HM that they had tons of. Very spreading growth habit. Was just okay to me. Took up lots of real estate with its extremely thorny canes.

Nur Mahal: Loved it, loved it, loved it. One of the very first roses I check on every time I visit this garden. Not a large plant, yet has graceful, arching canes. I can no longer go without this one. Beautiful and unique foliage. I am going to place an order today with The Antique Rose Emporium for delivery in March. This rose is mine. No visible thorns on any canes of their specimens, and better yet ... absolutely no small prickles underneath the leaf mid-ribs either.

POLYANTAS:
I'm not a huge fan of this class, but many of them are certainly well-adapted here, and prove it in this garden.

Perle d'Or: Several of them in this garden, and they are all healthy and productive. The most impressive to me of the polyanthas. Nice, moderate sized plant (not small but not huge). Charming, special blooms, none other just like it. Unique color. Good fragrance. A light scattering of very large thorns.

Marie Pavie: Looked fine. Not as big of a fan as I used to be, but nice plant.

Clotilde Soupert: Not in bloom. Been there, done that, with this plant.

MODERNS:
About half of their large rose collection is in modern roses.

Knockout: Far too many of them. The only ones that were notable were the Rainbow Knockouts, which were not uninteresting.

David Austin English roses: They have all been removed from the garden. Hmmm ... what does that tell me about their long-term durability in our harsh climate? Nonetheless, I would be willing to baby my 'Heritage' for all of eternity if necessary (so far that hasn't been necessary to do so in my own garden).

Buck Roses: Geez, they've put in a lot of them lately. I didn't get too enthusiastic though, except for Awakening and Distant Drums. The attraction to Awakening may be because its blooms somewhat reminded me of SdlM's blooms. I'd have Distant Drums if it weren't so viciously thorned due to it heavy dose of beauty (the plant itself seems to be struggling and it is not a new planting). There were a lot of Carefree Beauty roses, and deservedly so, as they are very well adapted here.

Julia Child: Very productive plants. Very nice bloom color too. I'm not a huge yellow rose fan though, because the yellow blooms often blend in a little too well with a rose bush's yellowing leaves. Julia Child was no exception to that rule.

Gruss an Aachen: Conspicuously absent. The cluster of GaA roses that was there a couple of years ago have all either died or been removed. Perhaps they are giving more space to the tougher china roses, or the growing number of Buck roses.

Lafter: Thankfully, there are very few hybrid-tea roses in this garden. Lafter is the exception. There are several specimens of Lafter, and it so deserved to be included. Just beautiful. Very thorny.

Puerto Rico: The other hybrid-tea that thrives in this garden. Lightly thorned.

Wild Blue Yonder: One of the few modern roses that captivated me. Very, very nice. Lots of thorns.

Miniature roses: Eeew. No leaves, few blooms. Tiny sticks. Wasted space.

Belinda's Dream: Lots of them because they rock here. Moderate thorns.

Basye's Blueberry: A simple thing with great stamens. Love it. No thorns at all.

New Dawn: Really nice blooms. Really large plant. Lots of thorns in the way.

Republic of Texas: I wanted to love this one. I didn't. Looked only slightly better than Rise-N-Shine. Moderately thorny.

Sweet Pea: Probably looks good in the spring. Didn't look good today. Too tiny to notice nature of thorns.

(Click for a larger version)

The mockingbirds have fledgling babies out in the rose garden, so they were doing their best to protect them. The hawk flew off finally. It may have been hunting lizards instead of fledgling Mockingbirds, or it may have been eyeing my Koi.

Since this is the Rose Forum not the Hawk Forum, better add some roses: Secret, a fine and fragrant HT.

Ciao,
Maurizio

Kronprincessin Victoria with Singing in the Rain

Hot'n'Spicy with LaBiche (yard art in the background needs a clear shot of the Southern sky and this was it)

Martha Gonzales and Love

Tournament of Roses and Crocus Rose

Promise of more to come

This is why:

These are my neighbor's Icebergs. They liked our roses so much they wanted some too, but something easy care because they are very busy and not gardeners. Just a glorious sight on this May morning. That is a red Meidiland groundcover rose below.

Thanks for looking.
Hamp

Allium

Small summer flush on Abe

William Morris (left), Evelyn (right)

Lobelia in antique pot I found in Denmark

Abe (rear), Cape Cod (front left), Camisole (right)

Abe (rear)

Just Joey (far right) Those tall lillies are in 2 spots in the garden

Baby Jubillee Celebration, the chair will move to another spot next year!

Hollyhocks...one of my favorites

New Dawn...best show yet and that's just the back of it!

There are some rules by default. There cannot be a hint of formality in order for the landscape to accurately reflect the pig who designed it. No straight lines. Soft, smooth, natural and relaxing are the themes. General goal: to create a nice place to smell flowers, rest and drink beer.

Let's see if I can get your pic to post:

This is a picture from last year. This year I have been replacing many of the plants with bushes - I have found that there are more bushes that look good from the bottom and they require less water once established. Besides I needed more structure, less foo-foo. And yes, I do need lessons in constraint :^)

This is the view from the top. I actually prefer this view as the plants look much better!

This weekend I will post pictures of a deck that we are building that hangs out over the hill in front of the house, a lookout deck of sorts. We still have alot of work to do on it and the surrounding area.

So glad this is here and hope to learn some things.. sure like the tip on planting in the pots!

tinkster

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Sydnie

BC:)

The terrace gardens are just about finished up except for the sedums but the variegated foliage of the ‘Nora Leigh’ phlox still sparkles in that border. The fuchsias are as happy as can be with the sunny days and cool nights and putting on quite a show to finish up the season.

The dogwood is just beautiful this time of the year and has more berries on it than I’ve ever seen before. The birds have stripped the Mountain Ash and have started working on the dogwood in the last few days.

The containers are just full of color and it seems a crime to dismantle them before the cold but I’d better start taking them apart soon. I think I’m in ‘frost denial’ mode at the moment.

Thanks again Eileen for this wonderful Illustris! I’ve enjoyed it tremendously this summer. I’m hoping I can successfully winter it over.

This container has been just terrific this whole season and there are no flowers in it! I love that it looks so great and doesn’t need the constant deadheading of the arrangements with flowers. That Plectranthus ‘Lemon Twist’ is an amazing and wonderful plant. It always looks great, takes to pruning well and grows like its on steroids. I love it! The other plants in this are one of those Cordyline australis, a Strobilanthes, Coleus ‘Gays Delight’ and a Ipomoea ‘Sweet Caroline Purple’

Another absolute favorite form this year with an Abutilon pictum ‘Thompsonii’, Abutilon ‘Bella hybrid’, Plectranthus ‘Lemon Twist’, Coleus ‘Dappled Apple’ and a lantana that didn’t have a name. I want to do this arrangement again next year but replace the orange flowered abutilon pictum with the one that has yellow blossoms. I thought I’d call it the ‘Lemon Meringue’ container. LOL

This has been so nice also with the Sedona and Tilt-a-Whirl coleus with the scavola and fuchsia. The green spotted leaves are Calla lily ‘Flame’ that unfortunately never bloomed. They were pretty small corms that came from HD so I’m hoping if I save them and replant next year I’ll get some flowers. Cant you just see this arrangement with those orange calla flowers? That would have been great.

This container on the patio has gotten gigantic. I think the abutilon in this one is about five feet tall now.

Here is the other side…

The containers on the front steps are still looking nice as well. I just can’t tell you all how much I’m loving those fuchsias. The only problem with this picture is that canna lily was supposed to have more of a pink flower instead of that coral one and it just clashes with that dahlia in that upper container. Won’t make that combo again. LOL

The breezeway entrance with my ‘helper’ posing for a pic. You can see one of my Hydrangea ‘Little Honey’s and one of the purple pots I bought in Rochester when visiting Mary.

The asters have opened in the driveway garden are look terrific this year.

OK I guess I’d better quit before this thread doesn’t open. Enjoy!
Deanne

I'm addicted to snapping photos lately. I just want to capture every last bit of beauty before the frost takes it away.

Here are another few from my ramblings with my camera in the last couple days.

This line of containers on the fence line has turned into a tapestry of color.

The hayracks have really performed well this year.

This container has my three year old Iresine herbstii and the Fuchsia 'Blacky'

A window box on the shed.

The alyssum is billowing out of the rose garden now. I pruned it back about three weeks ago and the cooler weather has spurred it onto some beautful new growth.

My brug is finally putting on a lovely flush of blooms. It had a bad case of mites this summer and looked miserable for a month or so but oh the rewards when they finally do bloom!

I sure hope I can get another couple weeks out of this season.

Deanne

Clementina

Clementina is a big girl.

Carol

When life turns difficult, Gardening is as good a therapy as any money can buy.

Sometimes you have to see a rose in person to really see the beauty. I have spent countless hours on the gallery and in my catalogs only to visit RU and have a rose that I never even considered grab me Sometimes the rose bush in a natural setting has amazing qualities that do more for you than just the bloom up close.

Roses have shown me that I do have artistic ability. I am able to blend my perennials, evergreens and roses in the same way my sister works in pastels. Although I never though I had the artistic flair present in the rest of my siblings...I now have found that I paint on nature's canvas. I also have a good eye for lighting and therefore photography. If I had never started gardening, I would have never known that I possess these qualities...it’s a satisfying personal journey.

Oh and....

Set an alarm if you have something in the oven and you decide to just go 'have a walk about the roses'. Ask me how I know....

Ronda

Tequila Sunrise

Again...

Something that was supposed to be Blue Girl, VERY fragrant a BIG blooms.

Mini 'Pink Poodle'...fragrant!

Outta The Blue

Crested Sweetheart

All my roses are suffering from too much rain/rain damage. :(