Even dormant, I can't stand them

Goodbye Mayflowers. In my garden these 3 David Austins were small little pink flowers that ball in the rain and don't open. When I pruned them last week I thought maybe I would give them another year. But no! I just don't like them so they got shovel pruned today and replaced with some of my new Austins.

Yanked out and looking sad

Here are the replacements....

I put in Winchester Cathedral, far left. Then, Pat Austin, Eglantyne and in front a very healthy The Prince.

These are some of the Chamblees Roses that I got a few weeks ago and have been hardening off outside in their original pots. For me, own roots do better when I take my time to do this versus just putting them in the ground. When I buy bands (which I hardly ever do) I just leave them in pots for a year.

Slowly I pushed these babies farther and farther out of the shade until they were completely in the sun for about a week. They started out on the window ledge of our living room. I also made sure to cut off all new buds so they could focus on growing roots instead of early tiny flowers.

Healthy and happy little Prince

New roses are here!

My first order for 2012 came today. Hurray!

I ordered a few new David Austins from Chamblee's Rose Nursery. Love this nursery for own-root roses. They always arrive really healthy and happy. I have to keep them inside for a few more days until it warms up. Really cold today!

They are wrapped up in thick brown paper and completely protected.

I ordered Jude the Obscure, Tradescant, Sharifa Asma and The Prince.

So healthy...Sharifa already has a bud.

Lots of new growth on Tradescant...



David Austin rose bed

I planted this bed of David Austins in March 2011. I purchased most of them as grafts from Pickering Nurseries, one of my favorite rose online vendors. Included in here are Golden Celebration, Abraham Darby, Charlotte, The Mayflower, The Dark Lady, Heritage, L.D. Braithwaite, Christopher Marlowe and a band of William Shakespeare 2000. (I know, I know...way to many for this space...I'm going to spread them out this year). This is what the bed looked like around Memorial Day 2011:

Here's how it looks now, before pruning:

That long cane sticking out at the top on the far right is from a Golden Celebration that I should have pruned during the summer but didn't get around to it. The 2 plants on the far left are Rose of Sharons that I'm going to pull out this year.

My favorite from this bed so far is The Dark Lady. Huge, fat, fuschia blooms. No scent, but still lovely and produces a ton of blooms. There are two fuschia plants in the below photo. The Dark Lady is in the middle (you can see how big the blooms are) compared to the shorter L.D. Braithwaite. In my garden, the color is pretty similar. (The stuff in front of the bricks that I can't seem to get rid of is oregano, this used to be my herb garden).

In the bed is also 1 own-root William Shaespeare 2000 that I got from Heirloom Roses 2 years ago. Will hasn't done too well yet, but I can't give up on him since he's still a baby. He only gave me 2 blooms last year. Hoping this year is the year.

I got The Mayflower because it was supposed to be pretty disease-resistant. Ummm, no. Not here at least and the very small blooms ball and don't open. I have three of them and they will probably be shovel-pruned in March.