Who knew that we would become gardeners! Sure we used to scrabble a few perrenials and had a couple of flowering shrubs and acres of lawn, the typical and relatively easy to maintain east coast garden, but living in Victoria we got bitten by the exotic bug. Instead of a zone 5 we find ourselves in a zone 9-almost-10 and haven't been able to restrain ourselves from the smorgasbord of the local nurseries. Our garden is eclectic to say the least. Right now we have the first riotous and exuberant bloom of the roses, possibly Jim's favourite flower; he's in charge of aphids which I find really repulsive like alien parasites. The big standard rose, last photo, used to have a double graft, dark purple and yellow. Over the years, and it's only about 5 years old, the yellow graft got really robust and the purple has virtually disappeared. We haven't had a lot of success with deep purple roses actually, which tend to be very aromatic but not very strong. Of course, it could be that they need more attention than the benign neglect they receive from us.
The white rose has so many frills you wouldn't believe it. It starts out looking quite normal as you can see by the bud, and then it goes nuts like a high school prom dress. Some favourites are still in the thinking about it stage but these were too beautiful not to share.
Who knew that we would become gardeners! Sure we used to scrabble a few perrenials and had a couple of flowering shrubs and acres of lawn, the typical and relatively easy to maintain east coast garden, but living in Victoria we got bitten by the exotic bug. Instead of a zone 5 we find ourselves in a zone 9-almost-10 and haven't been able to restrain ourselves from the smorgasbord of the local nurseries. Our garden is eclectic to say the least. Right now we have the first riotous and exuberant bloom of the roses, possibly Jim's favourite flower; he's in charge of aphids which I find really repulsive like alien parasites. The big standard rose, last photo, used to have a double graft, dark purple and yellow. Over the years, and it's only about 5 years old, the yellow graft got really robust and the purple has virtually disappeared. We haven't had a lot of success with deep purple roses actually, which tend to be very aromatic but not very strong. Of course, it could be that they need more attention than the benign neglect they receive from us. 
The white rose has so many frills you wouldn't believe it. It starts out looking quite normal as you can see by the bud, and then it goes nuts like a high school prom dress. Some favourites are still in the thinking about it stage but these were too beautiful not to share. 
4 comments:
Your roses are beautiful! I have had a few tours of your garden, and didn't realize how many of them you have, and what variety - gorgeous!
I've decided that roses are my flower of choice...only in gardens though. Yours are fabulous, Jeanie! We are blessed with only three but they bloom constantly so I'm thinking about putting in more. Apparently our climate is perfect for roses and Windsor is actually called The City of Roses. Who'da thunk it??!!
Portland Oregon is also "city of roses" and sits at about the same lattitude, or is it longitude, as Windsor. The north/south thing which I can never remember.
Beautiful flowers, you lucky people with the green thumbs.
Betty
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