For us, six weeks is half our summer...so old roses are beautiful and appreciated. Lilacs, peonies, iris, bulbs, each flush of blooms make a special appearance and then move on to the next group.

While I do have a few roses that bloom for most of our summer, they aren't as large and the heat of July and August don't do them any favors. Smaller floribundas seem to handle it better than most...and of course the Canadian roses and Rugosas don't seem to mind much of anything! LOL

So, what roses and other flowers are best in your garden? Do you like the old once-blooming flowers? Do annuals last a long time (well longer than three to four months?) Just wondering... :)

Your garden sounds lovely! China and tea roses must be beautiful, but they don't like our winters. With the cold winter, it seems you may have the best of both. Do you have lilacs?

At the other end my roses will bloom into November sometimes, and even as late as Thanksgiving, but most likely they're done by Halloween. I will still have mums and asters right up to snow fall though.

The longest blooming roses in my garden are Cecile Brunner, Perle d'Or, Marie Pavie, Hermosa, and Blush Noisette. Zepherine Drouhin is a close second along with a few floribundas and the ever faithful Francis Dubreuil/Barcelona.

My perennial Lemon Queen sunflower lasts almost 2 months. Maybe 1 month and 3/4?

I just realized that I don't grow many annuals. Maybe I'm too cheap? Maybe I'm lazy? Maybe I need some Heavenly Blue morning glories....

Carol

Ingrid

After the once-bloomers have started, the ramblers follow a week or so after that, with a spectacular blooming period lasting for weeks. Baltimore Belle is the last one to bloom, though worth waiting for. By then the clematis is really blooming like crazy too (though I have earlier and later varieties of clematis as well), and I love the look of pink and white rambling roses blooming with blue and purple shades of clematis.

Gloire des Rosomanes begins bloom at the end of March, and I love its light but lovely and spicy scent. It was one of the first red roses I ever loved because I thought red roses appeared somber, but those artless cherry red blooms with their China rose white streaks seduced me.

I found one bloom during the first week of April on my 'Belle Sultane' usually the Gallica roses bloom at the end of April or during May here.
My Albertine has a few blooms too.

Our bloom season for China, Old Garden Tea roses extends from the end of February through mid-December, we often get a warm spell during mid-January and most of the Tea and Tea-Noisettes will put out a medium flush c. 1/2 to 2/3rds of the main spring flush of bloom.

Compared to Hybrid Tea rosebushes, I was delighted to see (though I feel I should feel abashed about this feeling, mea culpa) my neighbors front yard with only Hybrid Teas and modern roses has not a single bloom in it while my yard appears garlanded with an abundance of fragrant old garden Tea roses of pink, ivory, lemony yellow, peach and white all in mass profusion. While my friend and neighbor has ...poor thing... only rosebushes with leaves to show. She will have a garden of glory in late April when her Florabundas bloom fully followed in a couple weeks by her H.T.s.

My companion flowers that begin to bloom in late March through April , and re-bloom several times each year ( in our warm climate) include
Johnny-jump-up violas which surround Lady Hillingdon
as do
Forget -Me-Nots,
I have several 'Electric Blue' Geraniums that Luanne gave me last year that are blooming around Mme. Berkeley. and re-bloom steadily.
Parma violets bloom in winter here when the last Tea roses are blooming.

Hybrid Tea roses with long stems bloom for an average of 28 to 33 days per flush X 3 flushes per year for a total of nearly 3 months a year.
Florabundas bloom for a few days longer per flush: an average of 30 to 35 days per flush x slightly more than a month per flush, with an average bloom span of 3 and 1/2 months per year to nearly 4 months per year.

Lady Hillingdon bloomed for more than 180 days during her first flush of the year with never being dead headed, and always with 33% to 100% of bloom output during that time. ( I had a spinal injury and had nothing to do for 2 years but count rose blossoms in a large garden )

Other than the China and Teas no one can match them for days of bloom per year but a handful of Tea-Hybrids, including:
Pax' a white Hybrid Musk bred by Pemberton. 50% Old Garden Tea
This blooms in winter here with the Tea roses, mentioned in January.
Souvenir de la Malmaison' a Bourbon that is also 50% Old Garden Tea
it has the shorter pedicles typical to Old Garden Teas which makes for rapid re-bloom.

We just ordered a remontant 'Mock Orange ' (philladelphus) which is called 'White Sensation' I'm very excited about it, as it is the only re-blooming mock orange that I am aware of existing.

I have a yellow chrysanthemum called "garland Chrysanthemum' that I got from a seed bank locally, and it blooms from April through late Autumn, it re-seeds easily and it provides a saturated yellow missing from the Tea rose class. It grows taller and wider than I'd like, though.

Lux.