Sherry -
Love your garden. I've been following your posts about roses. My husband and I bought a winter home in Florida last year. I was a little nervous about establishing a rose garden there since conditions are so different than what I am used to.
I did put in Cracker roses and Duchesse du Brabant before we left for the summer. Moving slowly in the rose garden direction though! Plan to add Mutabilis when we go back and perhaps Belinda's Dream.
Your garden is a great inspiration for me.
We are on the Atlantic side on the Treasure Coast.
Keep posting. Florida needs more roses!!!

Linda, congratulations on your new home. I had to google your Treasure Coast. Now I know where it is. Do you grow roses in Wisconsin, too?

Thank you for the encouragement! Some days I really need it. LOL

I'm curious about how your roses will be watered while you're away. Watering is the most important thing for roses down here - "never let them dry out" is what I have heard, and my garden has proven the truth of it.

Sherry

Here is a link that might be useful: If only sweat were irrigation...

Hehe - you might say I rose garden in Wisconsin - I have an estimated 150 plants.
We have an automated watering system in Florida. My husband put drip emitters in for the roses. My parents live there year around. They take in our mail and check the house every week.
My Mom is still quite a gardener (in her 80's) so she keeps an eye on the garden for me.
One of our neighbors is a Master Gardener, so I know she keeps a casual eye on the place.
I really love Florida, and the only thing that keeps me from living there full time is my brand-new Granddaughter in Wisconsin!

Love your "green blobs," Sherry!
And you've done a wonderful job of laying out your garden so that your roses really complement your home.
I do have a question: those intense blue flowers -- are they salvia farinacea Victoria blue?
Kay

Linda, what a great situation you have in your new garden and how wonderful that you have a new granddaughter. I would just send up a warning to you to watch for squirrels chewing on your drip system. I hate those garden terrorists with a passion. They have caused me more problems - such as geysers! - that cause my water bill to skyrocket and the garden to go dry. I wrapped some 1/4" tubing that they kept chewing in hardware cloth. No more chewing. My neighbor thinks she's feeding the birds but guess what she's really feeding!!

Kay, you're so funny! The green paint color was chosen long before the garden was ever thought of. I liked it before, but I really like it now. Yes, they are salvia farinacea Victoria blue. I love them - except they have a tendency to flop over. Or maybe the armadillos are pushing them over. I think next year I'll put small tomato cages around them -- and plant a bunch more of them. The bushes keep getting bigger and bigger.

Sherry

Here is a link that might be useful: If only sweat were irrigation...

Your garden is lovely, Sherry! And I do "green blob" photos too sometimes, lol, but mine aren't nearly as full as yours, of course.

Great shots Sherry! Thanks. Those are exactly the kind of photos Help Me Find needs posted so folks in similar climates to yours have an idea what to expect from the plants. If the same types could be posted of the same plant from several zones, you could actually get a handle of what to expect the things to develop into. Please post them to HMF! Thanks. Kim

Here is a link that might be useful: Help Me Find

That's a great idea, Kim. I never think to do that anymore, and now it's even more important now that my bushes are more mature. I'll have to take the time to do that - and it WILL take time, but definitely worth it to Florida and deep south rose-growing folks. Thanks for suggesting it.

Seil, I'm always surprised to see the smallish rose bushes (some are anyway) that far northern gardens have. It makes me admire you guys all the more for the rough winters your plants must endure. What different worlds we all garden in!

Here is a link that might be useful: If only sweat were irrigation...

You're welcome Sherry! That's why it is a must. If you only saw the smaller plants from shorter season areas, you'd plant them close together and then reap the "rewards" of it. That's why growing English roses well was so difficult for so long. The only growing information available was from Austin in Britain. Catalog descriptions stating Graham Thomas is a "mannerly, 5' X 5' shrub" may hold true for upstate New York, but it is a 15' climber in many areas here in SoCal! The same holds true for things like Ballerina. British books state it is "our most reliable small poly". Yeah? Try 26' up a Pine Tree in Manhattan Beach, CA! I hacked out the one I cared for when it climbed up on the house roof. New Dawn, "dependable 10' X 10' climber". NOT HERE. It's as indeterminate as any tomato planted over the septic tank ever was!

Without the collective knowledge and photographs from all areas, there just isn't any way to make INFORMED choices and decisions. It does no one any good for someone to tell you the plant is going to be 2' when in your area, that translates to 10'! Thanks. Kim

Sherry, Beautiful pictures of a wonderful garden. (as usual).

I have a baby Borderer and would love to know how long you've had yours and what you think the eventual dimensions will be.

Thanks. Jeff

Jeff, that Borderer is 2-1/2 years in the ground. Eventual? I'd just be guessing. Maybe 3 x 3-1/2 here give or take a little. It's a VERY slow grower, that's for sure, but very healthy. It's not 3' tall yet.

Sherry

Here is a link that might be useful: If only sweat were irrigation...

Sherry,
I love the roses all over your garden.It is really pretty, The Maman Cochet and Reve d'Or are especially beautiful to me.
kay

Oh, Jeff, I just looked out my bedroom window and Borderer is about 4' across now and at least 2' tall.

Kay, thank you! That shot of MC and RdO is from the neighbor's side which I never get to see - naturally. They kind of sneak up on me.

Sherry

Here is a link that might be useful: If only sweat were irrigation...

Sherry, this is a great post. Your Clotilde Soupert looks super, none of that balling one hears about, and what a graceful bush. Mme. Abel Chatenay is to die for; I think that rose is really special. It wasn't long ago when you were posting about your roseless garden, and look at it now. The climbing roses took my breath away.

Ingrid

Kim's comments are spot-on! I once took those growth size graphics that Vintage Gardens provides VERY seriously. Now, if I bother to check them, I summarily dismiss them. My jaded attitude results from the fact that I've experienced far too many 'compact' plants that find my southern comfort to be very, VERY invigorating.

Ingrid, it poured down last night. A bit unbelievable since it poured at the beginning of the first flush, but no damage done. CS had a few fat buds that were balled and brown today, but it wasn't bad at all. Mostly the worst problem was bowed down canes - even still at the end of the day. I really do love the roses you mentioned. They never fail to exceed my expectations.

Windeaux, you're so right.

Sherry

Here is a link that might be useful: If only sweat were irrigation...

Great pictures, Sherry, your roses look wonderful and really happy. Perfect foliage too :).

Masha

Thanks Sherry!
I'll tell my Dad to check the drips when he checks on the house. The system is on a well, but still I wouldn't want it running all the time!
Pesky squirrels - they need a good joke played on them!

Here is a link that might be useful: Squirrel Underpants