Bear in mind these are just iPhone shots, and are just meant for reference. I'll be thinking about buying a real camera eventually.

:-)

~Christopher

'Sweet Chariot' arrived May 1, potted in 1-gal

'Sweet Chariot' as of June 2

'Lyda Rose' arrived May 1, potted in 2-gal

'Lyda Rose' as of June 2

'Baltimore Belle' arrived April 26, potted in 2-gal

'Baltimore Belle' as of June 2 (with tree branch in pot for support)

'Jaune Desprez' arrived April 26, potted in 2-gal

'Jaune Desprez' as of June 2 -- see the shoot rising above the first "e" in "Desprez? That shoot is thicker than a pencil, and currently over 12" long. There are also two twigs stuck in the pot for support.

Kate

'Jaune Desprez' June 13

"Bermuda Spice" potted in 2-gallon on April 26

"Bermuda Spice" on June 13

'Bubble Bath' potted in 2-gallon on May 1

'Bubble Bath' on June 13

'Monsieur Boncenne' potted in 2-gallon on April 26

'Monsieur Boncenne' on June 13

'Orfeo' potted in 2-gallon on April 25

'Orfeo' on June 13

'Reverend Seidel' potted in 2-gallon on April 25

'Reverend Seidel' on June 13

And just because it's my largest rose-in-a-pot, here are two pics of 'Souvenir de Victor Landeau' taken today (June 13). This came as a band in April 2012. It had a flush of flowers along the self-pegged canes a few weeks ago, and now another flush of almost-ready-to-pop buds is coming from new growth, as well as a second wave of tiny new buds on the old growth.

And finally, a "group-shot" of everybody. There are a few "empty-looking" pots. Those are 'Indigo' (which may have died after a fatal attempt at separating what I thought was two rooted cuttings in one band), 'Ducher' and 'Buff Beauty' (these came from Long Ago Roses already sprayed with fungicide, and that combined with the heat-wave which came through right after they arrived caused all six bands in my order to suffer, but these two completely defoliated...and I'm waiting for them to bounce back), and 'Crimson Glory' (defoliated by a squirrel, but starting to open up new leaves).

In the bottom right corner, you'll see four un-tagged 1-gallons. Those are Kim Rupert's 'DLFED 3' which came as unrooted pieces. I literally stuck them in my potting mix without rooting hormone, snipped back their leaves, and left them in bright shade. All four pieces are growing and have leafed out. One will be mine, one is going to PortlandMysteryRose, and two are up for grabs....any takers?

In the front row (bottom of picture), fourth from the right (or fifth from the left), is another 1-gallon with the one growing survivor out of four unrooted pieces of 'R. fedtschenkoana' which received the same treatment, but was the thickest stem of the bunch. I needed only one, so I count this as a success.

:-)

~Christopher

As far as spraying -- thus far, I've sprayed only once, and with only a modified Cornell mixture -- neem oil, baking soda, and liquid dish soap dissolved in water. A few weeks after the bulk of my roses arrived and were repotted, some were showing touches of mildew (actually, some ARRIVED with mildew). I soaked them all down around sunset, knowing that the next day would be overcast and cool, and the following day would be rainy. All the mildew disappeared and hasn't returned since. And I have yet to see any blackspot. I think it's a result of vigorous strong growth fed by a rich potting mix and abundant rain, plus the roses are sitting on pavement which doesn't stay wet in the sunshine, and they're in a good spot for catching breezes.

Last year, my six potted bands stayed clean until late October. They were similarly sprayed only once that season with the modified Cornell mixture, to clear a little mildew. And by late October, I honestly don't care if things get a little spotty -- most everything is going to sleep for Winter, anyway.

Of course, this may all change once things get planted in the ground.

;-)

~Christopher

Carol

And that's the last one. I had three extras, and now they're all spoken-for. You'll get one, PortlandMysteryRose will get one in trade for an 'Indigo' sucker, and I'm passing the third on to Linda Loe of Long Ago Roses. I'm sure Kim will be itching to see how well one of his eclectic hybrids does so far from home -- in the PNW, the southeast, and mid-atlantic coast. I'll message you with my email.

:-)

~Christopher

Today a few more opened, and now I can smell the plant a few feet away.

And a shot of the whole plant in its 2-gal pot, showing growth thus far. Scroll up to the first post in this thread to compare it to how it looked May 1st.

The "dead growth" you see in the plant is actually a small tree branch I stuck in the pot for support. I'm thinking I'll be OK letting this one flower to its heart's content. It seemed to focus on growing first without my interference so far.

:-)

~Christopher

And this is it today (June 20, 2013):

Some of the leaves show black tips. This is because I noticed some leaf-eating critters and sprayed them all with a modified Cornell mix (1 tablespoon each Neem Oil, Baking Soda and Palmolive Liquid Dish Soap in a gallon of water -- my all-purpose spray, and the second time I used it this year). I noticed a couple days later some tip-damage on newer leaves where the spray collected. I try timing the spray for just before dusk on the day before it's supposed to be overcast or actually rain, but this time they must have gotten hit with full-sun before the rain washed off any excess.

:-)

~Christopher

a great rose--
Florence

Here's 'Orfeo' when I first potted it into its 2-gal container back on April 25:

Here is 'Orfeo' less than a month ago, on June 13:

And here is 'Orfeo' today, on July 3:

:-)

~Christopher

Ingrid

Oh New Brunswick, I used to live at the Colony House, George Street, with Buccleuch Park as the front lawn.

:-)

~Christopher

;-)

~Christopher

How about putting Baltimore Belle into your tree? Ramblers in trees are a thing of wonder, and BB is a beautiful, beautiful one! I'm curious, your tag says "reblooming clone" ... tell me more.

Connie

Sorry if you mentioned that before, but why didn't you plant them in april? There isn't much benefit keeping roses in 2 gallon pots or even 5 gallon ones.

I don't want to sound negative, last time I moved I kept 10 or so roses in 8 gallon containers for a year and it was still too small for some of them.

mendocino rose -- Yes, I'm liking 'Reverend Seidel' so far as well. It finally opened a few flowers recently, and they smelled just as strong as 'R. moschata', but with a slightly different smell. Best comparison I can make is that 'Reverend Seidel' smells like a cross between 'R. moschata' and "Darlow's Enigma", which I suppose makes sense, considering its presumed pollen-parent was 'The Garland'.

hartwood -- Yes, that's another reason I wanted to show the before and after pics. As to 'Baltimore Belle' in the tree -- I think the tree is actually too small for it. It's a Japanese Maple, about 12' tall, very open habit. The 'Baltimore Belle' I picked out for a friend, anyway. He has a better tree into which it can climb. And I wanted something with fragrant flowers that hung down. Originally, I envisioned 'Jaune Desprez' up there, but now I'm wondering about using 'Orfeo' instead. Color-wise, I'd prefer 'JD' because I'm going to plant 'Souv du Dr. Jamain' against the white porch railing, and I don't know how two different "dark reds" will look so close together.

As to the tag saying "reblooming clone" -- I put that on there because it came from Vintage Gardens. They say their 'Baltimore Belle' continues to bloom modestly through the summer. And when I searched 'Baltimore Belle' on HelpMeFind, two results came up. One says "repeat version" and is listed as being available only from Vintage Gardens. I'm not sure if it's a climate-induced rebloom or genetic, but I figured I'd try it out in my friend's yard and see if it works here. If it does, great -- and I'm glad I got one before the only supplier closed. If it's just a climate thing and the rose won't rebloom here, oh well....

NY Steve -- Thanks! I was really struggling with coming up with an order list over the winter, mostly because I didn't have a plan of "this goes there, that goes there, I want this to be there..." but knew I'd be getting started with making a garden this summer. I am a bit of a fragrance snob, and I also like finding things that are "different", and I wanted to try breeding a little, so those things factored into my list. And in the end, I just went crazy and ordered everything on my list, figuring that once they got here, I'd grow them on and be able to decide what's going where as I went along. Anything "left over" that I decide not to keep will go to friends.

silverkelt -- I just moved here last July, and wanted to make a garden here. There is work that needs to get done before I can plant (landlord has to remove a tree, rebuild my back porch, and I have to edge and prepare beds when that gets done). I wanted to get a bit of a head-start by getting bands this Spring and growing them on in 2-gal pots with a rich potting mix before they go in the ground in Autumn. For most of my planned bed-areas, I can't put them in the ground yet because the areas aren't prepared. And having them in pots, I can move them around before I decide where they will go, and be able to gift away those which I decide against using.

I was hoping to have much of the bed-prep done by now, but my landlord doesn't seem to be in much of a rush about getting things done here. Last time I saw him, he mentioned that he and his wife just moved out of their home and into a rental, while construction on their new home is being done on land they purchased for their "empty nest" years. And he is still recovering from back surgery. I might have to take down the tree myself.... :-/

mendocino rose -- My soil here is very much like what I remember encountering on Long Island -- dark clay. I haven't done tests, but being as I don't see any of the "barely-cared-for" hydrangeas in the neighborhood blooming in anything but purplish to blue tones, I'm guessing the soil is on the acid side. My landlord said that the soil in this town isn't very rich, but luckily I have the Rutgers University Ag Extension just a mile or two away, and they sell composted mixed manure (horse, cow, pig, sheep and goat) for half the price of the Bovung I got from Home Depot. And my landlord said that if I went by and offered to shovel the fresh stuff from the goat pens myself, I could get that for free.

:-)

~Christopher

I do love 'Lyda Rose' but I won't be keeping it. If I had more room, I'd find a space for it, but I already have four "fragrant white singles" in my inventory that I'm definitely keeping. I picked it out for my former roommate (Crystal) and her boyfriend (David), who bought their first house a couple years ago. It's perfect for them. They're nature lovers, vegan, and prefer "wild, untamed beauty." In 'Lyda Rose' I see the beauty of a simple, wild rose, but with the repeat bloom and "milder manners" of a garden rose. And I'll be sure to send them a link to this thread so they can see the pictures of your gorgeous 'Lyda Rose.'

When I was rose-ordering, there were a few I wanted to get to finally "meet" in-person, but wouldn't get planted here. They will be gifts, and I tried to match them up to their recepients' personalities and likes. 'Baltimore Belle', 'Georg Arends', 'Honorine de Brabant' and 'Golden Buddha' were also picked out with other friends in mind. And I'm sure that after I start figuring out what's going where that I'll have extras, and they'll be passed on as well. I already have some interest in the extra 'Indigo' pieces which were graciously sent to me by PortlandMysteryRose.

Seil, I'll keep adding pics as I notice dramatic changes. I've completely neglected the once-blooming OGRs, mostly because I expected them to grow fast, anyway. If you're on Facebook, I made my NJ Garden Pics album public. As of now, it's mostly "before" pics, but after putting together a garden out of a yucky yard back when I lived on Long Island, I regretted never having taken "before" pics to remember what it used to look like.

And a bit of good news: I live in a small 1 bedroom house on a shared lot with a "normal" sized 3 bedroom, 2-story house. We share a yard, and have the same landlord. The group who lived there when I moved here last July left, and one of the new tenants is a fellow gardener. She was excited to see all the pots when she moved in last month, and wants to help in the yard. She's here only 3 or 4 days a week, and I keep missing her.

But today she was doing some repotting of her houseplants and I was talking about how I'm still waiting for the ugly and overgrown Callery pear tree to get trimmed. She asked how I trimmed the arbor vitae, and I told her I had a pair of clippers and a small hand saw. She said if she could borrow them, she'd get started herself on the tree. Since I had time before I had to go to work, together we got started. But she kept going after I went inside to get ready.

When I came outside to leave, I was happily shocked -- she really tore into it! Finally, my spot under the arbor vitae will get full-sun for a few hours in the afternoon, as well as dappled in the morning (before today, it was just dappled). The branches are lying on the ground now, but I'll be able to clip them back to bits by hand (like I did with the arbor vitae trimmings) and lay them down in another bed-to-be. I am holding on to the thicker branches to make sort of rustic tripods.

Today I also set out the five I plan to plant in the bed pictured in this thread. They're still in their pots, but I managed to space them with 5' between them. It finally feels like the garden is starting to come together.

:-)

~Christopher

All of 'Jaune Desprez' is green. Any brown stems you see are tree branches I stuck in the pot for support.

How it looked when I potted it on April 26th, 2013:

June 2nd, 2013:

June 13th, 2013:

The next three were taken today, July 8th, 2013. The small, thin stem on the right side is the same original stem that came when I received the band two and a half months ago. The thick cane on the left is all new, from the roots, and you can see it as it grew from the June 2nd pic on to today:

I'm happily surprised at the rate of growth on 'Jaune Desprez'. It's certainly not the biggest or bushiest, but I was expecting it to crawl at a snail's pace, being a yellow Tea-Noisette. Once the roots got enough energy to push that cane, it just kept going. I'm going to over-winter this in the garage or back enclosed porch and plant it next year. I want to keep pushing it to grow as much as possible before I set it free in the garden.

I'm still torn about two spots I have in mind. One is against the garage, perpendicular to one of the Gallica beds. The other is to climb into the green-leafed Japanese maple in the front. These two spots are set aside for 'Jaune Desprez' and 'Orfeo' but I'm not sure which is going in which.

:-)

~Christopher

I think it is so exciting when a littl band springs forth like that

Florence

I've been doing some more bed prep in my off-time, as much as I can until the heat becomes unbearable. It's all coming together, albeit slowly.

:-)

~Christopher

I moved here for Rutgers. It was my first-choice school for getting my PsyD in clinical psychology. I'm settling myself and getting my home comfortable first, then applying. I know once I start classes that I won't have extra income to fix up the place, so I want it done now while I'm working a lot.

As to being young, well.....I did turn 37 last month.

;-)

~Christopher

Here it was when I potted it up on April 25 (just under three months ago):

And here it is as pictured yesterday, July 17:

Moral of the story -- don't be afraid to buy roses as own-root bands. They can quickly catch up in growth, if they have the genes and conditions for it.

:-)

~Christopher

Beautiful JD bloom:

While I can't expect mine to grow as rampantly here in zone 7 NJ, I did originally intend for it to climb a 12' Japanese maple in my front yard. I've seen pictures of 'Jaune Desprez' grown on a tall pillar with a flared top, and I was imagining it would work the same with a tall, open-habit Japanese maple. I might keep it potted until next year so it really has a fighting chance.

Is yours own-root or grafted? How long did it take to reach 6' tall? That's about the height mine would need to be to get into the lower branches of the tree here, but it'd be getting plenty of sun -- the tree doesn't leaf out until about 10' high in the center, and the sun hits the tree from the side most of the day.

I'd love to see more pics of your 'Jaune Desprez'. Feel free to post them here if you don't want to start a new thread.

Today hit 97F where I am, and very humid as well. This morning, when the temps were still only in the 80s, I went out back and snipped off any flower buds I could find on most of the roses, but I left the heat-lovers to do as they wish. This included 'R. moschata', 'Reverend Seidel', 'Jaune Desprez', "Darlow's Enigma" and "Secret Garden Musk Climber." I actually saw a few sprays of buds starting to form on 'Jaune Desprez', which I'm looking forward to seeing develop. So far, I let only one tiny flower open about a month ago. Now I want to see how they color differently in the heat.

:-)

~Christopher

My inspiration for obtaining JD was Graham Stuart Thomas' "The Art of Gardening with Roses", still probably my all-around favorite rose book for inspiration and sighs, even though I can't grow a lot of what is shown in those spectacular photos. Anyway, on p. 124 is a beautiful photo of "Desprez a Fleur Jaune" at Mottisfont and GST's comment that it is seldom out of flower (which I early on thought was a crazy statement, since mine did not really rebloom much at all for its first three or four years or so, but after that it has indeed been nearly continuous) and about its unforgettable scent. (I don't know of any other rose that smells like JD and it is worth it if only for that scent that wafts through the entire back yard.) He goes on to say it should be thinned out in winter (I'll say! And spring, summer, and autumn and in-between, so it won't eat the house -- the curse of an overly-mild climate).

JD does seem to be a natural tree-climber -- does it all by himself, no direction from me. I only trained him along the fence, to start.

:-)

~Christopher

'Orfeo' is another climber that's been doing a nice job of growing up a tree (the Callery pear) this season. 'Souvenir du Dr. Jamain' isn't too shabby, either. And 'Nouveau Monde' is getting lots of new, thick shoots along its longest, thickest cane. I'll have to snap a few more pics tomorrow.

:-)

~Christopher

I saw the image of your J.D. and it just took my breath away. Thank you :)

Lynn

In this shot, you can see 'Jaune Desprez' climbing the Japanese maple trunk, and the three roses I planted to go against my front porch. I removed the white azalea that was in the corner by the front steps and moved it to in front of the neighbor's house behind their mailbox. On the left is 'Souvenir du Dr. Jamain' which will be the big climber for the porch railing, and will continue to be trained to grow against it. In the middle is the once-blooming Hybrid China 'Duchesse de Angouleme' which will not get quite as big but will serve as a "living trellis" for a clematis I'll plant there next year. And on the right is the China 'Archduke Charles', which is thornless, and has flowers that open pink and age to cherry-red.

This is 'Nouveau Monde' showing its one big fat cane (which sprouted new after the band was potted and grew-on a bit -- the thin stems lower down was what it had when it arrived) which I trained along the deck railing, and it's sprouting lots more along its vertical length.

'Orfeo' is being trained against the Callery pear tree. Its two long main-canes are "hugging" the trunk diagonally, and training them so prompted lots of laterals to sprout. These were previously growing straight-out horizontally, but I tied them against the trunk with string (for now -- as they grow, I'll cut the string back and use something less obviously-visible).

All roses mentioned in pics in this post came as bands this Spring -- none were from last year, and none came as 1-gallons. Lesson -- don't be afraid of bands!

:-)

~Christopher