Here are this year's winners.

https://garden.org/newswire/vi...

Special congratulations to our forum's Ann, who won first place in two categories -- Roses and Dahlias (and second place in Dahlias too).

And special congratulations to our forum's Mike, who won second and third place in Roses and third place in Personal Landscaping.

That wine glass makes its way into a lot of my photos. I carry it around the garden every evening along with my secateurs and I snip here and sip there as I do my rounds. My hands don't work properly anymore and I can't hold a normal water glass so I use my favourite wine glass because I can wrap my fingers around the stem.

zuzu said:Here are this year's winners.

https://garden.org/newswire/vi...

Special congratulations to our forum's Ann, who won first place in two categories -- Roses and Dahlias (and second place in Dahlias too).

And special congratulations to our forum's Mike, who won second and third place in Roses and third place in Personal Landscaping.

Well this shows you that "This forum ROCKS!"

Thank you zuzu and Margie!

Ann

This is Roald Dahl. This rose is new to me this year but is now my third favourite. It has peach coloured buds that open to peach and buttery cream/yellow blooms which lose the orange tinge after a couple of days but they don't fade. The blooms remain in shape until just before the petals fall and there are no brown or dead petals anywhere on the bush. This specimen is only one foot tall so I didn't bother with a shot of the whole bush.

This is Windermere and it is my favourite rose. It can be cream or a soft peach or even pinkish depending on the season, but it is always beautiful. The pink tinged buds open to cupped blooms that may occasionally fail to open properly in very rainy weather but they never actually ball or go brown. I have included a photo of one bloom with a brown edge to it but that is as brown as Windermere gets. Even when the petals begin to fall the blooms are still elegant and the carpet of petals beneath the shrub adds to its charm. The blooms shatter quickly and cleanly with the explosion of one bloom sometimes setting off a chain reaction around it. The blooms keep going for me until winter when the last of them seem to hit pause and not open but also not degrade. They just sit there frozen in time. The perfume is also the best of any of my roses. I have 4 Windermeres and if I ever contemplated planting a rose hedge this is the rose I would choose because it is so beautiful and nearly maintenance free.

That is an amazingly generous display of blooms and buds!

I'm glad I'm not ordering from Palatine this year. The website has always been hectic on opening day for orders, with sudden site closures because of too much traffic and with some roses selling out between the time you put them in your cart and the time you reach the check-out point.

This year the site was crippled at the very start on December 6th. No orders were filled on that day. Palatine then set December 13th as the day orders would begin to be taken. A few days later there was an announcement that 10% of the customers with accounts would be invited to a "pre-sale," at which time 10% of the stock would be available for sale to the invited customers. This was expected to eliminate some of the heavy traffic expected on Monday morning. Unfortunately, this did not work. The pre-sale was held for a couple of hours today, but the site rejected everyone's credit cards. The chosen few will now join the usual throng on Monday morning (unless they give up completely out of frustration).

My decision not to order anything from Palatine has nothing to do with product quality. I still think Palatine is the very best rose nursery, offering the best roses at low cost and low shipping rates. Their new schedule is the problem for me. They will now ship the bare-root roses in March and April. I preferred receiving and planting the roses in the middle of November.

I was hoping to get Amour de Molene and Augusta Luise from there, but decided not to try. I ended up removing them from my wishlist and adding Crazy Love, Bliss Parfuma, Medallion and Beautiful Day. Gotta love rose math.

Northland added Stephen Rulo to the site. I may have to have that one if I can catch it in stock. My wishlist keeps getting longer.

So far I've ordered Boscobel and Jubilee Celebration from David Austin, and have a replacement Lady Emma Hamilton coming. Mr Lincoln, Neptune, Peace and Koko Loko from Northland Rosarium. Elle and Velvet Fragrance from Heirloom. And I won an Evelyn from Dodd Roses in one of Rose Geeks giveaways.

My remaining wishlist in no particular order - Midnight Blue, Sheila's Perfume, Yankee Doodle, Crazy Love, Legends, Bliss Parfuma, Stephen Rulo, Malicorne, Charles de Gaulle, Medallion, Papa Meilland, Great Century, Lawrence of Arabia, Miss Grace, Desdemona, Carding Mill, Good As Gold, Desmond Tutu, Beautiful Day and someday Summer Song

The Endeavour is new to my garden this year. I had read that it looks exactly like Jubilee Celebration and when the first bloom came out that was the case. I couldn't tell the blooms from the two bushes apart. Now The Endeavour has a second bloom and it is a rich coral colour. I don't know what's going on here but I adore this new bloom.
Second bloom.


First bloom.

Highly adorable.

I love Lady of Shalott very much and it definitely is the best Austin in my garden. Because of my garden situation, I prefer vigorous, healthy, shade tolerant roses, and of course non-stop bloomings. She just meets all of my requirements and even better. The photo was taken this morning.

Lola in regards to the coloring of The Endeavour:
I read on Help Me Find a comment that i thought would be of interest to you as follows:
" Deepest orange pink/deep pink initially with some yellow undertonings.
Constantly changing every single day from deep vibrant pink with orange tonings and then paler deep pink and so on."

There were also several photos demonstrating how quickly the color changes from the deepest orange pink/deep pink with yellow undertoning to the paler deep pink from day 1 to day 2. I think what might have happened is your first bloom was already changing into a day 2 bloom.

I agree with you Aerith, Lady of Shalott is lovely in every way . Beautiful photo.

I hope you add your photos of Rose (Rosa 'The Endeavour') to the database entry!

Aerith, how tall does your Lady of Shallot get in the PNW? The only reason I haven't gotten her is that I hear she gets huge. I love orange roses ever so much, and your pic is great! I particularly love the shading on the petals in your pic. How often is she that dark orange for you?

Susan, my 2-year-old LoS is about 5' tall. It's still young so I can't say how big it will be. It may look a bit awkward in the picture. I didn't cut off the long stems because I'd like to watch its growing habit before I decide how to prune it properly. The trellis is 4' tall from the ground.

Mine is planted in a spot where it gets only morning sun. I found that LoS has a broad range of colors, and it is apparently affected by temperature and how much sunlight it gets. In general it is golden orange, and it turns darker orange in cool cloudy days like the photo I posted above. During the heatwave in early summer, it showed apricot to pink shades and then faded to pale apricot-yellow. It is interesting that I can almost tell how the weather is like through its color.





The fact that LoS is still blooming in our cool, damp, miserable weather right now shows that it's pretty shade tolerant. I guess if you like the orange shades, maybe planting it in a part shade area will do.

Aerith, I got a misnomer DA last year named Princess Anne ( blooming orange instead of pink), that is for sure LoS. It behaves exactly as you describe it. We have been having anomalous warm weather so now I just deadheaded a bloom that faded to yellowish pale orange. Mine is still in a container about 3 ft tall max, and could go into the ground asap. I really like LoS as you all above do so. I did order two more this season but they are too small yet. Also just like you I'm trying to understand the architecture of the grown bush before deciding how I would like it to grow. So at first my DA's in general start out a bit ungainly with those odd long canes requiring some support to a central pole or stake. Also those that insist producing long canes become good candidates por pegging down. So its always a question of a play of options before one settles into which format it fits best. I also suspect that there are variations between individuals, so I'm hesitant to say that all of my bushes will behave the same way.

Arturo

Aerith, thanks so much for the info and further great pics! I'm encouraged because I'm in a cool coastal region, where we rarely get hot temps. Plus, I can put her in a more shady location. I can figure out the size thing later :-D
Arturo, thanks also for your comments and experience with LoS!

There is a youtuber that specifically talks about different ways to prune Lady of Shallot, because even in cool England she can be kept short or tall. A quick Google will help you find it.

Aerith, are any of your roses still blooming? (Just curious) Can you do a review of Sharifa Asma in your garden?

Arturo...Love coming here and reading about how you do roses, it always reminds me that experimenting is good. Very encouraging.

Lola...I can't tell you how much I appreciate you bloom cycle pictures! I am so late to get David Austins and there is just no way for me to actually see any that you are a life saver.