Roses from the Past

Hi Friends,
I was just looking at Jo-Anne Coletti's roses on her blog
vintagerosecollection.blogspot.com and thinking about the roses I used to have. I had the David Austin roses, as well as Queen Elizabeth and some other favorites. Roses can be difficult, they are heavy feeders and they like water - but not every day. In the spring I gave them epsom salts around the base, and buried a banana peel next to the roots a couple of times during the summer. (advice from Martha Stewart).


I also fed them every month with diluted plant food. I didn't have problems with Japanese beetles or any other bugs, but they did get blackspot if the summer was wet.

This one is Abraham Darby

When I broke up with my boyfriend of 14 years and we sold the house, I dug up and moved fourteen rosebushes in my car. There I was in the car, (I had a little Chevy Tracker), surrounded by mountains of shrubs, their roots wrapped in black trash bags, their thorny canes scratching my neck, and promising them out loud that if they would only live through this, I would never move them again. Now, that I live in the woods, I have wisteria, bleeding heart, hostas, hydrangeas and shady plants. Roses would hate it here. So I was able to keep my promise and not move them again. They were too big anyway. Huge!

This one is Fair Bianca.

This is Eden, grown as a climber. Eden was my favorite.

Hmmm, can't remember this one's name. I loved it, it was a dark pink.

Hope you had fun looking at my roses, I sure did.

Love, Linda