United States

I have had a love for roses ever since my dad brought some cuttings home to try to root (it didn’t work), when I was in my teens, back in the 1970s. Dad worked at the Federal Penitentiary in Atlanta and became enamored with the beautiful rose garden on the campus. He was never much successful with roses (too busy with working and vegetable gardening), but he loved them, especially Mr. Lincoln. Fast forward a couple decades, and an elder at our church observed my fascination with the roses planted in a bed there. He encouraged me to take cuttings, and I did (it worked!). They were Sheer Elegance and Fragrant Memory (Jadis). This spurred me on to buy my first roses, two of which were David Austin’s Graham Thomas and Evelyn. When we had our second son, my husband David and I moved down from Fayette County, Georgia (where I grew up), to Pike County, and I transferred my roses with us, but life kicked into high gear with homeschooling two boys 9 years apart, horses, chickens, 4-H, and vegetable gardening. In the interim, I lost most of my roses except a rambler called Apple Blossom and my David Austin Evelyn. Poor Evelyn finally succumbed to root stock back in 2021, after being transplanted 4 times! I am very sad that she is no longer available from David Austin. So, now, the boys are grown, and I am able to devote more time to gardening, and, in spring of 2020, my husband and my sons helped me to start a bed which I promptly filled with roses, anchored on one end with a Rose of Sharon tree from a cutting from my aunt (that is a story in itself) and on the other end with Hombre’s Forsythia (that is another story!).

I have been browsing the website the past year (so thankful I found it) and just recently began going through my 2022 Selecting Roses Guide from ARS, looking up every rose that is 8.0 and higher, as well as my own roses here. I have learned SO MUCH just doing that. It's prompting more questions, and I hope to learn as much as I can and hopefully to share my own experiences with help others.

I am in central Georgia, U.S., We have a hard red clay base, so I have to work to get a rose planted! My son, who lives just a quarter mile north of us on the same dirt road, has clay, but much softer, with more actual dirt in it, easier to shovel. The only thing we can figure is that my property is at the bottom of a "mountain" and maybe that impacted the differences in the soils, or rather, clays. So, I amend with homemade compost, soil conditioner, topsoil and mushroom compost. My roses get full sun all day long and so far seem to like it.

I have right now, 21 roses. My bed size is limited and so I have to mostly dream rather than actually add more, although it is my intention to get Evelyn (which I learned from your site can still be gotten! Hooray!) and Graham Thomas. I am marking my Rose Guide as I make my way through it, using this website, for those I might really like to have.

Little Darling
Livin' Easy
Easy Going
Mr. Lincoln
Full Sail
Black Cherry
Veteran's Honor
Munstead Wood
Honey Perfume
Radiant Perfume
The Poet's Wife
Queen Elizabeth
Fragrant Memory
Elizabeth
French Lace
Apple Blossom (my granddaughters adore her; she is a monster plant!)
Ringo
Tottering-by-Gently
Black Jade
2 no-name Ingles Grocery florist minis! One is yellow and one is peppermint striped.

Beginner (4 years)

Last visit: Friday, November 1st