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And who's this going to interest, besides me?

Unpack and stow luggage
Swap polos and turtlenecks out/into storage
Frugal Fannie's if they have any more Miraclesuits in stock
Patri's memorial
Prune forsythia
Trim box hedge and that green bush out front
~~Buy a rosebush. Never had one before.~~ (

damascene,

jdulac, that's a hint for advice!)
Get tomato plants if not already too late
Hunt up mail from last two+ weeks and deal, esp. bills
Lochleven guest meeting
Laundry, ironing, laundry, ironing
Do we know anybody who wants to do garden work for pay?
Organize receipts for expense report
Change bed linens, wash sheets ~~& towels~~
Clean downstairs shower
Amazon order
Compile (or find!) list of electrician tasks; call electrician.
Hair appointment?
Freecyle list entry for old couch
15 minutes of sorting old paperwork in office (baby steps)

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

From:

jdulac.livejournal.com

so more thoughts... given where you live, you should go to Mahoney's in Winchester (the "real" Mahoney's) to look for your roses. They have the best selection of anyone in the area. The other place I recommend is Russell's in Wayland.

moving on...

Old Garden Roses... aka "antique roses"... these are generally quite vigorous and sometimes make nice shrubs out of bloom. You have to treat them as once-bloomers, even if they are supposedly "perpetual." Still, their period of bloom is longer than the average peony and they can be spectacular. They tend to be big and need a lot of room. They also aren't usually easily available at the average garden center. "Rose de Rescht" is a small one although mine has gotten rather columnar over the years due to its situation and is about 5' tall. The flowers a very double and fragrant, but they are actually quite small. Don't know if you care for that fuschia tone in your red flowers, but it is one that you can find at garden centers. It does rebloom pretty well.

There aren't yellow OGRs, because that color comes from China tea roses, not bred in until later in the 19th c. Most of them tend to be shades of pink. If you want deep, deep red you should look at Gallicas. You can sometimes find them -- I just picked up "Belle de Crecy" in the Home Depot for $6.99! "Charles de Mills" is one that you sometimes see around. And if you see "Tuscany" for sale, buy it! They are only June blooming.

On the opposite end chronologically, there are a number of modern shrub roses that bloom well and are very disease resistant. I see that Mahoney's is featuring "Easy Elegance" roses -- some of these are amazingly nice. As mentioned before, the "Knockout" roses are extremely disease resistant and constantly blooming. "Bonica", a pink rose, is hard to screw up -- they plant this one on highways. I also recommend anything from Dr Buck, who breeds very hardy roses in Iowa.

Another modern rose that might suit you is Rouge Royale. It was at Russell's last year, and late in the summer when everything else was looking pretty poorly, it was lovely. And it's fragrant -- the price you pay for many of the tough-as-nails modern roses is that they aren't always that great at fragrance.

well, I've driveled enough for now. I think my favorite suggestion is the new William Shakespeare (I had to put that link in , the pic is so luscious).

From:

msmemory.livejournal.com

Mahoney's is where I head for any plants. Bought the herbs there earlier this year, will be there Sat-Sun or some such for the tomatoes. I'll check out the roses while I'm there.

Tell me more about once-bloomers vs. perennials?

From:

msmemory.livejournal.com

that is, once-bloomers vs perpetual?

From:

jdulac.livejournal.com

Wild European roses are normally bloom once per year -- their season is early summer. They produce hips from the roses and that's it for the year. Remontancy (re-blooming) was introduced into rose breeding stock from southern Chinese roses, which are normally not hardy in our climate. The first re-blooming European roses were produced in the 19th c. "Rebloom" can mean several things -- if they rebloom, Old Garden Roses typically bloom in flushes, a wave of roses, then a rest, then another wave. There may be only 2 waves, early summer and autumn. Usually the early bloom is the most abundant and subsequent bloom is sporadic.

Some modern roses have been bred to be almost constantly blooming. That takes a lot of energy from a plant. They typically don't make a lot of hips, and they like a lot of plant food (but who doesn't?) People generally expect roses to be reblooming nowadays. But many antique roses are not. I just mention this because Cynthia had suggested antique roses as being hardier (generally true), but one reason they aren't easily found in garden centers is that they are very different from what people expect.

From:

jdulac.livejournal.com

I should clarify: it is not once-blooming vs perennial, it is once-blooming vs. re-blooming. Roses are perennial, although some are not reliably hardy in our climate (although you won't generally find those on sale here).

One reason the David Austen English roses are so popular is that they have the look of old-fashioned roses, but the re-bloom of modern roses. Right now my Abraham Darby and Othello and Graham Thomas are to die for.