To do

[msmemory_archive]

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)

Comments

[damascene.livejournal.com]

Coming in late to the conversation, sorry...

I have a few hybrid teas, including a Mr. Lincoln that we inherited on buying the house almost 13 years ago. I'm thrilled to have it, it flowers a gorgeous deep red, almost continuously from June through September, and has a wonderful spicy scent, but it took me 6-7 years of careful work to restore it to health from the condition it was in when we moved in. HT do take more attention than many other types, including being generally more susceptible to black spot, mildew, aphids, and various other all-too-common ailments. Their greatest advantage is in being the classic cutting rose, with strong straight stems and flowers that often last a full week in a vase. If your vision includes being routinely able to cut a couple of flowers for a living-room display, there's probably a HT in your garden plan at some point. Not necessarily now, though.

I'm not as fond of the David Austin's English as jdulac is, and don't have any, although there are several at Melville Keep (I work on the garden planning over there, too). They're good plants, much less susceptible than the HT, but my experience with them is those lovely huge delicate-colored high-petal-count flower heads are often too heavy for their stems and flop downward almost as soon as they open which doesn't look graceful or attractive to me. (I grow peonies, too, which have the same failing but not usually until the first spring storm after they open.)

If you're content with the notion of not having a HT right away, well, I'm particularly fond of floribunda roses. They're generally smaller than HTs, easily freestanding, often hardier, and produce multiple blooms on each stem (hence the name) that are often suitable for bowl arrangements and smaller vases -- the vase on my dresser usually has 2-3 floribunda blooms in it throughout the summer. Looking at the Mahoney's web list for this year, if the Winchester store has a Chihuly or a Topsy Turvy available, those would be possibilities for you to consider. (A better Chihuly photo.)



A couple of other notes:

As you probably know from other garden adventures, the USDA Plant Hardiness Zone maps color all of eastern MA as Zone 6 -- and this just ain't so. My front yard, for example, faces north and east, and is a clearly-defined pocket of Zone 5, as I am reminded every spring when that space "wakes" more slowly than the rest of the garden. For roses, this does make some difference, so if your warm sunny picket fence is in a micropocket that gets disproportionately colder in the winter, plan to mulch and shelter accordingly.

Even against an open picket fence, if you decide to plant a climber I'd recommend some sort of trellising for it, that you can train it along and clip it to to support the growth and shape you want. If you pick a climber we can talk more about options; it won't need much for the first few months :) .