The Last of the Roses

During the past week it has turned quite cold here, at least in the nights. The days are still reasonably warm. The leaves on our few deciduous trees are starting to color and the ornamental grape is a magnificent red. All this leads me to believe that it wont be long until the roses shut down for the winter. We have been picking roses since October so that is not a bad run. They are at their best here in the late Autumn when the fierceness has gone out of the sun. We have been very pleased with the development of our rose garden this year and will plant about another 20 I think this winter.

The oldest of the rose gardens, these are mostly two and three years old.
Here you can see the three rose gardens, the Joey's in the foreground (this is the garden we planted for Jemima when she was born last year. like her they are one year old), to the left the pink and yellow roses and to the right the white garden
Some Joey's, they have grown quite well despite a pretty tough start with a cold dry spring followed by a hot dry summer
Like the Joeys these had quite a tough start, they are coming on quite well now. We lost about half a dozen roses in this bed that we will replant this winter. They are a mixture of icebergs and another larger rose that has a good perfume. One of the joys of growing the roses has been the perfume that comes right into the house on a warm day.


A pretty spot in the pink and yellow garden
Another nice view
Some of the roses in a vase