the first rose/s you ever grew

My first garden was all native and very suitable for a busy household with working mum and three children but one day I looked around and thought it straggly and uninteresting. As it happened I had already fallen in love with an old-fashioned rose and wanted to find out more about them. Didn't know one from the other. Thought I better do some homework before I made any decision so I agonized for weeks over catalogues and gardening books. Wished for them all but pared the list down to a manageable 2 dozen. I think there were 30 actually but can't find the order I kept.

Anyway I chose a few from each class and hoped like mad I knew what I was doing. Well I did and I didn't LOL. The noisettes, teas and bourbons flourished in my climate. The others lingered on through a long hot summer and gave up the ghost one after the other or survived but wouldn't flower. I dug them out and replaced them.

But one of those I dug out, the beautiful damask rose Celsiana gave me the most joy of any plant I've grown. She flowered just one season but can't regret falling in love with her picture and ordering her - would have missed the heady joy of drinking in her beauty. Every morning soon as I woke I would rush out to see her.

That I grew her at all was a miracle - to see her bloom was a pleasure I've never forgotten.

Yes I think I started of with about 6 and boy has it grown over the years

What did you plant Thee - were they some you liked when you saw them at a nursery or wherever. I never saw mine at all beforehand - just the pictures in books.

First rose I planted was Blue Moon - I planted it in a house we rented in Johannesburg in the middle of a 7 year drought and knew nothing about roses ( or much of anything else come to that). Because of severe water restrictions I saved all my veggie water and cooled it down for the roses. It absolutely loved it. It was the only spot of colour in the whole garden - the rest was brown and crackling dry.

I planted one call IMP I think it was. A smallish 2 toned flower. Also another that I wish I knew the name of - an upright little bush with cute pink buds that opened to a smallish rose. Then my Mum gave me some money for my birthday and I went out and bought 5 david Austins. Well it was love at first sight! Particularly with Mollineux. I struggled to keep them going in the poor, sharp draining soil at Castlemaine, and when we came here I was convinced that they would do well in the heavier clay loam with a higher rainfall (which it still has despite the drought). I now have over 200 roses, and a lot more to go in this winter, but the DA's and particularly Mollineux still have a very big place in my heart.
Cheers, Jan

Were you given it Blossom or just buy it on a whim - funny the things we do sometimes to create our own magical space.

I don't think I've ever seen a DA I didn't like Jan

Fran wrote:What did you plant Thee - were they some you liked when you saw them at a nursery or wherever. I never saw mine at all beforehand - just the pictures in books.

I went to a nursery and had no idea what I was doing and had help from a lady there, a few of those died, I still have the others and only know 2 of them, my big Iceberg and Hannah Gordon, this is the bed a few more added over the years ect.....





Yes they are all too close together, but what else can I do

It was the first house we had lived in - we had spent 5 years in Ghana prior to that as newly weds and nothing but tropical plants grew there; we also had a company gardener who maintained the garden as part of our employment contract, plus it was too bloody hot and humid and snake infested to garden! I was so missing the English style of garden after that as my parents had a lovely garden but of course I took little notice of it except the tomato growing side!) Before we went to Ghana we had lived in a city flat and when we first went to Johannesburg lived in a flat, so this was my first garden. Even though everyone said nothing will grow, I had to put something in so bought the rose. Funny it should have been Blue Moon!

Thee - they make a picture there together - the pink and white - beautiful shade of pink

One of my climbers is Blue Mon, but no a god repeat flowerer, and Fran I wish O knew the pink roses name as she flowers at least 4 times each season.

the first rose I ever planted was an Iceburge that my kids bought me for mothers day. I then researched roses and found out they were related to the blackberry. I then decided that even I couldnt kill blackberrys so I have now planted about 40 of then. I keep some bantam chooks and geese in the rose garden and they weed it for me. so not only do they look good, I dont have to work to hard to get my flowers as they are constantly being cultivated and fertilized. Its great.

Like to see them Earthmama - are they HTs - what are your favourites. Do you just have them in a bed on their own - wondered because of the bantams. They are great weedeaters aren't they but if I let the chooks loose here I'm afraid they'd scratch out all the herbs and perennials around them. I do it the hard way and rake it up from their pen - your way would certainly be easier I would get them one of those movable pens but we're on a slope here up where the house is and it just wouldn't work.

Hmmmm... My first rose came from my Mum's rose garden and my curiosity with propagation. Mum had a huge rose garden and we'd work in it together dragging out washed up seaweed from the lake we lived on (Tuggerah Lake) and piling it up to rinse the salt out and let it age before piling it on to the roses etc. We had this tiny rose called 'Si'. It's the smallest rose that has ever been bred with flower buds about the size of a match head. I took some cuttings and put it into my cactus house (I grew cactus at one stage too - seems I have a thing for the spikey things ) and they struck and potted them up. I took them away to uni with me, then when I graduated I took them out to Inverell with me and from there went to Moree with them and from there took them back to the NSW Central Coast. Had them for years and years and then when we went to live o/s for a few years I gave them to people who lost them all such is life... now I'm trying to find it again and have FINALLY found someone who has it. Andrew Ross of Ross Roses said he still has a plant and he would strike some cuttings for me and send them down This is VERY cool.

I bought a lot of 7 roses whose tags had dropped off,so it was hit or miss the only thing I knew was none were climbers.They grew well and I lost none of them, I ended up with Angel Face (always had one in every garden since), a yellow (I hate yellow roses), a deep red which we identified as Blackboy,double Delight, 2 icebergs and a pink rose which we think was Princess Elizabeth. Not bad for only $5 in 1989