Roses, Roses, Roses ~

January for me after the post holiday malaise is over means: Roses ! 

The not so fun part is pruning all of my roses, but the second part, or the fun part, is selecting new roses to add to my garden. In recent years I haven't put in many new bushes but this year I have some  space, after having taken out what I determined were useless shrubs that were supposed to make gardening easier but instead required a lot of work and didn't provide the beauty of...what else a rose bush.

So I am in my glory trying to decide amongst all of the hundreds of selections just what to plant. My favorite source for purchasing roses is The Antique Rose Emporium, their roses are grown on their own roots, something I consider very important and the plants come potted up, well packed, and sturdy.

They also offer a nice collection of old varities of tea roses, which do very well in my climate. The roses you see here however are the last of the roses on my bush of Mary rose, a wonderful David Austin rose. Our colder days have made it much darker in color than it usually is. 

Although my list is not complete, so far I have decided that I need the David Austin rose, Abraham Darby rose to replace the one I was forced to take out several years ago, Climbing Pinkie a florifous climber that is seldom without bloom to wind around my back deck; two Pink Rosettes, another Marie Van Houtte, another Hermosa...and, well there just might be a few more!

Rose fever seems to have struck!

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