Here we are at the beginning of winter already. Ick!

Luckily, many of my roses are still blooming. This was Camille Pissarro a couple of days ago:

That is absolutely beautiful!

Blooming? What's that? I think I've heard of blooming.. oh, that's right, that's what non-hell areas have. It's raining now and it's getting pretty cold. 35degs & dropping. More pix of purdy flowers, please! Especially ones taken on my birfday!! :D :D :D

Always loved that Camille Pissarro, never did get it though. I always took tons of photos of it at the San Jose Heritage Rose Garden.

I visited a friend on Sunday that lives nearby, she has a little house painted bright yellow with a lot of her colorful art work on display on the outside walls and a cute cottage garden. I am going to be helping to get her garden cleaned up and add some new plants.


She also has chickens in a cute little coop (adorned with her paintings) and a few sheep.

CUTE!!! Especially the outhouse. I love the chicken coop too.

Darn it, Toni. I forgot your birthday. Happy, happy birthday!

Here are some other photos I took that day and the next:

Macho Man got a nice new bud that day:



Paprika (the Tantau floribunda, not the climber or the Oso Easy one):



Monty napping with one eye open:



Demain:



Paloma Blanca:



Picadilly:

I have my Lady Emma Hamilton (love this one!) and Summer Song loaded with blooms right now, Vesper is just about to explode with several clusters, they sure love the cooler weather! I'll get a few shots tomorrow.

zuzu said:Darn it, Toni. I forgot your birthday. Happy, happy birthday!

Here are some other photos I took that day and the next:

Macho Man got a nice new bud that day:

• Rose (Rosa 'Macho Man')
• Uploaded by zuzu

beautiful! Absolutely bee-oo-tee-full!

My birthday actually pretty much sucked big time, so I'm actually going to celebrate it in a few weeks. I usually don't "celebrate" it on my actually birthday (my mom has forgotten it on any number of occasions), didn't get anything for my birthday (DH not so much as forgot, but just didn't go shopping.. he's a geek. ). Had a nice BBQ w/a friend (smoked some steaks over hickory wood! *NOM!*) & got to watch Transformers 2 (love that series).

My Macho Man was absolutely loaded with buds (one of the roses I got from Cliff ) and, of course, it snowed. So I really didn't get any good blooms from it this year (imagine that, it being planted less than 2 months ago and now snow... *sigh*). But seeing this pic makes me swoon as to why I wanted it so badly!!!! And Monty's a welcome bud in ANY garden I think!

happy late birthday Toni Hope when you do celebrate you do it up good !! I know about the forget your birthday thing happens every year here

OH, love the chicken coop. I really like chickens and wish I could keep some chickens here. But not allowed in our town. I love Camille Pissarro, such a beautiful Rose. I have two of them myself but they still need to get mush bigger.

In between digging out a portion of the new lawn area (talked hubby into adding a curved back border to frame the lawn, had to dig down deeper for adding hardware cloth), I grabbed the camera for a few shots this afternoon.

William Shakespeare 2000



A perfect bud on Vesper with many more to come. I have 3 equally matching opening buds like this, each surrounded by 4-5 additional buds.



I have a couple of Liquidambar trees in fall colors. A small tree stayed completely green.


Eyes spying on grandma


I can't decide what my favorite mini rose is, a toss up between Denver's Dream and, since it's blooming right now, Ring of Fire.


Brothers Grimm Fairy Tale is turning out to be a fabulous looking bush with these vibrant blooms, even hubby commented on them, he likes their bright coloring. I love the lighter reverse on the petals.

Beautiful, Sue. Especially the whiskers on Natalie's head.

I love Denver's Dream, but Ring of Fire beats that easily. :D :D :D. So happy, bright, & cheerful! I'm actually surprised that your sweetgum is changing colors.. didn't think you had fall colors in California! And I have *got* to get me one of those William Shakespeare 2000... they smell SOOOOOOOOOO good!!

Sure we get fall colors, why wouldn't we? We get fall weather. Lots of the Chinese Pistache trees are looking great right now with lots of reds and oranges. My snowball viburnums have their gold and orange leaves. Big leaf maples turn bright yellow and black oaks can include some reds. Aspens turn a gorgeous gold, they are mostly in the eastern part of the state.

I figured that it didn't get cold enough to produce fall colors. I've never been to California, so I only know what I've seen on TV & such.. plus y'all are always posting pictures of paradise, so ...

I might have a really cool Rhapsody in Blue sport growing on one cane, or maybe it's just diseased. I hope it's a sport because I love mottled and stippled roses. The blooms on this cane look like this:



The blooms on the rest of the bush are normal:

Ohhh ahhhh, let's hope it stays!! Love it!

Well, HMF says there are no known sports of this rose, so it doesn't seem to sport readily and this is probably a mutant fluke. But it would be nice if it stayed.

Yours may be the first! Is that how sports usually appear: one strange cane amongst the normals?

I think so, but sometimes it's just a temporary fluke. I had that beautiful striped Granada on one cane for a couple of years, but it wouldn't root and it eventually stopped producing stripes. That was a neat rose!