It's too cold to dance around them in the moonlight, so we have to find other rituals.

True, but when it is warm, there's a great show on this hill!

Yall are funny

So all this talk of roses......I was waiting for the weather to warm today for exterior painting. What better way than to go to the plant nursery. I picked up a "Popcorn" drift rose, 2 Nelson's, 1 peach drift, 2 yellow banks and 1 confederate rose(I know this is not a rose.).

Stopped at the convenience store and picked up half a dozen bananas and I already have some eggs in the fridge I am afraid to eat.

I figure this for the feed, I need to eat the banana, the peel has to go somewhere and the eggs need to go somewhere too. If all this goes in the ground, the puma's won't come prowling.

In the end, I have fed my need for more plants!

The sun is shining again, spirits are up

Molly, I like the way you think! I find rationalizing my purchases is one of my greatest talents!
Popcorn is such a cute rose!

I love hearing about shopping trips, but what's a Nelson?

I'm curious about that, too.

If I had the room, I'd get a lot of those drift roses. The cities here are using them a lot in the street median landscaping.
From what I've seen of them, they bloom just about year round and they come in nice colors. The maintenance crews use those industrial hedge shears on them when they need pruning and a few weeks later they're in full bloom again.
The seem immune to heat, humidity and cold as well as diseases.

Zuzu, I went to the nursery today and told them I was looking for Austins or Kordas. They sent me to the blue pots. They were actually Nelsons and not Austins. Nelson is a Florida rose grower concentrating specifically for Florida rose growing. They graft onto Fortuniana root stock as they found it to be more compatible with the nematodes, sandy soil and Florida climate. We'll see how they do on my sand hill.

Neal, When I can, I pick up extras for my friend Tieah. She got the Popcorn and 1 Lady Banks. The rest I'll plant here.
I told her should couldn't plant today as we are threatening with 34 low tonight. The rest of the week is predicted warmer than that as lows.

I don't dare to put in the confederate rose as it is more tender. Can i put in the true roses this week?

I should have guessed. I've sent many Florida members a link to Nelson's when they've complained about nematodes. Your Nelson's roses must have cultivar names, however. Take a look and tell us what they are. I love to know which roses people are planting.

Zuzu, the only one available today were Mr Lincoln and Queen Elizabeth. Since I already have a Lincoln "tree" I went with 2 of the Queen.

I looked around in their site and found they also do Lagerfeld.....which I found one in Wash. State a few years ago. That one I bought and gave to Eweed. Then I found one here in Fla. It only survived maybe 3 years (it may have been Nelson?). But the color was a pale lavender and the fragrance was to die for. Blue Girl is similar. They don't seem to hold their lavender color s well, but always smell wonderful.

Queen Elizabeth is a good rose to have, and I love Lagerfeld. It's a big monster in my garden. Maybe the Lagerfeld you had wasn't a Nelson. If it was grafted onto Dr. Huey, it had a predicted life span of only 3 years in your area.

Blue Girl has not been a great success here. It's rather spindly and weak, but I think it's an own-root plant. If I find a grafted one, I'll try growing it again.

Zuzu, now that you mention it, the Lagerfeld i put in here, may have been on Dr Huey woodstock and it lasted about s long as you said.

I really loved that rose, maybe I should find a Nelson

I was just looking at the Nelson's site. They have so many wonderful roses!

http://nelsonsfloridaroses.com...

I don't have those nematodes, but I have a lot of roses grafted onto fortuniana because it doesn't appeal to gophers. I usually get them by mail from K&M, which has an incredible selection of gorgeous roses. This is what they have available in 2016. Look at all of the Austins on the third page.

http://www.kandmroses.com/K&M%...

How cold hardy is fortuniana rootstock? Curious if they grow well up north.

Just found the answer to my own question- zone 7 hardy. K&M is a fantastic resource for southern gardeners- amazing selection!

Yikes it is cold out there. We are having a two day cold snap. I figure this might put a stop to my roses blooming and freeze all the new buds. But since it's only for 2 days maybe not.

We had an ice storm and now cold cold weather. Our pond is frozen with thin ice, the kind that supports squirrels but not dogs. I'm under orders from my husband to never ever EVER go into the pond to pull out a struggling dog. Because I did that last year and it was a pretty scary rescue. My warmest boots smelled like pond muck for the rest of the winter.
So far this season, the dogs have resisted following the squirrels onto the ice. Today, I tried to plant the bulbs I bought at 75% off in November. No luck, the dirt comes up in big frozen chunks. I spent the rest of my time outdoors checking on the roses and adding more straw. It looks like all the roses are alive. The Drift roses that were trying to bloom last week have frozen buds on them now. A critter has dug a 2 ft wide hole next to a Bartzella peony. I suspect armadillo, but shouldn't they be hibernating now, even with the warm weather? Whatever it is, it has to go!
Lyn, I thought you had dry heat there? I LOVE hot dry days. It's the only time my bones don't ache. We needed the 3" of rain we got last week, but it made me miserable! My daughter is the same way, and she is not liking her move from San Diego to Portland.
Oh...by the way...did anyone watch the Rose Bowl parade? What were those beautiful orange roses on the stage in front of Al Roker? Neil, did you recognize them as florist roses maybe?

I didn't watch the parade but googled photos. The pics I saw showed many shades of orange that looked like several rose varieties. I think I recognize one called 'Circus' that has darker orange tips. I believe I saw 'Milva' and 'Miracle' in there too.

I just found this photo of some orange varieties with names!

Wow, beautiful! Thanks!

Yes, Cindi ...

In the summer, I have hot, dry heat.

You can look at the graph on this site:

http://www.usclimatedata.com/c...

I hate hot summer days ....

The first two years of the drought were declared as "extremely dry". Last year, was a "dry" year. I read in this week's paper that we have now reached "normal" for this time of year.

It's been great watching my white fir tree rehydrate. I knew it was water stressed and kept a drip on it all during the summer, but there was no way I could give the tree as much moisture as it really needed. I can see a real difference in the whole tree. YES !

White firs are so beautiful, glad you got to see it recover!

Hot, humid summers are the norm here, or rather were the norm here when I was growing up (it doesn't seem like there is a norm anymore, LOL). In my early teens I spent a summer with my sister in Reno. It was hotter there, but the lack of humidity made it feel the opposite. I don't deal well with hot and muggy, but just hot didn't bother me. That was a long time ago, so my middle aged body may not deal with it as well these days.