I am found wandering around the garden as if in a trance. The diagnosis is clear - spring fever - and I can't shake it off while the garden looks like this.....

Jo

The last of the daffodils. Molineux in the background.

Your roses look great! Enjoy! :)

Please tell us about Wollerton. Height, repeat. Seldom mentioned and I love it.
Good and bad.

Love the Scaeveola with Prin.Alex.! Great idea. And the lime Acorus with Lycidas - perfect!

Lastly Strawberry Hill.
Is its usual color a light pink? Do you think there are more beautiful blooms of this color in the Austin line? (aside from growth habit, rebloom, etc.)

So many guestions. Thanks.

Jim - you have the anticipation of spring still and I envy you cold zoners that ! A lot of my roses are nearing the end of their flush.

Kathy, Sara-Ann - thank you for your comments. I always enjoy looking at the pictures you post.

Inga - I think my family are getting sick of pizza. I'll order Mexican next time :-)

Iris_gal - Strawberry Hill ranges in color from peach to pink to lilac depending on weather and the age of the bloom. The fragrance is strong. The growth habit is awkward - pencil thin canes that can't hold up the trusses of blooms. After growing it as shrub where it insisted on laying its blooms face down in the mud, I decided to fan it out against the fence and grow it as a small climber. It certainly is better grown this way. However I continue to struggle with it, as it throws up a large number of thin canes and these have to be continually tied or cut back. A pain, not just because of the frequency at which I need to do this, but because this rose has numerous small wickedly sharp thorns.

The biggest issue with it is that it gets rust. I haven't had to deal with rust in my garden before I got Strawberry Hill and this spring several of my roses are showing it. It also gets powdery mildew.

I will give it another year and then decide what to do. The reason it isn't gone yet is because it is a prolific bloomer.

Now, Wollerton Old Hall. It just completed a year in my garden. I love it. A good bloomer and I find the fragrance intoxicating. It will be best grown with some support. It has good sized canes but when it blooms the canes do arch over. So far, disease resistance has been good. It ranges in color from apricot to butter yellow to cream at different times of the year. I haven't found any of the colors unattractive.

An obvious question would be how WOH compares against Jude the Obscure. Unfortunately, I haven't grown JTO (in fact I have never seen it in person) so can't offer any comparisons between the two.

I don't know the name of the daffodil. I am disappointed this year - I got only 4 blooms. The elderly lady I got them from grew them in her garden and they (and a yellow she gave me) cam back year after year. Mine have dwindled in flower count since planting... lot of leaves; no flowers.

Jo

Interesting colors for Strawberry Hill. Hopefully this was a wacky year on coastal Ca. and S.H. will improve its performance. 200 miles south of you, I had balling on roses! A shock. Rust I do not need.

At least the daffs are producing foliage. Maybe too much nitrogen? It's such a pretty one.

Thanks again for taking the time to answer my questions.

About your daffodil, you do leave the green leaves to naturally yellow and decay and turn ugly before cutting them down, don't you? That is how they get their nutrition for next year's blooming.

Also consider the fact that sometimes bulbs have to be in the ground several years before they grow big enough to bloom.

Last consideration: if it is too wet (as in poor drainage) where they are planted, the bulbs will deteriorate.

There, that about exhausts my knowledge of daffodils.

Your other roses are lovely also, by the way. But I have never had a Molineux and a daffodil bloom at the same time. Amazing!

Kate

Kate - thank you for input on the daffs. Yes, I do leave the leaves and let them get brown and ugly. Perhaps they get too much water in summer as they are near the roses. Hmm.

Jo