First, towering above me, 7 feet tall from a 16" pot, Duplex.

The same blossom a couple of days later

Then, the blossom from the first bud to form this spring, but not the first to open. The blossom is kind of stunted, I guess a bud that takes 6 weeks to open isn't going to have the best show. You can barely tell its Paradise.

Next, the also very tall Hope for Humanity, though I photographed some of the lower branches.

The other established rose to bloom already is the venerable and somewhat despised Soleil d'Or. Okay, so it is also the only rose to already have a bad case of blackspot. But, here it is blooming while most others are still green buds. Take that you young whipersnappers!

And now a few of the bands that are blooming. First, one of the Vintage candidates for the rambler Flora--they have 2 possible candidates, I chose the one with the higher fragrance rating.

same blossom a day later--looks quite different doesn't it?

Hippolyte--lovely, not as fragrant as I'd hoped.

Rosa Sancta Richards not Andrews

Sappho, the petals fell off before the end of the day it opened.

Well, thats all for now. Photobucket is harder to use than it first appeared--they keep changing the way it seems to work, or else I don't know how to keep the same settings. Half the time it isn't able to load the page I want or get the link I want. Anyway, hope to have some more--maybe even a lot more--in a few days.

another blossom of Soleil d'Or

Its parent Persian Yellow, which was rather hard to photograph--the petals kept reflecting too much light.

another of Persian Yellow's decendents, Harrison's Yellow. Looks quite similar doesn't it? Actually Persian Yellow's blooms are a bit larger.

Stanwell Perpetual is very chlorotic this year, so much so that its blooms are white instead of pink. Its actually going to a new home later today, hopefully it will be happier there.

Reine des violettes is not looking so violet--I guess is got too hot too quickly to see the really purple blooms it had last autumn.

and one more blossom from the Rosa santa Richards not Andrews band befoe I remove it and the rest of the buds and give it a chance to grow. This blossom shows off a bit more of its pink tint than the last post did.

I had a few more blooms, but the one of my very favorite rose, Geranium Red, was looking rather battered and I refuse to photograph him looking less than his best. But oh, the fragrance!! Speaking of which, I've always heard Persian Yellow and Harison's Yellow had very bad fragrances, but I found them mild and pleasant.

Tammy