William Shakespeare 2000. This is my favorite rose! The color is so beautiful and the rose is quite fragrant. Why did I wait 3 years before I bought this rose? It is so much prettier in reality than my photo shows. If you like it on my pic, just do yourself a favor and get it. You won't be disappointed.

A rain battered Le Vesuve. I love how soft and muted the colors of the Tea roses are in the winter.

Devoniensis Cl. Second bloom that I see on this rose. It is much more yellow than the last flower that opened.

Geranium maderense. Shooting the rose flowers in my garden I came across this plant, which I also want to show to you. It is from the hardy geranium family, but has really big leaves. The foliage is always perfectly laced. The smaller varieties of the hardy geraniums are often grown as companion plants with roses, but I rarely see this one anywhere.

Heritage. Completely pink right now instead of the usual pinkish-white.

Why do I post a picture of these unexciting bands? Because the one on the left is Wedding Cake. An oddball floribunda, bred by Ralph Moore that I was unsuccessfully trying to acquire for ages and now received as a Christmas gift from a friend. You can imagine how much I am looking forward to finally seeing it bloom in my garden. Maybe this spring already?

Marie Pavie. This rose seems to be completely unfazed by rain and the winter. She is putting out buds like mad.

Angel Face. Brought it in to rescue the bloom from all the rain. It opened to perfection.

A two-colored Belinda's Dream. Moonstone blooms are sharing the vase with it.

Georgetown Tea. I really love the romantic, ethereal quality the blooms of this Tea rose are taking on in the winter months.

William Shakespeare 2000, again, as seen through the lens of the camera by my husband. I think, he was able to capture the color a little bit better than I did.

Thanks for looking and Happy New Year to everyone!

Christina

I love WS2000 and Angel Face. Good luck with Wedding Cake and the other baby band. You are lucky to have so many roses worth photographing...

Masha

Ingrid

Inga, Angel Face is very easy to grow here in my no spray garden and you get rewarded with lots of blooms. Seems to love the heat.

Masha, I am still so glad that I saw William Shakespeare 2000 the first time in your garden. That really shoved me over the edge to get it for myself. Thanks for your good wishes for my bands. They are very tiny so I can really need them :-)!

Beth, my Angel Face is most likely budded on Dr. Huey rootstock and blooming already very well. I am toying with the idea to get it on fortuniana, just to see if there is any difference in the vigor and floriferousness of this rose. It makes me happy that you appreciate the geranium.

Ingrid, Belinda's Dream looks very promising, even though mine is still growing in a 2 gallon pot. It really seems to like the heat, though. I noticed that the flowers have some trouble to open right now and they ball easily when it rains. But this also could be due to the young age of the rose. Hope your two bushes of Belinda's Dream will do well for you!
I was thinking on the same lines like you that William Shakespeare reminds me of a gallica. Since we can't grow gallicas here it is great to have at least something similar. I just can't get over it how subtle the coloration of the flower is. Hopefully next spring when you come for a visit the rose will have grown quite a bit and has lots of blooms.

Christina

Renee, thank you! I can't wait to see Wedding Cake blooming either. Even though my main wish right now is to keep it alive in the first place. It has started to leave out though, which for sure is a good sign. I will post pictures when it blooms.

Christina

Belinda's Dream has such a cupped elegance!! Wow!! What a stunner.

I echo everyone else here - what a great friend to give you such a gift. What a lucky find too!!!

:)
Carol

One of 3 blooms.

pelicanhead, that is soooo... awesome that you posted a picture of your 'Wedding Cake'! Thank you very much! I am dying to hear where you did get yours from!
On your photo the bloom color looks like a soft apricot/pink with some yellow petals more to the center of the bloom. Could you observe some of these yellow inner petals changing into a pale green as the flower aged like some of the pictures of HMF show?
I am very relieved that you write that your band arrived in a similar condition like mine did. Since you have been able to keep yours alive and babied it even to produce three blooms in its first year, maybe mine will survive, too. Did you do anything special to pamper your band?
Somehow I think I remember that you are growing your roses in Southern California, too? Is that correct or am I totally off?

Here is a pic of my Wedding Cake (left side) and Lavender Crystal (on the right) taken today. They both have started to leave out. I am so excited!

Christina

Sandra, thank you for you nice compliment on my Angel Face pic!
The fragrance of my Belinda's Dream was not that strong to my nose. But when I smelled this rose in a befriended Rosarian's garden it was as far as I remember very intense. In any case Belinda's Dream is a great rose, I hope it will grow well for you!

Christina

Carol