Of Roses and Radiators

Well today i said i was going to talk about my other David Austin Roses, however that was before the heating consultant called to say that today they were coming to fit the radiators for the new heating in the house.
Now in most homes this would be a fairly straight forward procedure. On the other hand, there's us lol. Trust me, playing musical rooms with two groups of cats who don't get along and the heating installers isn't fun. Atm the younger cats are all locked outside in their porch (i should add here that all our cats are indoor, but they do have an outdoor area in a screened in patio) and are making regular attempts to break back in through the cat door, and the oldie cats are in the room where the dogs crate is, actually IN the dogs crate to be exact....their idea, not mine.
Its enough to drive a woman to gardening lol. At least its relatively sane there ;)
My Austin rose Jude the Obscure has hit its stride flowering atn, and im picking flowers for inside, which is lovely, for their wonderful perfume. I would love this rose for that fragrance alone, but i love the flowers as well. They have a gentle peachy apricot tone, and are beautifully cupped, Every person i know that I've given flowers of this rose to have been blown away by its perfume. In fact a friend of mine ended up going to a garden centre in Remuera from Glenfield just to get this rose. Actually i suspect I've created a monster there lol. I DID warn her that roses were addictive, but shes accquired several new ones in the last couple of weeks, and she has the "rose" gleam in her eye when looking through rose sites. Still, theres worse things to be hooked on, right?

Jude the Obscure

I've planted this rose in the garden, and its put on a ton of growth. So much so that I've had to support it or the weight of the blooms would see them in the dirt! I'm thinking she will need a good prune come autumn to keep a nice compact shape, which im not looking forward to. I hate pruning, for the same reason that I hate thinning fruit or seedlings lol. I hate to throw away bits of something thats growing well. Still I'm well aware that it's a necessary evil.

Another rose thats growing great guns this season is another of my Austins, the ashy pink Cymbeline. Now I know I said I don't like pink, but this isn't straight pink, and has almost a greyish tone to it which i find attractive. I've also heard this tone described as flesh, and THAT I have to say, I don't find quite as attractive lol. Another rose with a similar colouring (which i don't grow) is Ash Wednesday, which I like also. I don't find that Cymbeline has a strong scent with me, but it does have a light one, and its a very pretty flower. I've had to support this one too, as the long canes were starting to get weighed down by the flower trusses.

Cymbeline

At present she isn't flowering but she still has plenty of buds on her and hopefully will be flushing again in a week or so. Just looking at her now, I can see I'm going to have to put in some more support for her yet as shes outgrown my original tie ups.
As you can see from the picture, the roses aren't the only plants I have growing, but more about them later. I actually have two other Austin roses in the garden, both yellow. They are Graham Thomas (below) and Golden Celebration. Both of these roses produce huge full blooms of a deep golden yellow, that just screams sunshine. It's hard not to smile when you see them and impossible when you bury your nose into the petals and inhale.

Graham Thomas

Both these roses have a reputation for vigorous growth and they look to be living up to it here. Golden Celebration in particular has had so many trusses of huge yellow flowers that the canes have bent to the ground, I haven't had the Graham Thomas in for as long, but it's also flowering well and really hasn't been without blooms since it started flowering. I have these partnered with heliotropes, both the light and dark purple kind, lavenders gold variagated thyme and a red flowered dianthus, as well as a dusty burgundy/purple floribunda rose called Ebb Tide. The contrast between the gold and somber purple is lovely.