I NEVER PROMISED YOU A ROSE GARDEN

I LOVE roses and if I won the lottery tomorrow I'd buy an old Southern mansion like Tara and start planting rose beds everywhere. I envy singer Pam Tillis's mom. Pam bought her a mansion in Tennessee and she has planted 35 different gardens. That's my idea of paradise on earth.

I don't have the space or sun for roses but my neighbor has a double-wide lot and one bed is devoted to David Austin roses; cultivars unknown. In addition to being beautiful most of them have a wonderful fragrance as well.

The photos above are of the three I thought were the prettiest.

Another neighbor brought back a cutting from Kentucky of a Civil war era climbing rose that is a deep yellow and fragrant. She gave me and several other neighbors a clipping and now it is gracing several gardens on the street.




Those Chicago Spring Flingers that visited my garden saw my Kentucky Belle passalong rose in bloom. I didn't think it had enough sun in my east facing front garden but apparently it proved me wrong. I'm going to take a clipping from it and plant it in my sunny backyard and let it climb the garage wall.