Roses

Two new bare root roses came last evening.  Today I put them to soak and will plant them tomorrow.  I got more David Austin roses.  I like the Austins for their relaxed attitude, their scent and their color.  I now have six of them, Crown Princess Margaretta, Jude the Obscure, and Evelyn, which are all apricot tones, Pat Austin, which is a sunrise orange, and the two new ones, Richard Marlowe which should be orangey with red and salmon tones, and Lady Emma Hamilton which should be yellows, oranges and reds.  I hope.  At least these have a fruity fragrance and not the nasty myrrh scent, which to me smells like old lady hand lotion and was enough to cause me to give away Tamora and Ambridge Rose.  For a long time it was my dream to have enough Austins to make a huge bouquet such as the David Austin catalog shows.  So finally I got enough and spent a good hour cutting and fighting and being mangled by rose bushes and trying to jam all those those prickly dozens into a vase.  It was not worth it  : (   But the roses are lovely none the less and I enjoy them in ones and twos and threes.