Darn nurseries. I was up north near one of the nurseries I've only been to once before, so I decided to stop by. That was a mistake. They have SO many roses there, and SO many roses that I have not seen elsewhere. I could have brought home 10 of them. I managed to keep it to four.
I've gotten two of them planted in the ground already. Happily I did have some space I was planning to use. A third will probably go in the same bed once the rose I intend to shovel-prune finishes the current bloom. (Even if I don't like it very much, I can't make myself dig it up while it's covered in buds.)
New roses are: Outrageous, Papa Meilland, Heaven on Earth, and Gina Lollabrigida.
AI know this is really close in color to Heaven on Earth, but I couldn't decide between them. I had them side by side for probably an hour while I fussed, went to look at others, came back, fussed some more. In the end I brought both home.
Outrageous smells incredible.
It's funny. A few days past the time when I brought them home, I don't think Outrageous and Heaven on Earth are at all alike anymore. Outrageous is... well, outrageously bright and vivid and neon-sign color. Heaven on Earth is much softer.
Late afternoon sun through Outrageous.
I wanted to show Julie what the older blooms look like on Outrageous, since she's been thinking about getting it.
Some oddball green fly on Outrageous. I thought it was a bee at first, but no... not sure what it is.
Outrageous is bursting into bloom right now. I counted 50+ buds.
Outrageous is going nuts right now.
Did I mention it's going nuts? I counted over 50 flowers/buds on this plant.
Outrageous went through a bad spell for a while, and just now seems to be coming out of it. Not completely recovered, but enough to start putting out a few flowers.