Autumn Roses

I love the roses that bloom in the Autumn. They have a slightly different color than the ones that bloom in the heat of summer (our temperatures can get in the 100's in mid-summer). And autumn roses really photograph well in the autumnal sun.

Our climate is often mild enough that I have many roses that will bloom year-round if they don't get hit with mildew and rust during the wet winter months. Our annual frosts are usually sometime after Christmas, so I often have a few hardy rose blossoms on Christmas morning. Then come January, I have to give all the rosebushes a "haircut" so that new foliage grows in strong and disease-free for the spring.

The roses above are all from three bushes of different ages in our gardens.

The top photo is of the Gold Medal Rose that went in about 5-6 years ago. It's a highly prolific bloomer that will continue bloom even when suffering from rust or mildew spots. The blooms have a wonderful heady citrus fragrance and change colors from an orange to yellow to almost white through the life of the bloom.

The bottom left photo is of on our the latest additions to the garden, the Tahitian Sunset Rose. I put it in just last January (got it at Wal-Mart), and it's doing very well and quite happy in our clay soil (roses love it for some odd reason). I've really enjoyed the colors of this rose because them change depending on when during the year it has bloomed. The foliage has remains disease-free all year which is also a good sign of a wise choice.

The bottom right photo is of a lovely purple rose that I put in a couple of years ago (I have a weakness for purple roses). It was a Wal-Mart rose too. Unfortunately, I wasn't keeping a garden journal back then, and the tag disappeared off the rose thanks to the wire rusting. I don't have a clue what it's called. It appears to be a florabunda in its growing pattern. I know I bought two purple roses that year, and one was an Angel Face rose. I don't think this is the Angel Face (the other one also lost it's tag to rust). So anyone that can identify this rose will be greatly praised around here.