David Austin vs Poundstretcher

Ooooo, my ears are burning
People love or hate roses and I am on dangerous ground
Soon gardens all over the country will have bare prickly stems for the rest of the autumn and winter!!!!
However, if anyone grows them well, enjoys them, and isnt frustrated by them that's great; if they are a source of continued frustration and disappointment then grow something else that gives pleasure

 

I think that roses are the "Marmite" of the gardening world . You either love them or not . The few I have grown were very pretty but not long flowering. Like all gardeners I have a limit of planting space so if a plant isn't performing to my ideal , then it gets replaced - chop !

 

I'd just like to say that I think quite a bit of it is plant snobbery. I have Roses from the likes of Poundland, B&M etc that have cost as little as 49p and have proved to excellent.
Also, we enjoy their flowers from April all through to the next January. Now, that is what i call a nice long flowering season.

 

Agree, great point there

 

Let's take pics of our gardens in Jan.......be fair, include your roses as this is all about them looking good throughout the year
I have a strange feeling there will be few if any flowers :rasp:

 

Verdun, just because it doesn't happen for you doesn't mean it doesn't exist. For the last four years now we've even picked red and white Roses ( Fragrant Cloud and Iceberg ) for our table at Christmas.
( PS this post has been heavily edited )

 

Pictures then in Jan ? :rasp:
It will be fun and informative

 

I'm up for that! Here's a few of now...

 

Cheeky Snorky......pics in mid winter please!
If we all publish pics of our gardens now it will be a very long thread
Here heleniums, dahlias, salvias, agastaches, cannas, sanguisorbas, persicarias, anemones, gazanias, gauras, pennisetums, miscanthus, calamagrostis, penstemons, rudbeckias, echinaceas, honeysuckles, clematis, abutilons, scabious, asters, etc. are flowering.
I expect witch hazels, camellias, some rhodos and azaleas, hellebores, Cordylines, phormiums in red, yellow and pink, sarcoccoca, winter jasmine, winter heathers, early daffs, snowdrops, etc. etc. to be flowering.....as in most gardens. Plus the evergreens ...coloured foliage, variegated foliage. Just want to see if roses do perform in winter as suggested and I will apologise most profusely if they do.
For a bit of balance, I planted perennials and bulbs in an erstwhile bare rose bed one of my former bosses had. It then did look good....her roses were well chosen and flowered well in summer as well as looking good in winter, thanks to the addition of perennials :rasp:

 

Ha ha, I thought id just do a summer vs winter review of my roses. I'm worried I have no winter interest plants in the garden except for bulbs and the callicarpas and the conifers that I don't even like. Hmmm.

 

When I first got into gardening I planted everything for spring and summer. Then I realised how drab autumn and winter was Snorky.
Now a winter garden ..ok, not too wintery down here....is a big thing for me. The evergreens like hollies.....what is more eye catching than Golden King? .....that shine in winter, the pittosporums like Tom Thumb that have shiny black foliage in winter, the "dead" structure of grasses and the many plants that flower in winter. Many of our best scented plants flower over winter. The exuberance of summer will never be echoed but I like to think my garden has lots of colour and form in winter.
You dont like conifers Snorky? Have you ever grown taxus coppershine? A glorious yellow mound in summer changing to green and white then erupting to orange in spring. Or juniperus Sulphur Spray, a beautiful tactile grey form, or taxus Standishii a tight yellow pillar turning olive in winter, red berries too? Or the dwarf cryptomerias.....charming little bushes with purplish foliage turning bright green? Or Blue Star Juniper just a half a metre high and wide with foliage of blue, or picea pungens globosa with steel blue foliage? All come alive in winter.
Add heucheras in red, orange, yellow and almost black and evergreen grasses in colours of yellow, red, blue and green. How can winter not be colourful?
Of course there are roses too....oops! Not until June

 

Some good suggestions there @Verdun I will have to look some of them up! I have got hollies and garriya and cotoniasta and callicarpa so I guess there are a few bits.

 

Definitely all friends on this most friendly of forums Armandii....I really must be a tad more tactful
Conifers, yes, are static but add solid form with seasonal colour changing aromatic foliage. Similar texture to conifers but do have "movement" are the diosmas.......lovely feathery scented foliage that move surflike in the wind and flowers too.