This past Saturday I enjoyed participating in the Tacoma Rose Society show, after a failed attempt to do so the previous year when I had only one show-able bloom, as my roses were between in bud or  in all stages of open and practically shattering.  My one bloom looking good enough to present was refrigerated, manicured with cotton swabs with it's leaves polished sat in the refrigerator the night before.  I was quite excited to have something to enter in the novice class but sadly during the night the rose was crushed under some toppled condiments, possibly due to a hungry husband rummaging for a nighttime snack or more likely my over zealous opening and closing the door checking on the rose, whatever the reason the rose didn't make it to the show. 

This year had its own set of difficulties, record high temperatures scalded most of my roses, in my arguably meager collection, as well as shrinking and bleaching the rest of the blooms.  I managed to find a decent bloom from Dream Come true, the same rose I had attempted to show the previous year. I also found a decent spray of Strawberry Crush along with a few of Austin's Sister Elizabeth blooms that somehow escaped the sun.  I even put together an arrangement of sorts not really ARS standard but I figured why not it was just for fun.  Well things went much better then last time.  I received the novice Trophy with Dream Come True which was quite a surprise! 

Don't you just love the Rose's name? Dream Come True is truly inspirational as it was produced by an amateur hybridizer John D. Pottschmidt. Dream come True was introduced by weeks roses in 2008.

This isn't the actual rose in the competition this one actually just bloomed today. I just wanted to show this guy off a bit :)

Bouquet of roses made up of some Austins (Tea Clipper and Jude the obscure), Pope John Paul II, Paprika and last years seedlings :D

Just a few blooms of the many roses on my deck, the first is Harrison's yellow, Rose de Resch and finally Varagata De Belonga. All young plants, I'm enjoying their first blooming season this spring. 

So these are this years seedlings,  a lot less then last years possibly due to the odd spring we've had and more likely  due to the way I stored them.  I kept them dry during stratification period so they wouldn't mold but as a result I believed it cause slower germination.  There are still a number of stragglers coming up so maybe everyone will just arrive a little late either way a fun venture.

Ok so I never showed off last years seedlings, and now that the new ones are sprouting I better do so now or never.....

Ok so this was one of my favorites, It established itself quickly and was one of the larger of last years seedlings. I gave this one to my aunt.  I hope to see if the flowers develop even better I really like the ruffly petal shape.

One of the numerous singles, I gave a few of these away, they were fun  as the singles opened up quite quickly but many of them tend to easily mildew I'm giving a few of them a second summer just to see what their about, some have developed tall sprawling canes.

 

a semidouble offspring of Mr. Bluebird, I have a number of supper small minis that came from that batch :) they are very cute but I'm more interested in hardy plants that can put up with the heat on my deck. 

Ok so this is my second favorite of the bunch this guy is a growing monster easily quadrupled in size it's first season.  A friend nicknamed this roses from this crossing sawtooth as the leaves are very jagged and even more so now. 

                                         I din't do to much to protect my seedling roses this winter as it was so mild, even so I lost this rose which was the one I was most excited about it's petals remind me of whipped frosting and it had a green eye :( very sad about this one though as a seedling it was kind of puny

This is another Mr. Bluebird cross I am quite happy with this one :)

O like the color but no impressed with the plant 

another of my faves 

this bud is the same rose below

                       
                                                     
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