One of the houses we lived in when I was a kid had a whole side of
the house dedicated to roses. They were there when we moved in,
and still there three years later when we moved out, my dad took
great care of them. I've just always loved the look and especially
the SMELL. Now I live in my very own house, and it came with a small
rose garden right in the front. Most of the varieties are common HTs
of the 50s/60s (at least the ones I've been able to figure out!), so
nothing special or rare. There were also some pink Simplicities along
a fence. Since then I've added a few of my own, I stumbled on the
Canadian Explorer hardy roses at a fall sale, and have been VERY happy
with them (especially John Cabot!). I have a HUGE briar patch that
is rosa eglantaria, over 10 ft high with arching canes that cover
themselves in hips and start new little eglantarias all over the place.
That's an original member of the yard too. I put a alba suavolens
nearby to try and make a hedge to hide the neighbors ;-). After seeing
Cheryl Netter's Jeanne LeJoie (as big as my eglantaria!), I planted
one myself, but the poor thing is struggling in a dry and semi shady
location, but still is there and blooming, just not taking off into
a 10 ft monster. Minis are definitely wonderful- they seem hardier
than the big guys and bloom more too!

And Susan, the yellow rose you remember so fondly sure sounds like
"Harison's Yellow". I put one of those in the back yard (the dog
yard) since it was supposed to be so hardy, but last year I had
some sort of bad cane dieback :-(. Hopefully this year it will
rebound. It's a wonderful rose, totally covered in buttery yellow
blooms during May/June and I can smell it from the back porch.

Tracy Lorraine Smith Boulder, CO Zone 5

Emil wrote:
Hi group,

Out of curiosity...How did everybody start with their hobby, more like a
passion :-) of roses? Did you learn by watching parents plant roses? Is
growing roses your occupation, any of you own a nursery? Etc. Etc.

As for me, when we bought our first house a couple of years ago, we bought 4
roses. Everytime we went to the nursery, we came home with more and more
roses. Final count at our old house was close to 35 rose bushes that I
planted from bareroots.

So what's everybody story?

Emil