Big Boxes of Roses.

There's nothing quite like waking up to two forty pound boxes of roses on your front step. Christmas has come in May!

Chamblee's seems to be the place to go for Buck and Austin roses. It's a pity that they cut their shipping season off so early! I was a little disappointed that quite a few of the roses sustained mechanical damage, but since they're all gallon size, they'll be fine. No buds on the Austins, lots of buds on the Buck roses. The biggest Austin rose we got was Evelyn, followed by Scepter'd Isle. Jude the Obscure took a minor beating in the box, but it's still bigger than most of my roses from last year.

Cupcake and Margo Koster arrived in full bloom. Winter Sunset and Polonaise both have a few flowers.

My surprise favorite is Margo Koster. I've never seen a polyantha before, let alone a coral polyantha. It doesn't have a fragrance, but it sure is cute!

Winter Sunset is a gorgeous apricot color that matches our iris Coral Sunset. I do love my orange roses!

It looks like Buckeye Belle is going to bloom soon. The petals are blood red! That kind of came out of nowhere...

Putting the roses to bed.

Cupcake in its bed. Received from Chamblee's today!, a photo by Leenechan on Flickr.

Of the roses that we received over the past two days, Honeysweet, Golden Princess, Distant Drums, Iobelle, Enchanted Autumn and Heirloom are staying in pots for good. Everything else is going in the ground sooner or later. Here's Cupcake planted in front of hydrangea Nikko Blue.

I'm giving the rest of the bed to Evelyn. But didn't I say that Madame Plantier was going back there? Well, I measured the space with a tape measure and found it only came to seven feet. I think Madame needs more room than that!

We've keeping Rook, Duchesse de Montebello, Gallicandy and Felicite Parmentier in what I've dubbed the "Rose Band Nursery," pot-growing them on our deck until August. There's no way I'd put such puny things in the ground right away. They'd probably get trampled to death by a raccoon!

I keep trying and failing to take a photo of the flower we cut off Buck rose "Polonaise." At first I thought it was only a double flower, but it opened up in a vase into something wonderful. It's a gorgeous red-pink color but unfortunately has little fragrance. I never thought I'd be a fragrance person. I think Madame Plantier has spoiled me.