You never know...

[leene_chan]

A Bud of "Evelyn.", a photo by Leenechan on Flickr.

I don't know why my camera insists on focusing on the leaves and not the buds.

But what I meant was that regardless of the advice you receive from fellow rosarians, you never know which rose is going to do best in your garden. I've heard from many sources that the David Austin rose "Evelyn" is finicky and lacks vigor. I'm getting the impression that it does much better on its own roots as opposed to grafted. We got our "Evelyn" from Chamblee's in mid-May, and it's actually growing pretty well. I think that its first bud will pop open any day now.

I wonder if "Evelyn" and "Prairie Star" are in cahoots? They both decided to stop loafing around and start shooting out new growth at the same time. "Prairie Star" has some new buds as well.

Of our three Austins, "Scepter'd Isle" has been the disappointing one. It's growing all right, but there are no signs of buds anywhere.

"Lavender Lassie" seems to be the happiest of our newest additions. "Paul Ricault" stresses out in the heat and "Charles de Mills" is, well, sick. I think it'll pull through, though.