HelpMeFind.com is the indispensable go-to website for rose information. When a rose like Celsiana (above) is mentioned here on the blog, HelpMeFind always gets a consult first. When I was researching French roses prior to 1927, I found out that this gorgeous rose was bred in the Netherlands before 1732 and introduced in France in 1817.     Most of the roses featured or mentioned here on ROSENOTES link directly to their HelpMeFind page. This valuable resource has listed over 44,000 roses, and has posted more than 160,000 pictures. Lots of those photos were posted by people like you ..read more

  Cecile Brunner must be the most popular climbing rose in California. She's readily available at nurseries, and in the Bay Area where I live, glorious mounds fill freeway beds, and long canes grace pergolas in city parks. In neighborhoods you may find her neat and tidy on an arch in the garden, or wantonly devouring garages and sheds.   Cecile Brunner is fragrant, flexible, powerful, and ever-changing. The effulgence of a generous heart seems an apt description. Year after year, in my garden, she was a showstopper reflecting the nuances of that year's pruning and the always evolvin ..read more

  Hi Rosenotes Friends, I'm on the air talking with Teresa Byington on Rose Chat Podcast! We hope you'll tune in. I had so much fun talking about the garden I had to leave, how it came to be, and the new rose garden I'm about to create. Since memories of my previous garden bring so much joy, beauty and treasured moments, it seemed natural to showcase it in a special calendar for 2021.      Stop by my shop for a year of fabulous roses. Beautiful as a gift for you and dear friends.     ..read more

  I'd been saying goodbye to my rose garden for four years, and finally this past September, I dug up seventeen roses, a few perennials, a couple of shrubs and moved. Now in my new home, it seems I owe my well-loved garden a proper goodbye here on the blog.    I've gone through every emotion leaving a garden of so many roses, but I'm also excited to show you how the roses became a signature and main focus for thirty-six years.   The garden is in Lafayette, CA, in the San Francisco Bay Area, on a flat, one-third acre with pretty good soil and lots of sun. Here it is on May ..read more