Where Did All These Roses Come From?

I am not really a rose fan. I had several rose bushes years ago but I was never very good at growing them. Unlike my friend Dee at Red Dirt Ramblings, mine only looked happy for a short while each year. They seemed to take a disproportionate amount of work for the return so one winter my dad dug them all up for me and I gave them to one of my day care moms. This week as I walked around the garden I discovered something. Roses. All over my yard! How did they get there? It seems that over the last several years I decided that many of my design and function problems could be solved by roses...most of them climbing varieties.

Climbing Cecile Brunner began blooming a few weeks ago and is almost finished. Cecile's job is to cover the fence near the compost bin and provide a backdrop for the plumbago.

Climbing Rosa Flower Girl, on the wedding arch, is a dependable long bloomer. She got a fairly severe pruning this year and has responded by sending up lots of new growth. She used to make do with a trellis but wanted to be taller so earned the spot on the arch. Her job is to disguise the abutilon's scraggly trunk.
Climbing New Dawn, chosen for a fence corner with a bit less sun than most other roses would require, has just this week opened the first of what looks like dozens of buds. Her job is to keep the bird-killing cat who lives next door from jumping over the fence. So far this is not working out as well as I'd hoped. But she is getting bigger and may soon be making me happy.
Climbing Berries and Cream mixes with a solanum jasminoides on the trellis behind the fountain. She is another dependable bloomer and helps hide the fence...a leftover job from before we had the fence replaced a few years ago. That old fence was decrepit and needed hiding.


A mini rose given to me as a gift in a four inch pot many years ago is beginning to open. She was not happy in the four inch pot nor progressively larger ones but for several years this mini-flowered rose has been very happy in the front door bed, requiring only a late winter pruning and bit of deadheading. In return she blooms a bit all summer. She doesn't have a job aside from reminding me of my good friend who gave her to me. Behind her you see a glimpse of Rosa Demitasse. I'm not sure what her job is...I think she was one of those nursery purchases that happen to me. Seduced by pretty blooms and healthy leaves I give in and then I need to find a home for some poor thing that deserves it's own spot.
I guess I've made my peace with roses and ended up with the ones that work for me!