Still here, @NollieSpainZ9!

I have been a little quiet of late, although I do have an excuse — as mentioned before, I have a hernia! The fevered substantial is being operated on at the beginning of October, so I fully intend to be repaired, recommissioned and ready for the 2027 gardening season.

I did manage a wandering hobble around the garden today and, despite it being well into September up here in Aberdeenshire, a few of the roses clearly haven't read the autumn timetable.

Munstead Wood is still going strong and has more buds to come. Gertrude Jekyll is still playing her trumpet, while The King's Rose continues to blast away in wonderfully dishevelled fashion

And then there is The Prince. Nollie, I had to laugh when I read that yours may be for the chop. Mine has decided to play with me and is showing a fat purple bud this late in the season — like a saucy minx showing her ankle. Whether he actually opens it remains to be seen, but I admire the audacity.

@Marlorena Finally, not a rose, but Hosta ‘Red Ninja’ arrived today. She has already been christened Betty and is currently sitting in a bucket undergoing quarantine and passport control — i.e. awaiting my attention.

So the Scottish contingent hasn't abandoned ship. Merely temporarily incapacitated. 🌹

I spoke too soon…

The wandering hobble continued and I discovered another contingent who apparently haven't read the autumn timetable either.

Crown Princess Mary is preparing to open, Desdemona is looking remarkably fresh and has more buds waiting, Queen of Sweden remains determinedly upright and respectable, while Summer Song is still doing her glorious tangerine thing.

And The Lark Ascending appears to have looked at the calendar, dismissed September as an administrative error, and produced yet more buds.

I think that's quite enough horticultural exertion for one man with a fevered substantial. I am now going indoors. 🌹

Trish those Osteos are fantastic, mine never looked anything like that either because they tended to flop in my clay soil. I really wanted Candlelight to be a success, but alas.. lacking in vigour, disease resistance and actually the promised fragrance - in fact the blooms I got were distinctly underwhelming. Hope with persistence yours turns out better.

Hello Everyone. I am still here. I feel a bit guilty as my garden and roses have had a great year and many are still going strong. It was a huge amount of work and no matter how much watering and shading I did some roses could not cope but overall it was a good year with little pest and disease damage. I have started culling too, just to get the numbers down, my only purchase for this whole year was SirDB and there will be no more.

I am so sorry that many of you had a ghastly rose season, so dispiriting. I think a lot of what has helped this year was selecting plants that you on this forum had road tested for me. Thank you so much for sharing.

So I am prompted to do a bit of a photo dump, I took all these just now but the low sun meant they are not great pictures. I won't get the rush of blood to do them again so here you are

White Meidiland

Eufemia

You can see Kew Gardens and Rhapsody in Blue there

Eden

Love Song

Pear

Penelope Lively

Frilly Cuff

Eustacia v, LEH, Charlotte, CdeV and Champagne Moment

Bathsheba. I agree that this rose loves the heat Marlorena

Mutabilis has been cracking too, finishing now

I've had to quickly bunch Strawberry Hill up, too many laden canes waving about

Twilight Zone