The roses are blooming like crazy this morning - this cool weather is perfect for them. Every morning now, another rose is in bloom - and the one I noticed first was Heritage, a beautiful David Austin shrub rose (and if you hate thorns - then this is your rose, since it is almost thornless). It has pale pink, perfectly formed flowers. The other one I noticed is Climbing Pinkie (hey, I don't name 'em) - this bright pink rose is a great one to start with if you're new to the whole antique rose thing. One of my favorite is in full bloom right now - it's a common one downtown, 
Mutabilis or Butterfly Rose - it's flowers start out a beautiful yellow and fade to orange then pink. You'll have flowers of a range of colors all blooming at once. It's an easy one too and blooms almost all summer (it's also one of the earliest to bloom in the spring). Another rose that caught my eye this morning was one that I've totally forgotten the name of - a rose that a friend gave to me five or more years ago now. It's a rambly climber - the canes get 15' or more long - and it has beautiful pale, pale pink flowers. This morning I found a surprise visitor in one of them....trying to stay warm I'd guess. I have to pay attention to this rose or the canes will crawl all along the ground - I keep finding them everywhere. It just blooms once a year. Anyway, if you 
have someplace in your yard with six or more hours of sunlight and you aren't a yard control freak, then I'd say plant a bunch of roses. You might end up like my friend Rob, a nuclear engineer-turned-rose-freak who one day (just a year or so ago) said "Oh, a rose might be nice" and on the phone a few days ago told me that he now had 54 of them in his backyard. He gets his stash from Lowe's - and I'm guessing he keeps them in business in southern coastal North Carolina.
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