For my Valentines (you the readers)

WARNING: this post is full of pics, so if you have a slow speed it'll take forever to load. If you can get it thru Google Reader you might be better off.

I think I'll post some more roses I never got to a month ago. I think I'm on the front yard now. We have quite a few, but 3 "prize" roses. Prize to me anyhow. I love them and specifically chose them in a matching color scheme of reds to oranges to yellow-orange to go with our southwest feel. They are awesome, but I can't seem to take a picture that represents what my eye sees. I think I bounce from bloom to bloom and ignore the spacing between the blooms.
This one above is about the best rendition... the collection below is what my mind's eyes see :)
This is the Cancun Rose. I can't ever seem to find it in the books, let alone at online plant stores. But that is it's name. It's blooms are nice, but its best feature is the leaves. They are a nice deep green and somewhat shiny. They also do a great job at resisting powdery mildew.
The Cancun also has a really tight cluster of petals and it seems to be a double rose.
This is the Desert Peace. This image I took a few years ago with my Kodak P&S and had put a dark green board behind it. It was tricky to do and shoot at the same time, but I love the darkness. I've almost replicated that using my DSLR now, but not quite.
It is a gorgeous flowering plant, but its leaves tend to get powdered mildew. It has a light green and dullish leaf. But the blooms really take your eyes away from all that. The blooms vary in colors throughout the year, but are a combo of yellow, pink, magenta. Originally, the darkest part was more of a deep red. For some reason it's turning pinkish.

There was one bloom this year that looked so much like sherbet that I couldn't help but take it's picture. I know it's a rose, but my mouth waters every time I see this picture. Crazy, huh?
This is the Mojave rose. It's another one I have a difficult time finding online and in books. At one point this year it also started turning pinkish. I don't know what we are feeding them to do that. I thought that was only hydrangeas that did that. It really goes with our house color now too.
It has nice green glossy leaves, but they also have a terrible time with powdered mildew. Over the summer, my dad did a pretty good job keeping up with that and spraying them with some simple recipe of baking soda and water and maybe something else that we found online that really works. We end up having to pick off a bunch of leaves to give it good circulation, but that's okay because look at the blooms!
This one has to be my favorite because it's a single rose that opens up nice and wide so you can see it's innards. Check out the other-wordly images a macro with it can make!

Be sure to click on the individual pics to blow them up for the full effect. It's awesome.

Happy Valentines Day my dearest readers! I hope your day is as lovely as these roses.