Rose (private) Garden  

Listing last updated on Wed Aug 2024

Austin, Texas
United States

At the time she wrote Roses in Austin, Texas for the American Rose Annual 1950, Dr. Mayhall had been growing roses in Austin for a couple of decades. Her love affair with roses began in 1929 when she planted 36 of them. From 1938 to 1946, Mayhall grew about 500 roses, mostly climbers and species roses. Her list of roses includes those she had grown in the past as well as those she was currently growing. These are roses that are particularly well-suited to the unique conditions of Central Taxes where, Dr. Mayhall wrote," roses must be able to withstand summer heat, the summer being harder to weather than the winter... Prolonged periods, with temperatures from 90 to over 100 degrees, and summer droughts take the life out of bushes that are not adaptable. Irrigation is necessary. Most people in this vicinity plant 'Radiance', 'Red Radiance', and 'Mrs. Charles Bell'... Dr. Mayhall wrote that shrub roses and species roses did particularly well in the chalky soil of her garden. Roses like R. hugonis and 'Harison's Yellow' (also known as 'The Yellow Rose of Texas'), among others.