First open bloom of the year !

The first open bloom of the year is on the same 'Queen Elizabeth' seedling as shown in my posting of April 11th.  Interestingly enough, it didn't develop from the bud discovered on the 11th, but from a later bud.  Also, this is a full-petaled bloom; I was expecting maybe one of my rose bushes with 5-petaled blooms to be the first of the year.  The roses, however, have the final say.  Here's the bloom:

Update of May 15, 2012:   The following bloom opened just one day later.  As expected, it is a 5 petal bloom that doesn't have to struggle to open like a full petaled bloom.  This one is also a 'Queen Elizabeth' seedling, and I showed you the plant's "baby picture" in my posting of December 6th of last year that I titled "The BIG rose" (look for the seedling whose birthday is April 4, 2009).  Here's a photo of today's bloom:

Both blooms shown above are 3 inch flowers.  What they say in the rose literature is quite true -- seedling blooms develop richer coloration over their first few growing seasons.