ToyTrains1’s Garden Journal

… why do I keep getting hit in the head by cherry pits?  That's a rhetorical question, though I did get hit in the head by a cherry pit while walking under the cherry tree in the back yard (I think the resident cardinal has it in for me).  It's the middle of July, I've been under the weather, and since I last wrote, much has happened in the garden, much of it not good.  The weather has turned very hot and very humid, the damned Japanese beetles arrived to munch away on my roses, and, with the humid weather and me indoors and not spraying, the dreaded blackspot fungus got hold of a number of bushes.  I'm convinced that the Japanese beetles spread the fungus spores; wherever I have a bush with skeletonized leaves, I have blackspot nearby.  I've started dusting with Sevin to keep the little monsters under control, but seeing my beautiful roses being munched is enough to get me to overcome my distaste for bugs and happily squash them with my fingers.  As for the blackspot, I resumed my spraying program today with Banner Maxx, adding a full dose of Mancozeb to help control it where it's run rampant.  With Mancozeb added to the weekly systemic sprayings, it should be under control in a few weeks.

In the interim, a patch of ground at the side of the house where I've been unable to grow grass for the last 15 years is now covered with a thick layer of stone as I had the stone path at the side of the house extended.  A similar patch under the circle of trees where the side yard merges into the back yard now has a series of large bluestone pavers surrounded by peastone, forming a bridge between the two yards.  The beds around the foundation of the house have been renewed with quite a few tons of peastone so things are looking rather nice.  After being unable to grow anything green in those two small areas, the hardscape looks quite nice and that's the end of the frustration … and the mud!  The roses have done well though, as mentioned above, the two plagues of rose growers, Japanese beetles and blackspot fungus have arrived, as has the hot and humid weather that they love.  Everything that I expected to do well this year did and the last of the Daylilies, Plum Perfect, is now bearing its final blossoms (a photo is below).  In fact, all of the Daylilies, Asiatic Lilies, and Oriental Lilies did quite well.  Most things have grown well, including the new mini-rose that I planted in the deck planter this summer and I was pleased to see Mme. Isaac Pereire repeat flower this past week.  I've been taking a photo here and there during this past month (yes, I know I've been remiss in making Journal entries and updating the web site, but when you don't feel well it's hard to feel motivated about these things) and this evening I've posted close to a hundred on the web site.

As it does every year as the roses start to fade from their first flush, the lily patch has erupted into colorful bloom.  The daylily Double Cutie was first and now the daylily Leebea Orange Crush (shown below) has, as always, come in second.  Next to them, the oriental lily Mona Lisa has also started to bloom with it's lusciously scented large blossoms.  It's the second photo below.  With the spring flush over, the roses will now bloom sporadically throughout the summer and fall.  I've posted a bunch of new photos on the web site.

… none left to bloom, that is! As expected, Garden Party has bloomed, becoming the last of my roses to do so, even though it's been living in the shade of Louise Odier.  It's nice to have a year where all of the roses have survived and, yes, even thrived.  It's been a very good year for the garden.  Zephirine Drouhin has been in continuous bloom for one solid month!  Many other roses are in bloom and I've posted a ton of new photos taken over the last week to the web site.  The hydrangea (the snowball bush) is getting ready to bloom, with the snowballs just starting to show their blue color (I feed the hydrangea with Miracid, hence the blue color; were I to feed them Miracle Gro and add in some lime, they'd be pink as they react to acid/base in the same manner as litmus paper).  The daylily Double Cutie remains in bloom and Leebea Orange Crush is getting ready to bloom.  Here's the first bloom of Garden Party.

Today is a carbon copy of yesterday, hazy, hot, and humid, though perhaps a little hotter and more humid.  I went out briefly to check on the garden and things aren't yet wilting in the heat, which is a little surprising.  Much more surprising is that Garden Party has developed several large fat buds so despite my earlier expectations, the last of my roses should bloom relatively soon.  The spring flush of Louise Odier is finally starting to fade, so I should soon be able to prune her back to free up space and, more importantly, light for her neighbors Garden Party and Moon Shadow.  In the meantime, Lagerfeld has decided to make up for blooming rather late and is putting on a marvelous show of color and fragrance.  While I can't share the fragrance, I can share the color and I've posted a bunch of photos of Lagerfeld and the other roses to the web site.  Here's a sample of Lagerfeld.

As expected, Tropicana has bloomed, leaving poor Garden Party as the only rose yet to flower.  Comparing this year with last, even though Tropicana is next to last to bloom, it was still a good two weeks sooner than last year.  All of the roses are covered with blooms and I've posted a bunch of photos to the web site.  Also in bloom for the first time today is Double Cutie, my greenish yellow double daylily — I was quite surprised to find it in bloom as I hadn't noticed that the buds had reached maturity.  Today is a 3H day — hazy, hot, and humid — so I didn't spend all that much time in the garden.  With high humidity, the 94 degree weather feels more like 105, so it's a day to enjoy the air conditioning indoors rather than the flowers outdoors!   Here's the first daylily of the year.

I'm convinced that the roses can hear me!  Just four short days ago, I was complaining that eight of them hadn't yet bloomed.  Today, Falstaff joined the bloom parade, leaving just Tropicana and Garden Party yet to bloom.  And Tropicana already has buds with the sepals pulled back, so it should be blooming in a few days.  That will leave Garden Party as the only one yet to bloom.  Poor Garden Party!   It's totally shaded by its neighbor, Louise Odier, and there's no way that I'm cutting Louise Odier down to size until all the buds have opened and faded (and there are lots more buds that have to open), so I'm afraid it's going to be a while until Garden Party has a chance to grow and flower.  In the meantime, we had quite a storm last night and today I discovered that, pretty much as I expected, with so many blooms on so many rose bushes, I will have my work cut out for me tomorrow getting them standing up straight again.  Mix lots and lots of rain and wind with lots and lots of roses and you get lots and lots of canes bent down to the ground.  Since everything was so soaking wet today that to work on them I'd have needed a wet suit, tomorrow is the designated tying day.  Here's the first Falstaff bloom.  There are lots more photos on the web site, including a few of all the Sweet Juliet blossoms that opened overnight.

Though I had no intention of adding any more roses this year, I have one remaining large planter on the deck (the two smaller ones had deteriorated and cracked and earlier this spring I disposed of both of them).  The planter looked lonely — it hasn't had mini-roses in it since 2006 — so, while at Home Depot, I picked up a nice mini-rose called Caramba and popped it into the planter, which no longer seems quite so lonely!

Sweet Juliet joined the bloom parade today.  Despite myself, while documenting her first few blooms, I managed to shoot a total of twenty photos of gorgeous roses that I've now posted to the web site.

Either the roses heard me grumbling yesterday about eight of them not having bloomed yet or they have access to this garden journal!  Today I was quite surprised to find that four of the eight have bloomed overnight!  Lagerfeld, Moon Shadow, Pierre de Ronsard, and Queen Elizabeth have joined the bloom parade.  Though I had promised myself that I was going to post less photos this year, somehow I can't help myself and I keep snapping shots of gorgeous blooms, so lots more photos are now posted on the various pages of the web site.  Here are just a couple of examples, the first blossom of Pierre de Ronsard and a totally gorgeous rose on the Peace tree.

And it is indeed a happy June.  Today brought us the first opened blossom ever on Madame Isaac Pereire, an Old Garden Rose that I planted last year but which did not bloom until now.  The flowers are very large and very deep pink, with the extremely strong old rose fragrance that I find intoxicating.  The photo at the bottom of this entry shows the very first flower of Mme. Isaac Pereire.  Other roses that have opened blooms for the first time since my last entry are Fragrant Cloud, Graham Thomas, and Sunbright.  Most of the other roses are in full bloom and I've posted to the web site about a hundred new photos of all of them taken over the last few days.  In fact, of the twenty-five varieties I have in the garden this year, only eight have yet to bloom: Queen Elizabeth, Falstaff, and Tropicana along the north-facing front of the house (they always bloom last), Moon Shadow and Garden Party (both shaded by Louise Odier) and Lagerfeld (late this year for some reason) in the side yard, and Sweet Juliet (always the laggard) and Pierre de Ronsard (also late for some reason) in the back yard.  Though it's a bit early with eight still to go, I've posted the annual Roses in the Garden - 2008 page that shows one example of each rose currently in the garden and links to each of their individual rose pages.  As more of the other bloom, I'll add them to the page.  I've also updated the Roses by Face page to include Mme. Isaac Pereire.  The Faces page shows a thumbnail of most every rose I've ever grown along with a link to its page, so if you don't know the names, it's a great way to pick out which rose pages you want to view.  In other garden news, the Mock Orange has bloomed for the first time in two years, last year's bloom being another victim of the old landscaper's very belated 2006 pruning.