ToyTrains1’s Garden Journal

Tropicana has bloomed (a photo is below), leaving only Garden Party yet to bloom this year.  Its first bud has been mangled by some insect, so we will have to wait.  Its growth seems to be OK so I suspect it will just be a matter of time.  I've begun to look for a replacement for Sunbright but was disappointed by the selection at Home Depot.  I will check there again and at Lowes, and will find something nice to plant.  Otherwise, the garden is doing quite nicely.  We've had about a week of showers and rain, so everything is well watered.  Most of the roses are still in bloom and providing a dazzling spectacle.  Most of the other garden plants, such as the rhododendrons, have faded, leaving the roses as the main attractions, though the hydrangea is getting ready to bloom. I've updated the web site with many more photos of the roses in bloom.  Here's Tropicana.

The garden has been quite active.  Unfortunately, not all of the activity has been good.  Since I've been lazy, the dreaded black spot fungus has gotten hold on many of the roses.  I've started my weekly sprayings with Immunox and Mancozeb.  Alternating with Banner Maxx and Funginex, and including Mancozeb for a few weeks, I should be able to bring it under control.  Most of the roses have now bloomed, with Louise Odier, Zephirine Drouhin, and Madame Isaac Pereire (my three Old Garden Roses) putting on quite a show.  Sweet Juliet, one of my David Austin English roses, is also putting on a spectacular display.  Since my last entry, Queen Elizabeth and Pierre de Ronsard have bloomed and Tropicana is getting ready to bloom.  Other than Garden Party, which has yet to bloom, I'm afraid that's all that there will be this year.  Fragrant Cloud, Moon Shadow, and Sunbright all appear to have bitten the dust.  I will definitely replace Sunbright with something else as that's a good spot for a rose.  As for the others, I will have to think long and hard before I replace them.  Moon Shadow is next to both Louise Odier and Lagerfeld, which are very strong, large growers and they shade the spot mercilessly, no matter how I prune them back.  The same holds true for Fragrant Cloud, shaded by Lagerfeld and Melody Parfumee.  I may just leave those spots empty in deference to their larger neighbors and be happy with only two dozen different varieties of roses.  The web site has been updated with literally hundreds of new photos.  Here's a teaser, showing the view of Dr. Huey from the street looking into the side yard.

I really do love Spring! The garden is alive with roses, so many on some of the plants (Louise Odier and Pat Austin for example) that there are simply too many to count.  Most of the roses have bloomed; all of them are shown on the "Roses in the Garden – 2009" page that I've created and posted today.  Of those remaining, I'm afraid that this past winter was the coupe de grace for Moon Shadow and Fragrant Cloud, both of which had been damaged by previous winters.  Sadly, it also seems that Sunbright was badly damaged by this past winter and may not survive.  It lives in a good spot even though it faces north, so if it doesn't survive, I'll plant something new and exciting there. In the meantime, here's a perfect Peace and, for me, a rare sport, a totally snow white Double Delight!  These are just examples of the many photos that I added to the web site today.

At long last, I've posted this spring's photos on my web site, all 250+ of them!  All of the various pages have been updated, as found on my What's New page.  Enjoy!

I went out into the garden today (beautiful day here in New Jersey) and discovered that, as expected, both of the well-established Old Garden Roses, Louise Odier and Zephirine Drouhin, had bloomed, tying for second place this year.  Louise Odier has totally snapped her stake (a 1×4 no less) and is in danger of falling over, so I'm restaking her with a pressure-treated 2×2 that will hopefully be able to take the strain.  She gets to be a big girl!  I've also uploaded more than a hundred new garden photos to the web site and now I just need to edit the various pages to finally get things up to date. Photos of Louise Odier and Zephirine Drouhin are below.