And Then There Were None

I know that I haven't been keeping up.  All I can say is that the strain of flu that's going around this year is rather nasty and it's taken me quite a while to get over it.  ::sigh::  Since I last blogged, we had the rainiest June in history here in New Jersey and that led to an explosion of black spot, which managed to almost defoliate some of the roses as I wasn't able to spray due to all of the rain and my health.  On a happier note, the last rose whose bloom I was waiting for, Garden Party, finally did so.  Unfortunately, it coincided with the arrival of the japanese beetles, but I managed to get a shot of the first bud as it was opening before it got munched.  Here it is.

Garden Party

To my surprise, the mini-rose Caramba, in a pot on the deck, managed to survive the winter (while three of the roses in the ground did not) and has done rather nicely and bloomed as well.  Here's one of the blossoms.

mini rose caramba

In other rose news, I found a very nice rose at Lowes to replace Sunbright in the front yard garden.  It's called Smooth Satin (also known as Hadsatin) and is a very nice pink with a nice fragrance and is mostly thorn-free.  I bought it potted and in bloom and got it into the ground very quickly, where it's doing quite well.  Here is the blossom that was on it when purchased.

smooth satin

All of the other roses are doing well, though somewhat the worse for wear after all the rain and lack of spraying.  I've posted at least half-a-hundred new photos on the web site.

This year, I'm going to be sadly devoid of most of my lilies.  Some type of animal (as yet unknown) intruded into the garden and ate all of the buds off the many stalks of the white Asiatic lily (the only Asiatic lily I have left) and most of them off of the Mona Lisa Oriental lily.  I got a grand total of one blossom on the latter.

Mona Lisa Oriental Lily

While I got photos of a few blooms on the daylilies Double Cutie and Leebea Orange Crush, the intruder also ate the buds, blossoms, and spent blossoms on those as well, so the few photos that I've posted are it for the year.  This is Double Cutie.

Double Cutie

And this is Leebea Orange Crush.

leebea orange crush

The third of my daylilies, Plum Perfect , is a later bloomer, so while the intruder ravaged that as well, it has more buds that will soon open.  Here's the first.

Plum Perfect

I'm keeping my eye on Plum Perfect and should the animal dare to show itself, since it finds my lilies and daylilies so edible, I'm hoping that it's quite edible itself.  Turnabout being fair play and all that.

 I need to get back to a regular spraying regimen now that the rains appear to have let up (though we're having a heck of a thunderstorm as I'm typing this) and do some judicious pruning to see if I can bring some of the defoliated roses back to health.  June was not only very wet, it was quite cool.  July is also starting off quite cool and I don't know what that says about the climate.  I do know that if any politician in the state so much as dares to utter the word "drought" this year, I will wish him a speedy drowning in one of our currently overflowing reservoirs.  Oh, the grass is greener than I've seen in years and I have yet to turn on the sprinklers.

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3 Responses to And Then There Were None

  1. alexandra says:

    Hello! Have been enjoying your entries, and photos!! This year, absolutely NONE of my tiger lillies was found…all mysteriously disappeared. I had planted over 50…do you think it's rabbits, voles? If so, what do I do? I've heard of a pepper spray. I'm worried they'll eat my beautiful, toweing bearded irises..I have over 40 of those… Any help, I would LOVE!!

  2. Bougaivillea says:

    Hi there, I saw your blogpost very interesting.But The blogpost namely "And Then There Was None " especially interested me. I am Michel Moore a community member at http://www.bgi-usa.com Will like to talk(through email) to you,is this the right time to talk about or should we talk during weekends ? Best-Regards, Michel Moore E-Mail:- bougainvilleausa@gmail.com

  3. ToyTrains1 says:

    I finally saw the presumed lilly-munching culprit the other night.  Though I live in a well built-up suburb and wouldn't expect to see one here (I've only seen one other in about two decades), we do in fact have DEER here.  ::sigh::

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