Everything’s Coming Up Roses!

Most of the rest of the roses have bloomed over the Memorial Day weekend.  Of my 24 roses, now only Tropicana (facing dead north) and Garden Party (overshadowed by Louise Odier) have not yet bloomed.  They do have good growth however, so I'm content to give them all the time they need.  Most all of the roses are in their full spring flush and the garden is a riot of bright colors and fabulous fragrances.  I've posted lots and lots of photos on the web site, where you can always find the latest and greatest entries by checking the What's New page.  The page showing the roses in the garden this year is also a great place to check on what has and hasn't bloomed and to compare year to year.  Here are the roses that have bloomed since my last entry.  First is Comte de Chambord.

 2011 comte de chambord

Next is Falstaff.

2011 falstaff

Third is Graham Thomas.

2011 graham thomas

Next is Lagerfeld.

2011 lagerfeld

Fifth is Queen Elizabeth.

2011 queen elizabeth

And last but not least is Pierre de Ronsard.

2011 pierre de ronsard

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A Wonderful Spring

We finally have some balance this year.  After an awful winter, the spring is wonderful, with plenty of rain, lots of sunshine, and now mild weather.  The garden has responded as one would expect, with a burst of growth, color, and fragrance.  All but eight of the roses have now bloomed.  Photos of those who bloomed in the last few days are below.  Both the herbaceous peony and the Itoh peony "Cora Louise" planted last year are in full bloom.  The garden is wonderfully scented by all of the flowers, and the grass is a lovely green. It's almost enough to make me forget my various physical ailments.  Over the last few days, I've taken about 150 photos out in the garden and those have now been posted on my main Roses web site.  As a reminder, you can always find what's new on the web site via my What's New page.  Here are a few highlight photos to tempt you to visit the web site.  First, the roses that have bloomed recently. The first of those is Dr. Huey.

2011 dr huey

Next is Melody Parfumee.

2011 melody parfumee

Third is Madame Isaac Pereire.

2011 mme isaac pereire

Fourth is Peace.

2011 peace

And the last of the recently blooming roses is Pierre de Ronsard.

2011 pierre de ronsard

Here are the peonies.  First the herbaceous peony.

2011 herbaceous peony

And last is the Itoh peony "Cora Louise".

2011 itoh peony cora louise

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Still More Roses

Overnight, Double Delight, Fisherman's Friend, and Fragrant Lace have opened up their first blossoms and Zephirine Drouhin has started her spring flush. The white rhododendron has also gone from bud to bloom and the mock orange has bloomed.  Even better, it seems that, just perhaps, today will finally be rain free!  Here are the three newly bloomed roses.  The first is Double Delight.

2011 double delight

Number two is Fisherman's Friend.

2011 fisherman's friend

And last is Fragrant Lace.

2011 fragrant lace

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More Roses!

Over the last few days, a number of other roses have bloomed: Heritage, Pat Austin, Red Ribbons, Winchester Cathedral, and Zephirine Drouhin.  More still are just about to bloom.  We're finishing up one solid week of rain, about five inches worth, so I'll have to get out there to spray as with so much moisture for so long, the fungus is no doubt among us! LOL The other plants in the garden are doing well too.  I've taken a bunch of photos in between the raindrops and they're now all posted on the web site.  Remember, you can always check the What's New page to see the latest updates.  I also finally gave up trying to get a rose to grow in the spot formerly occupied by the late, lamented Brigadoon.  After three or four failures, I give up!  Since it's next to the daylily Plum Perfect, which has done very well there, I went to the nursery and have planted a new daylily, also in the purple family, called Indian Giver.  Hopefully it will do well.  Here are photos of the recent roses.  First is Heritage.

2011 heritage

Next is Pat Austin.

2011 pat austin

Third is Red Ribbons.

2011 red ribbons

Next is Winchester Cathedral.

2011 winchester cathedral

Finally, here's Zephirine Drouhin.

2011 zephirine drouhin

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The Second Rose

Pretty much as expected, Louise Odier opened up her first bud to become the second rose to bloom this year.  She now has quite a few in the process of opening and the fragrance is already starting to scent that part of the garden.  Besides the photos of those roses, I've now got just about 200 garden photos taken this year posted on my Roses web site.  Various azaleas, bluebells, wood hyacinths, weigela, you name it.  You can always find what I've added lately by checking the What's New page.  Here's the first Louise Odier blossom.

Louise Odier

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The First Rose of 2011

Being the first to form a bud doesn't necessarily translate into being the first to open a blossom.  And so it is this year.  Louise Odier was the first with a bud.  I was out spraying the roses (I noticed a trace of blackspot) and found this waiting for me on the far side of the arbor.  Thus it is that Gertrude Jekyll takes the honors for the first rose of 2011!  🙂

2011 gertrude jekyll

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A New Rose

I wasn't at all happy with the performance of Smooth Satin last year and this year its spring growth has been underwhelming, so I went looking for a new rose to replace it.  After shopping around, I found a beauty, a deep red hybrid tea with a lovely damask scent.  It's easily the most vigorous potted rose I've ever bought, complete with buds and blooms.  I was getting ready to put it into the ground in place of Smooth Satin, and then started to think.  Ever since Brigadoon died, every rose I've put in that spot hasn't fared well, even though I completely change over the soil with each new rose.  It faces dead north and doesn't get much sun at all.  I started looking over all three gardens (front yard, side yard, back yard) and spotted a bare spot in the side yard garden, in the redone foundation bed between the dwarf (yeah, 20 feet high already and they call it a 'dwarf') blue spruce and the skip laurel.  It faces west and gets at least a half-day of sun.  A bare spot in the garden plus lots of sun equals a good place for the new rose, so there it went!  The photo shows it just after planting.  Oh!  It's called Smooth Velvet and it's from the same family as Smooth Satin.  It now has its own page.  I've also added many new photos of the other garden denizens and you can find all of them via the What's New page on the web site.

smooth velvet

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2011 – Spring, and the First Rose Bud

I've been horribly remiss in keeping up this journal and in maintaining my garden web site.  All I can say is that my health hasn't been all that great (as an example, it seems that I now have a bone spur in my other shoulder that's causing problems with that rotator cuff) and that I've been busy with my trains, among other things.  However, I have been out in the garden as it awoke from the horrible winter and have been documenting it photographically.  This evening, I processed well over 100 photographs and did a massive update of the web site to bring it up to date.  Checking the "What's New" page will show you all of the updates and you can see all of the new photos, rather than me trying to put a few representative shots here.  What I will show here is the first rose bud of the year, that I found on Louise Odier (of course) on 20 April.  It has since begun to open to give me my first rose of the year.

Louise Odier

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When Did I Move To The North Pole?

We've thus far had SEVEN snowstorms totaling well over four feet of snow and the winter is only one month old.  The piles outside are over four feet tall and I'm sure that if a climatologist took a core he'd find a seven layer cake!  It seems that with each storm it gets harder to get it all cleaned off.  I ache all over, I'm thoroughly disgusted, and Florida is looking more and more attractive.  Even with rising ocean levels and more violent hurricanes.

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Happy New Year!

🙂

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