A Remarkable Home Remedy; Ginger Tea It is late winter now and so far we’ve escaped without suffering colds or flu (although my fingers are crossed). With the unforgiving winter weather this year many of my friends and colleagues have come down with either colds or flu. Some took flu shots but got sick anyway. I had a flu shot some years ago and … Continue reading Tea For Cold And Flu
They Keep On Flowering I guess we can’t have everything. After raining for a few days, the weather has returned to early spring in which night temperatures hover around 50°F. It’s great for the roses but not so great for tomatoes, peppers and beans. The vegetables grow very slowly in temperatures like this. But the roses that survived the recent heavy rain do last longer … Continue reading Roses This Spring: Old Garden Roses and the Others
Early Bloomers Aside from the Rugosa roses that bloom early, some of our climbing and rambling roses are also blooming. The sad part is most of them bloom only once a year. All of the ‘once blooming’ roses in the garden are ones that I planted very early on when I had no idea that some of the roses in this climate bloom only once … Continue reading Rose This Spring: Climbing and Rambling
Looking Great Until The Rain Came The weather started nicely for roses this year…cool and dry with little rain. Our early bloomer roses formed buds profusely and they’re in the middle of their first round exhibition of colors and scents. Then the rain came. A nonstop deluge for a day and a half. There are still some flowers left after the rain, though not much. Hopefully there … Continue reading Roses This Spring: Rugosa
Even with Hard Pruning We came back from vacation just in time for the Paul’s Himalayan Musk bloom. It would have been a tragedy to miss it since it blooms only once a year. The garden is covered with a honey scent, especially when the temperature is a little on the cool side. I did give it a hard pruning early in spring, before the … Continue reading Still Unruly; the Himalayan Musk Rose
Rugosa Rose How many books on deer resistant gardens are in the marketplace? Plenty. But I found that 80% of the allegedly deer-proof plants on the list got eaten anyway. If the deer are hungry enough they will eat any plants they can get their teeth into. The few plants that deer won’t touch basically narrow down to three categories: highly scented (mints, sage, lavender…any … Continue reading Deer Resistant Rose
A graceful rambler Every year in June is the time for roses to push out and bloom. We have a mix of once a season blooming and continuous blooming roses in our garden. When I started fixing our garden, I didn’t know that some roses in this climate bloom only once a year. The roses in the tropics bloom all year round, at least in … Continue reading Paul’s Himalayan Musk
Petals and Wings 