Summer

04 Tuesday Jul 2017

Tags

climbing roses, fragrant flowers, fragrant roses, rosa rugosa, rosa rugosa 'Hansa', rose 'New Dawn', Rose 'Zephirine Drouhin', rose Eden, rose heritage, roses, roses for bees

Roses

I didn’t expect to stay away from posting for almost a month, time flies. With the weather swinging like a pendulum, I find myself spending more time getting the garden in order. By the end of the day I was too exhausted to do anything else. But I can’t let summer passes by with out posting about roses.

The rose bushes in our garden are doing well this year. With rain early on and cooler than normal temperatures, it’s a perfect combination for roses. The first round of blossoms are just about to fade and just in time for the arrival of the heat and humidity. Now it’s time to snip off the spent flowers and feed them again.

They present their representatives, below, to vouch for the caretaker that has kept them well fed and healthy. That is why she has been MIA for a month.

‘Eden’ bloomed profusely this year and the flowers are big enough to weigh the branches down as well.

Rugosa rose ‘Hansa’ is my favorite. It’s a fast grower, produces plenty of flowers, re-blooms and is extremely fragrant. And, the honeybees love it too.

‘New Dawn’ covers the whole trellis, with red ‘Blaze’ and pink ‘Knockout’ peeking in on the sides

‘Heritage’ is also highly fragrant and re-blooms. I may have to move it to a new spot, away from the invasion of the Summersweet

‘Zephirine drouhin’ has a very interesting pink color and re-blooms throughout the season

Happy New Year

01 Sunday Jan 2017

Posted by P&B in Beekeeping, Birds, Flowers

≈ 3 Comments

Tags

anticipation, Aster, backyard garden, Baltimore Oriole, Eastern Bluebird, Goldenrod, Happy New Year, honey bee, honey bee in late summer, hope, Monarch butterfly, pink aster, rose, Rose 'Zephirine Drouhin'

In Anticipation Of A Better Year

Happy New Year 2017

I would like to present you with the image of a warmer day in our garden, the Zephirine Drouhin rose. A climbing fragrant rose that blooms continuously throughout the season. One of many things I anticipate again in June.

Zephirine Drouhin is never a disappointment. It blooms heavily at first then continues to bloom here and there until autumn.

About this ‘anticipation’, I got the idea from a free bookmark I received from the American Horticultural Society of which I am a member. There is a quote from W.E Johns on the back “One of the most delightful things about gardening is the anticipation it provides.” It couldn’t be more true for me.

We all hope for better. We hope our garden will fare better than last year, our beehives thrive, our little friends who stay put survive the winter and our migrating friends come back to visit. We anticipate for better so we won’t lose hope.

Here are some of the anticipated events:

We anticipate that more Monarch butterflies will be back next year as we have plenty of Milkweed and late summer flowers for them to feed on before they travel back south for their winter hibernation. We hope that children will get to see them in real life, not just on screen, for many more years to come.

We anticipate the next generation of this Honeybee on Goldenrod will be stronger and more resilient so they can help us humans survive.

We anticipate that this summer resident- Baltimore Oriole will bring his children, that were born here, back for a red carpet treatment of fresh oranges and organic jelly.

We anticipate that the Eastern Bluebird which has stayed put with us in the last couple of winters, will bring up more kids, enjoy their communal bath and help rid us of pests. We hope they will continue being our state bird for eons to come since their population has increased in recent years.

These are just a few of our anticipations for this year. We have been doing our best to give back to nature since she gives us so much joy. It’s our sanctuary amidst this divided world.

As for the world outside our garden, we hope that there are solutions for all conflicts so we stop being so divided and ruining ourselves in the process. We dream of a magic pill that will wipe out hate, bigotry, and selfishness from so many people’s brains, that the world can be a better place to live and a wonderful place to pass on to the next generation. Let’s hope that some of these dreams will come true this year. We cannot lose hope, it’s the only thing that keeps us going. Even if that hope is just a dim light at the end of the tunnel.

Whatever your anticipations and dreams are, we wish they came true for you.

Late Spring Garden

18 Thursday Jun 2015

Posted by P&B in Flowers

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

clematis, clematis belle of woking, clematis Betty Corning, clematis crystal fountain, Eden Rose, forget-me-not, Knockout rose, oriental poppy, Rose 'Zephirine Drouhin', roses, spring garden, woodland phlox

Best Time Of The Season

I love spring time. There is a lot of work to do in the garden in spring in order to keep up with the fast growing plants but it’s the best time of year, in my opinion anyway. When the weather gets gradually warmer, plants follow accordingly and they are much easier to keep up with. This year the weather has been temperamental. It has gone up to 80° F for a few days then dropped down to low 40° F. When the temperature hit 80 degree, plants in the garden shot up really fast only to be stunned by a suddenly cooler temperature later. I have to put down a plan to widen the walkway. That entails moving some plants out of the way. It will have to wait until next year since the plants are now too tall for me to safely transplant them.

We lost some plants we really love to the harsh winter but what’s left in the garden hasn’t disappointed us. Color and scents throughout the garden.

Clematis ‘Crystal Fountain’ produces abundant flowers this year

Rose ‘Knockout’ in the foreground with clematis ‘Belle of Woking’ and rose ‘Zephirine Drouhin’ in the background

White Woodland Phlox migles with Forget-Me-Not

Bright red oriental poppy among white daisy

More oriental poppy in salmon color

Rose ‘Eden’ and Clematis ‘Betty Corning’

Rose This Spring: Climbing and Rambling

13 Thursday Jun 2013

Posted by P&B in Flowers, Perennials

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

climbing rose, fragrant flower, fragrant rose, late spring flower, rambling rose, Rose 'Blaze', Rose 'Paul's Himalayan Musk', Rose 'Zephirine Drouhin'

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 a year (I grew up in the subtropics where they bloom all year round). I select more carefully now.

The once blooming rambling rose that’s worth growing is the ‘Paul’s Himalayan Musk.’ When it’s in full bloom, aside from a sea of small pink flowers, the honey scent is lovely. It can grow around five to six feet a season and can grow more than thirty feet in length. This rose and it’s cousin – Himalayan Alba- are the ones that give me grief every spring. Pruning rambling rose is not an easy task. I gave both of them a crew cut this spring and they have already filled up the empty spaces.

Both of us attempted to dig out the Blaze many times because all of the leaves drop off after it finishes blooming, mostly from black spots and in some years, mildew as well. But it manages to change our mind every spring when its branches are cover with bright red flowers. It is another of the roses that I originally planted. One of these days, either I figure out how to deal with the black spots or I’ll just dig it out and plant a different rose that will bloom all season. It’s a heart wrenching decision.

Zephirine Drouhin is an Old Garden climbing rose that will bloom throughout the season and is highly fragrant as well. The deer ate most of its new shoots last year but this year I managed to discourage them so it bloomed profusely in gratitude.

We grow climbing and rambling roses to cover the unsightly pool fence. This is where Paul’s Himalayan Musk and Blaze meet.

Blaze has been loading its branches with bright red flowers every late spring but its leaves drop afterward, caused by black spots. How can we dig it up when it manages to do this every spring.