Sunday, February 26, 2012

Rained out

We awoke to rain… chilly rain, in fact. A wonderful thing, really, and definitely an indication that Someone thought the inside of the house deserved some attention, too. So a long overdo bathroom was attended to, bread baked, and laundry done. Work could not continue on the arbor for ‘Clotilde Soupert, Climbing’ today what with all the dripping. Photography could only be zoomed from the dry porch for the sake of the slipper socks. So the gardener warmly nested on the sofa while the garden gloried in the gentle rain, not seeming to care about the chill.

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The arbor was unplanned for this weekend until Cyd pointed out on Friday that Clotilde was bearing flower buds. That was an awakening moment. I realized that I could not procrastinate any longer.

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The long canes of ‘Clotilde Soupert, Cl’ were laying on the ground, draping the azaleas and, more importantly, sprouting side shoots that were needing guidance now before they get set in their ways.

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My procrastination was due to my cluelessness as to how to proceed.

There’s the matter of the guidance of the rose that is now all in a jumble, stiff and going the wrong direction from the one that it needs to go. When the moment comes and I’m facing the rose, I’ll wing it like I do with everything. I won’t know how flexible Clotilde is until I touch her and find out how much persuasion she needs to be put in her vertical place. I won’t know what attitude all those new shoots will be assuming once the main canes are moved over against the arbor. I don’t know so I don’t act.

There are arbor designs that are beautiful, and then there are arbor designs that are feasible. Without plans (and sometimes with plans) I have to have a picture in my mind that shows me how to put the parts together which I generally do in an unorthodox way anyway. One could say 'non-male' way. DH suggested that I attach the two cross pieces to each post while laid flat on the porch floor (the wood not me), but the weight of that was so far beyond my strength that it couldn't have been farther from my mind, so I thought he only meant pre-drilling the cross boards on the porch before attaching them to the posts. I could barely lift each 4x4 off the sidewalk, but he says I’m thinking like a girl when I don’t think of attaching two 10-foot 1x4s to the post that I then have to lift into place unassisted. Yes, I’m a girl. So I will jerry-rig some way to hang/hold the 1x4x10s in place while I drill and screw them securely to the post from atop an 8-ft ladder. Hmmm, this is sounding less and less feasible as I explain it. Maybe there’s a reason it didn’t happen today.

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On to a more comfortable subject. I did go back to Lowe’s and get the lovely, rose-like double begonia, Solenia Begonia. I think this is Dusty Pink, and it claims to thrive in high light and higher humidity, be mildew tolerant, have larger flowers and more blooms, and love full sun and high humidity in the garden. I always make it a point to have a Dragon Wing begonia in my garden, because they’re such an exuberantly beautiful plant to me. I hope this new begonia earns such a place in my heart as well. That’s the sage green pot I bought last year, finally home to a plant though not the ones I originally had in mind. So what else is new?

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I’m betting you can’t guess what the heck this photo is. This is an 8-foot garden stake standing in that skinny bed next to my garage that I finally planted last Sunday. It has snapdragons, ‘Paint The Town Red’ daylilies, and two clematis vines, ‘Westerplatte’ and ‘Henryi’. These clematis were refugees from previous locations where climbing roses no longer are, refugees without a home until I saw some packages of bird netting marked down at Lowe’s. Instantly, I knew what to use it for…‘Westerplatte’ and ‘Henryi’ in their new home against the garage wall. This photo is the epitome of “nothing to see yet”. Stand by, please.

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Here is ‘Westerplatte’ in one of those ghastly “before” shots. I’ll be cutting him back soon. By the way ‘Westerplatte’ is sort of burgundy-red, and ‘Henryi’ is white. Can you say 'spectacular someday’?
 
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Here’s a multi-purpose photo containing my inspirational bird netting, the two ‘Chrysler Imperial’ markers that I conveniently had not yet peeled off and re-used since I again have two ‘Chrysler Imperial’s (yes, I bought a second one for $7 yesterday. It wasn’t quite as bedraggled as the first one. It will go in the ground, too, even though it’s probably on Dr Huey, and I will drool over its drop-dead beautiful blooms that are so photogenic), and the burlap fabric I bought for the purpose of protecting new canes (especially on 'Maman Cochet, Climbing') from the deadly squirrels. Yes, I know. I’m desperately grasping at straws now.

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Last but not least, the oaks are re-leafing today, and this is what the tiny new leaves look like from forty feet away.

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2 comments:

  1. How great that you had some glorious rain. It has only looked like rain for two days here now and we've only gotten a few sprinkles. Today and tomorrow it is predicted that we'll get 3/4 of an inch, I hope so as we sure could use it.

    Your Clotilde looks very healthy and I know she'll love the arbor she will be growing over.

    You will love Chrysler Imperial. It is one of my favorites. You sure got a good deal on it.

    Have a great week ~ FlowerLady

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  2. I'm inside cleaning today, too, though I'd rather be outside (it's misting). Well, actually, as you can see, I'm not cleaning - I'm on the computer!!! Anyway, I construct things "like a girl", and generally it doesn't work out well for me. I love your phase "spectacular someday". I think we gardeners can always see the spectacular in our minds.

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