Roses still sleepy but awakening

‘Clotilde Soupert’ is the early riser of the garden, up and at ‘em at the crack of dawn. Everybody else takes after the gardener for whom 8AM is really early. So it’s looking like the old clock on the garden wall is saying about 6:30, maybe quarter to seven. ‘Leonie Lamesch’ is not only awake but cheerful. She’s just off the patio, and I can see her from the back door, dotted with her small but happy red/pink/cream blossoms. She appears in the next four photos. She’s only been in the ground for about a year and only has two mature canes, so though she’s strikingly pretty, she’s not a candidate for a full bush just yet. You can guess that I love her foliage.






‘Mrs B R Cant’ is really lovely this spring compared to previous years. Being on Fortuniana rootstock, last year I followed conventional wisdom and pruned her quite hard, including removing leaves. Then last season she grew wacky with eight-foot canes sprouting from five feet high on the bush. She looked like she was trying to be a climber, but those heavy canes just flopped over and laid down on other plants. Growth was going horizontally through the bush, and she wasn’t very leafy at all. My excuse for her was that she’s growing way under two huge oaks and deprived of enough sun. So last month when I was on my pruning rounds, I could not make heads or tails of her, because she was such a jumble of confused growth. I removed most of her leaves just so I could see what was where. Then I decided to shorten all that long stuff to match the rest of the bush, remove dead stuff and downward growing stuff, and end it there. My conclusion was that last year’s pruning forced contrary growth. Of course, that’s only my observation, one admittedly influenced by my prejudice against Teas on Fortuniana.



Well, she has more leaves and is bushier this year. (She was so non-foliated last year that she was un-photographable.)  See that nearly horizontal line in the middle of the bush? That’s one of those canes I mentioned before. In my experience some Teas sprout shoots at nearly right angles from the original cane, and I believe cutting exacerbates that habit, causing multiple shoots near the cut. So I’m going to see if minimal cutting helps her. I know the pros will strongly differ with me on this, but I’m just trying to achieve some normalcy for her without a clue as to what her normal really is. By the way she's about six feet tall and close to eight feet wide.



She has a lot of buds on her but has been loathe to make any cane breaks down low. None last year or this year so far.



‘Polonaise’ is looking good after this winter’s transplant. She has a good many buds already on her few canes.



‘Mary Guthrie’ surprised me yesterday with this bright flower which is exactly true-to-life color. She was relocated, too, for the sake of these scrumptious flowers. No black spot yet, the gardener said with a wry, little chuckle. HMF says she's fragrant, but dumb gardener didn't know because she has never taken a whiff!



Happily, more bright flowers are coming as seen in this photo.



In my last post you saw the red new canes of ‘Maman Cochet’. Now about nine days later they are almost green and about four feet long. Her middle is looking nicely full.



My in-the-ground ‘Borderer’ is also blooming and filled with buds. She’s quite a small bush – maybe two feet tall and four feet across.



Here’s the full bed. From front to back, ‘Borderer’, ‘White Pet’, and ‘Leonie Lamesch’. ‘White Pet’ has buds but no flowers yet.



This is ‘Francois Juranville’, my rambler that cascades from the rebar arbor. This is his third season in the garden, and being a once-bloomer (though my fingers are crossed for some repeat here in sunny Florida), there were no flowers the first year and literally only a handful last year since he only blooms on old wood. This is the first flower I’ve seen this year. I chose this rambler for its fairly large and double flowers and for the color. It seems most ramblers are small-flowered and white, and you know how much I like color. See those shiny, healthy green leaves? Those are Wichurana leaves. They are the other reason I chose this rose. No black spot. An evergreen climber that would cover my vacant arbor was what I was seeking. Flowers almost didn’t matter. These will definitely be a bonus.



Here’s FJ in February. He’s been bulking up lately, throwing thick new canes all over the place. I keep trying to tuck them in so they go vertical. If allowed to go straight out from the existing verticals, I think he’d be happy to take the whole garden.



The first flower (that I’ve seen) of ‘Duchesse de Brabant’. Only a year in the ground, she’s young and flimsy, but she has at least grown in all directions and is maybe two feet tall and almost five feet wide. She’s in a cooler location than my first DdB which I think will keep her better foliated with pinker blooms. Obviously, being a Tea Rose, heat should not be a problem, but for three years I could not keep leaves on the bush from which this plant was cut. So if she’s more comfortable out of the scorching sun, it’s fine with me.



‘Blush Noisette’ has one open flower and some buds though she’s far from covered yet. She has leafed out some since the hard pruning but not a lot.



You may remember that I love Dianthus chinensis. Summer, winter, it doesn’t matter. They’re green and blooming. This is a new color that I got this winter – in fact, two of them. I love the color! Oh, wow! It just occurred to me that this one is planted at the feet of purple Clematis ‘Venosa Violacea’. Sometimes things just work out, don’t they?



I am so excited about the new scapes on several daylilies. These are the Early Season DLs, and I must admit that I didn’t realize that early meant this  early. This particular one is Bob Carr’s ‘Inherited Wealth’. This is one that I am itching to see bloom. I chose it for its gorgeous and abundant flowers that I had seen in photos even though it supposedly does not rebloom. In my long, long growing season I love and demand rebloomers. So we’ll see about this one. I can always hope it will decide to bloom again, right?



Yesterday I blew the leaves out of the gravel paths, so the garden is tidier. I was feeling like a really low-down garden-keeper with all those oak leaves covering everything. They keep dropping – month after month. I hope they’re done, and I hope I can mulch them up with the lawn mower. So with the garden cleaned up and blooming, I’m almost a happy camper. If some little elves would come and spray the weeds in the front circle gravel with RoundUp, then I would be a full-fledged happy camper. This photo was taken way back in February (apparently when I was pruning), and since the weed is of great proportions, maybe I’ve already pulled it. Let’s hope so.

A gardening brother on the other side of the gulf

I found a blog this evening and immediately thought of all of my Florida garden blog friends. The blog is called TROPICAL TEXANA: Texas Gulf Coast. I dare you to click the link and not think you’re in Florida! So for that reason I'm adding it to my Florida Blog Roll. A quick run-through of this interesting blog revealed that David is the blogger and he doesn’t grow roses. So sad. I had high hopes of finding another humid zone 9 rosarian, but I guess we’re as rare as hen’s teeth. Oh, that reminds me! He has chickens!! I even saw one in David’s house inspecting the Norfolk Island Pine Christmas tree. I hope you’ll check out David’s blog. It’s full of bromeliads and other tropicals that I can’t grow but you southerners can.



By the way I think the Norfolk Island Pine is a brilliant idea. I’ve been really bah-humbug this year and haven’t put up a tree or decorated. It wears me out just thinking about it, but David’s Norfolk Island Pine inspired me…if Lowe’s or Home Depot has one to buy…now. I need a quickie Christmas redo since I’m having everyone over on Christmas Day and having nothing Christmas-y just doesn’t seem right. Trying to stay mellow and anxiety-free this Christmas season has merely meant opting out for me, and now with days to go I’m feeling like opting back in. I have become really ambivalent about this wonderful season meant for celebrating my Savior’s birth. Sadly and invariably, I experience less savior and more stress. It’s just occurring to me that doing nothing is not the answer to doing too much which I used to do with incredibly disastrous results. Happy mediums have never been my strong suit, being naturally inclined to be either way over there or way over there. Avoiding Christmas Eve conniptions has become my holiday goal, so I have adopted a laissez-faire attitude. Well, I’m only 61, so I’ve still got time to get this right.

I do have some lovelies to share from yesterday’s gorgeous sunny-blue-sky walk through the garden. Here goes.

'Shooting Star' Hydrangea from Publix. Took me two seconds to decide to pay the $19.99.

On the right is 'Polonaise'.

A big fat 'Mrs. B. R. Cant' bud and my new Camelia sasanqua 'Stephanie Golden'

A honey bee enjoying the echinacea and the lovely 'Bow Bells'

'Le Vesuve' still outdoing herself and 'Etoile de Mai' finally being yellow rather than white. Gee, these photos are way out of proportion. 'Le Vesuve' is big, and EdM is small!

'Anda' is always really red, and 'Clotilde Soupert' is pinker than ever.

'Mme Abel Chatenay' still blooming but starting to lose leaves for her dormancy, and the incomparable 'White Maman Cochet'

Surprisingly the echinacea is still blooming, and I just bought seeds for more varieties.

On the right 'Climbing Maman Cochet' is getting huger and huger.

'Reve d'Or' - Flowers are so big this time of year, but I think I missed most of her recent flush.

Silly 'Louis Philippe'. This one is in too much shade. Wouldn't you know, he's blooming on his shady side. I guess he likes socializing with the Impatiens. Have a peaceful week before Christmas, all. I know I'm trying to.

Gone to a good home

Today was the day that six roses left their old home in my garden and went to a new home at Rose Petals Nursery. Cydney Wade, owner of RPN and sweet friend, graciously did the digging but may not be doing much more digging since that shovel was still there in the dirt after she left. Cyd is holding ‘Le Vesuve’. No, not the big one in the front garden. This one was in the back garden where it was getting so little sun that its blooms were almost white and even some of its buds which are normally red were white. That made the decision easier. A rose is entitled to live in conditions where it can be true to itself.



You can’t see into the trailer, but it’s full, and the roses are all lined up to get on board. Cyd took all of my ‘Giant Apostle’s Irises’, one of the ‘Red Cascade’ climbers that lived on the white picket fence next to ‘Bermuda’s Anna Olivier’ in the front garden, ‘Pink Perpetue’, a climber that was living a lie as a bush in my front garden, ‘Parade’, another climber that would be so happy lolling on a fence with blooms all along her canes but never had such a position here, and  ‘La Sylphide’, a smallish Tea rose that I wasn’t real keen on parting with, but some things are just for the best. Smallish Tea roses are hard to come by.



The last one in the trailer was ‘Polonaise’. I still have one here recently moved from the big patio pot to the ground in the back garden. A small garden does not have the luxury of keeping duplicates – at least not many of them.



Don’t you love Cyd’s signage on her trailer and SUV. If you see her on I-75, wave to her. She may be carrying precious rose cargo.



How appropriate that my ‘Polonaise’ was blooming today. It never missed a beat after coming out of the pot. So all’s well that ends well, and now I can get to the work of moving old roses and planting new ones.

Cyd emailed that she and the plants arrived home safely but after dark, so tonight the roses are resting overnight in water in a horse water trough, a wheel barrow and a galvanized tub. Tomorrow she'll tuck their toesies into good Florida soil.

The Dirt Pile was closed

That’s my very local source for gravel, topsoil, mulch, bulk potting soil, etc. Apparently, they took the long weekend off, because they were locked up tight when I went there Saturday morning. I needed good soil for the beds under and around ‘Francois Juranville’. Oh, well, I could still dig the holes, so after a quick trip to Lowe’s for cement edging I got started. Just to save on confusion the pertinent writing is under each photo.


 I more precisely scraped the gravel out of the way and set up the edging for the dry-fit, so to speak. Not rocket science but as precise as I can make it for the perfectionist in me.


You remember how the gravel path ran under the rebar arbor that ‘Francois Juranville’ lives on and that he’s planted to the left in the sun here. The shade bed is behind the bench. Do you see the shade line on the ground? In winter the back garden which is on the north side of the house is almost totally in shade. That is the shadow of the gable end of the house about twenty-five feet away. The sun is at such a low angle – and getting lower every day – that much of the shade bed and all of ‘Mrs B R Cant’ to the far left out of frame are in full sun, and she’s just as happy as a clam and blooming her heart out. Curious, isn’t it, how this earth of ours tilts this way and that way with the only giveaway being the shadows we cast.


 ‘Serratipetala’ in the rectangular pot was dragged inches at a time out of the way. As I was dragging his butt inch by inch I thought about finding him a better home than the one he has which isn’t entirely my fault... the home, I mean. He was only supposed to be three feet tall but grew almost six feet tall. Must be the vitamins in the Florida sun. But for sentimental reasons I have decided to keep him. The cool weather has caused him to be much leafier plus I’m just tired of getting rid of all of my original roses. I liked me back then – all doe-eyed and excited and driven to have roses, roses, roses... before I knew that all roses, roses, roses didn’t love my garden. Just some roses, roses, roses. The trick was to find which ones.


 Mmmm, I like it.



Now on to the digging. The place where my shovel is laying is the designated dumping zone for the excavated crappy soil coming out of the new bed, some of which I put there when it was the designated dumping zone for the crappy soil from the front garden as shown in the photo below. The exciting part is that I decided that this area would be graveled, too, and would make a lovely shady sitting area... in the summer, that is.



Step back in time to November 28, 2008, and this was the back garden, receptacle for six inches by twenty feet by fifteen feet (give or take) of limey sand with definite cementitious characteristics that formerly was the front yard. One wheelbarrow at a time. See how excited I was… Gee, what’s that green stuff all over the yard? Can’t remember. By the way not a single rose in this photo – except ‘Serratipetala’ in the rectangular pot is still there.



Dang that tree!! I wanted it out of there by now, but tree cutters who don’t show up when they say they will seem to be in control of my future. DH with the arthritic back that needs surgery and I with no umph or climbing ability surveyed the situation Saturday after the digging was done. We determined that if we were downing this tree it would come down right where the tailgate of the truck is between the two trees. In fact, one or both of those other two trees could come down as well. The left one, unfortunately, would take with it the canopy that ‘Francois Juranville’ planned to grow into, so that would be disappointing. Maybe the right one could go first, and then we could reassess. It was all I could do (what magnificent self-control!) not to say, “Can’t we do it now, Daddy, huh, huh, huh???”, but given the waning daylight and the presence of DH’s cane, I figured I would refrain from totally blowing every shred of my credibility in one fell swoop. I know DH expected me to blow it. However, neither of us showed our hands in this little game of ‘who’s not the mature one?’



 A wider view of the mess.

Here you can clearly see the stratification of the neo-paleolithic era created in the upheaval of three years ago along with the roots of that dang tree. I can’t decide if I want to put ‘Rose de Rescht’ here. May be too much sun in summer for his delicate dark red blooms, so I think he’ll stay in his pot and let daylilies live here. The dark layer of native soil underneath my sand isn’t really as fertile as it looks. It’s basically dark brown and sometimes black compacted something that resembles mortar mix and contains white limestone rocks. I am proud to say that I made the black friable layer of dirt on top which I’m thinking, i.e., hoping is much thicker in the middle of that bed. By the way the edging is laid over because I kept catching, er, slamming the shovel on them. Digging is a game of inches especially for klutzy people.

I do hope you’re finding these holes dug in the ground quite interesting! Otherwise, what’s the point of blogging about them except that I was knee-deep in sand and lived to tell about it.


Don’t you think a birdbath would be great on the gravel side of that curve? You won’t believe what I found at Lowe’s when I was getting the cement edging. Animal, vegetable or mineral, you ask. Well, of course, vegetable. A white hydrangea macrophylla. Alright, I’ll go outside… in the dark… and look at the label… with a flashlight. Be right back. It’s ‘Sister Therese’. Very beautiful pure white blooms. It will be going in this bed and will be surrounded by daylilies. The other vegetable was a burnt orange asiatic lily. The cashier says they “come back”, meaning live to bloom next year. I really hope she knows what she’s talking about since I heard they don’t.  But it’s loaded with flower buds so this year at least it will put on a show.



Notice something different?

Yes, I remembered to extend the half-inch poly and bury it before construction was finished. Too soon old, too late smart. Also, the present ugliness of the gravel paths will be remedied with a hard spray from the hose and a thin layer of new gravel. Aren't you glad? I sure am.
 

That was yesterday.

Today I took ‘Polonaise’ out of his blue patio pot and put him in the ground next to SdlM. No photos again since it was dark again. I also took ‘Baronne Prevost’ out of that spot in the ground and put her in the blue pot but not on the patio. Just like moving the furniture around. It’s been there a year… gotta move it.

I also redid my rose list today. The one I use to keep me sane, not the one on the blog. My personal list has crucial information on it like when I got the rose, where I got it from and where it is in the garden. It hadn’t been updated in quite a while as evidenced by the many cross-outs and penciled-in items. Getting that done got my brain in order to do the critical thinking required for determining which roses needed to be moved and where to, where the unplanted ones would be planted, which ones had to leave and where would they go. I’m happy to say that none will go to the city compost pile. All six will go to Rose Petals Nursery. Follow the link and you can read about ‘Souvenir de la Malmaison, Climbing’ and her relocation to her new home. See, all’s well that ends well.