Climbers & compost & pots

I can happily report that things in the garden are improving and that after two freezing nights things are even better than expected. Lots of items have been crossed off my list of things to do this spring. All in all, I’m getting very excited about the coming gardening year. Of course, who knows what plague or pestilence lies ahead, but it’s been a delightful and easy winter.

I am not a list person. I prefer chaos while marching to that idiot drummer in my head, but last January I was so scatter-brained and overwhelmed as to what exactly needed doing that I took DH's advice and made a list. My goodness, I felt so much better afterwards, and it was a simple thing to simply do what was on the list. No stressing whatsoever.

After doing 'Maman Cochet, Climbing' last week I felt braver about tackling my other climbers. This is 'Duchesse d'Auerstadt'. She's almost as old as MC, but as you can see, she's an entirely different animal. However, she was still (and always has been) a mess.

The clippings removed from her just filled a bushel basket, but getting rid of the deadwood enabled me to get her centered and tied on the rebar.

She has lots of red new growth which made me very happy. Maybe this year - her fifth - will be when she leaps.

She's always been a bit "airy" so I have clematis 'Venosa Violacea' growing on both sides of the arbor. They're invisible now after being pruned back. The rectangular pot (which used to house 'Serratipetala') is now home to Purple Coneflowers that sprouted in the gravel of the front circle. This is the only spot I had left, so I hope they like semi-shade.

For two years 'Pat Austin' has been a drooper, but this year she's holding her canes upright. Now that's definitely progress!

Composted horse manure. Isn't it lovely? Perhaps I should be totally honest and say semi-composted, because that's what it is - not really done, but whatever. I love the way it makes the garden look - like a beautifully made bed.

Most daylilies have been clipped back due to the recent freezes. The larkspur volunteers are looking like mini-evergreen forests, and the garden looks half empty - for now.

It only looks like there's a lot of empty space, and I've learned not to fill it, because roses like 'Rosette Delizy' get bigger and daylilies get bigger and salvias get bigger. The trick will be squeezing in the potted Purple Coneflowers.

The Christmas Amazon gift certificate from #1 son and DIL got me this perfect 7.5' obelisk that clematis 'Princess Diana' badly needed. She outgrew her old 4-footer.

So after Sunday's success with the Duchesse on Tuesday I decided to tackle 'Reve d'Or'.

I really hated bothering her, but she makes passage through the sideyard rather dicey which makes me chop on her. So I determined to deal with her properly.

You may not be able to see it, but she takes up just as much space in the neighbor's yard. Thankfully, he doesn't live there. DH fixed the fence that had sprung apart.

I know I've said this before, but I had no clue where to start cutting. I felt like a rookie dentist having to pull his first tooth - without novacaine... for the patient.

Her canes were everywhere and went everywhere. Side shoots had side shoots, and main canes had been previously shortened as per aforementioned chopping. I went back and forth many times trying to decide the best cuts to make.

I had never used a ladder on her before which was dumb. The ladder makes the job possible.

It also gets you right smack in the middle of those not-as-lethal-as-Maman-Cochet's thorns. However, ladder-work is much more painful than it looks. When it's done, probably because I lock my knees, stepping down must be done v-e-r-y slowly and carefully until I'm sure those knees are going to hold. And then it feels like someone beat me with a rubber hose.

And here is the result. I know... another scalping job. I can handle a naked bush after pruning, but I'm not used to the naked climbers yet. And I surely do hope this is what they're supposed to look like!

Finally I get to utilize the three strands of plastic-coated clothesline that I installed five years ago. When she was young, there was nothing to tie to the lines, and when she bulked up, she was too heavy to pull/push into place. The bird-netting is squirrel deterrent.

But now her naked canes, devoid of long side shoots, were easy to put in their proper places.

She, too, has lots of new growth popping out everywhere.

Her width is about 16 feet, and her height is pushing 8 feet. You can barely see my rebar contraption to which I tied the clothesline. I attached to the fence 1x2's that I had drilled and inserted 10-foot rebar into which holds the rose away from the fence. In Florida it's easy to push the rebar two feet into the ground, especially amended ground.

Nothing hangs over the fence now. I wonder how long it will take her to become a trespasser again.

I was hoping to be done while the sun was still on this side of the house to show you that her base will have sun on it now - for a while anyway - and hopefully, it will encourage basal breaks. This is an amazing sight to me. I just hope I can keep her in check.

This is 'Nur Mahal'. She got a new teepee recently because her old metal trellis rusted and fell over with her in it. She was a good ten feet tall, so I pruned her back by two-thirds to get her out of the trellis and make her bushier. DH was positive that I had killed his favorite rose. I assured him she would live, and today I was proud to tell him about all the new growth that she has sprouted. The knitted trellis is for the clematis that is growing with her (on the right side). Clematis leaves hide bare rose legs. I'm not sure if I'll wrap her new canes around the teepee or what. I tried that once before with 'Prosperity' and wound up basically with a huge bush. Don't have room for that, so we'll see.

Take THAT, you dastardly squirrels!! 'Duchesse d'Auerstadt' has precious new growth at the base which had to be protected from the chewers, so I made a cage to keep them out. I think when the canes outgrow the cage I'll wrap burlap around her that I bought last year for this purpose. I'm resigned to the fact that a garden can't look chic while squirrels are around.

How nice that the incessant wind lately has swept the gravel paths mostly clean of oak leaves. All of those pots are the Purple Coneflower echinacea plants that I dug up but didn't want to part with - my compromise to deal with their bullying roots. Now I have to make hypertufa saucers to sit them on so they won't root through the bottom of the pots. I transplanted others to places along the fences a safe distance from roses and daylilies.

My latest clematis order just arrived last week from Brushwood Vines, bringing my total to 18. 

Here's my pot ghetto consisting of hydrangeas, Angelonias, rooted rose cuttings, and a 'Gold Medal' grafted rose recently scarfed from Lowe's. Oh, and a petunia. The colorful pots on the left are waiting for the roses since there ain't no more room in the ground, except for 'Gold Medal' and 'Pope John Paul II'. All these pots have been coming into my kitchen on freezing nights. (It's easier through the side door.) Fortunately, there haven't been many this year. I do hope we're done with those and tonight is the last night for them inside.

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This was a curious cane from RdO. Looks fine, and was supporting a long cane to the left with new growth.

Flip it over, and you see it's totally chewed/rotted. It broke off before I could cut it.

Isn't she lovely in the morning sun?

Before I went out to prune RdO, I commented to DH how impossible it was for me to see the canes, looking up into the sun or even just the bright sky. Green, brown, who knew? So he suggested I wear my sunglasses. He's so brilliant! So I got my eye-doctor glasses for when he dilates my eyes. They're polarized and completely cover my regular glasses and worked like a charm. So I thought I'd show you what you need to do in this situation. That's when I saw how sunburned I was which I then told DH. He said you didn't have your hat on? I said you didn't tell me to. hehe

See ya in the funny papers!!

Horses and their poop

DH and I drove out to horsey northwest Marion County for another load of composted horse manure. It is a truly beautiful, scenic trip over rolling hills with fenced pastures to the right and to the left past farm after farm along Highway 27. After last night’s dip into the 20’s most of the pastures were not as lovely as on the last trip, now tan instead of emerald green. I took my camera with me, so you could watch the compost acquisition.

That's steam coming off the manure compost! Never saw that before.

Brown gold is on its way.

The nice fellow driving the tractor has very good aim.

One of the perks of rose gardening... watching heavy equipment.

Anticipation...

Dump-a-roony!

More steam. Very cool.

Three heaping buckets all tied up. The tarp makes it easier to remove the compost from the truck. His bucket is the size of a long bed whereas ours is a short bed, so we leave him a mess to clean up. Like I said, he's very nice about it and glad to have someone take it off his hands. Probably will need a fifth load.

Since I had my camera, I thought I'd take some pics of the beautiful horses that are usually on the farm, but they must have been inside having dinner.

Down the road a piece I spotted a couple in a pasture close enough to the fence so as not to embarrass my lens. He's a nice one.

He/she decided to mosey over to see who was looking at him.

And then his young friend came over, too.

I like horses... in movies and books, but in person they are very foreign to me, very big animals known to have teeth. Teeth in animals bother me.

But this fellow had such a sweet face.

His look made me wish I could read horse-minds, but probably I don't need to be Freud to figure out he was looking for a snack. Sorry, buddy. I really wanted to stroke his face, but the coward in me prevailed. I left without letting him know my true feelings for him. Do you think he can read human-minds? I get the feeling that he reads hearts though.

Frozen azaleas are not pretty, and they are very sad. I guess it would take a miracle for the rest of the buds to open now... rather than rot. Ahhh, the fragrance of the rotting Florida landscape after a freeze. Not nice.

No sad endings here (did everyone watch 'Downton Abbey' last night? OMG, how could they?) so I'll end with the lovely Reve d'Or from a few days ago. Amazingly, she looked pristine today after the freezing night. Maybe, she'll be fine... in my dreams.

Stay warm… wherever you are.

2/19/13 Postscript:  Dare I say it? Great minds think alike. Yesterday my blog was on compost, and today  Martha Stewart's blog is on compost. She doesn't mention horse manure, but she's got plenty of heavy equipment.  So dare I say that I may have inspired the inspiring Martha? Uhhh... probably not.

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.