I’m taking my vitamins again.

And I’ve just decided that I can’t let not-done (no matter how wonderful) blog posts prevent me from ever posting again. Over the last few weeks of gardening there have been many events and activities that I was excited to record in this blog only to find myself way too tired to make my brain do its thing. I simply could not. The consequence of so many missed posts is an inertia that grows to huge proportions with all those topics weighing down on me and whispering “Catch up! Go back to the first one and make a start.” Well, that just became more and more impossible. Until the time changed this past weekend there didn’t seem to be any photos, and then when there were photos they were taken in the harsh light of the setting Florida sun and were awful. I can’t seem to write about what you can’t see. So just now the thought came to me to start where I am and work in the omissions where and when I can. A simple plan, and here I am.

I got my first load of composted horse manure of the 2012 season last Saturday. Sunday evening I was two barrows short of having it all spread, covering the driveway bed, all of the right side of the circle, the garage wall bed and half of the ‘Le Vesuve’ bed. Compost duty is unquestionably the most unfeminine gardening job there is in my experience. Dirty, back-breaking work that could only be worse if done in August. I’m pretty sure I need two more truckloads to do the whole garden – maybe three. Oh, vitamins, I need you now!



There have been roses in the garden for about a week. No, make that rose singular. ‘Clotilde Soupert’, bush forms and climber, were the first to fully leaf out and the first to bloom. She is indeed a beauty and at moments like this is my favorite rose. I’m a sucker for her dense foliage not to mention those fat, fragrant flowers.




Today, lo and behold, ‘Le Vesuve’ has an open flower. I guess he was not going to be outdone by Miss Clotilde.



A lot has happened since I last invited you into my garden. Another post will chronicle the disappearance of ‘Bermuda’s Anna Olivier’ from this bed. Today before I could finish dispersing the last of this batch of compost into this area I had to move ‘Full Moon Rising’, a yellow modern climber that had been relegated to a spot under a tree within easy reach of the marauding squirrels. FMR has big flowers, but since it was growing straight up against a trellis, the blooms were only at the top and not many. It would get some black spot, too. So in an effort to give it a real chance to show its stuff, it had to be moved. ‘Red Cascade’s old spot seemed the best place – actually the only place, and the homemade (female-made) picket fence offered the perfect support for horizontal growing. Hopefully, the squirrels will think it died.



The little green sprout growing all too close to ‘Full Moon Rising’ is ‘Maggie’. She will be a big girl full of gorgeous, very fragrant deep pink/red Bourbon flowers and hopefully not full of black spot. I will be gritting my teeth through the first year, being very, very tolerant of her fungal weakness in order to one day see her in all of her healthy glory. One day this bed will be filled with magenta from ‘Maggie’ and ‘Enchantress’ and yellow from ‘Full Moon Rising’ and ‘Sherry Lane Carr’ daylily. Sounds yummy to me.

Below is my potted ‘Borderer’. Healthy, healthy and beautiful, but a tad more salmon that this photo shows.



The Flax Lily got divided in three tonight to fill the void left by ‘Full Moon Rising’.




The arbor at the porch entrance for ‘Clotilde Soupert, Climbing’ is in the same condition as when you last saw it. It was only urgent that weekend, something that DH doesn't quite understand. The composting moved into the urgent slot.



This is the beautiful near-white daylily, ‘Joan Senior’. At pruning time it looked like there would be room for her next to Clotilde, the bush, but I noticed today that all her foliage has suddenly and greatly added to Clotilde’s size. She is definitely pushing on Joan even more than this photo shows and will soon be hovering over her, so it is with regret that I say I need to dig up Joan to move her. Dang! I wish I had done this a month or two ago. Denial is a bad thing.



This is ‘Chrysler Imperial’ who used to grace the back patio with his voluptuous red Hybrid Tea flowers and intense damask scent. What’s that song that Judy Garland sang to Clark Gable's picture? Oh, yeah. “You made me love you; I didn’t wanna do it; I didn’t wanna do it.” I fell in love with ‘Chrysler Imperial’. Then he got too bedraggled-y, and he went bye-bye. This spring Lowe’s had them for $7. Not the prettiest things, all beat up, but gee, $7 is not much so I splurged on two. This one is right on the front sidewalk squeezed in between two lavender pink ‘Hermosa’ roses. Won’t that be gaudy?? But I wanted to put him where DH could easily see him, since they were originally bought for him despite the fact that he has no sense of smell left. Alas, reality smacked me in the face this evening when I noticed a bunch of leaves that were yellow and black spotted in his lower regions. Oh, well, I peacefully stripped them off. I may take to spraying these prima donnas to keep all the leaves looking like these, but I kinda doubt I have it in me to spray.

There is much, much to do in this garden of mine, and all I can do is keep plugging along. I have always been a slow gardener, but I have gotten maddeningly slower with age. Oh, yeah, there’s a plus side to age, and that is that I’m wiser. Ha!