Rescue Squad

Friends who come to your rescue are wonderful, but smart friends who know everything about roses are even more wonderful. My smart friends are on the Antique Roses Forum on the GardenWeb. I ran screaming to them this evening when I saw my 'Climbing Clotilde Soupert' invested with something!

Go here to see my cry for help and the instant aid offered by these precious rosarians. Everything I know and a lot of who I am is thanks to them.

Some oddities - sort of

It's been so hot here that I have been staying inside mostly. Officially, it was 99 today (unless you were walking across Walmart's parking lot - who me? - where it had to be well over 100), and now at 10:10PM it's 84 but feels like 87. We don't get into the high 90's very often, and it's very unpleasant. Hopefully, we'll get some rain later in the week. The afternoon rainstorms really do need to start so-o-o-on. I ventured out this evening before dusk (when it was 88, felt like at least 92, and made standing still a sweaty experience) to water some things, mainly my new daylilies. Two bloomers amazed me and caused me to record them here for posterity (however long that is.)

The first is a daylily from my not too recent order still in the tub and unplanted, not bothering to wait for the gardener to get on with his show. The red flower is 'Double Cranberry Ruffles' - probably not looking as lovely as he would like.

The next one was a real shocker to me.

That's 'La Sylphide' - from my neighbor's point of view - coming through the space between the boards of my fence in two places.  It was nearly dark when I noticed this escapee, and that's why the photos are a tad grainy. A major case of wanderlust, I suppose.

Don't give up on the next installment of "Bush shots". It's in pre-production, as they say.

Bush shots - Part 2

Let's see. Where did I leave off?

1 - 'Le Vesuve'         2 - 'Mme Abel Chatenay'           3 - 'Clotilde Soupert' #1       
4 - 'Capitaine Dyel de Graville'           5 - 'Clotilde Soupert' #2          6 - 'Bow Bells'        7 - 'White Pet'

I have two 'Clotilde Soupert' bushes and one climber. It is a wonderfully performing rose in my garden. The next nine photos are of CS#2 (bush #5 in the top photo), starting at the beginning of May. 'Clotilde Soupert' is affectionately called a poly-tea because one parent is a polyantha and the other is a tea rose. That combination makes her better for my garden than a plain polyantha because they often don't like higher pH, but then I once had another beautiful poly-tea, 'Perle d'Or', that had awful chlorosis in my garden. So trial and error is often the name of the game when selecting roses.

Here she has added quite a bit of growth since the deadheading of her last bloom, and she is just starting to put on buds.  She's about four feet across and high.

A few days later clusters are forming and canes are lengthening. Her foliage is just about my favorite, so healthy and plentiful.

Another view on the same day.

This is about two weeks after the first photo. You can see the canes are slender and the candelabras are getting quite long with several buds on each.

 Flowers are starting to open and pretty much cover the bush. Interestingly, only some of these clusters grow from the ends of existing canes that were previously trimmed. Others like the cluster in the lower center are entirely new canes from the base or higher up along the cane. That's why this cluster sits right on the surface of the bush instead of out in the air.

 

Here's her sidewalk side a little later. She's about five feet across and high. Many flowers are fully open, and everything looks fine from here.

Her flowers are really lovely and packed with petals, very heavy and dense - and fragrant.

From her back side toward the house you can see a problem on the right. Some of her candelabras are no longer standing up but have fallen over from their heavy burden.

So instead of being covered all over with flowers, she has green space, because long canes and their flowers clusters are laying down. If I remember right, we had had a heavy rain. Wet petal-packed blooms weigh a ton.

'Clotilde Soupert' is famous for balling in cooler climates in wet or even damp weather. I haven't found it to be much of a problem in my garden. I think our heat benefits her, but these buds were at their most vulnerable stage when the rain came - sepals open but petals not open. The wet outer petals are not able to flex back, so they just stay in place and turn brown. If you push the outer petals back with your fingers before too much time passes and they rot, the flowers should open pretty well. She had only a few clusters like this, due to her steady output of buds over the weeks of her bloom.

The next two photos are CS#1 (bush #3 in the top photo). She is not as round a bush as the one next to the sidewalk. A few months after she was planted I realized I had made a mistake in locating her so close to the other one, so I moved her. She really struggled after the transplant, and I was afraid I'd lose her. She went through the winter with two canes and took most of the next year to slowly recover. This year she has added some bulk, but she's oblong not round.

This photo is only of one side of the bush. They can really pump out the flowers - seemingly always with more coming.

Here's the top of her looking across at 'Le Vesuve'. One final thought - her spent clusters are easily removed with one cut by cutting at the first leaf down the cane past the candelabra. This keeps her from getting too big also. Of course, if space is in abundance in your garden, you can simply remove each spent flower, leaving the cluster stems, and she will sprout new growth in several places on that cluster. By taking off the whole cluster I remove almost a foot of length from each cane. I didn't do this during her first couple of years, giving her time to grow as nature intended her.

I guess the other bush shots will wait for Part 3. I think I found a better font. I thought the other one was pretty, but if you can't read it.... Fonts are one way my non-normal brain expresses itself.

Bush shots

Capturing a rose bush in a photograph is for me the grandest frustration as I may have mentioned once or twice before . In five lifetimes I don't think I could afford the camera that could compete with the perfectly designed optics of a human being, so my photos never please me because they do not show what I see . That being said, the following photos are an attempt to show you a few rose bushes in order to give you an idea of the size and shape of a garden-style or landscape rose bush in a Florida garden , that is, a warm, long-season garden . However, they would only be average when compared with other three and four year old roses . Mine are by no means big by general Florida standards since they're still fairly young . I take some pride in the fact that none of these photos look like green blobs with pink spots on them . They're a little better than that . My further hope is that you will be able to figure out what you're seeing .

Here is my front garden and the bushes I'm going to show you.
1 - Le Vesuve                   2 - Mme Abel Chatenay                    3 - Clotilde Soupert #1
4 - Souv de Francois Gaulain           5 - Clotilde Soupert #2             6 - Bow Bells              7 - White Pet

Below, 'Le Vesuve' ( #1 in the first photo ) is in a six-foot diameter bed and hangs over a bit, making him about seven feet across and five feet tall . Flowers are three to four inches across . Because of his dense foliage, you can't see the wide v-shape structure of the bush . This rose starts out wide and low with canes growing almost parallel to the ground and taking up to two years to start adding canes that grow vertically . 'Le Vesuve' can become a huge bush when it is older . Also, in California there is one still living after 90 or more years . They have different and more favorable growing conditions in California than here in Florida as you can imagine .

 Here is a tighter shot that gives a closer view of leaves and flowers .This rose has a rather boisterous growth manner in that it sends out shoots that grow fairly quickly, and if they run into other canes, they will turn and twist to get around the obstacles, even making u-turns . This habit causes the slender canes to become very tangled, creating the dense bush that you see . I have not seen this on any other roses that I have .

  . 

Above and below, the white rose in the pot is 'White Pet' (#7 in the first photo ). It's about three feet wide and two feet tall above the pot . The fairly round shape is developed when deadheading the last bloom . I have another one in the ground that is bigger though the same age .

Below, you've seen 'Mme Abel Chatenay' ( #2 in the top photo ) many times . Here she is as large as she has yet been, extending her growth high and wide with her blooms at every end . I would say she was a good five and a half feet in diameter and height which surprised me . I thought she was going to be smaller . A word to the wise - roses in Florida are always bigger than you think they'll be . This is her fourth year in the garden, so it did take her a while . She is well-armed with lots of sharp prickles, and her canes are generally straight and not thin, but they have a zigzaggy way about them . When I deadheaded her after this bloom ( as you see her in the top photo ), I removed quite a bit of length from her canes . She can't have the driveway, too .

I'll get to the rest of these bushes in Part II .

Yesterday

I have no photos of the garden today . This evening was grocery store day and cook dog food day . The dog food cooking is so funny . I got the idea from Connie at Hartwood Roses . As is my weird way, I modified her recipe of ground turkey, rice, kale, carrots and green beans . I added chicken livers, lamb neck bones or shank and switched from white rice to brown rice . This is the third time I've made a batch which was 22 cups today since I forgot to add dry dog food which I'm sort of glad I did . The funny thing is that Ellie knew exactly what I was doing while I was making the second and third batches which are about six weeks apart . It doesn't matter how many people meals are cooked in between . She knows when I'm cooking for her, and she's very attentive especially when I'm scooping from the food processor and filling the containers at the end . I always give her a taste . She absolutely loves this food . I add a heaping tablespoon to her half cup of dry food twice a day . It makes me happy to see her eat it all down in one breath . So thank you, Connie, for the idea .

However, yesterday I took a quick walk through the garden with camera in hand. Here follows the day-old news .

'White Maman Cochet'

I have tried to compost with variable success, so since much of my debris is rose cuttings I usually donate it to the city .

I wanted to show you 'Mme Abel Chatenay', such a lovely healthy and lush Hybrid Tea albeit from 1894 . She's just putting out new growth for her next bloom .

'Pink Gruss an Aachen' was a transplant over the winter . She's doing much better .

I have several echinaceas . This is the oldest plant and the one with the most blooms . Ones grown from seed this year are not blooming yet but are close .

'Bermuda's Anna Olivier' - when she's on, she's stunning . When she's not, she's a mess . The heat is here so I guess she'll decide to do her best .

Above and below 'Pearl Harbor' is a lovely show-off . I can't decide if I have enough yellow daylilies or if I should fill the garden with them . The decisions of a gardener!

 

This is the only Fordhook phlox seed that actually survived to maturity . Actually, I'm quite impressed . I had no clue what phlox was so this is a total win-win . It flopped from its earliest days and has been a sprawler, but I have never seen any spent flowers . It always looks like this . Can't vouch for its tolerance of our humidity since it hasn't really arrived yet .

The femme fatale of the garden, of course, 'Souv de la Malmaison' .

A 'Full Moon Rising' bud

'Secret Splendor', evergreen mid-late rebloomer

'Duquesa' Tea rose

My mounding dianthus are scattered everywhere . They take the full sun all summer and stay green all winter even at temps under 20 degrees F . They come in shades of pink, burgundy, red and variations of white with pinwheel patterns out the ying yang . These photos are each a different plant . Unfortunately, the deep reds and fuschias are often beyond the reach of my camera and simply explode out of focus much of the time . I really love them . They're only about 10" tall, and when they need deadheading, I just give them a haircut .

 

Flax Lily and 'Aaron' caladium

Clematis texensis 'Princess Diana' blooming again

'Le Vesuve' - a partial full bush shot . She tends to bloom on one side and then the other side . Don't know why .

A closer view from the other side and farther back (below) . Her non-blooming side is out of frame to the right .

 

'Leonie Lamesch' is in a pot with canes almost 5' long . She is turning out larger that I thought she was going to be. I need to find a spot in the ground for her . I wonder who's on the bubble .

Daylily progress is slow and minute, I think because the plants did not have much root system at arrival . Thankfully, they're tough and are able to grow a root system and then grow leaves .

 

Several of the daylilies aren't showing any new growth yet .

Above and below is 'Blush Noisette' which is a shrub right now, but I understand it can be a climber, too .

 

Above and the next two below is another noisette 'Princesse de Nassau' from before 1829 . I have it climbing on a pillar .

 

'Crepuscule' - a Tea-Noisette climber from 1904

 Old news is good for more than just wrapping fish, don't you agree?