Sunday, June 19, 2011

Being Back Home

My husband and I are back home from England, since yesterday night and today I had a first chance to look at the garden in day light. I have to say partly I am really pleasantly surprised. I hired my neighbor's daughters to water the garden and under the supervision of their mom they did a wonderful job. Nothing has died because of lack of water and some plants have grown tremendously in the last two weeks, like this hydrangea:

(you can click on the photos to enlarge)



It is an Endless Summer Hydrangea and it has been bursting into blooms. How pretty it has turned out to be, exceeding my expectations. One thing I would like to tweak is the color. I had put out soil sulfur and aluminum sulfate a couple of weeks ago, but obviously not enough to "blue up the hydrangea flowers". Will try to put  more soil sulfur underneath the bush soon. 




What I am not so pleased with is the look of my roses. Almost all of them are in desperate need of deadheading. A rose bush which is not deadheaded is quite an ugly sight I have to admit. Therefore no photos of those.



My one and only white agapanthus, sorry I don't have the name of the variety at hand, also is in full bloom.  It is part of the white bed and I really like it quite a bit. In California agapanthus is a no-brainer to grow. They are even drought tolerant and flower reliably, a few even do repeat.



In the next couple of days my first job will be to deadhead all the roses to make the garden look more maintained and also to encourage the next rose flush. All roses need to be fertilized, too.



'Scepter'd Isle' is pleasing me with one of her lovely blooms.



My dark, violet, velvet gladiolus are flowering profusely. My dreams was that they will bloom together with the 'Iceberg' rose to be seen on the left side in the front of the picture, but for the last two years it didn't become true. The glads were always blooming in between the flushes of the 'Iceberg' rose, but luckily they can stand their ground on their own. They are still impressive and very pretty! This year I noticed that they even started to multiply for the first time, how cool is that?



This rose, 'Marie Pavie' is planted into the ground exactly three weeks ago (I remember that so precisely, because my husband and I did it together the last weekend, before we went on vacation). When we left, she didn't have one single flower and now look at her. It really amazes me how this rose has developed itself since it is planted. She really seems to like her new location in the ground, which is partly shaded by Queen Anne Palms. I have high hopes that she will become very pretty when she is more mature. 



A wonderful flower of 'William Shakespeare 2000', of which my camera simply can not catch the true beauty of the color of this rose. I am so glad that I did buy it, even though I didn't need "yet another rose"!



This bed of my garden you know already from a previous post (click here, if you want to see it in an earlier stage). The gardenia and the hydrangea have developed themselves nicely. You won't believe how strong the fragrance of the gardenia is. It is really a special treat for the olfactory sense. The "hole" on the left side between the camellia and the strelitzia nicolai is caused by the death of geranium maderense. After two years these plants simply die, since they are biennials and there is nothing that you can do about it. I am contemplating what to plant in this bare spot and think about a second hydrangea, since I love the other one so much and a symmetrical planting will be pleasing to the eye.



An unfurling bud of Heritage. Also a reliably pretty sight.



My 'Reine des Violettes'. Sorry for the chicken wire in the photo, but we have rodents that love to chew on my newly planted roses and on new basal canes in general, so I need to protect especially young roses from them. Chicken wire or not, you still can see the special color of this rose. Right now it is a truly stunning gray-lilac. I have a gut feeling that this will become one of my favorite roses.

I hope, I have the garden whipped back into shape after the next weekend. I still can not get over it, how much there is to deadhead after my absence of only two weeks. 

See you in the garden!

Christina


14 comments:

  1. Agapanthus are such dependable independent plants, I love the white ones! Another hydrangea would look quite lovely in that empty spot. Welcome home! My girls are the neighborhood plant/flower waterers.

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  2. Christina, welcome home ! Your garden is beautiful, even in the hot summer ! And that agapanthus, is a dream !

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  3. Darla, thanks for stopping by! It always amazes me how easy agapanthus are to grow and how much you get out of them. Even when they are done blooming you get nice foliage year round. I am glad that you are supporting my idea to plant another hydrangea in the shadiest bed that I have in my garden. Raises my confidence to do so :-)!

    Dani, thanks for your comment. I am happy that you consider my garden beautiful. Actually the summer heat has not really arrived yet in San Diego. It is still much cooler than usual and and my "vacation watering girls" did such a good job it helped a lot with the appearance, that the garden has right now.

    Christina

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  4. I am amazed at your agapanthus! Your roses look great. I can't believe Marie Pavie is so young! She looks very happy. I agree another hydrangea in that bare spot would look nice.

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  5. Such a pretty garden. Your English photos were lovely, but your own garden is obviously so well-loved!
    Those gladiolas are simply stunning. I hope they get coordinated with the Iceberg roses. That would be dramatic!
    Thank you for sharing!
    Sandra

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  6. Holley, thanks for stopping by! I am very pleased with my white agapanthus, too, this year. It has never bloomed that prolific up to now. Another vote for putting in an hydrangea in the empty spot! Maybe I should just go and get one...

    Sandra, thank you so much for leaving such a nice comment! I looked at the Iceberg rose more closely yesterday and now have a teeny tiny bit of hope that maybe just maybe the Iceberg rose will speed up and open a bloom when the glads are still blooming. Keep my fingers crossed :-)!

    Christina

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  7. Welcome home, Christina. The photos that you do have of your roses are all very lovely. I also second the idea of another hydrangea, but you know I love it in its pink state and keep hoping that you won't be able to turn it blue! Your Marie Pavie has grown so much more than mine; I wonder if it likes partial shade. Yours actually looks more like two roses side by side. Thanks for taking the time to blog so soon after your trip.

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  8. Ingrid, thanks for leaving a comment. I feel, you should be taking sides with me rather than with my hydrangea :-)! Maybe the three us could compromise on lavender? Regarding 'Marie Pavie' it probably too early for a final judgement, but so far she seems to do very well in a partly shaded area. You are right, if one looks at the photo it almost seems to be the case that there are two 'Marie Pavies', but she simply decided to spread sidewise rather than growing upwards so far.

    Christina

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  9. I am glad you are back home, so I can see more rose pictures soon! That gladiolus is really wonderful, such a rich color. I am glad you are enjoying your WS2000, it is a great rose, my two are very vigorous and bloom well.

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  10. Masha, thanks for leaving a comment. It makes me happy that you want to see more pictures of my roses. I definitively love William Shakespeare 2000 and it always reminds me of you, because I had to have it after I saw your wonderful two specimen. One thing is wired though. Just as it has become hot here the rose has an outbreak of powdery mildew, whereas it was clean when many of my roses were struggling with PM in the unusual cool wet spring weather. I truly hope it will grow out of it. Do yours also struggle with PM right now?

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  11. I love the wall with the gardenia and hydrangea. Is the gardenia still blooming? I would love to come and smell it some time. Marie Pavie is so perfect there.....

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  12. Stephanie, yes the gardenia is still blooming even though not so profusely anymore. I just fertilized it and hope it will bloom more again. The fragrance is really wonderful. You are always welcome to stop by and smell the roses and the gardenia, too :-). I am glad, that you like my Marie Pavie, she has been such a great rose for me so far.
    Christina

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  13. If you haven't already found the name of the pale yellow flowers growing so freely at the base of the roses in Hyde park, it is Sisyrinchium striatum, which is related to our own native Sisyrinchium bellum, AKA, Blue Eyed Grass. It is an easy google, you probably can locate seeds or plants.
    Jackie R

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  14. Jackie, thanks for so much for commenting and telling me the name of the yellow flowering plant, that was growing in many places in Hyde Park in London. Since I haven't figured out up to now what it is I am really thankful to you for letting me know. I am off googling it right now. Many thanks, again!

    Christina

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