Wednesday, September 5, 2012

A Plonk of 'Charles Darwin'

First of all a heartfelt apology to all of my dear regular readers, who might have come back here to my blog, maybe even a couple of times, just to find out that I still hadn't published a new post. Unfortunately my life was like such that it didn't allow me to blog. I also did only get very little gardening done, mostly watering, very much to my dismay. But Labor Day weekend gave me the opportunity to work in the garden for a few hours and to start writing this post as well. Believe me, I am so happy that I had some time for these two things that I really love to do.



Even though my garden is in very much neglect right now it still is capable to surprise me with some beauty here and there. One of the roses that is just stunning and blooming through the heat that we were having in the last couple of weeks is 'Charles Darwin'. It is a relatively new David Austin rose in my garden and I have two specimen of this variety. A couple of weeks ago I planted the two own root roses from two gallon pots into big terracotta containers (diameter 22 inches), fertilized and watered them well, and they bloom and bloom and bloom. This is certainly one floriferous rose!



'Charles Darwin' is producing many flowers for such a young rose and repeats so quickly that I can even cut some blooms for indoors without the two bushes looking 'n----'. In this post I want to show you a plonk that I simply had to take the time to photograph.



'Charles Darwin' is supposed to be a mustard yellow rose, but as you can see it is anything but in the heat of summer. I like very much that it fades to a creamy white color as the flowers age and I think the contrast with the almost orange yellow buds is quite lovely.



I read comments from people really not liking this rose, although I hardly can understand why. But, of course, when it comes to roses it is all very personal and that is a good thing!



I find the flowers utterly charming and in a vase arrangement like this, the nodding habit of the blooms only adds to its romance for me. 



So far the rose is very healthy in my no-spray organic garden and has only shown a few leaves with powdery mildew now and then.



I will keep the two 'Charles Darwin' roses in the containers as long as I can (I assume they will outgrow even the biggest container eventually, like many roses do here in Southern California). They are positioned on both sides of our kitchen door, which leads into the backyard and can be seen from indoors, too. They look truly wonderful. I have to show the whole bushes to you in another post!



That this rose changes its color so much from yellow to a creamy off-white depending on the weather conditions, temperatures and maybe also on the acidity or alkaline level of the soil makes it very interesting to watch for me!



Hope you enjoyed my little plonk as much as I did!

See you in the garden!

Christina


19 comments:

  1. I am so pleased to see a post from you. Hope everything is oke now! What a beautiful rose you are showing. I love the color and the fact there are so many roses on one branche.
    Have a great week

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  2. Yes I enjoyed that Christina, 'Charles Darwin' is a lovely rose and a toughie too, blooming with all that heat. Hope you had a lovely Labour Day weekend :)

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  3. Beautiful photos! Thank you for sharing them.

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  4. I was one of those that came here a few times, and I'm glad to see you back! I have this rose in my garden, too, and it is one of my favorites - maybe my very favorite! I love the form of the bloom, and mine fade to cream after a few days, but the first couple of days it's a glorious golden buff color that I find beautiful and fascinating. Hope you have more time for the garden now. It can be such a soothing hobby, it's hard to not garden after you've gotten used to doing it!

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  5. Welcome back Christina. I really like the Charles Darwin, it's maybe not the daintiest of roses but it's so fat asnd juicy and full of promise with those compact layers of petals, I could almost eat it!

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  6. What a lot of beautiful pictures of the rose Charles Darwin. We visited David Austin roses in England in May. If I should have known this rose as I now do, I definitely had bought her. Our climate is much colder and may be the colour will be more like mustard. Very nice!

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  7. Let me just tell you all that I am very touched you commented on my blog immediately after such a long blog break. It really warmed my heart!

    Marijke, thanks for your nice words, you are such a good blogging friend! I am happy that you like 'Charles Darwin', too. I also love the fact that there are a couple of buds on one spray. Wishing you a great rest of the week, too.

    Mark and Gaz, I know that you guys are more into tropicals so I really appreciate that you love Charles Darwin as well. You are absolutely right this rose can take a lot. Many of my other roses have just stopped blooming in this heat not so CD. It almost seem like he is enjoying it. I actually had a wonderful Labor Day weekend! Thanks for the good wishes!

    Marie, always happy to see you commenting on my blog. I am glad that you liked my photos!

    Holley, I am glad that you haven't given up checking on my blog. Wow, so you have 'Charles Darwin', too? I didn't know that. Believe me if I can't garden for a longer time I am getting unhappy and the garden, too :-(. Hope the future will give me more opportunities to indulge in my favorite hobby.

    Martin, I love your description of the 'Charles Darwin' rose :-)! It is so sensual, almost tangible.

    Janneke, oh you have been able to visit David Austin's Rose garden in England?! How great is that. Even though you didn't buy CD then, maybe you have a chance to acquire it were you live? I don't know how this rose will altogether fair in your climate, but I also would assume that it will take on more of a mustard yellow color when it lives in a cooler place. This rose is certainly worth a try in my opinion.

    Christina

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  8. I too grow Charles Darwin. Unfortunately, our UK weather has not been too kind to it this year. It didn't do well at all in the wettest summer for 100 years. Anyway, the sun is shining now, and I've just noticed it is about to bloom again.

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  9. Dear Christina ~ So good to read this post of yours and see these beautiful roses. How could anyone not like them? This is such a romantic rose.

    I don't know how I missed this post.

    Thank you for your anniversary wishes.

    Love and hugs ~ FlowerLady

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  10. What's a plonk? I'm glad you're back. :o) I love how this rose changes color as it opens. It has such a beautiful form.

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  11. Crystal, how interesting that you grow the same rose in the UK. I would love to see a photo of yours. I can imagine that CD with its 100 something petals doesn't like that much rain. Glad that the sun is shining again for you and good luck with CD's current flush!

    FlowerLady, thanks for your kind words! People complained about the fading of the yellow color of CD to a "muddy" white or when it is mustard yellow that this is not a pretty yellow. I am exacelty the opposite I love all its different colors.

    Casa Mariposa, thanks for your nice words! Yes, I agree the form of the flowers is very lovely, too!

    Christina

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  12. Redneck Rosarian, I am glad you liked them!

    Christina

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  13. Hi Christina !!!
    You have come back with such a beautiful post about a lovely rose. This one is new for me and she's already a favourite, thanks to your gorgeous photos.

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  14. Dani, thank you very much for your nice words about this post!

    Christina

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  15. I am glad you are enjoying your roses again. I hope you keep your blog going, it is interesting to see how your roses are doing.

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  16. Masha, I also hope very much that I am able to garden and blog more in the future. It is so much fun!

    Christina

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  17. What a beautiful bouquet! Sometime the more simple arrangements are the most stunning!
    Thanks for stopping by my blog :)
    My aunt lives in San Diego too!

    Have a great day!
    Anna

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  18. Hi Anna, welcome to my blog! I am glad that you liked my little bouquet. I am a big fan of simple arrangements not only because of their beauty, but also because they are easy to do :-)!

    Christina

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