Sunday, September 16, 2012

Miscellaneous

In April this year I planted six bulbs of amaryllis belladonna 'Fred Meyer Whites', common name 'N---- Lady' in the White Garden Bed (If you would like to read about that, please click here). They looked dead ever since, but suddenly this month two developed a flower stalk and are now showing these absolutely gorgeous blooms.


In September, besides the roses, not too many plants are flowering in my garden so they are a very welcome sight. I just love how the sun light is illuminating the blooms in the photo above.




But there is one catch: the second stalk shows the usual pink of the 'N---- Ladies' that you see here in California all the time. It looks like I got a mislabeled bulb. In my White Garden Bed I can't tolerate that, so I have to find another spot for this one. I wonder if the other four will still do something or not. The one that flowered white is so utterly beautiful that I intend to order more bulbs and try my luck again.




Finally I took the time to pot up this miniature rose, 'Irresistible', from a one gallon plastic container into a nice slightly bigger terracotta one. The rose took a long time to get going but now seems to be fine.




Doesn't it look so much better immediately being planted in a prettier pot?




Close-up of the bloom of 'Irresistible'. They truly do look like mini Hybrid Tea roses, don't they? The petal substance is fairly thick and to be honest the blooms feel a little bit like plastic, which I don't like so much. But on the positive side this miniature rose doesn't "shed" the petals so fast and they don't get brown as they age. I will place the rose by our kitchen door, where I know I will truly appreciate not having petals flying all over the place all the time. 'Irresistible' is said to be a very good show rose



Despite the heat that we were having, 'Mister Lincoln' was able to produce a lovely bloom. When the weather is hot I am not a big fan of the color of this rose because it is too bold for my taste, but the fragrance is always amazing.



'Pope John Paul II' is flushing for the third or fourth time this year. This is such a great rose in my garden. The strong fragrance even wafted this time. I never had this happen before.




I wanted to pot up 'Jude the Obscure' into a bigger container,  because he surely didn't look good and I thought it was because of that he had outgrown its pot. But when I took it out I saw that the bark was splitting away all around the main cane. I felt that this one couldn't be rescued and I tossed it into the trash bin. Luckily this is not a very rare rose and can be easily acquired again.



My Hybrid Perpetual Rose Bed is certainly nothing to be proud of in the moment. The roses don't bloom, they have bare legs and altogether are simply not a pretty sight. By now I have the suspicion that this rose class as a whole is not very suited for our warm climate and to be at their best need cooler conditions to grow in. But the bed is relatively new and the roses are still young so I am willing to wait and see how they do next year.  I also have to admit that I didn't take very good care of them, but in my garden there is no space for a whole bunch of divas!



Anyway, I decided to try to do them something good and fertilized and mulched heavily. I am curious to see if they will make an autumn flush of blooms in return for my loving attention. In any case a mulched bed looks immediately better even though the plants haven't changed (yet!).



A little bit of excitement at the end of this post. The rose above is 'Nimbus' an older floribunda. I potted it up recently from a one into a two gallon container and got rewarded by one of the most unusual blooms that I have ever seen in my garden. 'Nimbus' is showing a true tan color, which was almost brown. As exciting as the flower color is on its own, the plant will be very difficult to place in the garden, because it doesn't blend well with others. For that reason I am not even sure if I will keep it, but I for sure enjoyed this bloom.

See you in the Garden!

Christina

14 comments:

  1. Those white Belladonnas are certainly beautiful and you did well to have one flower the same year you planted it. They do take a while to settle in.

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  2. Those blooms are gorgeous Christina, especially the white belladonna!

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  3. I like your Nimbus rose, so beautiful. Your hybrid perpetual rosebed is still young, be patient, I'm sure next year will be much better. The white Belladonna is great I have them too, in a large tub on the terrace and next month I put them back in the greenhouse to overwinter.

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  4. Wow !!! The first picture is simply amazing and the unusual rose too ... Lovely tour, Christina, thank you !!!

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  5. Lyn, I hope you are right that my belladonna lilies are "just" settling in. To me it is quite amazing that the bulbs didn't show any signs of life at all, then "boom", suddenly I got these two flower stalks.

    Mark and Gaz, thanks, I love the white belladonna lily very much, too!

    Janneke, glad that you are a fan of 'Nimbus', as well. Patients is not one of my strongest traits, but I will give the HP's one more year. How interesting that you grow belladonna lilies, too. I am curious to know if you are growing the white or the pink ones and how long it took yours to flower for the first time.

    Dani, thanks, it gives me joy that you like my photo of the white belladonna lilies and 'Nimbus'.

    Christina

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  6. You can plant the bulbs in your garden? In our country the bulbs are sold at november en brings flowers with christmas (inside the house of course) The flowers of the bulbs are gorgeous Christina. Thanks for introducing these beautiful roses. They are unknown to me.
    Have a wonderful day.

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  7. Was für wunderschöne Bilder! Besonders gut gefallen mir die vielen verschiedenen Rosensorten.
    Gruß Anette

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  8. Nimbus is truly unusual, I'm sure you can find somewhere for it! Your Pope John Paul II looks magnificent.

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  9. Wow!!!
    You show the same rosy wonder. I found your blog by accident, so I liked that I will be here for a long time.
    Monika B.

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  10. Marijke, I think the amaryllis belladonna bulbs that I featured here in this post are a different kind of amaryllis than the ones that you force in the house for Christmas. I am happy that you like the rose in this post.

    Anette, welcome to my blog! Thanks for your compliment regarding my photos. I love roses, so I try to grow as many as I can in my little garden.

    Martin, I keep looking where I can place 'Nimbus' in the garden, but can't find a spot. Maybe I need to start a rose bed for unusual roses where they simply don't need to fit ;-)!

    Monika, I am glad that you arrived here by accident and liked it. I would love to see you visiting again!

    Christina

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  11. My Fred Meyer Whites put out spring foliage but I haven't had any flower stalks and I'm worried they might be dead. Our clay soil might have been too much for them. Big sigh... I'll just have to enjoy yours!

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  12. Tammy, I have yet to see some foliage on my bulbs. I wonder if that will change this autumn, winter or next spring. I want to do some research on them when I have a little bit more time. These belladonna amaryllis are supposed to be easy going plants. But that doesn't seem to be always the case :-(.
    Christina

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  13. Christina, I love the color of Nimbus, I hope it grows well for you.
    Do you know the joke about hybrid perpetuals? That they are more "hybrid" than "perpetual", meaning they do not generally rebloom all that well and certainly should not be compared to HTs in that respect. They were originally called "perpetual" because they bloomed more than once a year, which was a big deal to Europeans used to once-blooming roses. Perhaps you could underplant your roses with some summer perennials, such as salvias or penstemons, to cover the naked legs and provide some color.

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  14. Masha, I am glad that you like the color of 'Nimbus'. It is certainly unusual. My 'Nimbus' was not very well taken care of for a couple of months so the plant is not looking that great right now, but after being potted up it seems to recover. As fa as I remember it easily mildews when the condition's are right. Regarding the HP's: Well I know all that, but do they really have to look that scraggly? Even 'Grandmother's Hat', which people rave about and is really suppose to be repeating well?
    Christina

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