Sunday, November 11, 2012

October Roses

My apologies for not posting for over a month. I simply had too many things going on in my life again, and on top of that I was away for a business trip for almost two weeks. So unfortunately there was hardly any time to garden and really no time to blog.

Despite the repeated neglect from my side some of the roses in my garden bloomed lovely in October. Here are a couple of shots of the best rose blooms from last month:




The winter rains started early this year, which is certainly a good thing, and when the first showers were announced in the weather forecast I went out and cut some blooms to prevent them from being ruined by the rain and to enjoy them indoors. The rose varieties shown in this photo are from the left to the right: 'Pretty Jessica', 'Charles Darwin', and 'The Prince'.



Here you can see the whole small bouquet. It was so nice to be able to go out and cut myself a little autumn plonk of roses. 




My three 'Our Lady of Guadalupe' roses in the front yard were almost flowering like in spring.




This is 'Old Fashioned Girl', a miniature rose, which I transplanted into the front yard not too long ago. She is doing quite well in her new spot. I am really smitten by the white blooms with the pastel apricot center. The flower form is very elegant, too.



'Georgetown Tea' was also having some nice flowers.




'The Prince' one of my favorite roses in my garden this fall. 



The blooms of 'The Prince' (fully open in the photo above) can change quite a bit with age and also different weather conditions,...



...but I have never seen a flower that didn't gently tug at my heart!



The photo shows a spray of 'Pink Pet'. To me it seems that this is another rose that refuses to accept the fact that we are approaching the winter. 




'Charles Darwin' never ceases to impress.



'Moonstone' also got some beautiful blooms, but they sometimes failed to open properly. I think that this rose needs a lot of sun and heat to flower well. Unfortunately where I planted this Hybrid Tea rose it gets a little bit more shade than I thought.



I just love, love, love the color of 'Charles Rennie Mackintosh'. The pink blooms have a wonderful touch of lilac, which I haven't seen in any other rose that I know. In addition to that the cupped flower shape is so romantic. It doesn't get much better than this rose in my opinion!



Another bloom of 'Charles Darwin'. The flowers come in many nuances of yellow, which always makes it exciting to observe "what color you get this time". 



'Stephen's Big Purple' was producing the biggest bloom last month. Considering that this rose is only growing in a two gallon container, that is quite astonishing. I have one complaint, though. As I wrote in my last post, the name of the rose leads you to assume that you will get purple blooms, but in my garden they still come more in a deep, bold, pink color. I had hoped that with the temperatures cooling down the color of this rose would do the same, but nope, not the case.



'Sweet Chariot', was starting a very nice flush last month. This rose is really cute and smells heavenly.

Hope you enjoyed looking at photos of my roses from last month!

One little story I would like to share with you at the end. Today I met in person for the very first time with Jeannine, another garden blogger, who also lives in San Diego. We "knew" each other only over the internet by leaving mutual comments on our blogs, but a few weeks ago she was sending me an e-mail casually dropping that "we should get together sometimes". Today we actually made it a reality! It was so much fun to talk to someone else, who also loves blogging about gardens and gardening itself. Jeannine is writing a great blog called GardenEnvy, which I always enjoy to read. If you would like to visit her blog, please click here and the link will take you there.

See you in the garden!

Christina

33 comments:

  1. You have a fine selection of elegant, reliable, and tough roses there! It's always nice to meet up with fellow garden bloggers. We read Jeannine's blog too :)

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  2. Every time I see your blog I am surprised how many different roses you have. Some of them I never heard of before, like Moonstone, Georgetown Tea, Our Lady of Guadeloupe. I have to look it up. May be our climate is not suitable for some of these roses. Very interesting and beautiful post.

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  3. So many roses ... So many gorgeous roses ... Beautiful, from the beggining to the end ! Thank you !

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  4. Oh my gosh, I am not disappointed, just a tad 'green'. What beautiful roses you have, and so many different ones and oh so healthy. My favorite this time is 'Charles Rennie Mackintosh'.

    Hugs ~ FlowerLady

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  5. Dear Christina,
    I am so glad that you put C.R.Mackintosh in your post. I do love those chalice roses. They have a sumptuous, almost baroque look about them
    Kirk

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  6. Hello ! I love "Old Fashioned Girl" and "Stephen's Big Purple". But I'm so fond of "Moonstone" as I said in my last comment. Her blooms are really gorgeous as your photos of each of them and of the others too. I only have one rose now (Louis de Funès) but I actually bought 7 others from David Austin and I had "Feeling" as a gift from a producer of flowers "Meilland Richardier". I'm really excited to see them next spring ! You can see the one I have on my blog :
    http://aujardinfleuri.over-blog.fr/
    Have a nice day !

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  7. Christina, You have an amazing selection of roses, beautiful form and beautiful colors. So romantic looking! (I'm glad to see your post again!)

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  8. Love love your roses! Mine are done for the season. I ended up pulling out my Wm Shakespeare due to disease but it had had a rough life and I'm buying a new one next spring. I really love that Mackintosh, too. :o)

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  9. Oh, my! I have fallen in love with "The Prince"! And it only took one picture! I really wasn't expecting that, but what a gorgeous, rich, royal purple. Now all I have to do is find a blank spot! How exciting to meet another garden blogger in person! I know you must have had so much fun talking about gardens and blogging.

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  10. Hi Christina,
    Thanks for the shout-out! I enjoyed our meet-up and look forward to sharing our love of gardening and blogging in the future! As for these beautiful specimens, I have to say I love the Charles Darwin and Moonstone! Gorgeous photos!

    Jeannine

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  11. Your trio of 'Pretty Jessica', 'Charles Darwin', and 'The Prince' in the first image is delightful. It makes me think of tea time; muffin, scones and earlgray tea. Excuse me for now, I've to put the kettle to boil.

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  12. Mark and Gaz, roses are often called divas, but I think you are spot on: they are reliable and tough shrubs and not to forget very generous with their lovely blooms.

    Jannecke, I also noticed that when I read European blogs that people grow roses that are foreign to me. Sometimes the same rose goes by different names in different countries, sometimes a variety is introduced in America but not in Europe and the other way around and sometimes as you said they may not be suited for your climate. Good luck with your rose research!

    Dani, glad that you liked my post!

    FlowerLady, unfortunately not all of my roses are that healthy, the flowers just don't show any of the disease problems. 'Charles Rennie Mackintosh' is certainly one of my favorites as well.

    Kirk, I am glad that you like 'Charles Rennie Mackintosh' a lot, too. I think "baroque look" describes the feeling that this rose radiates very well.

    Celine, I will check out your blog when I have a moment of time. Good luck with your new roses, I am sure you will love the David Austins!

    Dorothy, I am always happy when people like my roses and my photos of them!

    Casa Mariposa, sorry to hear that your 'William Shakespeare 2000' didn't make it. I have a young rose of that variety, too, and it looks very promising. Maybe when you get a new William Shakespeare you want to get a 'Charles Rennie Mackintosh as well? It is truly a lovely rose.

    HolleyGarden, 'The Prince' is just a plain gorgeous rose. It has one of the darkest, purple blooms that I know and it smells heavenly. My rose is still relatively young, but it doesn't seem to want to get as big as some of the other David Austin Roses are. Just be aware that these beautiful dark blooms fry easily. I think this rose needs to be in afternoon shade to avoid that.

    Jeannine, the pleasure was on my side :-)! I would love to get together with you soon, again. Maybe then you can see my roses in person.

    Stiletto, these three roses make for a nice combo, don't they? After our three trips to England I always think about tea and cake when I see gardens and roses, too. I also would like a cuppa...

    Christina



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  13. Wow, such beautiful roses... all of them! : ) Great photos!

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  14. Charles Rennie MacKintosh is one of my favourites too but some of the others certainly give it a run for its money. I might have to try a few of these - just the small matter of making some more space in an already busy garden.

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  15. Such beautiful photos! Truly enjoyed these, thank you for sharing your lovely garden.

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  16. charlie b., thanks for your nice comment!

    The Enduring Gardener, go for it, the roses I mean. Where there is a will, there is a way ;-)!

    Hedgerow Rose, thanks, the pleasure of sharing roses from my garden is on my side!

    Christina

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  17. What a beautiful roses you have. Thanks for sharing. I hope you are able to take some for your self. Have a wonderful weekend Christina.

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  18. Marijke, at this time of the year I especially enjoy cutting some roses and see then opening indoors. They seem to like the warmer temperatures in the house very much and the blooms get nice and big. Have a lovely weekend, too!
    Christina

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  19. Hi Christina,
    Thank you for folllowing my blog.
    You have a very beautyful garden with fantastic roses.
    Have a wonderful weekend Urte

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  20. Hi Urte, welcome to my blog and thanks for your nice compliment and for becoming a follower as well! Wishing you a lovely weekend, too!

    Christina

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  21. Such beautiful flowers! Thank you for popping over to me and joining my blog. Suzy ♥

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  22. Beautiful roses, Christina! I love the spray of Pink Pet and hope you will post again when the buds open. Funny about Stephen's Big Purple. I bought a rose this year, Tower Bridge from Harkness. It is a gorgeous rose, with very good fragrance and flower form. Harkness describes it as "royal purple", but in my garden it is a hot pink :).

    I am glad you got to meet another garden blogger. It is always fun to talk gardening with someone who understands.

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  23. What beautiful roses, Christina! Your photo of your bouquet is just amazing! Thanks for sharing your rose garden with us. I think I can smell their lovely scent all the way down here in Alabama. All the best! :-)

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  24. What a fantastic collection of roses! I only have one that I inherited from the previous owner of my bungalow, a red climber, very old with black-spot sadly but it does have a beautiful fragrance and on the south facing wall hundreds of blooms each year... 38 heads on one stem last year! As a fellow organic gardener I wonder if you have any ideas for the black-spot. I do try to collect as many leaves as possible.. tricky when I can't actually get to the floor though... sending smiles Cass

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  25. Rustic Vintage Country, glad that you like my roses and thanks for becoming a follower of my blog as well :-)!

    Masha, thanks, maybe I can post of shot of the open 'Pink Pet' spray in my November Roses post ;-)! I have to look up 'Tower Bridge'. I think that in my garden the heat and the alkaline soil influences the color of the roses very much, not always to the better, though...

    Beth, I am happy that you enjoyed looking at the photo of my rose bouquet :-)! I also got a lot of pleasure from it, the real one that is ;-).

    Greenorchid, thanks, the description of your red climbing rose sounds fantastic. I would love to know what variety that is. Regarding the black spot, I am sorry but I can't advise you on that. We hardly get black spot here so I don't have much experience with it, but some roses struggle badly with powdery mildew. I don't think there is anything that you can do about black spot except spraying. I think after growing roses for nine years now in Southern California that the best I can do is select roses with good disease resistance to simply not give fungal diseases a chance.

    Penny, thanks for your comment!

    Christina

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  26. Such beautiful blooms. We had a nice fall and enjoyed some lovely blooms. We are now seeing very cool temps in the deep south and our roses are beginning to settle down for a short winter nap.... Thanks for always sharing your beautiful blooms.

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  27. Redneck Rosarian, thank you very much! Here the temperatures also cooled down, we even had some rain! The roses are naturally producing much less blooms, but some flowers are still very pretty. Southern California is just a great place to grow roses!

    Christina

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  28. Beautiful roses and stunning pictures! Thank you so much for sharing. I'm waiting for my own rosegarden to establish, and just cant wait for them to bloom as "mature" :) Wonderfull to be able to enjoy your pictures in meanwhile.

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  29. Róża to po prostu królowa kwiatów! :-)

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  30. Alice's Eventyrland, welcome to my blog and thanks for your very nice comment! I think there is no more pleasant thing to do then waiting for a rose garden to get established :-)

    krzysiek86, there is no doubt about that ;-)!

    Christina

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  31. The prince is so beautiful: I understand your preference for it.
    Thank you for your kind comment on my blog.
    Your photos are magnificent. Make about us dream still in 2013!!!
    Sophie

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  32. Sophie, welcome to my blog! Yes, "The Prince" is one of my favorite roses. I just pruned him yesterday, so that he can shine in 2013, too :-)! Thanks for your compliment regarding my photos, it made my day!

    Christina

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