Sunday, November 3, 2013

October Roses

After having skipped the regular monthly rose feature of my blog for a while I would like to pick it up, again. My garden is still severely neglected, but at least I managed to water and fertilize a few roses and those roses were blooming very lovely last month. Please, have a look at the photos that I have taken of some flowers of my roses in the month of October.


The most beautiful rose was with no doubt 'Moonstone', a Hybrid Tea rose.



Each rose flower seemed to be just perfect. Quite unusual for a Hybrid Tea rose, which can be a little finicky to grow, especially in an organic no spray garden.




And the rose bush itself also did look remarkably good for this time of the year. Unfortunately the rose mildews in my garden, but somehow it wasn't too bad last month.




Another bloom of 'Moonstone'. As the flowers age the pink center becomes more soft, which has its own charm.



 But I personally like the darker pink center best.




 One last shot of another flower of 'Moonstone'. I simply couldn't get enough of these gorgeous blooms.



'The Prince', a David Austin rose, that was planted not too long ago in the front yard also gave me a few very lovely flowers. The scent of this rose is truly captivating. 

 

'Marie Pavie', one of the roses that I didn't take good care of at all, deserves to be shown and mentioned because this rose just kept going anyways and produced a never ending show of charming little white flowers with a pink hue.




'Frederic Mistral' is a rose that I have mixed feelings about, because I am never completely happy with the flower shape. The rose has a great fragrance, though. I am growing it still in a large container and hope once it is in the ground that the flower form also will improve.



Another rose that I am going constantly back and forth about is 'Mister Lincoln'. I feel that the rose is simply too red in the beginning to fit with all my other roses, but the intense rose-red color fades quickly into a blue-red, which is more agreeable with the other color of roses in my garden. This rose also has an outstanding fragrance, which is a big plus and not so often to find in Hybrid Tea roses.



The delicate blooms of 'Georgetown Tea' were a delight to watch unfold. The rose had a few flowers all month long. I am curious if this year I can keep her going over the winter. Since this is a Tea rose theoretically she has the potential to flower throughout the winter months, but never did so far in my garden.



Another outstanding rose last month was 'Pope John Paul II'. Perfect blooms with hardly any blemishes...



 ...were a joy to have in the garden and to cut for indoors. This rose comes with a strong fragrance as well.



'Belinda's Dream' surprised me with some nice flowers, too. She seems to do very well in my garden and deserves a spot in the ground. So far I grow her for evaluation purposes still in a big container, but I hope that will change soon.  The foliage of 'Belinda's Dream' is very clean and the blooms are huge and sumptuous.

October was a good month for the roses here in Southern California with nice, warm, sunny autumn weather, but also some rain. The roses certainly appreciated those conditions. I am curious what the November will bring!

See you in the garden!

Christina



20 comments:

  1. Wonderful photo's of your roses Christina. I am suprised to see how healthy you roses are. In my garden the roses have no green leaves anymore.
    Have a wonderful day.

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  2. Christina ~ It is always a delightful treat to see your beautiful roses.

    Love and hugs ~ FlowerLady

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  3. Your " Moonstone " is gorgeous. And I love the soft pink of the last rose ... so soft and warm. And soo many roses !

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  4. Marijke, thanks, not all of my roses have still green leaves. Many have rose leaves turned into into a dry, yellow, brown mess, but are not willing to fall down. In my monthly rose post I only show the very best in my garden at that time, which can be a little misleading...

    Lorraine, thank you so much. It makes me happy if you get some joy from looking at my photos!

    Dani, if 'Moonstone' has a good phase then this rose is truly wonderful, but it also can be exactly the opposite. You are right about 'Belinda's Dream'. This rose has very appealing soft, warm, pink color. Usually I am into the cool pink colored roses, but I made and exception for 'Belinda's Dream'. This rose just won my heart over!

    Christina

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  5. What a delight to see your photographs. Does 'Moonstone' have a perfume? I have just a few rose blooms making a valiant stand against fierce wind and driving rain. I appreciate their effort but it would be far wiser for them just to go to sleep for the winter and save their energy!

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  6. All the roses are beautiful but the best one is definitely Moonstone.The bush looks very healthy, too.
    I have prepared my roses for winter.No more blooms this year!

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  7. Your roses are looking so healthy and beautiful without a single blemish that I could see. Moonstone practically glows and the water droplets ehance its beauty! October was definitely a good month for your roses!

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  8. Wie schön, bei dir blühen die Rosen. Hier ist Herbst. Ich wußte gar nicht, dass es eine Papstrose gibt - die Frederic Mistral hatte ich auch mal, sie wollte hier nicht wachsen, wie soviele anderen Rosen auch nicht.

    Sigrun

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  9. Share my Garden, 'Moonstone' has a very light scent to my nose, nothing to write home about, but at least a little something to tease the sniffer is there :-)! For us here there is still wonderful autumn weather in the forecast with highest day temperatures mostly in the 70ties. On Thursday it is even supposed to get 82 F/27 C. I guess that will encourage some more rose blooms. Yay!

    Adriana, 'Moonstone' was definitively the stand out rose last month! Unfortunately in general it is not a healthy rose in my garden, the bush can be pretty mildewy at times.

    Dorothy, please have in mind that I only showed the very best rose blooms in this post. Not all of my rose flowers look like the ones presented here, but altogether you are right. It was a very good month for my roses.

    Sigrun, Maybe 'Pope John Paul II' is sold under a different name in Europe. In my garden it is an outstanding white rose, but I have read that it is not doing so well in cooler climates. Sorry to read that 'Frederic Mistral' didn't want to grow for you and that you had trouble with other roses, too. I hope you find varieties that do well in your garden. They are too beautiful to pass up in my opinion, but of course I am biased.

    Christina


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  10. Liebe Christina,
    wunder wunderschön sind deine Rosen!
    Herrlich wie alles noch blüht bei dir :-)
    Bei uns bereiten sich die Pflanzen schon auf
    den Winter vor und ich muss noch alle Rosen anhäufeln
    und schützen :-)
    Ganz viele liebe und gemütliche Grüße
    sendet dir Urte

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  11. I have mixed feelings about my Mr. Lincoln, too. Interesting that we both feel that way about him. But I love the color of The Prince. I need a few more darker roses - not red, but just darker. The Prince looks like he would compliment other roses very well.

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  12. So pretty. You get to enjoy roses for such a long time.

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  13. Urte, thank you very much for your kind words! California is really different from Germany in terms of the climate. Here we almost have to force our roses to go into dormancy and take a break!

    Holley, I think that the color of 'The Prince' is incredible beautiful and the fragrance is very strong and pleasant, too. In my garden I found out that I have to plant him in a fairly shady location otherwise the rose petals will burn and become crisp in the summer. He mildews a little in the spot where I have planted him but not too bad.

    Gardener on Sherlock Street, it is definitively an advantage in Southern California that the rose season never seems to end here :-)!

    Christina

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  14. Hello again! All of your roses are divine! I also love that you garden organically. Thanks for the inspiration!

    ~Jessie

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  15. Beautiful roses. The Moonstone one is so gorgeous. I wish we had some of your weather. It's dark and wet here at the moment!

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  16. Jessie, thanks, I am always happy when I can inspire someone to garden organically :-)!

    serendipity, in general we are really lucky in terms of the weather here (today sunny 76 F/24 C), but we could need some more rain. Hope the sun will shine for you soon again!

    Christina

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  17. Hallo Christina,
    schön, dass Du dank Urte meinen Blog gefunden hast und ich Deinen!
    Mit Californien hast Du ja eine Rosenheimat auch für die Empfindlicheren gefunden - hier am kalten Vogelsberg ist so einiges nicht möglich, sonst hätte ich auch einige Teerosen und frühe Tee-Hybriden, mehr Noisettes. Bei den Insektiziden gehe ich mit Dir einig, das erledigt die Natur! In diesem sehr feuchten und lange kalten Jahr halfen aber alle meine Pflanzenstärkungsmittel nicht gegen den Sternrußtau an meinen Remontants. Die sahen dann nicht besonders schön aus, bekamen aber im Herbst nochmals gesunde Blätter. Das ist der Fluch der sauberen, immer schwefelärmeren Luft in den letzten Jahren.
    Morgen oder übermorgen bekomme ich die vorletzten neuen Rosen - ich könnte Dir den Regen schicken, damit ich nicht im Schlamm pflanzen muss....
    Liebe Grüße
    Rudolf

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  18. Rudolf, thanks for visiting my blog and leaving a comment! Yes, I am lucky that I can grow Tea roses and other more cold sensitive roses here, but on the other hand I can't grow some of the Old Garden Roses like the gallicas that I love so much, because they need more winter chill. You can't get it all, but that is fine with me. I am living in a wonderful climate to grow roses and I am thankful for that. I saw on your blog that you are growing 'Madame Alfred Carriere' as well. I just recently planted this rose in the ground and can't wait to see how it does next year. I just love the blooms. Have fun with your new roses! I am looking forward to reading your next blog posts!

    Christina

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    1. Christina, this morning we had +1°C and Madame Alfred Carrière still had 8 blooms, full of scent. One is now in front of me! I am so surprised how well this rose is doing in my climate. I didn't know that gallicas need our winter - I love them too. Your next trip to Germany has to be in June/July - my garden is only 1 hour from Frankfurt airport.....
      Rudolf

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  19. Rudolf, wow, that is quite cold already! I am also very surprised that your 'Madame Alfred Carriere' is still blooming considering those temperatures.I always thought that this rose needs it much warmer to flower. With roses you just never know for sure, which means you just need to keep trying things out.
    I also checked my 'Madame Alfred Carriere' today, but she didn't have any blooms, not one. She has started to throw out some very long canes, though. I would love to see your garden in person, but it has become so rare that I go back to Germany. For now I have to be content to visit your garden on you blog :-)!
    Christina

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