Saturday, February 2, 2013

January Roses

Last month I believe I had the least rose blooms ever since we live in this place. There were two reasons for that. One was the weather and the other one was me. We had plenty of gray, dreary days with lots of rain, for Southern California circumstances of course, and it was unusually cold. Both factors are not really supportive of rose flower production. In addition to that I didn't fertilize the roses in the containers properly and when these roses don't get fed they don't bloom. It is that simple! Also usually I try to time the pruning of the roses in containers in a way that when I am done with the last the first one starts to bloom already again. This year I didn't pay attention to that and I can tell you, I regret it. I miss having more roses blooming in containers in the winter time, which makes living in Southern California so special for a Rosarian. Next year hopefully I will do better again.

Anyway, here are the rose blooms that I got in January.




I liked this shot of 'Marie Pavie' best out of all featured in this post. Her dainty flowers are heavy with rain drops, but she still manages to look light and elegant.




Another photo of  'Marie Pavie' growing through the fronds of a pigmy date palm. This rose literally blooms year round in my garden, is very healthy, and always looks beautiful if you deadhead the blooms. Otherwise the flower petals become brown when old and still cling to the rose, which can give it a 'dirty look'.




'Georgetown Tea'. I am always touched by the elegance of the Tea roses. This bloom had trouble opening with the low winter light and she is shaded by some palm trees on top of that. In this photo, I feel you can almost feel her struggle to unfold this lovely flower.




Last photo of a bloom of  'Madame Alfred Carriere' before the pruning. As you can see in the background her leaves are not the healthiest and prettiest anymore, but her flowers are still gorgeous.



'Vi's Violet' is one of my most beautiful miniature roses and she was doing her best to please last month.




 Above is another shot of 'Vi's Violet'.




'Pope John Paul II' here also photographed right after a rain shower.


Above you can see the same bloom a day later. This rose holds up very well to rain for a white rose. The bloom does hardly show any blemishes from the water. 




 Last bloom of 'Grandmother's Hat' for this season, back lit by the morning light.




The blooms of 'Irresistible', another miniature rose, also hold up very well in rain. If you touch them they feel almost a little bit like plastic, which I don't like so much, but this firm petal substance certainly has its advantage in rainy weather.




To my surprise 'Charles Rennie Mackintosh' continued going strong in January. He still resites in a containter, but I have a feeling, that it could also be a quite floriferous rose, once it is in the ground. This photo was taken when the rose was fully hit by the winter sun.




'Charles Rennie Mackintosh' again, but this photo was taken in the morning on a gray overcast day. I love the almost lilac color of the bloom! This is a rose bred by David Austin and like many of his roses, it has the ability to change its color quite a bit depending on the weather conditions. Some people might be not so fond of that, but I like it quite a bit. Each flower holds kind of a surprise how it will look when fully open. In my small garden I like these changes and unpredictability, since it can get a bit boring to see the same rose over and over again.




The last rose in this installment is 'Old Fashinoned Girl', a miniature that has won over my heart and seems to get better and better, since she is planted in the ground not too long ago. She just finished her last flush and she has produced already one new basal cane on which I detected today the first new buds. Yeah!

Quite a few gardens are buried under snow at this time of the year, or it is still very cold, so that many of you only can dream of roses right now, my dear readers. I hope, that especially for those of you where this is true, you enjoyed seeing some roses on my blog.

See you in the garden!

Christina