Wednesday, January 1, 2014

December Roses

First of all I would like to wish all of my dear readers a happy, healthy, prosperous, and rosy New Year 2014! Hopefully it will be a good one for the gardens as well!

For me it is a nice thing to start the New Year with talking about roses and I hope you feel the same.

The unusual warm weather that we were having in November continued throughout most of the December as well. As much as I enjoyed the warm and sunny days I am worried about the absence of the winter rains and wonder if they will come at all. The roses, of course, don't know any worries of that kind and many were still blooming beautifully last month, even though others have completely shut down. I guess, it all depends on the genetic disposition of the variety,  how much sun the rose is getting, and if I have watered and fertilized it well.



I was amazed and at the same time very pleased, that I was able to pick the bouquet above for Christmas. It contains 'Pope John Paul II', the white roses, one bloom of 'Yolande d'Aragon', the very filled pink one to the left, and 'Grandmother's Hat', the remaining lighter pink flowers.

All roses used in this bouquet are very fragrant and they are able to perfume a room. It was so enjoyable to have rose fragrance in the house for Christmas.




'Yolande d'Aragon' is one of my favorite Old Garden Roses. I only wish she would flower more often. Basically last year she was a once bloomer in my garden.




I fertilized 'Pope John Paul II' in late October with the intention to coax him into giving me a sumptuous bouquet of white roses on time for Christmas. That didn't work out, though. He didn't have enough blooms on Christmas Eve morning to cut for a full bouquet, but right now he is really pumping out flowers. I can't say enough good things about this rose, except that he isn't compliant to the bloom schedule that I had set up for him.



'Grandmother's Hat' really surprised me by starting to bloom last month, again, and also put me to shame at the same time. I have planted her in a bed without irrigation, so I need to hand water it. It seemed to be the case that with my busy life I neglected this chore the previous months quite a bit, but in late autumn my life slowed down somewhat and I started to water more. Low and behold, this rose pumped out some very lovely winter roses. Note to the gardener: Never plant roses in an area where there is no irrigation, never ever!



Here is the same bouquet photographed from the back. Even though this is a small vase, I think I cut eleven roses for it. I am always astonished how many roses are needed for a bouquet to look full and lush. If I want that effect seven fully open big roses seem to be the absolute minimum. 



Decorating for Christmas didn't stop in the house, but the garden got some embellishment as well. 'Georgetown Tea' is flirting with the giant Christmas ornaments. 



The blooms of 'Georgetown Tea' aren't tiny, but they appear like that when they are close to the ornaments. I found them many years ago at one of the big box stores and they were gathering dust in the garage. I am so glad I got them out for this Christmas, again.



Here is a close-up shot of 'Georgetown Tea' from early December, when it was slightly cooler. The lower temperatures brought out her darker colors. I just love that Tea roses are so changeable. You never get bored with them!



This is 'Madame Alfred Carriere', which I had planted out from a container into the ground last summer. She grew and grew and grew, but no blooms. That was a little disappointing since I remember in December 2012 she was one of my most prolific flowering roses. Just a few days ago she started to produce, again. I can't wait to see what will happen in spring!



'Pierre de Ronsard' was just opening a bloom here and there, but boy, were they gorgeous and big.



This is 'Moonlight Scentsation', a rose with a very lovely subtle coloration. Unfortunately, it blackspots in my garden, which is rare for roses here and I was thinking of getting rid off it for that reason. It is still growing in a container, though, and might be a little stressed by its living conditions. Because of the beautiful color I will probably plant it out into the ground and give it one more chance and see if its health improves.  



Here is another shot of 'Moonlight Scentsation' fully open. I do like the bright yellow stamens a lot.



My 'Climbing Iceberg' rose in the front yard by the garage had decided to produce a full flush of blooms. It mildews a little bit in that location, but who can resist these cheerful blooms?



'Our Lady of Guadalupe', also residing in the front yard, churned out a full flush as well. Unfortunately she has problems with powdery mildew, too. With this rose I have the impression that the susceptibility for powdery mildew has become stronger over the years.



On the other hand 'Old Fashioned Girl', also growing in the front yard in a very trying location, is healthy as one can wish a rose would be. In summer and even in autumn it becomes very hot where I have the rose planted and she stopped blooming for that reason. But now she has started again and seems to enjoy the cooler temperatures.

See you in the garden!

Christina



56 comments:

  1. Liebe Christina,

    ich wünsche Dir ein gutes Neues Jahr 2014 mit viel Glück und Gesundheit, mögen alle Deine Wünsche in Erfüllung gehen.
    Danke für Deine schönen Rosenfotos - der Anblick ist ein wahrer Balsam für die Seele bei unseren
    0 Grad und dickem Nebel!
    Liebe Grüße,
    Ingrid

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    1. Ingrid, thanks for your good wishes for 2014 and for your kind words about my rose photos! I am glad they brought some cheer to you on a cold and foggy winter day!

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  2. Wow Christina, another wonderful selection of roses to give cheer on a rainy winter's day here! Hope your festive season has been fabulous and wishing you all the best for 2014 :)

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    1. Mark and Gaz, I am pleased that my roses brightened your rainy day! Actually, my husband and I had wonderful Holidays and I hope you guys did, too. Thanks for your New Years wishes!

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  3. It always amazes me when I see gardens from other parts of the country, or world, flowering in winter. My goal is to get at least a mangy vase of roses for Thanksgiving. Most years I can, this year we froze solid weeks before the end of November. While my own garden is sleeping, I will visit here and enjoy yours!

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    1. Connie, I had no idea that it got so cold that early in your neck of the woods. I am happy to have you as a virtual visitor to my garden until your roses come to live, again!

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  4. Oh Christina ~ Your roses are always a delight to see. I love roses even though I'm not all that good at growing them. I'm always inspired by the beauties that you grow there in California.

    Thank you for your kind comments on my blog. You are a dear friend whose words touch my heart.

    Love and hugs and have a GREAT 2014.

    FlowerLady

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    1. Lorraine, thanks, actually I think you are doing pretty well with your roses. I have read that they are not that easy to grow in Florida, but when I visit your blog I am always in awe of the beautiful roses that you have in your garden. Wishing you a wonderful 2014, too!

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  5. Thank you and roses are always a pleasure to look at. Really looking forward to seeing the results of my newly planted bed in June. Will be interesting also to see how they blend in with all the more mature ones.
    Happy New Year to you Christina and no our weather has not settled down . Still having gales, torrential winds and serious floods.

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    1. Barbara, I am also not getting tired of seeing a beautiful rose. How wonderful that you have planted a whole new bed full of roses. It is always exciting to see how everything fits together with the existing garden. Hope your weather calms down soon. Sounds kind of scary! Wishing you a Happy New Year as well!

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  6. A beautiful selection of roses Christina, seeing your flowers does my heart good to contemplate that warmer weather is on the horizon.

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    1. Rosemary, thanks, roses are always reaching the heart, don't they? I think that is one reason why I am so hooked up to them.

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  7. Lovely roses for Christmas :) Happy New Year and happy gardening, dear Christina !

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    1. Dani, thanks, Happy New Year to you as well. May your garden flourish!

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  8. Hallo Christina
    Zuerst auch Dir ein wunderbares, blühfreudiges, grünes, unkrautfreies, Schneckenarmes, gesundes, lachendes, tränenfreies und zufriedenes 2014!
    Wow, Rosen um diese Jahreszeit sind einfach ein Segen. Wie beneide ich Dich darum *seufz*. Die Yolande habe ich auch im Garten und sie will auch noch nicht so recht blühfreudig daher kommen. Gut, sie steht bei mir erst im zweiten Jahr und braucht wohl noch ein bisschen Eingewöhnungszeit. Geduld ist also mal wieder gefragt, eine meiner absoluten Stärken *kicherundkopfschüttel*.
    Hach, könnte ich bloss mein Näschen rasch in eine Deiner Rosen stecken, fühle mich richtiggehend auf Entzug. Jäh nu, warten wir halt weitere 5 Monate.
    En liebe Gruess
    Alex

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    1. Alex, thanks for all your New Year's wishes! With them It only can be a perfect one in my life and in my garden, too :-)!

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  9. Happy noew year dear Christina and thank you for your support!!
    My garden is so young..
    I think that my dreams will come true un 2014!!!
    Je t'embrasse
    sophie

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    1. Sophie, thanks for your New Year's wishes! I know it takes a while until a garden matures, but I thinks yours is already fabulous. I hope you will develop into your dream garden this year!

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  10. Your rose bouquet is so pretty! You have selected some beautiful roses to grow. I am always inspired. It's hard to imagine seeing them in December! The last of my rose blooms went with the early Dec cold snap. My hubby plans to begin the rose pruning today and has asked me to supervise. I can do that!

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    1. Dorothy, thanks, it is so nice for me to know that my blog inspires you! How great that your husband is pruning the roses and you can be the supervisor! I am so behind with the rose pruning that it starts to stress me out a little...

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  11. C'est un vrai bonheur de terminer l'année avec des roses dans son jardin.je te souhaite.Christina une belle année chaleureuse avec tous ceux que tu aimes. Je suivrai avec plaisir toute l'année l'évolution de ton jardin.
    Meilleurs vœux et belle soirée jocelyne.

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    1. Jocelyne, thank you so much for your nice comment! Yes, it is a special pleasure to be able to grow roses here year round. I intend to make lots of changes to the garden this year. If I can realize just one third of the things that I have in my head I would be a happy gardener!

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  12. Happy holidays, Christina, and lucky you to still have so many roses! We have had some really cold nights, and many things froze, including my remaining rose buds :(. I am mostly done with pruning, and just took delivery of 85 pounds of various organic fertilizers which I will start applying soon. You picked a lovely bouquet, and I can only imagine the fragrance. When will you start pruning?

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    1. Masha, yes, I am very grateful that I still have roses at this time of the year! So sorry to hear that you lost your rose buds to the frost. How I envy you that you are almost done with the rose pruning! 85 pounds of rose fertilizer that sounds a lot, but you have quite some roses and I know in our climate they need to be fertilized properly to unfold their full blooming potential.
      When I start pruning? Well I have started already, but have only accomplished to prune around 10 roses so far :-(! At this time of the year I don't know what to do first in the garden: The winter clean-up, mulch, plant new roses, plant some annuals to have color in the garden and, of course, prune the roses. I opted to do mostly mulching for now, since I feel I need to improve the soil of my garden and also prepare it for another year of drought :-(.

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  13. Wow, jetzt bin ich aber platt. Sie sind alle wunderbar! Leider müssen wir am Wochenende unsere Constance Spry wegen einer Außenarbeit komplett runterschneiden, was mir schwer stinkt - aber es muss sein. Sie wird dann besonders gedüngt und hat sich hoffentlich bis zum Herbst wieder berappelt.

    Sigrun

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    1. Sigrun, thanks, I am happy that you like my roses! I would be so upset if I had to cut down any of my climbing roses, too. It takes a while until they reach a decent size and it is sad to have to wait until they reach their former glory. I love Constance Spry, by the way. I have to check your blog if you have posted some photos of her.

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  14. Happy New Year to you! Your roses are simply magnificent. So true about need quite a lot to bulk it up. Love how you've photographed them too.

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    1. Trishie, thank you so much for your kind words about my roses, my photography and your New Years wishes. I am debating to plant more roses for cutting purposes, since I love to pick them and bring them into the house. You can never have enough roses!

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  15. What an amazing Christmas bouquet! Where I live there is deep snow and below zero temps right now. I just hope my roses will wake up again in spring! Seeing your pictures, I can almost imagine the rose perfume. Thanks for the pick-me-up and Happy New Year.

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    1. spurge, thank you very much for your nice comment! It was the best Christmas bouquet that I was able to pick from my garden so far. The unusual warm weather certainly contributed to that. Hope that your roses get through this winter without any severe damage. Happy New Year to you as well!

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  16. Your roses are beautiful, Christina - and I've loved seeing them at this time of year as there aren't any in flower here at the moment. And how lovely to have a rose fragrance in the house over Christmas.
    Happy New Year!

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  17. Wendy, thanks for your kind note! I don't have many flowers in the garden right now either and it will be getting less and less as I continue to prune the roses. Even here I miss seeing blooms and bought some pansies recently to help me out. Happy New Year to you, too!

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  18. A very Happy New Year to you as well friend! Your roses always knock my socks off! And the combinations in your bouquet is gorgeous! WOW! That 'Old Fashioned Girl' won my heart!!! What a blessing to have such amazing blooms this time of year and for Christmas!!! We are getting very cold temperatures here right now with a lot of snow...I do hope you all get the rain that you need. Have a wonderful weekend Christina!!! Nicole xoxo

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    1. Nicole, thank you very much for your nice comment! 'Old Fashioned Girl' is a wonderful miniature rose that I hardly see anywhere. I think, it deserves to be known more, because of the lovely blooms and its disease resistance (at least in my climate). There is one catch though, I have read that it is highly fragrant, but I can't detect any scent. There was a slight chance of rain, but they took it out of the forecast :-(. The water issue is a real concern for us here. Stay warm and wishing a nice rest of the weekend!

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  19. I am speechless! Roses in December... How lucky you are! Christina, thank you for showing us these beauties and Happy and Healthy New Year to you!

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    1. Tatyana, so nice to see you stopping by, again! Yes, I know we are kind of blessed here to be able to grow roses year round. Wishing you a Happy and Healthy New Year as well!

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  20. Your roses are certainly rewarding all your hard work and effort Holley. A wonderful sight indeed. All the best for 2014!

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  21. Angie, thanks, roses are work, but they give back a hundred times! Wishing you a great 2014, too!

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  22. Ach, wie herrlich deine Rosen jetzt sind :-)
    Ich wünsche dir auch noch ein gesundes neues Jahr und
    sende dir ganz viele liebe Neujahrsgrüße
    Urte :-)

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    1. Urte, I am pruning this month, so I will be having less roses in bloom, but there are hopefully still a few blooms to show by the end of this month! Thanks for your good New Years wishes!

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  23. How wonderful to have roses for Christmas! Oh, to have a Christmas rose bouquet, filling the room with its scent! It must have been such a delight. I can't even imagine that here. Love the ornaments mingled in with the rose blooms, too. Seeing your photos makes me ache for spring. Hope you have a fabulous 2014!

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    1. Holley, to have the rose bouquet for Christmas was really lovely! I am still able to cut one small bouquet for the house every few days. The very warm winter that we are having is just making the roses grow and grow and grow. Wishing you a great 2014 as well!

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  24. Hallo Christina,
    auch Dir ein wunderschönes und glückliches neues Jahr!
    Ein Rosenpost im Winter und dann noch nicht einmal aus dem Fotoarchiv, das ist ja mal was ganz Besonderes! Wow, bei Dir blüht es ja wirklich noch ganz wunderbar, Du hast tolle Rosen! Eine meiner Rosen im Topf am Haus hat zwar wegen des bisher nicht vorhandenen Winters auch noch 3 dicke, fast aufblühende Knospen, aber das ist die absolute Ausnahme, weil wir bisher noch keinen starken Frost hatten.

    Liebe Grüße, Bärbel

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    1. Baerbel, thanks, being born in Germany I am familiar with the winters there, so for me it is still very special to be able to have roses at this time of the year. Hope that your three rose buds will open for you and not get damaged by frost.

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  25. Lovely, lovely Roses! And your arrangement is so pretty. I miss the Roses--I think maybe I miss them enought to buy a few "hothouse" stems for myself. It has already been a very long and harsh winter here in the Midwest!

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    1. PlantPostings, thank you very much, I would love to sent you some of my roses, but maybe buying some florist roses is a better way to drag you over the winter ;-). I have been reading about the very cold winter in the Midwest. It certainly must be challenge!

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  26. Dear Christina,

    I am so happy to have found you. Your blog is a testimony of your love for gardening and beauty, two things which matter enormously to me. Thank you very much for visiting my little corner of the world. I am quite certain I will be following your blog posts with great pleasure. And I see I am in good company too; Bärbel from Germany, The Garden Fairy, is here too:

    Warmest wishes from France where roses do not thrive, generally speaking, in winter.

    Stephanie

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    1. Stephanie, welcome to my blog and thanks for leaving such a nice comment! I would love for you to be a regular visitor here!

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  27. Hi Christina, not sure how I missed this post of yours but better late than never! I just love roses and would have liked to have many more than I have, if I could just find room for them. I have some roses in containers too, but also find that they get a bit stressed when they are mature and it is not a natural life for a rose. But when you haven’t got room in the garden what do you do?! Loved your 'Old Fashioned Girl', I tried to search for it but yet again it seems to be an American variety not available over here – I so often find roses I like on American blogs, but then can’t find them for sale here :-(
    Soon the rose season will be over in my garden, time to cut them down and the agonising 6-8 weeks wait for them to start flowering again. it is always a long wait and the only time of the year I don’t have roses.

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  28. Helene, I can imagine that in your small, but very beautiful garden, it must be hard to deal with the space limitations and not able to plant as many roses as you like, but believe me even in my slightly bigger garden I always lust for more roses than I actually have :-)! I think that is more a problem of being a rose addict than of space limitations!
    Here in Southern California Hybrid Tea roses and Floribundas want to get out of a container after three years at the very latest. Even though I am very well aware of that I have some roses growing in containers on our terrace. For me it is still worth it.
    Sorry, that you can't find 'Old Fashioned Girl' in England. By the way, I encounter the same problem, that I see roses that I love in England or on English blogs and when I want to get them for my own garden they are not commercially available here.
    I am pruning my roses since the beginning of December and even though for that reason I have less roses flowering, usually when I am done with all of them the ones that I pruned first are almost ready to bloom, again. That is one of the pleasures of living in Southern California :-)!

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  29. It is just awesome that you can pick rose bouquets in December!

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    1. Phillip, that is one of the many garden pleasures here in Southern California :-)!

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  30. I enjoyed reading this so much! Pierre de Ronsard is one of my favorite roses ever. You are so very lucky to have roses so late in the year. They're just beautiful.

    I'll be back soon to read more! And thank so much for your visit & kind comment yesterday.

    Xo,
    Keri

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    1. Keri, thanks, I am happy you enjoyed to read my blog post. I can't wait for the spring flush of 'Pierre de Ronsard'. If all goes well it can be really spectacular :-)!

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  31. Hi Christina,
    How wonderful to have fragrant bouquets for Christmas, I am buying from the store and no fragrance at all.... They are all so beautiful, I am smitten with Grandmothers Hat! Take a big whiff for me, Ahhhh...
    Hugs,
    Bella

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    1. Bella, thanks for your nice comment. Yeah, I always find it disappointing that florist roses often don't have any fragrance. But maybe that could change in the future. For a while breeders of "garden" Hybrid Tea roses didn't pay any attention to fragrance in these rose as well, but more to color and form of the blooms. But in recent years you can find newly bred Hybrid Tea roses with good fragrance, again. I guess, consumers simply didn't buy roses without fragrance as much as the breeders would have like to see it and they became aware that people wanted fragrant roses. And so they changed their breeding goals. I haven't bought florist roses for ever but maybe there are some out there that have a least a little fragrance? We all could start to buy those instead of the ones without any scent and maybe that would change what florist roses would enter the market in the long run.

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