Monday, June 9, 2014

Some more from the Rose Spring Flush

Unfortunately for the last couple of weeks due to professional and personal reasons I had to completely neglect the blog, and I apologize for that, but I am happy to be back now!

The rose spring flush has been glorious this year and I have literally taken thousands of photos, but sadly I didn't have the time to sort though them and put up a blog post to share them with you, dear readers. My husband and I are now on vacation and I used my first chance to work on this post. So with no further ado, here are some more shots from this years rose spring flush.



'Charles Darwin' is a very lovely and healthy light yellow rose in my garden,...



...which blooms open almost always to a perfect form. 



The off-white flowers of 'Marie Pavie' never fail to touch my heart. Above: Just beginning to open...



...and later, on a very hot day, the flowers are partly tattered, but wonderfully perfumed and to me they still radiate dignified elegance.



'Grandmother's Hat' to the right at her peak (to the left you can see 'Reine des Violettes'). I love how she was looking untamed and wild-romantic this year. She has never flowered that opulent for me as this spring.



A few close-ups of 'Grandmother's Hat': Her flowers can vary greatly in color. They can appear in a very soft pastel pink...



...or in a much more saturated, intense pink.



However they turn out, I think, they are always lovely. 'Grandmother's Hat' was one of my absolute favorite roses this spring!



'Reine des Violettes' has one of the most amazing color out of all of my roses. It can be called a grayish violet and I adore how the petals unfold in an almost unruly but fascinating way. The color is very hard to capture for me with my camera, but the photo above comes close. Unfortunately, the bush itself is not such a joy to look at. So far it is a little bit puny, even though the rose is the third year in my garden.



'Sweetness' has become an impressive five by five feet bush in my front yard. It astounds me that it is doing so well despite the fact that it is growing in very close proximity of a tall 'Queen Palm'. But the moment I don't fertilize or water it enough it goes downhill. I really have to watch it!



A single bloom of 'Sweetness'.



A nice spray of 'Old Fashioned Girl'. I am really thankful that this rose is doing so well despite the fact that it is growing in front of a white heat reflecting South-West facing wall. 



My second 'Pierre de Ronsard' aka 'Eden' in the backyard. It just came into its own, when my other one was way over her peak.



The very full blooms of 'Pierre de Ronsard' are always a joy to look at!



Depending on how hot it is, the color changes from a cool pink (see photo of multiples flowers further above) to a more warm almost apricot pink like on the image directly above. 



'Iceberg' growing through an obelisk in a big container. A rose that is mostly pretty and blooms generously in Southern California, but can get powdery mildew badly in my garden. This is an own-root growing specimen, which has been mildew-free this spring.



'Yolande d'Aragon' another particularly opulent rose with a great fragrance. 



This rose, 'Madame Alfred Carriere', just comes into its own. We planted it into the ground last year in July, I believe, and it started to flower more generously this spring and also the size of the blooms has increased. It is supposed to be a very vigorous climber and I am expecting great things from this rose in the future.



Almost always an immaculate white Hybrid Tea rose in my garden: 'Pope John Paul II'.



'Moonstone' produces very big, gorgeous flowers, which are good for cutting and last a long time in the vase and yet, the rose drives me crazy. It is the most disease ridden bush that I have in my garden (mainly rust and powdery mildew) and I am seriously debating with me to get rid of it for that reason.



Here is a whole bush shot of 'Moonstone', when it was in full swing this spring. You really can't see the powdery mildew that much on this picture, but believe me, it is there! The rust occurred a little later after I took this photo. 

Besides being so sickly, the rose still manages to flower, even though flowering is definitively impaired. One good thing is, that it is planted across the pool, so usually no one visiting the garden can come up close enough to see the ugly mess of leaves. 



'Our Lady of Guadalupe' is usually one of the first roses to bloom in spring in my garden. But this year she was one of the last and started when it was time to deadhead the spring flush of other varieties. I pruned her very late and that postponed her blooms quite a bit.  

The spring flush is long over by now and some of the roses were approaching their second flush, when we had to part for our vacation in Devon, England. As much as I love going on vacation, it is always hard for me to leave the garden alone. I am sure many of you keen gardeners out there can completely relate to this!

Hopefully it won't take that long until I get to post next time. It will be for sure be something about our England trip. I would be happy, if you could come back and pay me another visit soon.

See you in the garden!

Christina



22 comments:

  1. Always a delight to see your blooming roses Christina! And welcome back!

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  2. Oh wow, such beauty. I love 'Charles Darwin', all of a sudden I am becoming drawn to yellow/orange roses and yet I don't like the colour in the garden on much else. Geums maybe. But 'Sweetness' and "Madame Alfred Carriere' are lovely too.
    Hope you have/had a lovely vacation in my home county, and not too much rain!

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    1. Jessica, for the longest time I didn't like yellow in the garden either, but then all of a sudden I had to have some yellow roses, because my pink, blue and white color scheme seemed boring. Turns out that I still don't like saturated yellow roses much, but the pale yellow ones won my heart over. Orange, though, well orange still has to go ;-)!
      We are still in Devon, and it rains on and off, I guess, that is very British though and probably the reason why everything is so lush and green here :-).
      Christina

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  3. Hallo liebe Christina,
    schön, das Du wieder einmal da bist - habe Dich schon vemisst!
    Deine Rosen sind wieder einmal super schön und so gesund schauen sowohl die Blüten wie auch die Blätter aus! Solltest mal meine genauer anschauen, viele Blütenknospen sind zerbissen und die Blüten sind dann ganz deformkert wenn sie aufgeblüht haben! !

    Auf den Rosenausstellung, die ich am Wochenende besucht habe, hättest Du Dich sicher auch wohlgefühlt bei
    der traumhaften Rosenauswahl :-)

    Liebe Grüsse,
    Ingrid

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    1. Ingrid, nice to be missed :-)!
      Thanks for your compliment regarding my roses, but not all of them are healthy, but naturally I show only the most beautiful ones on the blog.
      I just visited your blog and saw your photos of the rose exhibition. You are right, I would have loved to be there.

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  4. Reine des violettes is one of my favorites!
    Your garden is wonderful..

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    1. Sophie, yes, I agree, 'Reine des Violettes is a very special rose. Thanks for your kind words about my garden!

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  5. Just beautiful ! Charles Darwin is the perfect yellow rose :)

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    1. Dani, thanks, for me 'Charles Darwin' comes as close to perfect as a rose can get!

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  6. I just love the color of Marie Pavie...it is so soft and beautiful! Although if I had a garden full of your stunning blooms I would not even know which to pick as they are all beautiful in their own way! Wishing you a lovely vacation friend! Enjoy every second and happy gardening right back at ya!!! Nicole xoxo

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    1. Nicole, my favorite rose changes every day as most roses are very beautiful, but they also can have good or bad hair days ;-)! We savor every moment of our vacation, but I have to say after being gone since one week, I start to miss my own garden very much. Hopefully everything is well there...

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  7. When roses are flowering we have the most beautiful time in the garden. You showed us a lot of wonderful ones. I love the old French roses.

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  8. You have such a rich variety of roses in your garden, all of which are extremely beautiful, but if I had to choose one, then I would probably go for the Charles Darwin - I wonder if it has a scent to match its beauty.

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  9. You have made some great choices for beautiful roses. Whenever I see your roses, I find myself looking through my garden for somewhere to plant another rose! Will you be touring gardens in England again? I love to see your travel photos! Enjoy your vacation days!

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  10. Hi Christina, your roses are absolutely beautiful. Roses are my favourite of all flowers. I'm just stopping by to say how delightful your blog is. Thanks so much for sharing. I have recently found your blog and am now following you, and will visit often. Please stop by my blog and perhaps you would like to follow me also. Have a wonderful day. Hugs, Chris

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  11. Hallo liebe Christian,
    So viele verschiedene Rosen, ich finde sie sehen wirklich sehr gut aus, auch im Strauch. Es muss eine wahre Freude sein durch den Garten zu wandern und wenn ich das richtig verstanden habe bist Du ja noch zuhause und kannst die Blüte genießen .

    Ich wünsche einen schönen Urlaub und eine entspannte Zeit

    Alexandra

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  12. They are all beautiful. The only one of these I have is Marie Pavie. Love that rose!

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  13. Dear Christina your roses are so gorgeous. I can imagine how you enjoy the beauty (and perfume) they bring. To me it was also difficult to leave the garden at a moment the roses were to open up.
    I wish you a wonderful vacation and hope you will be back soon (with lots of photo's ofcourse)
    Warm wishes

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  14. Wow, liebe Christina,
    deine Rosen stehen einfach so prachtvoll!
    Was für eine herrlicher südlicher Gartentraum :-)
    Palmen und Rosen das ist wie im Märchen von
    "Tausendundeiner Nacht"!
    Ganz viele liebe Sommersonnengrüße zum Wochenende
    sendet dir Urte :-)

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  15. Liebe Christina,
    Deine Rosen sind wirklich eine Pracht und ich bin immer wieder begeistert, was für eine große Rosenauswahl in Deinem Garten steht! Die Charles Darwin gefällt mir besonders gut, diese perfekt geformten Blüten sind ein Traum! Deine Reine des Violettes ist zwar klein, aber schön buschig. Bei mir ist sie sehr wüchsig, mit langen dünnen Trieben, die nicht von selbst stehen, sondern angebunden werden müssen, aber das ist ja bei vielen historischen Rosen so.
    Ich hoffe, Ihr habt eine wundervolle Zeit in England und freue mich schon auf Fotos!

    Ganz liebe Grüße, Bärbel

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  16. Ma chère Christina, que ce message est beau et rafraîchissant avec ce défilé de roses. Elles sont toutes merveilleuses, et je suis ravie de voir ce beau "Chapeau de Grand Mère" dont l'opulence est absolument grandiose. Sur Moonstone, en effet je ne perçois pas l’oïdium mais je suis subjuguée par sa prestation, son maintient et ses formes rebondies. Je te souhaite de belles vacances en Angleterre.
    Belle soirée Jocelyne

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