Thursday, October 30, 2014

September Roses

Yikes, I better get this post out before the end of this month, because otherwise I have to skip it and blog about the roses that were blooming in October already!

So here it is: We had miserable heat waves throughout September only interrupted by a few slightly cooler days in between. Of course, that has put a lot of stress on the roses, but some have been soldering on and continued to flower. Altogether though I don't recall having as few rose flowers as I had this September in comparison with previous years. I guess the ongoing heat combined with the severe drought is really taking a toll on my rose bushes. It really makes me a little sad.



One rose that really stood out, was 'Mary Rose', a shrub rose bred by David Austin (United Kingdom, 1983). 



I really love the light pink, big, cupped blooms,...




...which appeared in abundance on my rose bush even during the heat. 




The foliage of this rose is a nice matte medium green, which goes so well with the light pink flowers and seems to even enhance their beauty.



'Mary Rose' is growing in a big container on my terrace, so that I could observe her disease resistance, growth habit, flower shape and color over a couple of months. So far the rose has been relatively healthy, just a speck of powdery mildew at times. The bush seems to want to grow in a compact and bushy way, which I really like. The rose has past the test and will stay in my garden. I hope to plant her into the ground soon. 




'Moonlight Scentsation' is a little bit of an iffy rose for me, but every now and then I get one of these outstandingly pretty blooms like the one above. 




Another rose, that has earned its permanent place in my garden, is 'Sweet Chariot' especially after its performance this September. I am also trying to find it a spot in the ground.



'Heritage' blooms just barely opening...



...and later on. After some initial hick-ups I have come to like the color and the bloom form, but the flowers only last a very short time on the bush, before they drop. The rose also gets powdery mildew very easily when the conditions are right. I am not sure if it will stay in the long run.



'Charles Darwin' on the other hand is a fairly healthy rose, one getting mildew once in a while. 



It flowers freely...



and the blooms are always a delight. 



I rarely report about 'White Meidiland', a shrub rose bred by Marie-Louise Meilland (France, 1987). That is by no means the fault of the rose. I have planted it in an absolut impossible location for a rose. It is in a lot of shade in severe root competition with a cycad and an evergreen hedge, so the rose is not able to show its full potential, but is doing very well considering these difficult growing conditions.



Not surprisingly the rose is still small, maybe three feet wide by two feet tall (approximately 90 cm x 60 cm), but the dark green glossy foliage is completely healthy. I am hoping, that next spring it will become considerably bigger and will have more blooms. 



'Lavender Crystal' continued to present its unusual bluish-lilac blooms. 



A rose that also bloomed quite well in the heat was 'Frederic Mistral'. The blooms are incredible fragrant and I like the color, but I am not too keen on the form. 



'Auckland Metro' has a special glow in the center of the blooms that I find quite fascinating.



It also has bloomed very generously for me last month. 



I finish with another favorite of mine, 'The Prince'. The shot of the bloom above is taken in full sunlight and is pretty,...



..., but this last picture of an just opening flower has been taken in the soft early morning light and makes my knees weak. I think the color is just mindbogglingly beautiful and the strong old rose fragrance matches the beauty of the bloom perfectly.

Wishing everyone who celebrates it a Happy Halloween! 

See you in the garden!

Christina



39 comments:

  1. So many of your roses seems to have enjoyed the heatwave, fab selection! Happy Halloween!

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  2. All your roses are beautiful! The Prince resembles my L.D. Braithwaite. Mary Rose looks like a pink peony! Very beautiful!

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  3. Liebe Christina,

    wieder einmal bin ich begeistert von der Fülle Deiner Rosenblüten - eine schöner als die andere.
    Ich freue mich jetzt schon aus die nächste Rosensaison - aber da kommen vorher noch ein paar kalte Wintermonate!

    Liebe Grüße
    Ingrid

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  4. Die Fülle deiner Rosenblüte ist überwältigend schön.
    Bei uns blühen nur noch wenige Rosen und ich freue mich auf die nächste Saison.
    Gruß, Anette

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  5. Ok so the prince reminds me of my grandmothers rich blooms!! How beautiful is that rose! And Charles Darwin is extraordinary!! I would say you have so many bursts of beauty to enjoy your garden despite the drought! Now do you always pot them up for observations before you plant them?? Hope you are well sweet friend!! Thank you for passing along such beautiful inspiration! Nicole xo

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    1. Nicole, I don't always pot my roses up to observe them for while before I plant them in the ground (or decide not to), but tend to do it more and more. Digging a 3' wide x 2' deep hole in my dirt is a lot of work and filling it up with completely new soil is expensive, too. So I just want to be as sure as I can, that I really want that new rose growing permanently in my garden. After I watch a rose for a year or two growing in a container, I know, if I like the color and flower shape. I also get some valuable information about the disease resistance and also about the growing habit, which helps me to decide if I consider it worthy being planted in one the precious hole and also where to place it. The rose pre-grown in a container also has developed a good size root ball, which enables it to compete better with all the palm roots that are growing everywhere throughout my whole lot. So I find there are a lot of advantages for me to grow a rose in a container first.

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  6. I'm salivating over your roses, Christina. I have relatively few, most of which were inherited with the house. None are especially impressive but their performance this year, our 3rd here, has been especially dismal. However, hope is eternal and I'll try to give them a boost with a healthy application of mulch this winter.

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  7. All lovely roses Christina! Mary Rose is doing quite well in our climate too, I just picked some flowers for a vase. The Prince I had once in my garden, but died. Fredric Mistral is here a strong one and Heritage is a good rose, but as you say the flowers don't last long. Your Lavender Chrystal I do not know but it is of an outstanding beauty!

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  8. WOWEE!!!! These are all beautiful! You are blessed to have these and that they survived your heat and drought this summer.

    Thanks for sharing ~ FlowerLady

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  9. How beautiful they are! I love the 'Mary Rose' - I will have to look for her to plant, as my favorite Aunt was named 'Mary'. I do love 'Sweet Chariot' and 'Heritage', too. All of them are so beautiful, though. We are done with roses here in WA State and my rose arbor blew over in a storm, but the roses survived. Happy Halloween and have a lovely weekend. xo Karen

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  10. What a delight! Every one as beautiful as the next. Do you trial all your roses in pots Christina?

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    1. Angie, thanks for your nice comment. Please see my answer to Nicole a few comments above, who asked the same question.

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  11. Dear Christina, Beautiful pictures of roses. Thank you for judging them. Maybe I chose one out of your collection. Groetjes from Holland,

    Hetty

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  12. Christina, your roses are absolutely beautiful, as always! And you grow some of my favorites. Heritage and Mary Rose were the first David Austins I ever planted. I bought Mary Rose because the description in the catalog said it was "heartbreakingly beautiful." It was my favorite rose (if I had to pick a favorite) for a long time until 'Don Juan' stole my heart! My Mary Rose has grown into a rather large shrub, and I would prefer that it was more compact. Maybe I should have gown it in a pot!

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  13. Your roses are always so beautiful. It's amazing anything's growing in your drought. I really like the golden center of the Auckland Metro. :o)

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  14. Love the roses! Very beautiful.

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  15. Oh my! The 'Heritage' is my favorite in this post! I could look at those photos for hours. I love the color, form, and size of 'Heritage.' All the others are lovely, too!

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  16. Alle wunderschön! Bei uns ist es leider vorbei mit der Pracht, die noch vorhandenen Knospen werden sich nicht mehr öffnen.

    Sigrun

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  17. So hard to choose a favorite among all your marvellous roses, Christina ! Just beautiful !

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  18. Hallo Christina,
    es ist immer wieder erstaunlich, wie prächtig Deine Rosen trotz Hitze und Trockenheit gedeihen! Besonders gut gefällt mir die Charles Darwin, sie hat so ein schönes zartes Gelb. Eine Freundin von mir hat diese Rose auch und ist sehr zufrieden mit ihr. Rosenmäßig tut sich hier bei uns nicht mehr allzu viel, die ein oder andere Blüte und Knospe ist zwar noch da, aber im Grunde befindet sich unser Garten schon fast im Winterschlaf.

    Ganz liebe Grüße

    Bärbel

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  19. Liebe Christina,
    du machst mich immer ganz kribbelig mit
    deinen herrlichen Rosen zu dieser Jahreszeit!!!
    So so so wunderschön!!!!
    Ich wünsch dir einen tollen Halloweenabend :-)
    Ganz viele liebe Herbstgrüße
    sendet dir die Urte :-)

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  20. Gorgeous gorgeous roses ! I was interested to see how well Mary Rose was performing in a pot. Lovely shape and still well covered in healthy looking foliage. Would you consider her as a permanent container rose, or do you feel she needs her freedom ?

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    1. Jane, thanks for your kind words about my roses! Here in California roses get big. I have seen 'Mary Rose' being six feet (120 cm) tall, therefore I assume she will not be happy in the long run in pot in my garden. In the UK the same rose varieties can stay considerably smaller, so maybe you get away with keeping her in a container. I think, if I were you I would just give it a try!

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  21. A chaque visite, c'est un bonheur de découvrir de nouvelles variétés de roses toutes plus délicieuses les unes que les autres. C'est aussi un plaisir de savourer la qualité de tes photos de roses agréables à voir. quand je vois la beauté des corolles j'ai du mal à imaginer que toutes ces belles fleurs ont surmonté une période de sécheresse. J'ai entendu dans les journaux télévisés Français que la Californie était touchée par la chaleur et la sécheresse et j'ai donc pensé à toi.
    Je te souhaite une belle soirée et un beau weekend.

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  22. Wow, what a beauty in your september garden Christina. Must be great having such beautiful weather all the year long. A perfect place to grow roses well I think.
    Have a wonderful weekend.

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  23. Liebe Christina,
    deine Rosen sind unglaublich schön!! Und das bei der Hitze.
    Ein Traum!
    Liebe Grüße Karin

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  24. Christina, it's always a pleasure to see your lovely roses! Mine are going to sleep....

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  25. Son todas preciosas, me gustan todas. Besitos.

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  26. Great roses, I like them all, so beautiful.
    With a little imagination I can smell.

    Best regards Anne-Marie

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  27. Oh, Mary Rose is a beautiful rose, have you any of these medium sized roses permanently growing in containers? I am trying several at the moment, because of lack of space, and I think I have to give it up despite using a fortune on good compost and perfect drainage in the bottom of each. It’s year 3 now and they just don’t thrive as much as they did in year 1 and 2, I think they perhaps have outgrown the containers already. Not sure where to plant them though!
    I have just bought some miniature roses, at least they should be fine in containers, for a while. As always, your roses are lovely and I would have liked to have them all in my garden, especially the Prince :-)
    Have a great week, take care, Helene.

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  28. I've had the same observations of 'Heritage'. It's been pretty but it shatters so readily. It's a rose that my husband had picked for the landscape so I didn't have much say about it's removal. It recently succumbed to Rose Rosettes and is officially gone. So...I'm thinking about replacing it with 'Quietness'. Another very pretty, pink rose.

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    1. Sharrieoberry, thanks for visiting my blog and leaving a comment! I have read that 'Quietness' is a really good rose in colder US climate zones. Good luck with her!

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  29. I'm so glad you visited me on my blog Christina, because now I've discovered yours ... But I fear your lovely photos and intelligent observation are going to make me a poorer woman!. Already I'm adding 'Mary Rose' (have considered it for a while), 'The Prince' and 'Charles Darwin' to my list. Interesting to hear how the same cultivars thrive in different conditions, isn't it? I must make sure I include a little more detail about size/health of plants when I post about my own roses again. Thanks so much and looking forward to reading about your roses again soon.

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  30. hallo Christina,

    die Mary Rose gehört zu meinen Favoriten und darum habe ich sie noch zweimal nachbestellt. Die Frederic Mistral habe ich an einer Pyramide festbinden müssen zusammen mit einer kräftig dunkelblauen Clematis. Die FM hat eine sehr sehr große Blüte. Die Heritage hat jetzt endlich nach 3 Jahren Gas gegeben.

    Mich würde einmal interessieren, welche Temperaturen Ihr im Sommer habt und wie die Rosen damit zu Recht kommen.

    Liebe Grüße
    Lisa

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  31. I especially enjoy seeing your roses because many of the ones you grow successfully would be leafless and unhealthy here without a strict spraying regimen. Yours look wonderful. I'm sorry to hear about your troubles with the drought though. I hope your area gets some relief soon.

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  32. Ach, du Liebe, deine Rosen sind traumhaft schön - ich hab nur noch vereinzelte. Es mögen dir die Wälder abgehen, aber glaub mir, jetzt beginnt das Wetter, wo ich gerne nach Kalifornien flüchten würde, sehr gerne sogar!
    Hab eine wundervolle Zeit
    Elisabeth

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  33. The Prince deserves its name! Is it susceptible to disease? Lavender Crystal is also quite striking. All these gorgeous roses make my heart warm, but in my climate I can grow only those that get little or no disease.

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    1. Deb, 'The Prince' is truly a remarkable rose in terms of its color and fragrance, but it easily gets mildew in my garden when the conditions are right. Even though I have to admit that he is not planted in optimal conditions, he doesn't strike me as a vigorous robust rose, he is more like a royal highness with some attitude. So even though I would love to, unfortunately I can't recommend him as a healthy strong rose :-(.

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