Garden Tour: Planting a New Rose and Looking at Roses that are Blooming Now!

About two weeks ago, I recorded another video for Periscope but couldn't find the time earlier to put it up on my blog to share it with you here as well. But finally it is loaded up!

In this video I show you a newly planted hybrid tea rose named 'Bewitched' and talk about how I plant a new rose, what I have found out works well to give a rose the best possible start, so that it will grow into a beautiful specimen that will gift you with plenty of blooms.

Later on I present to you and talk about the rare tea rose 'Georgetown Tea', that I got as a gift from a dear friend many years ago and I have the pleasure to grow in my own garden ever since.

I continue to tour the garden and look at roses that are blooming right now. Your will see, besides others, flowers of 'Madame Caroline Testout, 'Neptune' and 'Heritage'. Did you get curious? Please click on the video below. I hope you enjoy the tour!

As always, thanks for stopping by and watching the video.

I am wishing everyone who celebrates it a lovely Halloween. Boo!

See you in the garden!

Christina

HORTVS, Peter Janke: The Formal Garden II

Continuing my tour through Peter Janke's private garden in Germany, that I visited in September this year, I am featuring a garden area that was called The Formal Garden. I personally was very fascinated by that specific part of the garden, because the layout of the beds surrounded by evergreen hedges was indeed formal, but the plantings inside the beds were simply wild in the very best sense and quite unusual.

The image above is my favorite photo of The Formal Garden. This part of Peter Janke's garden was difficult to photograph, because there were either buildings in the background that weren't so pretty or people, who were touring the garden and disturbed the photos. But I feel this shot captured the magical and fascinating atmosphere that lingered in The Formal Garden the best.

This was the first glance that you got right before you entered The Formal Garden. The layout contains an island bed in the center, surrounded by four square beds. Each square bed had the edge facing the center island bed "cut off" and it was replaced by a visually softer half moon shape corner.

To the right and left side of the entrance to The Formal Garden there were two concrete containers placed with very healthy aloes. These guys could have been growing as well in Southern California, where I live. 

The very nice lady, who runs the simple cafe at Hortvs, told me that The Formal Garden is planted each year with another theme. This year it had become a Mediteranean garden. I felt a little bit reminded of the Parie Garden Style, that is so very fashionable right now. Even though admittedly I am not a big fan of this garden style, I have to say that I loved the unusual plant compositions in this garden, so let's have a closer look at what plants Peter Janke used here. 

There was a lot going on plant-wise in all of the beds. 

One combination that I hadn't seen so far is the pairing of what I believe are Castor bean plants (Ricinus communis) with this intensive light blue flowering plant. I assume, that it is a type of salvia, but I am not sure. If anyone can identify this plant, could you please leave a comment and let me know? Thanks!

These little cheerful bloomers look like a plant that is called Santa Barbara Daisy (Erigeron karvinskianus) here in Southern California. 

Another of the (almost) square beds in the garden. I love the use of the grasses, the Santa Barbara Daisy, the fennel and the palm in the middle of the bed. 

Catmint, a favorite plant of mine, was also used in The Formal Garden.

Another photo of the striking combination between Castor Beans and the blue flowering plant that I love so much.

These plants also reminded me of my own climate.

Close-up of the Castor Bean flowers.

Light and airy blue loveliness.

Also a plant that I don't know the name of, but it was quite interesting.

A very natural planting style!

I really love the center island bed. The old bird bath planted with succulents and the underplanting goes so well together.

Close-up of the top of the bird bath.

I believe this is Chocolate Comos, Cosmos astrosangineus, which were used as underplantings in the island bed.

Here Peter Janke made use of a garden statue, which I believe is a new one, but done in the old style.

Grasses together with aloes and a silver leaved plant. Nice!

I want this blue flowering plant so badly for my own garden!

Shot of another of the square flower beds.

I really think that the plant combinations are quite inspiring!

I was quite smitten by this garden, but can imagine that it is not for everyone. I am curious to hear what you, my dear readers, think about it. I would be happy if you would leave a comment and share your opinion.

In case you are interested to see the first post, that I wrote about Peter Janke's garden, please click here:
HORTVS, the private Garden of Peter Janke, Germany I

Wishing all of you a great week with hopefully lots of good garden weather!

See you in the garden!

Christina

A New Decorative Jar for the Garden, Narcissus Paperwhite, Daylilies and Roses

Sunday was again time to shoot a new Periscope broadcast of what has happened in the garden last week. Since a couple of months now I am scoping live weekly about my garden and have a lot of fun doing it. I would like to invite everyone of you to join me on these weekly garden tours and come see my garden through the lens of my iPhone.

In the video, that I am publishing today here on my blog, I am showing you a blue and white hand painted decorative jar, that I just placed in the garden. I also talk about Narcissus Paperwhite bulbs and present you my brand new green bulb forcing vases. On the garden tour I stop by my newly planted white daylilies 'Gentle Shepherd' and towards the end we will look together at rosa 'Mary Rose', which was blooming profusely that day. I finish the tour by checking on my bearded Iris rhizomes to see the progress that they have made.

As always, thanks for watching, I hope you enjoyed the tour. I appreciate if you would leave me a comment. Thanks!

See you in the garden!

Christina

A Garden Tour Between Rain Showers

Last Sunday I did another Periscope broadcast about my garden. What was really unusual about that, was that the garden was dripping wet, since it was raining on and off that day.

In this video I tour my front yard and show you where I planted the other two new Verbena bonariensis that I bought. I am really in love with this airy plant and its little purple flowers and can't understand why I didn't recognize the value that it adds the autumn garden earlier.

Besides that, of course, I recorded some of my roses that where blooming at that time, like for example 'Old Fashioned Girl', 'Our Lady of Guadalupe' and 'Marie Pavie'. Then I go with you to the backyard to look at 'Pierre de Ronsard', which was just spectacular that day. This huge rose was at the peak of its third flush this year, loaded with its big and beautiful blooms. You really must see this!

Last but not least I take a look at the progress that my bearded Iris rhizomes have made. I planted those dry rhizomes in containers just a about a week ago, but there is already new life visible.

So if you have gotten curious and want to see what I just described in a three dimentional way, please click on the video and come with me on a tour through my garden between rain showers.

Thanks for watching the video, hope you enjoyed it!

After the temperatures had cooled down somewhat last weekend, they are now on the rise, again. Can you believe that we are expecting 100 F/38 Celsius on this Friday? No? Me neither...

Wishing everyone a nice rest of the week!

See you in the garden!

Christina

September Roses

Something great happened, it has rained in September! For the ones of you not familiar with the climate here let me say, that rain at this time of the year is really unusual for Southern California. The dust got washed off my roses, they took a deep sip of the refreshing rain water and burst open into blooms. So yes, the rain drops that you see on the roses in this post are not from man made artificial watering.

'Lavender Crystal' is with no doubt my favorite Miniature Rose. And the photo above, I believe, is my best shot from the ones that I took last month.

Here is 'Lavender Crystal' on a dry sunny day. No matter what the weather conditions are, the rose always produces an outstanding lavender color. 

'Captain Christy' is a rose that I love, too, but it continues to be a very weak grower. It may need to be grafted on a more vigorous rootstock to be successful in my garden.

'Stephan's Big Purple' certainly enjoyed the hot weather that we were still having in September. 

'Bewitched' is another Hybrid Tea rose that really seems to like the heat of Southern California.

The reliable 'Pope John Paul II', always good for stunning white blooms.

'Belinda's Dreams' is struggling a bit in the location where I planted it. I placed it very close to a Queen Palm and the rose doesn't seem to be quite vigorous enough to put up with the root competition of the palm. But when it blooms, it is certainly beautiful.

The Tea Rose 'Georgetown Tea' stopped flowering completely during the heat of summer, but started again to bloom in September. If I am lucky and we get a good El Nino this year the rose might be blooming throughout the winter. 

'Auckland Metro' is another very reliable Hybrid Tea rose for me. I think her blooms are stunning, too. I particular like the warm light yellow glow that the rose has in the center of the blooms.




Another shot of 'Auckland Metro'.

'Pink Pet' is outdoing itself this year.

I love how it is growing into the obelisk and starts to flirt with the hummingbird. 

'Pink Pet' grows in dappled shade from a nearby Pygmy Date Palm and seem to really like that.

'Pierre de Ronsard' was gearing up for its third flush of the year by the end of September.

Raindrops look always so romantic on roses, don't you think?

'Reine des Violettes' also produced its third flush of the year. It was just a mediocre one, but definitively better than none.

My favorite Tea Rose 'Rhodologue Jules Gravereaux'.

In parts the front yard almost looked like in spring last month. This photo shows 'Old Fashioned Girl' in the foreground, 'Pink Pet' in the middle and 'Climbing Iceberg' in the background.

The tireless 'Our Lady of Guadalupe' doing what she does best: Blooming!

I am starting to worry a little bit about this rose, though. Since about two years it hasn't produced any new basal canes, which means the rose is not renewing itself. Old basal canes die, but they are not replaced by new ones. 

I hope that this lovely Lady is not blooming herself to death. 

'The Prince', always good for a star photo. 

'Marie Pavie' is getting a light pink hue, which indicates that autumn and with that cooler temperatures are close.

I led you go with this photo of 'White Meidiland'. This rose also grows predominately in dappled shade and seem to tolerate that. I love how the light plays with the rose in this image.

After having stopped the monthly rose posts over the summer, I hope that I am able to pick them up again and show you what roses are flowering in my garden each month even throughout autumn and winter. One of the great joys of rose growing here in Southern California is, that with a little bit of planning and choosing the right varieties, you can have roses blooming throughout the whole year.

Wishing everyone a fabulous week!

See you in the garden!

Christina