November Roses

Due to a crash of my hard drive, followed by a very busy business trip I am coming in late with my post about roses that have bloomed in my garden in November. Still I wanted to show them to you!

Altogether my roses definitely have been winding down last month and that is to be expected. Still my aim is to have a few roses blooming year round and since I am living in Southern California that should be possible. What I did notice is that my established roses (I am talking about the bushes that are in the ground for three years or more now) are able to flower better and longer into the winter season. The other thing that occurred to me is that the Miniature and Miniflora roses that I grow in containers seemed to have been even more willing to bloom in November than my established roses in the ground. Maybe that is just a trait of the Minis and Minifloras? I have to observe these roses for a longer time to draw any conclusions, I know, but so far I am very impressed and happy with my Miniature and Miniflora roses. I am so glad that I "started to play with them" last year. Since most "regular" roses are reaching outrageous sizes here I am also pleased that they stay in bounds and can be kept in a container long term, which you can rarely say about for example a Floribunda or Hybrid Tea rose in my climate.

Here is a selection what opened up for me in November:

"The Prince" gave me the most beautiful bloom in November out of all the rose flowers that I got, I think. To my delight my camera captured the fascinating, unique, dark, crimson color of this rose quite well on this photo and at least on my monitor it looks very close to reality. I really adore this rose!

'Jilly Jewel' is one of my newer Miniature roses that do so well in containers. I have high hopes for this rose for the next year.

'Pierre de Ronsard' also gave me some lovely flowers. Its pink inner petal color is much darker than in the summer, which I prefer. It is also a clear pink and not an apricot or coral color, which is more to my liking, too.

The charming romantic blooms of 'Sister Elizabeth' continue to please me.

This is 'Irresistible', another Miniature rose. Its color is more a yellow/cream right now (usually it is much lighter) and some petals show splotches of red color (see the petal at the bottom and center of the flower), which I actually find not very appealing, but still any bloom is a joyful sight to me at this time of the year.

'Baronne Prevost' let herself down and gave me one flower. I think word got out to her that I am contemplating to shovel pruning her, because she mildews a lot and didn't repeat blooming in the autumn. I am not sure, if giving me one bloom is enough reason to keep her one more year...

'William Shakespeare 2000' presenting one more of his impeccable flowers.

This rose is called 'Moonlight Scentsation' and is one of my favorite Minifloras right now. It smells truly strong and I love the color. Depending on the light and the age of the flower the color can be an almost ghostly grayish/white. Very interesting and unusual for sure!

'Sweetness' was also still producing a number of blooms and they were all very pretty. The foliage of this rose has been completely clean, which is pretty unusual for a Hybrid Tea. I highly recommend this rose for its lovely flowers, but also for its disease resistance.

The true star of the month of November was 'Pope John Paul II'. This Hybrid Tea rose gave me an incredible flush so late in the year. The flowers were very big and as perfect as they can be for a white rose that is organically grown and not sprayed. As 'Sweetness' the Pope is completely clean here, which is an extra bonus. This is also one rose that I would highly recommend if you would like to have a great white Hybrid Tea rose. I will finish this post with photos of a couple of more blooms that I got from the Pope. Aren't they drop dead gorgeous? I could definitively have more than one bush of 'Pope John Paul II' in my yard!

This last picture shows quite well how perfect the form of this rose is.


Are any roses still blooming in your yard?

Wishing you all a nice weekend!

See you in the garden!

Christina

October Roses

This month has been yet again a good month for my roses here in San Diego. The climbing roses like 'Zephirine Drouhin' and 'Pierre de Ronsard' are already mostly done for this season and the Hybrid Perpetuals like 'Baronne Prevost', 'Yolande d'Aragon', 'Reine des Violettes', and 'Grandmother's Hat' did not repeat this autumn, but since this is their first year in the ground that may improve in one or two years. But Floribundas like 'Our Lady of Guadalupe' and 'Iceberg' are blooming their heads off as well as some of my Hybrid Tea roses like 'Pope John Paul II', 'Bewitched' or 'Sweetness'. The Tea rose 'Georgetown Tea' is also producing a full new flush. How great is that! Admittedly autumn is not my favorite season, but I love how my roses responded with better bloom shape and color to the cooler weather.

(you can click on the photos to enlarge)

The opening rose of this post is 'Belinda's Dream'. I just casually plopped one bloom in my hyacinth vase and voila great beauty is achieved! The perfection of the flower blows me away each time when I look at the bloom. I also love the muted pastel-pink color of the rose. It is a good variety for hot climates and in my garden the foliage is very healthy. The rose comes with a to my nose light fragrance, which matches the light pink color and is very pleasant.

Only last year I started to grow Miniature roses. I don't know why I was not considering them earlier, because they are so beautiful and versatile to use. On the photo above you can see 'Old Fashioned Girl'. Because it got water logged at least twice in its young life the rose had a rough start in my garden, but lately it has grown enough to be planted in a nice bigger terracotta container and now it rewards me with its first "real flush" of blooms. The flowers last exceptionally long on the bush, have a lovely white color with an apricot tint. The only drawback that I found so far is that there is no fragrance, even though this rose is supposed to be very fragrant. I have read that sometimes it takes a rose three years to develop its full potential in the fragrance department, so I guess there is still hope.

This is a close-up of a bloom of 'Old Fashioned Girl'. I just wonder why this rose is not more popular. Besides the lovely flowers its foliage is very clean in my garden.

'Baronne Edmond de Rothschild' is still a young Hybrid Tea rose growing own root in a one gallon pot. So far she made it to produce some stunning flowers already. I really like the white/silverish reverse on this rose. The fragrance is lovely, too. I am looking forward to seeing this baby become more mature.

'Pierre de Ronsard'. I have two of these great French roses. One is not blooming anymore and seem to have no intentions to change this this autumn, but the other, which is in an a more shady location is still able to produce a few of those gorgeous, sumptuous blooms. Go figure!




'White Meidiland' is classified as a shrub rose. I believe this will become a very elegant rose as it matures. I can never get enough of white roses. Do you? 'White Meidiland' is supposed to be very disease resistant, but in my garden it has shown a little bit of powdery mildew. Hopefully this happened because the rose was "pot stressed" and will disappear as soon as the rose will be planted into the ground.

'Jilly Jewel' is another of my relatively new Miniature roses. It was not doing well for a while sitting too long in a too small container. But since I replanted it is has come around nicely. I love the very delicate light pink blooms. This Miniature is said to be moderately fragrant, but oddly I cannot detect any fragrance at all so far. I read that it is used in the cut flower industry, so it must be a good fast repeating rose, I guess.

Another photo of 'Belinda's Dreams' this time in the bud stage and on the bush. I found the water drops particularly pretty in this shot.

A spray of blooms of my favorite Tea rose right now: 'Georgetown Tea'. I just cannot get enough of the delicate very elegant blooms. Tea roses have very special bloom shapes and are certainly not satisfying for the "typical" Hybrid Tea exhibitor, but I happen to love them. I am really thankful that I discovered this great class of roses and consider to plant quite a few more in my garden in the future.

'Pope John Paul II' is in a full new flush right now and giving me these white gorgeous blooms that are really close to perfection. I did cut two flowers for indoors and they are sitting right next to me while I am working on this post and the fragrance is truly stunning.

'Charles Rennie Mackintosh' is also a newer David Austin rose in my garden. I bought it because it is supposed to have a very special shade of pink, but so far I have to say I am not impressed by the color. When I smelled it today I decidedly did not like the fragrance that my nose perceived. So far it is unheard of me not liking a rose fragrance. So what is up with this?

'Bewitched' has given me another full flush of her great blooms. They are so good cut flowers. I happily noticed that her foliage is healthier now. It was suffering from powdery mildew lately, again. Nonetheless it is a great rose in my opinion and I won't be without it. 

 

'William Shakespeare 2000' was also able to shrug of the powdery mildew and pleased me with its beautiful blooms. 

I hope you enjoyed seeing some of the rose bounty that my garden was giving me this month. 

Wishing you all a great rest of the weekend and Happy Halloween on Monday!

See you in the garden!

Christina