February Roses

Roses were flowering sparsely in February this year, but at least a few had produced the first new bloom of the season. Other roses have set plenty of buds, but they didn't open last month. Altogether it looks like I will be getting a great first rose flush this year and it will probably start at the end of March already. Because there were only a few blooms in February, each of them was even more dear to me. Here is what I was able to capture with my camera.

'Belinda's Dream' knocked me off my feet with her lovely first bloom.

I couldn't help, but taking photos of the different stages in the development of that flower...

...and want them share it with you.

'Belinda's Dream' is classified as a Shrub rose, but to me it looks like a very fully petaled Hybrid Tea rose. 

This rose is very healthy in my garden and really easy to grow. Definitively a rose that I would recommend at least for a similar climate like mine.

As expected 'Marie Pavie' started to bloom early this year, as she did in the previous years. This rose is also super healthy in my garden.  

Here is a bush shot of 'Grandmother's Hat'. This rose is six to seven feet (180 cm - 210 cm) high and has grown into a very nice bush. The foliage is marvelous and completely clean. You can't see it on the photo, but 'Grandmother's Hat' is loaded with buds. I am looking so much forward for them to open.  

'Climbing Devoniensis' is a rose that I seldom show, but here is a rain drenched elegant bud of it.

First bud of 'Pierre de Ronsard' reaching for the sky.

Another rose with beautiful foliage in February was 'Yolande d'Aragon'. That can not always be said of this rose since sometimes it suffers from disease problems, but so far so good. 

'Madame Alfred Carriere' is the biggest rose that I have growing in my garden. After being generously fertilized it has started to bloom again and I am in love with its flowers. It is one of my all time favorite roses.

New foliage of 'Chandos Beauty'. As you can see it is also very healthy.

Last but not least a bloom of 'Souvernir de la Malmaison', one of my newly acquired baby roses. 

We had another strong storm, which unfortunately slightly damaged the foliage of a few roses, which are planted in locations very exposed to the wind, but it brought some much needed rain. I think the developing rose buds will benefit from it and I am very excited about the March blooms, which, of course, I will share with you. I would be delighted if you would come back to have a look.

Wishing everyone a wonderful weekend!

See you in the garden!

Christina

I am linking to

Bernideen's Tea Time, Cottage and Garden
Rose Garden Malevik

Summer Solstice Garden Tour Video

Just a few hours ago I did another Periscope broadcast about some plants (mainly roses) in our backyard. I am featuring my Hybrid Perpetual Bed with two lovely chartreuse colored plants, a coleus and a heuchera. Then I move on to gardenia 'Veitchii', the Tea Rose 'Georgetown Tea', the Tea Noisette 'Madame Alfred Carriere' and 'Belinda's Dream'. Lastly I show you the Hybrid Tea rose 'Moonstone'. The latter is blooming incredible today! Maybe you would like to have a peek into my garden on this hot summer solstice day!

You can watch the broadcast on Periscope 24 hours after it was taken. My Periscope/Twitter username is csgardendreams.

The video is also on YouTube, just click here:

Wishing you all a beautiful beginning of summer!

See you in the garden!

Christina 

January Roses

January is the month were I deleaf and prune my roses, so for that reason and, of course, because it is winter even here in Southern California, there are not so many roses blooming.

One exception last month was 'Pope John Paul II', though.

This beauty produced one last generous winter flush...

... which I tremendously enjoyed and...

... I had to wait with the pruning until it was over.

I know, I have praised this rose repeatedly on my blog,...

... but it is such an outstanding performer, that I think it is worth to point out its good qualities one more time. 

Besides that it is very floriferous, especially for a Hybrid Tea rose, it amazes me that each bloom seems to be perfect from the opening of the bud to the stage where it is slightly beyond its prime, as you can see in these photos. 

Even the whole bush is not looking too bad for the winter time.

The two last roses of 'Belinda's Dream',...

...which actually completely stopped blooming after these two flowers were spent.

'Madame Alfred Carriere', classified as a Tea Noisette, in the background to the left and 'Georgetown Tea', a Tea Rose, in the foreground in the middle of the photo, have been a big disappointment this winter. Both roses are exceptions in comparison to all the others shown here today, as roses belonging to these rose classes are supposed to bloom over the winter time in our mild climate, but they obviously didn't.

I fed them with rose fertilizer around the middle of January...

... and even put a whole tray of "homemade" nutrient rich worm castings from our very own worm bin to their feet, but nothing has changed so far. 

They may need a second dose of fertilizer or the drought is to blame for their lack of blooms. 

Another rose that also produced one last gorgeous bloom was 'Moonstone'.

At the same time 'Moonstone' is the rose, that out of all my roses, is plagued the most by rose rust this winter. The photo above shows the underside of a leave of this rose at the time I deleafed it. Deleafing is not my favorite garden task, but for obvious reasons, this one I actually couldn't wait to deleaf and prune!

'Irresistible' also gave me some nice flowers during January. 

Despite the blooms that I am showing in this post, most of my roses looked like 'Pierre de Ronsard, the one on the photo above, last month.

The last blooms of 'Sweetness'...,

... before the winter rest.

Not a great photo, but I am very excited about this bud. It was one of the very first new buds of the year 2015 and belongs to 'Captain Christy', an older relatively rare Hybrid Tea rose. The rose is not a very vigorous grower by any means and I almost lost it due to the heat last summer. I deleafed it (there was nothing to prune, yet!) and planted it from a two gallon black plastic pot into a big terracotta container to keep the roots cooler this year and it has responded by leaving out and producing four buds. I know that rose is still not out of the woods yet, but so far it looks good. 

I hope all my American readers have enjoyed a nice, long, restful President's Day weekend! I certainly did and was happy to fit in a bit of gardening as well.  

See you in the garden!

Christina

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