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

December Roses

Somehow last month the pale pink, pink, off-white or white roses have captivated my attention. I think I will never get tired of these soft muted colors.

The most beautiful rose that was blooming last month, with no doubt, was 'Belinda's Dream'.

I bought this slightly pink Hyacinth forcing glass last autumn and I love to us it as a vase for pink roses. There is something about how the tinted glass picks up the pink hues of the roses.

To me the pale pink very full flowers of 'Belinda's Dream' are irresistible. 

'Mary Rose' with her easy going, unpretentious, happy blooms.

'Mary Rose'

My 'Climbing Iceberg' was also blooming profusely last month.

A rose that didn't bloom much, but managed to churn out a few of her gorgeous blooms, after generously being fertilized a few weeks ago, is 'Georgetown Tea'.

'Georgetown Tea', again. Here is the flower a little bit more open.

I love how the out petals fold backwards in the mature rose flowers of 'Georgetown Tea'. So graceful!

'Moonstone' bud.

Only can admire the elegance of the buds of this rose!

A rare sight in my garden: A bloom of 'Captain Christy'. Unfortunately the rose is still a very weak grower and mildews. But the old fashioned charm of the blooms is quite enchanting. 

'Our Lady of Guadalupe' in the winter morning sun.

Same rose photographed under different light conditions. 

'Our Lady of Guadalupe', once again in the morning sun. This rose is one of my most profuse bloomers and has one the quickest repeat. But it mildews since I have it (probably five years or longer) under certain conditions regularly. I know I can have completely or almost completely disease resistant roses in my garden and even though it is a pretty rose I am considering to take it out and try another variety instead.   

But when 'Our Lady of Guadalupe' is good, it is really good. 

'Marie Pavie' a rose that never fails to mesmerize me with her delicate charm. 

'Pierre de Ronsard' looking down on me against the clear blue California winter sky.

'Pretty Jessica' is not a generous bloomer in my garden, but I love her color, form of the blooms and her delicious fragrance. On top of that this rose is completely healthy year round. 

Hope you enjoyed to see some roses, that were blooming last December in my garden. I know that most of my readers are facing a very different garden reality at this time of the year. Wishing you that winter is not too hard on you or your plants.

See you in the garden!

Christina

I am linking to 

Rose Garden Malevik

Bernideen's Tea Time, Cottage and Garden

Garden Tour: Roses and other Happenings...

Work has gotten the better of me, again and for that reason the blog had to be somewhat abandoned. But here I am today with a new Periscope video for you.

It is another tour through my garden and I am looking predominately at roses that were still in bloom when the video was taken about three weeks ago, but also checked on other plants that were recently planted. At the time when I shot the Periscope video, my gardener was trying to open up a clogged drain in our front yard to get our property ready for a hopefully generous El Nino (Winter rains), so you see a little bit of that, too.

Hope you enjoy having a look!

As always, thanks for watching! I would love, if you could take the time and leave a comment!

See you in the garden!

Christina


Thanks for hosting Hakan

October Roses

Sorry for coming in a little late with the post about the roses that bloomed in October. My recent trip has delayed the writing and publishing of this post.

In general October is a good rose month here in San Diego. Because of the cooler autumn temperatures the roses are often able to produce very beautiful blooms. This year October was an unusual warm month though, but some roses still managed to flower generously.

In my eyes 'Pierre de Ronsard' beat all other roses by far with the extraordinary beauty of his blooms.

Each flower of this rose seems to be a masterpiece.

The blooms are huge, I would guess four inches (about 10 centimeter) in diameter.  

Here is the rose in her full glory last month. I would estimate that the bush is twelve feet wide (about 3.5 meters) and eight feet high (about 2,5 meters). No wonder that is it able to produce these good size flowers. I can't image how big the rose would be, if it wouldn't be growing in severe root competition with my Queen Palms from the right and the Pygmy Date Palm from the left. I also think that in addition to that our very humble annual rain fall in the last four years and the drastic water restrictions limit the ultimate size of the rose. 

The first set of close-up pictures of the blooms of 'Pierre de Ronsard' in this post was taken in the morning light and the colors of the rose blooms are much more muted at that time of the day, but when our intense sun hits them fully later the pink can take on a wonderful warm glowing hue like in the photo above.

I just love my 'Pierre de Ronsard'!

'The Prince' has been a very reliable rose for me in the last couple of months and was also not letting me down in October. 

With the cooler temperatures the color of the rose becomes darker and the blooms take on this royal dark red, which can even turn into a very dark purple red.

My favorite Tea rose 'Rhodologue Jules Gravereaux' gave me some of its perfect Tea rose formed blooms. What is not to love?

'White Meidiland' becomes more and more comfortable in its dark spot in my front yard. I am still amazed that the rose is able to bloom in so much shade and also that it is completely healthy there. I can't imagine how well it would do in more sun. You really look for such good disease resistance in a rose like in this one.

'Belinda's Dream' pleases with picture perfect Hybrid Tea bloom form. Unfortunately the Queen Palm close by seems to stunt the growth of the rose bush.

'Marie Pavie' always makes me happy with her delicate small blooms.

A rose of which I can post photos every month because it is so floriferous: 'Our Lady of Guadalupe'.

'Pink Pet' seemed to especially like the October weather and bloomed extra opulent.

The delicate porcelain like beauty of 'Heritage'.

Last but not least a stunningly beautiful flower of 'Lavender Crystal'. This miniature seemed to have settled in into its new spot in the front yard and bloomed a little more. You can't call it profusely yet, but I hope it is getting there.

That was it from my roses from last month. I hope you found some that were appealing to you!

See you in the garden!

Christina

Garden Tour: Roses, Verbena Bonariensis, Bearded Irises and more...

I am traveling again and hardly have any time to blog, but I wanted at least to put up a new Periscope video that I recorded about one and a half weeks ago, so that you can follow the developments in my garden.

The focus of the video is on roses that were blooming at that time, but I am also checking on other plants that I have recently planted in my garden. I will be talking about which of these plants have become successes, but also about a few that disappointingly failed in my garden.

In terms of the roses you will see the particular beautiful blooms of rosa 'Scepter'd Isle', rosa 'Grandmother's Hat', rosa 'Yolande d'Arragon' and others. I hope you got interested and come with me for a tour of my garden. To get started, please click the video below.

Thanks for watching! I am curious, what was your favorite rose featured in this video? If you can spare the time, please leave a comment and let me know.

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

May Roses

Powdery mildew and rose rust continued to be a serious problem for many of my roses in May. Rust was particularly strong in comparison to previous years, but despite that, most of the roses soldiered on and flowered beautifully.

'Rhodologue Jules Gravereaux', a Tea Rose, was my personal favorite last month. I just love the soft pink color and the elegant blooms with the edges of the petals reflexing backwards.

'Charles Darwin' stayed very healthy despite the high disease pressure.

A rose that makes a rare appearance on my blog is 'Stephen's Big Purple', a Hybrid Tea rose, with huge blooms. The plant is still growing in a two gallon pot and that might be one reason why it is not blooming that often. For my taste the color is a little bit too bright and rather a dark pink than a purple as the name promises. If I ever plant it out into the ground, I definitively need "to tone the color down" by companion plants. 

'Belinda's Dream' is supposed to do well in hot and dry climates and it does in my garden. It is planted very close to a big 'Queen Palm' and I assume for that reason is not as vigorous as expected.

Here is another shot of 'Belinda's Dream'. I like the particular pink color of this rose very much.

'Marie Pavie', as usual, is outdoing itself with flowering.

'Our Lady of Guadalupe' is also hard to beat in terms of flower power.

In my opinion the silvery pink color is very pretty.

'Reine des Violettes' at her best! This rose has a very lovely fragrance as well, fitting for an Old Garden Rose.

'Georgetown Tea', as the name indicates a Tea Rose, has a beautiful veining on the petals. Unfortunately, the rose blooms fry very easily when it is hot in San Diego and a whole flush can be ruined within hours on hot days.

'Auckland Metro' continues to be a good rose in my garden, but even though the bush normally has been very healthy, this year it also got affected by rose rust.

The rose was still blooming strongly despite the disease present on the leaves.

'Heritage' was one of the worst mildewers and rusters! If the blooms weren't so beautiful...

...I would have discarded the rose by now, already.

The blooms of 'The Prince' continue to fascinate me with their dark red captivating color and their strong "Old Garden Rose" fragrance.

The bush itself (here you can see it in my front yard in the middle of the photo) is less delightful, though. The plant is tall and has a narrow silhouette, not necessarily a pleasing bush form to the eye. The rose also suffers badly from powdery mildew in my garden and seemed to be weakened by the fungal infection.

By the way, do you see my violet gladiolus behind 'The Prince'? They have been outstanding this year and I really like how they back up 'The Prince' and fit in with the blue color scheme of the front yard.

The flowers of 'The Prince' are one of a kind, no matter what the flaws of the bush might be, they are stunningly beautiful.

I am finishing this post with a photo of 'Sweetness', a Grandiflora, photographed under gray skies. The light brought out the clear lavender color of this rose perfectly that day. 

Wishing you wonderful last days of spring!

See you in the garden!

Christina