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

Late Summer Garden Tour

Last Sunday I broadcasted another video on Periscope that I would like to share with you here as well. That day, when I taped the video, it was still boiling hot in San Diego, but Tuesday we finally got a good amount of rain and the temperatures came down a bit and instantly the whole atmosphere in the garden changed for a brief time and it felt really autumn-ish. But we are back to hot temperatures by now, again.

In this video I am focusing again on plants that do well in my garden despite the heat, but also on plants that really failed in my climate. Your will see a few roses: 'Our Lady of Guadalupe', 'Lavender Crystal', 'White Meidiland', 'Neptune' and a few others varieties as well. I also touch on some other plants like for example the white flowering dianthus 'Floral Lace White', the daylily 'Siloam Double Classic Pink', alstroemeria Princess Lilies 'Claire' and dichondra sericea 'Silver Ponyfoot', a favorite ground cover of mine, and some more.

I am also talking about fertilizing roses with fish fertilizer and recommend a brand that works well for me in my garden.

I hope you enjoyed the tour and, if you are gardening in a similar climate, got some tips with regards to which plants could do well for you in your own garden and which ones may not. Thanks for watching my video!

See you in the garden!

Christina

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

Garden Activities

January is the month where I am mainly busy with rose pruning in the garden. Since my roses have grown significantly over the last five years and I have planted more and more of them, it has become quite a bit of a task that feels overwhelming to me at times. Therefore I intended to use the holiday week at the end of last year to get a head start, but the weather was just nasty, cold with a lot of rain, so hardly anything happened. On the photo below you see the beginning of the pruning. The first rose I tackled was 'Our Lady of Guadalupe', which looked like her twin in the foreground before I pruned and deleaved it.

Consequently I have to get all my rose pruning done this month as usual. I seem to be more behind than ever, but I will just focus on the rose in front of me and not think of the rest and see how far I come. It always feels so satisfying when I finished one rose and I am filled with anticipation of the new fresh spring growth and beautiful blooms to come. 




Besides that I am working on another garden project. My husband and I cleared the bed between the two giant Strelitzia nicolai. That was not too difficult, since most of the plants have been in containers and just had to be moved. To the very right was a hydrangea 'Endless Summer' planted into the ground, which died for some unknown reason and had to be discarded.

 Then the gardener installed sprinklers in that section and dug big holes for us.

My husband and I planted an unidentified hydrangea to the very right, which looks like nothing at the moment to replace the dead one and...

...put in a repeat blooming hydrangea 'Penny Mac' in the hole to the very left to replace a Geranium maderense, that is a binial and had died as well.




Not much visual change is achieved by now, but I hope when we have planted two more camellias and most likely a gardenia in the middle of the bed it will be more appealing. By the way, we are basically repeating the planting scheme that was there before. Now that we have irrigation in place I assume that the plants will grow much better and I am definitively relieved that I have to water one area less by hand. If you want to see the bed how it looked in January 2011 after we tried to do a "quick fix" until we could get to re-do it properly, please click here.

Unfortunately I haven't made much progress in the White Garden Bed. But at least I found the silver gazing ball that was still hidden in a moving box. I am pleased to say that the amaryllis belladonna bulbs 'Fred Meyer Whites', common name N---- Lady's, that I planted in April 2012 have filled in nicely. Even though the lamb's ears in the foreground are not looking at their best right now, I am happy that I am finally getting the layered look that I always wanted to achieve.

It is amazing to me, how clearly the gazing ball reflects large parts of the backyard. Each time when the sun hits it in the morning it lights up and is a real eye catcher. I just love it!

We had unusually cold temperatures lately and I covered my Cymbidium orchids and other tender tropical plants with bed linens trying to help them survive a possible frost.

The orchids and even their emerging flower stalks came through the cold spell just fine, but I got it done to break off the tips of two flower stalks when I removed the bed linens one morning. I was really mad at myself and thought the orchids would probably have done better, if I wouldn't have covered them. Oh well, at least I tried!

 

In the bed by our front door there was a gap between the cycad and the small decorative wall, which always bugged me. So I decided that it was finally time to change that. It is a little bit of a shady place for a rose, but I decided to plant one anyway and see how it does, because I don't have too many spaces left were I can plant a rose, but many more roses in my pot ghetto. If it doesn't work I can always move it. Even though I have to admit, I hate doing that.

When the gardener dug the hole, we were in for an unpleasant surprise. Plenty of pipes! Luckily he didn't cut through any of them with the spade while digging. I still decided to go ahead and follow through with my original idea to plant a rose here. I think, the roots will not be strong enough to damage the pipes and I hope they can grow around them so that the rose can root in firmly and be happy.

Now what rose should I plant? My choice fell on 'White Meidland', which has been waiting to get planted in my pot ghetto for quite a while already. This rose is supposed to be somewhat shade tolerant, so I hope it will thrive in the chosen area. I think, it will look great with 'The Prince', the deep crimson colored rose to its left and the blue flowering geranium 'Rozanne' in the foreground. 'White Meidiland' doesn't impress right now, but I think it could be a winner.

After I deleaved it, it looks even more puny, but I think it will take off once it is in the ground.




Again, not much visual change right now after the rose is planted, you almost have to get a magnifying glass to find it, but at least the hole is filled. I hope in a few months this part of the bed will look much nicer.

That summed up the garden activities that have taken place here lately. It is not too much, I know, but I am happy about every step that I am able to make to maintain and develop our little green paradise even further.

See you in the garden!

Christina