Tweaking a Garden Bed

By the end of November last year I truly felt that this garden bed needed some attention. I wanted to work on it for a long time and finally decided to get started.

In the space between the Pygmy Date Palm, phoenix roebelenii, and the rose in the container to the left I had originally planted 'Zephirine Drouhin', a Bourbon climbing rose (I dedicated a full post to this rose, if you would like to read it, please click here), which I absolutely loved in spring. It was just spectacular and the fragrance to die for. But despite my best efforts to water and fertilize it, the rose only wanted to be a once bloomer. Since my garden is small and I can get up to four flushes out of repeat blooming roses in one year, I was wondering for a long time if I should remove the rose and replace it with a repeat blooming one, but never had the heart to rip it out. I wanted to grow 'Zephirine Drouhin' as a free standing shrub rose, but unfortunately I had planted it way to close to the Pygmy Date Palm (What was I thinking?). Over the years the rose grew pretty big and also the palm grew more and more to the left side. I ended up with a rose climbing into the palm in a very messy way and didn't liked the look. Realizing that I never would be completely happy with 'Zephirine Drouhin' in this location, this insight finally helped me to take action and remove her.

But I would like to say, if I had a bigger garden I would plant her immediately again, and I can only encourage everyone, who can accept the fact that she is primarily a once bloomer to try out this wonderful rose.

I had placed two containers with roses to the left side of the Pygmy Date Palm to see how they would fare in this space, since it is a place with dappled shade part of the day.

One was 'Belinda's Dream', a pink shrub rose, which I had read very good things about. She flowered well in this spot and was able to fully develop her big sumptuous blooms.

The other rose was 'Frederic Mistral', a pink, very strongly scented Hybrid Tea rose. I didn't like the flower shape of 'Frederic Mistral' much. The unfavorable bloom form might have to do with the fact that the rose was not able to open the flowers properly because of too low light conditions. 'Frederic Mistral' also seemed to have a vase shape growing habbit, whereas 'Belinda's Dream' grows more informally like a shrub, which I also liked better for that location. So the decision was made to plant 'Belinda's Dream' there.

The Pygmy Date Palm was due for pruning and fertilizing. It doesn't show that well on the photo, but it had many yellow fronds and old seed stalks that needed to be removed. I was surprised when I started gardening here in San Diego that in general palms need to be fertilized as well, since when you don't feed them the fronds easily take on a very sickly looking light green or even yellow color.

Same Pygmy Date Palm after pruning and fertilizing. Even though it isn't that obvious on the image, the overall impression is the one of a much "greener" palm and you can see the different "heads" more distinctly. So much better in my eyes!

In the spot where 'Zephrine Drouhin' once grew (the area to the right of the container where there is a little depression in the ground and where the weeds and new rose shoots come up), thorough weeding and also the attempt to dig out all the old rose roots was necessary.

Last year I planted two white flowering campanula (sorry, I don't know the exact name of the variety) to the left and right side of the Pygmy Date Palm. They have grown in nicely and started to spread a little. They needed fertilizer as well.

The rose to the right side of the Pygmy Date Palm is 'Pierre de Ronsard', one of my favorite shrub roses. This one also needed to be deleafed, pruned, fertilized, and mulched to bloom well in spring.




'Pierre de Ronsard' after deleafing and pruning. The rose looks quite bare on this photo, but that has changed very fast. While pruning, to my surprise, I noticed that 'Pierre de Ronsard' had produced basal canes on the other side of the fence as well. My husband was so nice to jump the fence and deleaf and prune him from that side, too.

I decided to plant 'Belinda's Dream' more over to the left than 'Zephirine Drouhine' had been situated, so that I wouldn't run into the same problem again, that this rose was growing too much into the Pygmy Date Palm, too. Now it is planted much closer to the big Queen Palm. Even though it will be tough for any rose to compete with the giant palm, I believe, that 'Belinda's Dream' is vigorous enough to grow there and do well, but only time will tell. The gardener was commissioned to dig a three feet wide and two feet deep hole. As usual, where I wanted to plant the rose there was an irrigation pipe buried in the ground, but at least it was placed a little bit to the side of the hole so that I still could plant the rose where I initially wanted it to be.

I deleafed and very gently shaped 'Belinda's Dream' and then she was ready to be planted in the big rose hole. She got fertilized with organic rose fertilizer and alfalfa meal. I still love when I am able to plant a new rose! I am curious to see how long it will take until she is flowering, again.

After I did all the things described so far I mulched the bed well with compost and even though it looked better, it was bare.




I intend to plant more perennials there, but for a quick solution I decided to plant white pansies. The variety is called 'Crown White'. They came only in six packs and therefore are very small, but I hope they will grow in nicely and give the bed a little bit of cheer.

You may have noticed in the photo above between the Pygmy Date Palm and 'Belinda's Dream' that there is something green, which is not a plant. We are clearing out our garage and I found this base for a gazing ball, which I have bought a long time ago. I believe I also bought a fitting gazing ball, which hasn't shown up yet, but I am still hopeful that I will find it soon.

'Belinda's Dream' is only in the ground since about a month, but has actively started to grow. If you scroll up and compare this picture with the one when the rose was just planted, you certainly can notice a difference. Our unusual warm winter weather is surely contributing to this pretty fast growth process.

So far the pansies are happy but I really have to watch out for them and make sure that they are not over- or underwatered. They need to be watered at least every other day right now with our crazy temperatures being in the upper 70 to low 80 F (28 - 30 C).

'Pierre de Ronsard' has leafed out already, too. Each day you can see a difference! Looks like we will get a very early spring this year.

I like the plain, pure white pansies quite a bit. Last year I had bought some white ones with a dark center, but I prefer these ones very much over those.

Pansies are usually a short lived pleasure here, because it becomes hot very early in spring and they don't like that, but since I love them so much, to plant at least a few each year is still worth it for me!

I had my third blog anniversary in the beginning of this year and wanted to thank each and everyone for visiting! It feels so good to know that my blog is read by you. Also many thanks to the ones, who in addition to visiting were leaving kind and helpful comments. You bring a lot of joy into my life! I hope you will stick around and continue to follow the happenings in my own garden, enjoy the roses, and visit other beautiful public and private gardens with me.

See you in the garden!

Christina

March Roses

In the last one and a half weeks of this month some of my roses have been starting their spring flush. It is so nice to see roses blooming in the garden again, even though there are just a few flowers open yet, but with each day they become more. We are having relatively cool weather here, which is nice since it makes the flowers last a lot longer on the rose bushes.

'Grandmother's Hat' receives the honor to open this blog post, because she was the first rose of the ones planted in the ground beginning to flower this spring. I am just in love with her blooms and the fragrance is very seducing, too. 

This rose is a found rose and its true identity is unclear, but it is supposed to grow very well almost everywhere in California. I just can agree with that for my garden. It is completely clean despite the fact that I planted it in a little bit of too much shade and it is growing like gangbusters. 

   

On the photo above you can see the whole rose bush. For a rose that is approximately a year in the ground 'Grandmother's Hat' has put on quite a bit of size. The longer I grow roses the more important the look of the rose bush itself becomes to me and therefore I like to see bush shots of a rose before I make a decision to buy it. So I have decided to incorporate more "whole body"- rose pictures in my posts for you, my dear readers, too. Hope you find it beneficial!

Another first rose of the season: 'Pope John Paul II'. This is my favorite white Hybrid Tea rose. He is three years in the ground now and has gained some maturity. It looks like I will be getting an incredible spring flush from this rose.

This is 'Baronne Prevost'. The blooms are so sumptuous and lovely but the rose bush itself is a disaster in my garden (click here to see it in my previous post).




A flower spray of 'Marie Pavie'. She has her home in my front yard and is almost non-stop blooming year round here in my garden. That is wonderful, of course, but by now I found out that she has one drawback. Even with the relatively low temperatures that we are having her flower petals fry easily in the sunlight and they are also extremely sensitive to water be it from the rain or from the sprinklers. So there is a lot of deadheading to do, if I want this rose to be looking nice.




'Yolande d'Aragon' also starts to open its first cluster of blooms. This Old Garden Rose is so charming and incredible fragrant. Certainly one of my favorite Hybrid Perpetual roses. 

You can see some rain damage on the petals of the first flower of 'Sweetness', but I think it is still very pretty. 

First bloom of  'Zephirine Drouhin'. I am not such a fan of the flower shape of this rose, but the fragrance is outstanding.




A real jewel of a rose is 'Reine des Violettes', another Hybrid Perpetual. The color of this one is unmatched by any other rose that I have ever seen so far. It is just a very special matte violet with gray undertones. The rose is a diva, just like you would expect from a queen, but so far I put up with it because of its incredible beautiful blooms.




The last rose that I want to present in this post is 'Moonstone', a Hybrid Tea rose. Just recently I planted it from a two gallon container into the ground and the rose is growing fairly well now. This was the first bloom this year and it was so heavy that the cane which holds it broke off. I took it in and was surprised to notice a very distinct, pleasant fragrance. There is some rust on the leaves right now, but hopefully the rose can shrug it off as it matures.

See you in the garden!

Christina

December Roses

Well, the year 2011 is coming to a close and I am happy to report that I achieved my goal and made it to have roses blooming year round even in December. However, I have to admit that this month was a difficult one for my roses. They have been plagued by any rose disease possible: powdery mildew, downy mildew, rust, and even blackspot, which is rarely seen here in Southern California. Interestingly some roses have been healthy or at least relatively healthy despite the strong disease pressure. This observation got me thinking.

I am an organic, no-spray rose gardener, but I also want beautiful, healthy roses. Since obviously some rose varieties are much more disease resistant than others, in my garden good rose selection seems to be the key for success in growing roses organically. I am afraid that next year my roses have to go through a tough rose evaluation process and only the ones that are healthy or reasonable healthy will be allowed to stay in the garden no matter how seducing their blooms might be.  

Despite the disease problems that I mentioned above some of my roses still made it to produce lovely blooms. Hope you enjoy my last roses of 2011!

'White Meidiland' was able to gift me with this beautiful bloom. It is not all that white as the name indicates, but I like the subtle coloration of the apricot blush petals in the center of the flower. As the bloom got older the rose was whitening up so to speak and took on a pure creme white color.

'Our Lady of Guadalupe', a rose workhorse in my garden even in December. All my three bushes of this variety were suffering from powdery mildew this month, but the ability of the rose to bloom is unaffected by that. This bush in particular almost looks as good as in spring.

What I really like about 'Our Lady of Guadalupe' besides the fact that it is so bloomiferous is that it is also still able to produce a reliable decent flower shape even in the low light conditions of December, which I certainly cannot say of all of my roses.

I think there is no dispute, 'Our Lady of Guadalupe' is simply a very lovely rose! One last photo to prove my point.

'Sweetness' also has been a very reliable, disease resistant bloomer for me this year. The rose smells fantastic even in winter.

One of my 'Pierre de Ronsard' roses was able to give me this cluster of blooms, whereas the other bush is not blooming at all anymore. I think it receives less light.




Another flower of 'Pierre de Ronsard' caught in the perfect moment of beauty.

A bloom of 'Vi's Violet' is a rare sight in my yard. I almost killed this little Miniature rose twice, but it always made a comeback, even though it is still tiny. But if it flowers it is so pretty. I only hope that next year it really starts to grow.  

 

'Zephirine Drouhin' was not flowering in autumn but has completely surprised me by producing a small flush in winter. The rose just smells divine. This photo was taken by my husband.

After being potted up from a two gallon container to a five gallon one, 'Moonstone' decided to show again how beautiful it can be and teased me with just one flower. The foliage is horrible diseased at this time of the year, though, and therefore I don't know if I will keep the rose despite its lovely blooms. One reason for the disease problem could be that the rose is "container stressed", which means it is sitting too long in a too small container and when it is planted into the ground it might be healthier. I think because of the beauty of the flowers I will give 'Moonstone' a chance and try to plant into the ground as soon as possible and see what happens.  

In any case, overall 2011 was a delightful rose year in my garden and I am very thankful for the beauty and pleasure that my roses have given to me.

I am wishing all of you, my dear readers, a very Happy New Year 2012, with lots of joy, love, and good health!

See you in the garden!

Christina

Rose of the Month: 'Zephirine Drouhin'

 'Zephirine Drouhin' at the peak of the spring flush 2011 in my garden.

 (you can click on the photos to enlarge)

Continuing my series of posts about a specific rose variety I will feature 'Zephirine Drouhin' today. Unfortunately I was not capable to write a post about one rose variety each month as planed for various reasons. Since I still intend to publish posts portraying one rose variety in particular from time to time I will keep the title for this series of posts in my blog even though they will not necessarily appear each month anymore.

Unfolding flower of 'Zephirine Drouhin' with water drops

'Zephirine Drouhin' is a Climbing Bourbon rose that grows in a wide range of climate zones and seems to be equally loved and hated. Many of the criticism that I have read about this rose is based on her susceptibility for various rose diseases like black spot and powdery mildew, her trait to defoliate, and not to repeat well under certain circumstances.

 

On the other hand she is loved for her abundance of blooms, her ability to bloom in flushes or even continuously (yes, this is very contrary to the fact that it is also said, that she does not repeat well!), and her strong, incredible, and unique fragrance. I myself am split in two halves when it comes to this rose. I certainly love her in spring, but I am not too fond of her at certain other times of the year. But we will come to that later...





General Information

'Zephirine Drouhin' was bred by Bizot (France, 1868). It is classified as a Bourbon Climbing Rose. The color of its blooms is a hot bright pink. The size of her flowers is approximately 3.5" (9 cm). They have 20 - 30 petals and the average diameter of the large loosely double blooms is 4". David Austin says about her flower shape: "Although the individual flowers are not particularly fine in themselves, they are produced freely." They appear as single blooms or in small clusters of 3 - 5 flowers.

 on this photo you can see a typical clusters of buds

The rose is described to have a strong, sweet, very delicious, damask fragrance and is said to bloom in flushes throughout the season. It is a tall climbing rose with matte, light green foliage. Her height is estimated to be 10' - 15' (305 to 455 cm) and the width to be 6' to 8' (185 - 245 cm). HMF lists this rose to be suitable for USDA zone 5b through 10b. The rose is vigorous and can be grown as a shrub or a climber.

My Zephirine Drouhin in spring 2009, she has grown quite a bit if you compare this photo to the ones from this year's spring.

It also has the advantage of being shade tolerant. 'Zephirine Drouhin' is known to be susceptible to black spot and powdery mildew. It is recommended to remove spent blooms to encourage re-bloom. One of her outstanding attributes is that 'Zephirine Drouhin' is almost thornless. This rose is known to be one of the earliest roses to bloom in the season and one of the last.

You often will find buds, unfolding flowers and fully opened blooms at the same time on one cane.

There are two lighter pink sports of 'Zephirine Drouhin' available: 'Kathleen Harrop' (flowers have fewer petals) and 'Marthe' (has a fuller bloom).


Personal Experience

'Zephrirne Drouhin' and I have a little bit of a complicated relationship. On the one hand she is one of the most fragrant roses that I grow in my garden and not only is her fragrance very strong, but it is also a very pleasant one to my nose not matched by any other rose that I grow. On top of this it wafts, which is very rare here because of our low humidity. She is also one of my most beautiful rose bushes in spring in terms of the overall appearance, not necessarily of the individual flower though, when she is in her first flush. My photo do not do this rose justice. You have to see a 'Zephirine Drouhin' rose in person to really be able to appreciate her beauty. It just can blow you away!

' Zephirine Drouhin' spring flush 2011

On the other hand in my garden she has periods in summer when she can be downright ugly because she gets mildew, or black spot or rust and sheds a lot of leaves for that reason. Of course, the leaves turn yellow before they fall off and that does not help with the appearance of the rose bush. Even though it is said by different sources that this rose is blooming in flushes or even continuously, mine is not. She is in her fourth year now and the re-bloom in summer has become a little better with age, but is still not anything to write home about. It is more a scattered re-bloom than a second flush.

This is how 'Zephirine Drouhin' looked just a couple of days ago.

I can attest that this rose is very vigorous once it takes off, which happened in my garden in the second year, as my photos document. I bought my rose from a local nursery and forgot what the tag said the grower was. She is most likely grafted on Dr. Huey rootstock, since that is usually the case for roses that you can buy in Southern California. Since I bury the graft of my roses, I assume that the rose is growing on her own roots by now, too. 'Zephirine Drouhin' throws up a lot of basal canes, which lets her appear lush and full. She is approximately 9' wide and 9' tall and wide by now and I have a slight suspicion that she might become much taller in Southern California than the size that is usually listed for her in rose books. I grow my rose as a fountain like shrub in a location where she is shaded by Queen Anne Palm fronds part of the day and 'Zephirine Drouhin' seems to like that. The flower color is hot pink, which is almost a little bit too bold for my taste, but the blooms fade quickly under the California sun to a more paler pink.





Basically, I grow this rose for her spectacular show in spring and even more so for her outstanding unique fragrance, which can really transport you to heaven in a second. In my small garden I do not know if I have the space for such a large rose that is only really beautiful, not to say spectacular in spring, which is just a short time of the whole growing season here in San Diego and most of the other times of the year just looks so-so. I also would prefer to see a climbing rose that gives me at least two distinctive flushes per year and is less disease susceptible.





Sometimes I catch myself thinking about replacing her with a climber or tall shrub rose that repeats better and has more healthy foliage year round. But each spring I am asking myself how I could ever even consider taking her out, because she is so breathtaking. I also have to give her credit for starting to repeat a little better over the years and her spring flush goes on for a couple of weeks.

I am curious if she will actually give me an autumn flush this year since she has matured so much more. So for now I most likely will give her another year and see how the repeat is this autumn and will at least enjoy one more breathtaking spring flush next year.

Another option could be to plant her in a less prominent location. Right now she is almost in the center spot of my backyard and there I really would love to have a rose there that performs better. One thing that I am trying this year is to fertilize her three times and also give her more water. Maybe that will improve her performance.





Even though 'Zephirine Drouhin' shows some flaws in my garden I would recommend to grow her if you have a big garden, just for the spectacular spring flush and her special perfume alone.

If you have a smaller garden you still might want to try her since this rose seems to be very temperamental how she behaves (depending probably on your climate and soil condition) and it seems to be somewhat unpredictable where she likes to grow. Who knows, she might do well for you!





Unfortunately, my experience has been that since she is a climber you have to give her even longer than the usual three years to really find out how she is performing in your garden. So you have to be patient with this rose to allow her to develop her full potential, but I feel that if you garden you have to learn to be patient anyway. In my garden 'Zephirine Drouhin' will stay a little longer, at least for now!

 'Zephirine Drouhin' a little bit past her peak spring 2011

Not related to the topic of this particular post, but still very worth mentioning to me is the fact that between the last post and this one I crossed the line of my first ten thousand pageviews (You can find the counter at the sidebar of my blog). So I just would like to take the chance to thank my visitors for reading my blog, looking at my photos, becoming followers, and even leaving kind comments on my blog. If it weren't for you, it would not make sense that I would write and photograph for this blog at all. It is so much fun for me to share my own garden experience here in San Diego, California with you, dear readers, but also let you participate in my visits of other public and private gardens close and abroad. A heartfelt thanks to all of you out there! I am looking forward to continue this journey together with you!

See you in the garden!

Christina