Showing posts with label rosa 'Belinda's Dream'. Show all posts
Showing posts with label rosa 'Belinda's Dream'. Show all posts

Wednesday, March 8, 2017

February Roses

As expected there weren't many roses blooming in my garden in the month of February, as a matter of fact, this is the month where I have the least blooms for seasonal reasons. And that is OK since even the roses need a break once a year to regain their strength to produce their wonderful spring flush. But the garden had already plenty of rose buds to offer, which I really enjoyed looking at. Even though they are all rose buds, they appear in so many different shapes and forms depending on the rose variety, which I find quite fascinating.

We had plenty of rain in February which after the five years of drought in California is absolutely delightful. But with the all the rain accompanied by plenty of gray days powdery mildew and rose rust, the for our area most common rose diseases, were on the rise. In my no-spray rose garden I don't do anything about them just observe the roses closely and in the long run ruthlessly get rid of the rose varieties that are disease prone in my climate.



Rosa 'Belinda's Dream' produced beautiful roses despite the weather, but through all the rain the outer rose petals became brown and mushy. So I cut some rose flowers at an early stage and brought them indoors to enjoy up close.



Here is one example of the little informal plonks that I get so much joy from. The roses are 'Belinda's Dream', the dainty small pink flowers are from hardy geranium 'Biokovo' and the little sprig of green filler is from a store bought bouquet that I posted about here. 

I noticed that usually the green fillers last much longer in florist bouquets then the flowers themselves and I think it is a good idea to reuse them in arrangements consisting out of flowers cut from my own garden again. That comes especially handy in my case since I don't have so many plants growing in my garden whose foliage can be used as filler greens in garden bouquets.  



Rosa 'Marie Pavie' had set the most buds already and I am sure she will be my first rose this year to break out into her spring flush. The fresh light green buds together with all the healthy new foliage of this rose are a joy to look at. 



I love how the buds of 'Marie Pavie' stand out against the gray backdrop of my Queen Palm trunk. 



Bud of rosa 'Bewitched' revealing already its saturated clear pink color. 



Another shot of rosa 'Bewitched' caught in the moment when the sepals of the bud peel back already. Now it won't take long anymore until the rose bloom will fully open. 



This is one of the new rose babies from last year, rosa 'Gruss an Aachen'. It also seems to be wanting to be an early bloomer, but unfortunately, the rose has suffered from powdery mildew quite a bit last month. 



The rose that was blooming the most already is 'Madame Alfred Carriere'. I am just so in love with this one. And the fact that she is able to bloom in the winter time makes her even more precious.



I find the cream-white blooms with the blush pink shading are simply irresistible. There is just one catch in my garden. The rose is planted in quite a bit of shade and therefore is turning her blooms to face the sunlight, which is away from the garden. So what I get to see mostly are their backs. But even in this perspective, they are very beautiful.



To me, the flowers of 'Madame Alfred Carriere' have a very old fashioned feel. They are a little informal and appear almost translucent. They are also wonderful as cut flowers (see my New Year's bouquet of 'Madame Alfred Carriere' here) but they don't last all that long in the vase. That can be forgiven though since I get so many blooms that I can replenish my vases easily.



Rosa 'Pope John Paul II' is also producing new buds already. This rose was always one of the healthiest in my garden, but it is not responding well to all the rain. Unfortunately, for the first time, it has some rose rust. So I guess if you are living a wetter humid climate this rose might not be the one for you.



Next up is rosa 'Grandmother's Hat'. Do you notice the exceptionally long and big sepals? I think they give the rose buds a very elegant appearance. 



This is rosa 'Souvenir de la Malmaison'. I want to grow this rose so badly, because I have seen absolutely wonderful photos of its blooms, but it doesn't look very promising. Also new to my garden from last year so far it is a very puny little plant to begin with and it is suffering from black spot, which is a little unusual for my area. When I got the plant as a rose band there were two cutting that had rooted in the pot. By now one seems to have died and the other one seems to be a weak one, too.

In addition to all that is being said before, I would like to share that this is already my second trial with this rose. This first rose band died after a short time. Even though in general Bourbon roses, the rose class this rose belongs to, should thrive in my climate, but 'Souvenir de la Malmaison' does not seem to follow this rule.

I am curious, dear readers, what is your experience with growing rosa 'Souvenir de la Malmaison'? Is this rose doing well for you or does it give you trouble, too?



Quite the opposite to the previous rose, 'Rhodologue Jules Gravereaux' is doing excellent in my garden. The flowers of this Tea rose are always exquisite and I am looking forward to seeing this bud fully open.



The last rose that I am featuring in today's post is 'Captain Christy', one of the rare old Hybrid Tea roses. 




And here you see the rose in the bud stage. I love how the rain droplets are lining up on the edge of the biggest sepal. 



'Captain Christy' also has a more informal bloom form which I think is very charming and its light pink color is one of my favorites in the rose kingdom. Sadly, the plant itself is a weak grower, which I tried to nurse along in a container for a long time, but the vigor doesn't improve. Mine is an own-root rose and I think to cultivate this one successfully it needs to be grafted on a more vigorous root stock.

I am sure that next month I will have already quite a few roses blooming and I am looking very much forward to that. We are expecting a very warm week with highest temperatures reaching 83 degrees Fahrenheit/28 degrees Celsius, which will push the rose buds to open up very quickly.

Thanks for your visit, I hope you have enjoyed my monthly rose report and read it with interest.

See you in the garden!

Warm regards,

Christina



I am linking up to 
French Country Cottage - Feathered Nest Friday
Shabby Art Boutique - Create, Bake, Grow & Gather
How Sweet The Sound - "Anything Goes" Pink Saturday
Rattlebridge Farm - Foodie Friday and Everything Else
One More Time - Share It One More Time
My Soulful Home - Sundays at Home
Angie The Freckled Rose - Dishing It & Digging It
botanic bleu - Monday Social
Dwellings - The Heart of Your Home - Amaze Me Monday
Coastal Charm - Show and Share
Between Naps On The Porch - Metamorphosis Monday
Cedar Hill Farmhouse - The Scoop
Savvy Southern Style - Wow Us Wednesdays
A Southern Daydreamer - Outdoor Wednesday
Have a Daily Cup of Mrs. Olson - Share Your Cup
21 Rosemary Lane - Share Your Style
A Delightsome Life - Home and Garden Thursday
Peonies and Orange Blossoms - Thursday Favorite Things




Posted by at 31 comments:
Labels: , , , , , , ,

Saturday, February 11, 2017

January Roses

Rose pickings were unusually slim this January and as most gardeners would do I was trying to understand what the causes were for that. One reason was pretty clear: Normally I push the roses still growing in containers to continue to produce blooms throughout the winter by fertilizing very late in the year. I also don't prune them in January, which is the proper winter pruning time for roses here in Southern California. Last year I didn't get around to give the potted roses a late fertilizer application and I paid the price for it since they mostly stopped blooming because of that.

I was very disappointed, baffled and surprised though that 'Georgetown Tea', a Tea Rose and 'Madame Alfred Carriere', a Tea Noisette Rose were not flowering this January. Genetically these roses have the potential to bloom through the winter in our climate and neither of them did this year. That is quite puzzling to me and the only reason I can think of is that they didn't have enough fertilizer either even though these roses I did fertilize in December the last time. I believe that the root competition with the palm trees which are growing nearby is simply too strong and that I didn't put down enough organic fertilizer for them to be able to bloom.

Anyway, I thoroughly enjoyed each rose flower that I got from my garden last month and I hope you do vicariously through the photos, too.



My best bloomer was rosa 'Pope John Paul II'. In the winter time because of the cooler temperatures the rose produces light green buds, that later turn into pure white flowers.



I am completely crazy for these light green shades in the bud stage of this rose. I think they look so elegant.



I only have seen this coveted green tint in florist roses, but not in roses that you can grow in your own garden. There is only one exception and that is rosa 'John F. Kennedy', which I had in my previous garden in Menlo Park, California. Unfortunately, it was such a weak and sickly rose that I hardly got any blooms from it and for that reason, I didn't acquire this rose for my new garden in San Diego again. 

If you know of any garden roses that have this green tint in the bud stage or even in an open flower, please share the name of the variety with me. I am more than happy to try it out in my garden.



This bloom is a little further open and you see that it has almost lost the green shimmer on its petals and it is turning into a white rose.



Here is one fully open bloom. 'Pope John Paul II' is a very healthy and floriferous Hybrid Tea rose in my climate. And if this weren't enough he smells heavenly of citrus.



Rosa 'Belinda's Dream' seen from the side.



A bud of rosa 'Bewitched'. I love that the tips of the sepals are red picking up the color of the bud and that they curl down in this noble way. 



The last bloom of rosa 'Auckland Metro' from the winter flush.



A little pale in the face: Rosa 'Mary Rose', a rose bred by the famous English rose breeder David Austin. She is also growing in a container and ran out of food, which I believe contributed to the uncommon very light pink color. 



This is rosa 'Neptune' a mauve, lavender colored Hybrid Tea rose. I have a soft spot for lavender colored roses. To me, they are the real rose divas, not because they are especially difficult to grow, but because this color simply wants to stand out and doesn't blend well with other rose colors except white in my opinion.

I grow many soft pink roses in my garden and think the lavender looks awful together with them. So I guess in the future I have to devote an extra rose bed to the lavender roses only filled with companions that they are willing to tolerate at their side.



'Neptune' had trouble to open properly in the low light intensity conditions in January, a problem which I also have observed in others of my roses. 



Same bloom a little bit more open, but still lopsided.



But finally, he got his act together and opened up more regularly. I recall cutting two of the blooms of this rose before heavy rainfall set in and they looked so lovely on our dining room table and smelled divine.

We truly had plenty of rain in January, which is absolutely wonderful after so many years of drought. It continued into February so far and more is in the forecast, which all calls for a fabulous rose spring flush. As for the February roses, however, I guess there might be even less than there have been in January, but you never know, the roses might surprise me. Find out when I blog about the roses that have bloomed in February in the beginning of next month.

See you in the garden!

Warm regards,

Christina





Posted by at 31 comments:
Labels: , , , , , , , ,

Sunday, January 15, 2017

December Roses

All the rain that we were having here in Southern California in December brought the roses back to live after more than five years of severe drought and many were blooming beautifully again. Hence I would like to resume my habit to show you which roses have been flowering in my garden in the last month. I have to say, though, that there were more roses flowering, I just chose the ones of which I got a good photo for this post. So here they come!



I am really happy with this picture of rosa 'Auckland Metro'. I shot it while venturing outside between rain showers. The bloom is drenched in natural rain drops. I feel somehow the roses can withstand natural rain better than irrigation water. It might have to do with all the chemicals that are put in the drinking water nowadays.



Here is a bud of 'Auckland Metro'.



And another rain shot.



'Grandmother's Hat' showing a lovely, saturated, pink color in the cooler weather that we finally had in December.



The buds of rosa 'Bewitched' are particular elongated and always very elegant.



The fact that rosa 'Iceberg' is very common and easy to grow in California, doesn't diminish the beauty of 'Iceberg' in my eyes.



Another shot of 'Iceberg'.



I like how the sun back-lits the flowers of 'Iceberg' in this photo.



Certainly one of my most unusual roses is 'Nimbus'. The mauve color of this rose has a very brownish tint, which makes it quite special.



What do you think? Isn't the subtle coloration of 'Nimbus' to die for? 



The noble rosa 'Pope John Paul II'. One of my all time favorites!



Fully open flower of 'Pope John Paul II'. A little bit tattered by the rain. White roses always seem to be the most vulnerable to the exposure of water on their petals.



The Tea Rose, 'Georgetown Tea' was especially floriferous last month. 



Close-up of a bloom of 'Georgetown Tea'.



Another image of the bush of  'Georgetown Tea'.



Rosa 'Moonstone' lovely, huge flowers on a very sickly bush.



Small spray of rosa 'Piere de Ronsard'.



The same spray later with one fully open bloom. 



One rose that was absolutely outstanding last month is 'Belinda's Dream'.



I am so in love with the pale pink, perfectly formed, big blooms of this rose.



Above is a bush shot of 'Belinda's Dream'. The winter flush was almost as prolific as you would expect it to be in spring.



Some more images of 'Belinda's Dream', just because this rose is so incredible beautiful and I wanted to show you the different facets of it.








I hope seeing the photos of my December roses brought a bit of joy to you, my dear readers, but especially to those, who are suffering from a cold winter. I know how harsh the winter can be from my many years of living in Berlin, Germany, and really feel for you!

See you in the garden!

Warm regards,

Christina

Posted by at 24 comments:
Labels: , , , , , , , ,
Subscribe to: Posts (Atom)