July Roses

Sorry for coming in a bit late with my monthly post about the most beautiful roses that have been blooming in my garden, but here it finally is.

July is traditionally a tough month for the roses to bloom well here in San Diego inland, since most of the time it is way too hot for them to be comfortable. But despite the seasonal challenge and my neglect of not fertilizing the roses since spring, I got plenty of wonderful blooms. There were many more, than I show here in this post, but unfortunately I couldn't make the time to photograph them all. Lily, our little Doberman puppy girl, still keeps me pretty occupied!

Rosa 'Charles Darwin', a beautiful yellow David Austin rose, was a total standout in July!

It produced the most blooms out of all my roses last month and therefore gets the honor of opening this blog post. 

What I love about this rose is that it coloration is so changeable, even though I know that this trait drives some other people crazy.

But whatever its color is, it is never garish like some other yellow roses can be. Most of the time it is a muted warm yellow in my garden with hints of apricot fading to a very light almost cream yellow. But it can be a strong saturated golden yellow or beige as well.  

In addition to the beautiful coloration this rose has a warm fruity fragrance that I love very much. 

The blooms are very full and still have a decent size despite the heat. This is one of the few rose varieties in my garden that I have two specimen of, because it is such an outstanding rose. I enjoy them very much!

The reliable, very floriferous rosa 'Our Lady of Guadalupe'. If only this rose wouldn't be so powdery mildew ridden in my garden...

Another rose that I was very impressed with last month is 'Pretty Jessica'. I think this rose is having her best year ever. I am in love with the beautiful shade of cool pink of the rose and adore the cabbage shape of the flowers.

So far it never bloomed much in my garden, but maybe it is finally established enough to churn out a more decent amount of flowers. Fragrance is absolutely wonderful, too!

It always surprises me, that this rose is not more popular. David Austin himself, even though it is his creation, is not selling this rose anymore and I would be very interested to know why. 

Another rose that did astonishingly well in the heat of July was 'Pierre de Ronsard'. The summer flush was almost as good as the one in spring. Simply gorgeous!

The individual blooms of 'Pierre de Ronsard' are very stunning, too. All in all a wonderful rose in my garden, but it does get bugged by rose rust, if the weather conditions are right.

My husband did this shot of rosa 'Pink Pet'. It lets the bloom appear much bigger than it is in reality, but it shows how complex the small flowers of this cute, little but tough, rose really are, if you are looking closely at them. 

Rosa 'Rhodologue Jules Gravereaux' one of my most favorite Tea rose.

The Hybrid Tea rose 'Chandos Beauty' showing off her pretty blooms. I like the background in this photo. It complements the colors of 'Chandos Beauty' so well.

Zooming in on the flower spray of 'Chandos Beauty'.

Rosa 'White Meidiland' is planted in a very shady spot in my garden, where almost no other rose would do. But this one is able to flower well there and its leaves are completely healthy. So if you are looking for a rose that can take quite a bit of shade, this one might be your ticket. Just have in mind, that it has a very unique, low growing, sprawling growth habit.

The individual flower sprays are little bouquets in themselves.

Freshly cut flowers of rosa 'Mary Rose' on a very hot day. They are just plonked in a Guinness glass, to be brought indoors and arranged more carefully into a little bouquet. I never got around to take a photo of the finished bouquet, but I think this little informal plonk is worth making it on my blog.

It has been awfully hot here in the last three days (around 96 degrees F/36 degrees Celsius) and I am looking forward to the temperatures cooling down from tomorrow on, again. At least that is what they are supposed too...

I hope your summer is going well, no matter where you are!

See you in the garden!

Christina

March Roses

The roses have been doing really well last month. I think they appreciated the rain that they got in March and also enjoyed the, for our climate, relatively cool temperatures. One variety after the other started to open its blooms and some reached their peak by the end of the month.

Rosa 'Chandos Beauty' was one of the most beautiful in my eyes!

I just show you some random shots of the blooms of this great Hybrid Tea rose.

It is now the third year in the garden and has reached some maturity.

The blooms are huge and...

...the fragrance is very strong.

It is also a good cut rose with long stems, if you are into something like that, and it lasts a decent time in the vase.

On the photo above you can see rosa 'Chandos Beauty' to the right and the reliable lovely rosa 'Pope John Paul II' to the left.

The flowers of  rosa 'Pope John Paul II' are always special to me.

I just can't resist the beauty of these wonderful and fragrant white roses.

Rosa 'Pierre de Ronsard' is also well loved in my garden. The heavy globular blooms are just so charming.

Here they are in the bud stage.

And this is one of my two bushes or 'Pierre de Ronsard'. It has gotten humongous and you can see on the photo how loaded the rose is with buds.

I am also very fond of rosa 'Auckland Metro,' growing in my White Garden Bed.

This rose is relatively healthy and I love the cream colored flowers.

The blooms of  rosa 'Reine des Violettes' are truly one of a kind! Their shades from crimson to violet are simply exquisite. The bush on the other hand is pretty scraggly one in my garden.

Close-up of 'Reine des Violettes'. Don't you just want to disappear in the silkiness of these petals? Loose yourself in the subtle refined colors?

Rosa 'Marie Pavie' reached the peak of her spring flush by the end of March. She is such a delightful, healthy and charming rose, always very willing to bloom.

A rose that also convinced with her good looks, her old-fashioned charm and her fragrance is 'Grandmother's Hat'.

Rosa 'Iceberg' always blooms her head off here in California. Two climbing varieties flank the sides of our garage. I keep the bushes relatively short, though.

Closer look at the 'Climbing Iceberg' blooms. They always look cheerful to me with their white petals and yellow stamens exposed as the blooms open fully. Bees love them, too.

Rosa 'Captain Christy', an old Hybrid Tea rose.

Even though I tried really hard (and often!) it was impossible for me to get a good shot of the white rosa 'Madame Alfred Carriere', because of the light conditions she is growing in. Parts of the rose are getting quite a bit of shade from my towering Queen Palms and a Pine Tree from my neighbor, but the tips of the canes are reaching into the sun.

The rose is in the ground for the third year and this spring she leaped. My photo does her beauty no justice at all, but at least you can see how profusely 'Madame Alfred Carriere' is blooming under the difficult light conditions she is living in and also considering the root competition from the palms and the Pine Tree.

The last beauty that I show you in this post is Rosa 'Belinda's Dream', a very carefree rose in my garden with lovely, big, full, pink blooms.

It is hard to believe, but from Thursday to Sunday we had rain on and off. Altogether a substantial amount came down, maybe about two inches, and that will carry the roses a long way this spring. I am so thankful for it. The downside is, that of course, it turned some of the rose blooms into a brown mushy blob, so lots of deadheading to do right now. I hope that I can whip the garden back into shape this weekend.

How are your roses doing? I guess, for the majority of my readers, who have a garden and grow roses, theirs are not blooming, yet, but they are well on the way to produce their first flush.  Do you think you are expecting a good spring flush? I certainly wish that for you, as I feel that there is hardly anything more lovely out there in the garden then a rose bush starting to bloom the first time in spring again, after the long winter rest. But of course, I am biased...

See you in the garden!

Christina

I am linking to

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