September Roses

I am trying to pick up my habit to blog monthly about the roses that have bloomed in my garden the previous month. So here come my rose babies that have delighted me in September.

Sadly, overall I have a feeling that I am getting less and less rose flowers over the last couple of years. I am not entirely sure why that is so but my best guess is that my roses are not fertilized enough to bloom to their full potential. So far I have been gardening entirely organically in my San Diego garden, but usually organic fertilizers are not as potent as the synthetic ones and I have not had the time to fertilize my rose on a regular schedule, which means a couple of times a year.

Therefore I have decided as an experiment, to feed them the same amount of organic fertilizer that I usually do, but in addition to that add a scoop of synthetic slow-release rose fertilizer and see if that makes a difference.

This decision was difficult for me because I am convinced that organic gardening is the best way to go when it comes to the environment, but I became so frustrated with the few rose blooms that I got lately, that I simply couldn't stand it anymore. Otherwise, my garden will continue to be no-spray and I will use the synthetic fertilizer very responsibly, meaning using as little as possible.

That being said, I hope you enjoy to take a look at my September roses!

I think rosa 'The Prince' was the most beautiful rose last month in my garden. By chance, I got lucky and for once I was able to photograph the color of this stunningly beautiful rose properly and to capture the velvety texture of the rose petals.

Rosa 'Snowbird' is relatively new to my garden, but starts to get going. The blooms have a very elegant, a little bit old-fashioned Hybrid Tea form and I am liking it more and more.

Rosa 'Pink Pet' is a very healthy, easy going rose in my garden with a cottagey appeal.

Completely the opposite of  'Pink Pet' is the ambiance of rosa 'Neptune'. Very elegant, a diva that commands respect. I love the fact that you can find so much diversity among the roses. There truly is a rose for everyone!

Even though very susceptible to powdery mildew and even black spot, rosa 'Nimbus' has won his place in my heart because of the absolutely unique color. The rose is very willing to bloom and the color is constantly changing but always in the fascinating mauve, tan, brown color range.  

As usual, rosa 'Our Lady of Guadalupe' is blooming her head off, but even though it is a very floriferous pretty rose, I have decided to take my last specimen out. I just don't want to put up with its very regular infestations of powdery mildew anymore and believe that I can find a healthier floribunda rose in the light pink color range. 

Rosa 'Rhodologue Jules Gravereaux' is my most favorite Tea Rose. I think it is also one of the most elegant roses in this class. Look at the beautiful shape of the buds with the unfurling outer petals. Just magical!

Rosa 'Pope John Paul II' is almost an old standby in my garden. The blooms are very pretty, it gives me four to five good flushes a year and the fragrance is to die for. I wouldn't want to be without it!

The classic Hybrid Tea rose bud of 'Bewitched' certainly is enchanting. When you see this rose, you can understand why most people favor Hybrid Tea roses above all other rose classes.

A second flower of 'Bewitched', this time a little bit more open. 

Another diva in my garden, rosa 'Souvenir de la Malmaison'. This rose has died on me once already and this specimen was also very close to death at least two times. But it survived so far and the extraordinary beauty of the blooms keeps me trying to get this rose established in my garden.

I end this post with a look into the heart of 'Nimbus'. The color gets me every time. So special!

Are you still able to enjoy roses from your garden? Do you have a favorite rose right now?

I just want to mention, that even though I can't find the time to blog very often, I am posting almost daily on Instagram. If you want to take a peek, just click on the link. I would be happy to meet you there! 

Wishing everyone a nice rest of the week and a very enjoyable weekend! 

Warm regards, 

Christina

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March Roses

To my surprise, in March there was still only a rose bloom opening here and there in my garden. After all the winter rains that we were having I had expected that I would get an early rose spring flush, but I was wrong.

Maybe I pruned a little late, but I believe that the main reason for the belated rose blooms is to find in the fact that I fertilized very late this year and that I didn't even get to all my roses even until now. Roses are heavy feeders and the lack of fertilizer might have prevented them from blooming as early and profusely as usual. Temperatures were relatively low as well in comparison to the previous years, so that might have been another contributing factor.

Anyhow, each rose that was opening was very well appreciated and here are some that I have captured with my camera last month.

Rosa 'Snowbird', an early Hybrid Tea rose, which I grow as an own-root is finally strutting her stuff and put out some nice blooms.

Same rose showing a more open bloom. Looks like she has the potential to be a good off-white rose in my climate.

You rarely will see a true red rose in my own garden, as a matter of fact, by now I have only two, which are both specimens of the Hybrid Tea rose 'Mister Lincoln'.

I am not a big fan of clear warm red tones, but 'Mister Lincoln' has a strong blue tint in his red which I like much better.

There are special occasions though, you know which I mean when it is nice to be able to cut a red rose from your own garden and give it to someone dear to you, so I keep the two red rose bush.

Thinking about it a bit more, my trouble with red roses is not so much the fact that I don't like them, at least the bluish red ones, but that I find them very difficult to integrate in a pleasing way into the existing color schemes in my garden.

But if you are looking for a red rose you might be very pleased with 'Mister Lincoln'. In my garden, he produces large, fat, dark red roses with an outstanding damask fragrance.

To me, his fragrance is one of its best features.

I think it is always so disappointing that when you get a red rose and you hold it up close to your nose ready to smell the wonderful rose fragrance and..., there is nothing, absolutely no fragrance to detect. This won't happen to you with this one!

All photos in this sequence are shots of the very first bloom of 'Mister Lincoln' this year. This rose is so beautiful that even I can't wait to see more blooms of him.

The next rose 'Marie Pavie', a Polyantha, is a very different kind. Don't you just love all the variety in the rose flowers?

Small, very blush buds open to clear white blooms with a strong fresh musk fragrance that wafts through the air. 

I just love the delicate blooms. 

Rosa 'Marie Pavie' was the first one to start her spring flush in my garden this year. You can see in the photo above that she is full of buds. Usually, this rose is very healthy, but this year she is showing some blackspot.  

Rosa 'Rhodologue Jules Graveraux', my favorite Tea Rose. I think everyone can see why!

Here is a bud shot of the same rose.

I love the very unique pale pink color of rosa 'Souvenir de la Malmaison', but the rose continues to be a very weak grower in my garden.

The image above shows a fully open flower of  'Souvenir de la Malmaison'.

Same bloom completely covered in water drops. I have never seen water drops clinging so densely to a rose bloom.

I realized that this year I am feeling particularly drawn to the very pale, blush pink roses. Rosa 'Old Fashioned Girl' is another good example for this color range.

Rosa 'Gruss an Aachen' is relatively new to me, but so far I like this rose very much.

She changes colors constantly depending on temperatures, sun intensity, and probably some other factors, which makes this rose quite interesting.

Here she is showing almost an apricot center.

The next set of buds had almost red petal edges and a hint of yellow color at the base of the buds. 

The main bud was opening into a light pink rose with yellow undertones in the center. There is something very special about this rose, which is hard to capture with the camera. My 'Gruss an Aachen' is still young, so as it matures I expect wonderful things to come. 

The last rose in today's post is 'Grandmother's Hat'.

This rose was found in California and is an absolute healthy reliable gem in my garden.

It has much of the Old Garden Roses character, which I am so enchanted with and blooms very profusely. It also comes with a strong pleasing fragrance.

'Grandmother's Hat' was, after rosa 'Marie Pavie', the second rose that had started her spring flush last month in my garden.

The lesson that I learned this year is that in my garden with my soil and in my climate roses need to be fed properly and on time. It really makes a big difference in the amount and size of blooms that they are able to produce and also in the blooming time.

Thanks for stopping by today! Wishing everyone a wonderful rest of the weekend.

See you in the garden!

Warm regards,

Christina

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September Roses

September was partly very hot this year here in San Diego inland and the roses struggled with the high temperatures and the low humidity and weren't really in a blooming mood. Add to that, that I was out of town for two weeks last month and it comes as a surprise that I was still able to take enough pictures worthy to be posted in my September Roses post, but here it is!

This is 'Koko Loko', one of my new ownroot Floribunda roses of this year. I think the brown blooms (yes, they are really of that brown color!) are absolutely stunning and very unusual. It would be lovely to use them in autumn bouquets, but my bush is still very little and I think I have to be patient and wait with that until next year.

I love this picture of the still tight rose bud.

Here is a fully opened flower of 'Koko Loko', where you can truly see the milk coffee like color of this rose. I am really looking forward to seeing this bush maturing and (hopefully) producing tons of these awesome blooms. So far the rose is healthy and growing well. It is not overly vigorous, but it is also not a puny plant either, which you can easily get with these odd ball colors.

'Auckland Metro' is a stalwart in my rose collection, on which I can really count on. 

I never get tired of this "inner glow" that this rose has. 

Over the years rosa 'Pierre de Ronsard' has become really humongous. The dimensions of this rose are really hard to see in this image, but just have in mind that the fence is six feet tall. Maybe that gives you a more clear idea of the size of this bush. For September the rose has been able to produce yet another decent flush. This is even more astounding, since I didn't get to fertilize it again after the summer flush.

Close-up of the blooms of 'Pierre de Ronsard'.

Rosa 'Pope John Paul II', another very reliable and much loved rose in my garden.

A rose which had a fantastic year so far is 'Pretty Jessica'. I find her globular blooms so endearing.

With rosa 'The Prince' I have a love/hate relationship: I love the color and outstanding fragrance of the blooms, but I hate the mildewed leaves, that this rose often gets in my garden.

Unfortunately, rosa 'Captain Christy' is still just a very puny bush in my garden and simply doesn't want to get stronger. I tried to pamper it in a big terracotta container, but nothing seems to help. Still the elusive, shell pink blooms make me want to try somewhat longer with this rose.

The unusually colored globular blooms, the health of the bush, the amount of flowers that this rose is able to produce with each flush and the strong pleasant fragrance make 'Charles Darwin' one of the best roses that I grow in my garden.

The blooms also last a long time in the vase...

... and the constant color changes that come with different temperatures make this rose always interesting to look at.

Rosa 'Rhodologue Jules Gravereaux', a very nice Tea Rose in my garden. Don't you just want to grow it for its beautiful and romantic name alone?

A rose which is characterized by its particularly beautiful and large flowers: Rosa 'Chandos Beauty'. This rose has one bad habit for me. In autumn it produces many very long canes that don't bloom, so called "blind shoots". I have no idea why, since I treat it the same way like all my other Hybrid Tea roses that don't show this phenomenon. It must have something to do with my climate.

Rosa 'Heritage' has also started to bloom again and is churning out her delicate soft pink blooms. The beauty of this rose is undeniable, but it is very fleeting. The flowers can drop their petals when it is hot within one day. And this is not an exaggeration!

Last but not least a perfect bloom of 'Moonstone'. Whereas previously on my blog I passionately defended roses from the title of being difficult primadonnas, this rose fully deserves it. You get incredible beautiful and perfect blooms when the rose is in the mood, but also a mildewy, sickly mess when it is not. 

Hope you are able to slow down a little bit, enjoy the autumn and still sniff some roses here and there. In case the roses are still flowering in your garden, which varieties are good autumn bloomers for you? Would you care to share? Please leave a comment, so that we rose lovers can all learn from each other. Many thanks!

See you in the garden!

Christina

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