Lazy Rose Mama

Oh, I'm a lazy, lazy rose mama!  I went away on vacation and my brain just didn't want to come back.  Still, here we are, and there was a lot to do!

I recently went to Winterthur, a stunning thousand-acre (yes, really!) garden in Delaware, for the Downton Abbey costume exhibit.  If you are anywhere nearby, it's just stunning.  You can't see it all in one day, but what you do see is marvelous!  I am making a trip in the spring just to see the bluebells.  Anyway, part of the trip was a tram ride, on which a lovely guide tells you lots about what you're looking at as you slowly drive from the welcome center to the Mansion.  It was surprisingly reassuring to me to hear him talking about how the hard winter had affected the gardens there; having had such a difficult summer in the garden myself, it was good to hear that the ultimate pros also were working hard to get their results.

Winterthur Grounds

A sweet swallowtail kissing the flowers

In my own, rather humbler garden, we've had a summer of struggle and some reward.  I had planted a Cinco de Mayo a few months back (having gotten in in May for $5!  What a bargain!)  I'd noticed the Cinco de Mayo rose several times previous, for its unusual-colored blooms.  Since I lean more towards the Grandifloras and Hybrid Teas, I had chosen to pass on it.  Still, for five bucks, why not, right?  I'm so glad I went for it, because I've grown to love the little blossom machine!  It grew much faster than any of my other additions this year and seems to like its container and the amount of sun it gets.

Oranges and Lemons, as always, is a champ.  It's gotten a bit less blackspot this year, though I still have it throughout the garden.  I'm still looking for the most effective remedy for that!

Love can't seem to make up its mind.  One day we're awesome, the next we're having issues.  I just had a lovely flower last on the plant for nearly a month!  It was, however, the only thing that Love was doing.  At least now it's growing!

Love

Dark Night is doing quite well.  I get regular blooms that last a good time on the bush.  I do notice that the color goes brown quickly, from the initial burgundy shade.

My Purple Tiger got a case of ants, and is still struggling to recover.  After flooding every rose in the garden last month, I'm seeing a lot of new growth there, and look forward to more.

Hypnotized!  I love my Hypnotized!  Huge, stunningly gorgeous blooms that make my heart go pitter-pat.  Though my first one died over the evil winter, the new one is growing even more vigorously and is twice as tall.  Every time I see it bloom, it makes me smile.

Stainless Steel, Dick Clark, and Wonderstripe are taking their time getting established.  I have had one small bloom from everyone but Stainless Steel.  I'm trying to figure out what SS wants.  Picky little bugger!

Gingersnap, my daughter's favorite, had a great show early on.  I'm in love with the shocking orange color!  It seems much less fond of the dog days of summer.  Now that the weather is cooling down a bit, I'm seeing lots of new growth.  Anna's Promise, Rock & Roll, and Julio Inglesias seem to share this opinion.  Julio also had a HUGE dandelion growing in the pot with him (which I didn't see hidden behind my lantana), so hopefully now that it's got, Julio will have less competition for his water supply.

Gingersnap

My George Burns is flowering nicely, so long as I keep his feet wet.  He's a thirsty boy.  He's stayed compact, and has suffered from blackspot, but he's a fighter.

George Burns

Candyland seemed for a while like it wasn't going to do a dang thing.  I got a few small, pretty blooms, but then it just sat there.  Lo and behold, when I got back from vacation it had sprouted a 3-foot-tall cane!  Thank goodness I'd already surrounded it with a trellis!  Still not much more by way of blooms, but I'm glad to see it's getting rooted.

Commandant Beaurepaire. . .wow, does he want to get huge.  I mean, huge.  I'm pretty sure those canes are hitting the 5 foot mark and going strong!  That bad boy is getting moved to the back of the garden so some of the little guys can get more sun.  I can't wait to see him next spring!

And everyone's favorite scrapper, Sedona, is one happy rose.  I neglected this coral beauty shamefully for years, but Sedona just wouldn't give up and now is really very happy in her own container.  She's giving very pretty blooms, and growing magnificently.

While there's a lot of debate over feeding the flowers this late in the season, I'm planning one more fertilizing.  There's a lot of talk of another very cold, early winter for my location; I'll be diving into some more serious winterizing (after all, last year's "Let's see what happens" was not a good idea!) and will move some of the younger, more tender plants to my (too small!) shed and basement.  Since I have an area with three sides of cover, I plan to put the rest of the pots there and cover with hay.  Here's to planning!

July 12, 2014 - I Drown Ants.

 Hello everyone!


Summer is rolling along and, of course, I'm spending as much time as I can in the garden.  There's lots to talk about!  After all the deaths of winter, I have what is a mostly new garden.  There have been quite a number of additions.  Here's the current list:

Gingersnap

Cinco de Mayo

Scentimental

Commandant Beaurepaire

Dark Night

George Burns

Purple Tiger

Pink Knockout

Wonderstripe

Candyland

Julio Inglesias

Oranges & Lemons

Sedona

Love

Stainless Steel

Anna's Promise

Dick Clark

Rock & Roll

Hypnotized!

To this lovely mix, we add two roses in question.

One: Osiria suffered a LOT of damage over the winter, and, I suspect, died.  However, there is a hearty new cane growing.  I am 90% sure it's rootstock, but I'm holding out to see what blooms.

Two: I've started propagation!  My next-door-neighbors have a gorgeous, tall, richly burgundy Hybrid Tea in their backyard.  I don't yet know the name of it.  I'll try to figure it out.

Problems of this summer have included the usual blackspot and, now that it's hot, the start of Japanese beetles.  This year, we've added ants.  Ick.  I absolutely loathe ants!

I first found them in my Purple Tiger.  A quick look online encouraged filling the container to capacity with water, so as to chase them out and hopefully drown the queen.  I also saw that some folks scrape away the top layer of mulch and cover the soil in cinnamon.

I gave the rose a good drowning and watched the little buggers scurry away.  A subsequent drowning revealed no mass exodus of ants, which pleased me.

Until.

Noticing that my Scentimental seemed to be floundering, and knowing it's been a very hot and windy July, I gave it a lot of water - and saw ants.  Ick again.

Naturally, I repeated the drowning treatment.  All appeared well until this morning, when I began to notice that my Rock & Roll was looking suspicious.  

Fed up, I made a decision, and filled every single container to capacity - some more than once - so the ants would finally realize this is not a good place to live.  With any luck, this will encourage them to decamp.  They eat at the roots.  Plus, y'know, creepy.

My JFK is in question.  It looked dead, then sent up a cane.  That cane got damaged in a storm and fell off.  I haven't seen any movement since.  I may have to shovel-prune it, which is a real shame!  I loved that big guy.  If I do, I'll find a new white rose - I'm thinking a Pope John Paul II.

It's been both frustrating and miraculous watching the garden trying to recover from the harsh winter.  Growth is slow with some, speedy with others.  While age has something to do with it, my Oranges & Lemons grew back most quickly.  Commandant Beaurepaire laughed at the harsh winter and, at its height, was covered with something on the order of fifty blooms.  Scentimental also brazened it out, though the scent this year is a bit less.

Others I thought would make it, didn't.  My Mr. Lincoln tried hard but failed.  I'm considering a fresh red to replace the loss, but haven't settled on one yet.  JFK obviously surprised me by giving up the ghost.  I did learn quite a bit from how the winter went, though, and will put more effort into winterizing this year.  While it's lovely to have lots of new occupants out there, it's pricey!

I have noticed that purples don't do as well in my garden, and that pinks and oranges like it here.  Many of the new additions are in the orange and pink range of color.

Although my original Hypnotized! died, I replaced it and I'm glad I did.  I really am just crazy in love with this rose!  I catch myself staring at the blooms with a dreamy smile, perusing each of the many petals and breathing deep.

I've also taken to using Epsom salts on my colorful babies, and I think it's a wonderful thing.  I will be keeping that up!  The blooms seem to be larger, with more petals.

Thanks for reading!  I promise more regular updates and I look forward to your comments!

Water, Water Everywhere

Like a lot of the country, we got a great big rainstorm this past week.  The good news: I am now absolutely certain that all my roses are deeply, deeply watered.  The bad news: my garden took a pounding.

Fortunately, I only lost one rose bloom to the deluge.  The storm did set me to thinking, though; what on earth do they mean by "an inch of rain"?  Lacking a rain gauge, I set out to do a little googling and find the answer.

As it turns out, an inch of rain is: the amount of rain that falls on one acre.  There are 27,154.258 gallons of water in one inch that cover exactly one acre.  We all know that roses are big drinkers, so I'm pretty sure that much would more than satiate them.  Check out this nifty chart by the U.S. Weather Service: https://water.usgs.gov/edu/earthrain.html

Crossing this with one of my other worries - how much water is enough for my roses? - I came across quite a few different answers.  The distillation of all these recommendations is this: if you're not sure, stick your finger in at least three inches down in the soil.  If it's dry, water.  I have found that it's usually good to water until you can see just a bit standing on top.  If it gets absorbed by the count of ten, you can add a bit more.  If not, you're done.  

During humid weather, and assuming you have at least an inch or three of mulch atop your roses, you should be OK with watering twice weekly or so.  If it's hot, dry, windy, or you have sandy soil, you'll want to step up that schedule to daily.  Obviously if it's rainy and damp, less often will be fine.  Keep an eye out for the beginnings of wilt as a sign of under-watering, and for yellowed leaves as a sign of over-watering.

There are also doodads available to tell you if your soil needs watering (I've seen cute little ceramic worms that change color) so that you can be a little more certain.  You can always add one of those glass bulbs that holds water and releases it into the soil as needed.  I have one of those and am thinking I'll pick up a few more for my newer roses.

Happy Gardening - stay hydrated!

Spring Cleaning, New Residents, and Planting Stock

Whew!  After a stunning weekend here in South Jersey, we've had a ton of wind and rain - and a visit from the Snow Fairy?!  Sure, it was just a tiny little bit.  Still, a little advice, Weather: go home, you're drunk!

The replacement to my Hypnotize rose arrived in lovely form (Thanks, Jackson & Perkins!) and is planted in the very same pot.  I hope it does as well as the first one did, and has a better winter!

Baby Hypnotize Rose!

My husband, Gene, and I spent a big chunk of the weekend out in the backyard.  I am proud to report that mine is no longer the messiest backyard in the neighborhood!  Woot!  We finally tackled a task that's been on my to-do list for more years than I care to admit: we cleaned out the shed.  It's not even a big shed.  More of a glorified closet, really.  Piled full of stuff up to your waist.  

Yeah, I know.

A beautiful Saturday morning, and a slight overdose of caffeine, got us out there.  We went hard.  We took everything out, threw away five bags of outdated and broken stuff, and reorganized what we kept.  

Found: 
three bags of fertilizer I forgot I had
my bocce ball set
two cans of wasp killer
a beach shovel from 2009
my bulb hole digging tool
one pair of pink swim goggles
three swim rings
the bike pump

. . .and a partridge in a pear tree!

This gave us the chance to put away a whole bunch of things that were lying around the yard.  Now it's nice in there.  Organized.  I can barely believe it's mine!

But wait, there's more!

We also got out to the hardware store and got fresh mulch and some sweet stock.  I love stock - it smells awesome!  Stock is a great plant to use as a companion flower for roses.  It's attractive, long-blooming, likes a lot of water, and doesn't compete for food with your rosebushes.  You can get it in pink, white, and purple. We also invested in a nice shepherd's hook for my new bird feeder! 

Sweet Stock is a great companion plant for roses.

And why, you may ask, did I get a bird feeder?


We have birds!  A mated pair of black-capped chickadees have finally moved into my birdhouse!  I am dorkishly excited, and have dubbed them Chuckles and Marge.  Chickadees are awesome - not only are they adorable, they're smart.  They can remember where they've stored snacks, and how yummy those snacks are, for up to 1000 places!  When the snack is gone, so is the memory of it, and new stashes of seed are remembered instead.  Pretty neat!  Happily, chickadees tend to remain once they've nested, and they eat bugs!  Oh yeah, free pest control!

          

Chuckles chilling on a windy day

  

Marge with a snack

The bird feeder is also bringing me visits from other avian couples in the neighborhood - cardinals, robins, and grackles.  I am very much enjoying the additional aerial traffic.

Last but not least, we also hung up a wind chime my honey got me for Christmas.  It adds a wonderful layer of auditory happiness to the visual and olfactory happiness.  I absolutely love the sound.  It's like fairies laughing.

What are you doing in your garden?

Warmups

Hooray, the warmer weather is finally here!  Anyone who knows me knows that can only be about my garden, because I'm a winter girl; if not for my roses and swimming, summer would have few redeeming qualities for me.  

Still, right now I'm starting to see lots of new growth out there, so bully for that!

I pruned back Knockout quite a lot.  Dang thing had gotten HUGE (as well it should, really) and was in need of a good trim.  I can actually see some of the rest of the garden!  There are a few patches of bulbs that have kicked in, and I've got daffodils nodding their happy little heads.  I planted a patch of pink-and-white Salome daffodils a few years back, which has turned into a much larger patch.  Propagation anyone?  I'm thinking I'm going to dig up most of my bulbs and pot them all anyway, replacing them with plants better suited to sharing digs (ha!) with the roses.

The hard winter has officially claimed three victims: Papageno, which I think I didn't mulch well enough; Hypnotize, which I am kind of upset about but will replace; and Harry Wheatcroft, which I'm really not upset about and won't replace.  I have Oranges & Lemons and Chihuly for the yellow/orange combo.  Everyone else is waking up nicely, and I'm delighted to see lots of new sprouts.

Commandant Beaupaire, a very happy grower which didn't bloom last summer, seems especially excited to get going.  Scentimental isn't far behind (my dependable darling!)  With the death of Papageno I may not be able to hybridize them this year; I guess it depends on how early I get a new Papageno into the dirt?  Further updates as events warrant!

A couple of weeks of saved eggshells went into most of the pots this week, as well.  That trick is definitely one I'm keeping.  I've also gotten my Miracle Grow going, so as of this morning everyone has lots of food to stimulate more growing!  Grow, babies, grow!

Looking forward to another year on The Striped Rose Diaries.  Coming this summer: I start exhibiting!  I (maybe) attempt hybridizing!  Even more bouquets and photos!

See you there!

Long Hard Winter

It has been an unusually hard winter across a lot of the USA, and here in South Jersey is no exception.  I spent the cold months wondering what would be left of my largely fledgling rose garden when spring rolled around, and today got some answers.

Two days ago, four of my seven new rosebushes arrived.  Unfortunately, it was awful timing; my entire family and I were in the process of dealing with a really ugly virus.  There was not much energy for getting my new babies set up!  And I only had one new pot home, and barely any potting soil to fill it.

Time to put some temporary solutions in place!  I filled a bucket with water and let the newbies soak overnight.  That bought me 24 hours - you don't want to soak longer than that - which I sorely needed.  I have to say that I am thrilled with the quality of the plants that arrived!  The specimens I received are much larger and much heartier than what I usually get!  Points for ordering last year!  More importantly, huge props to S&W Greenhouse for the gorgeous plants.  Find them here:  http://www.sw-greenhouse.com/Merchant2/merchant.mvc.  Give them your money, folks, they're fab.

My daughter helped me plant New Baby #1, a Rock n' Roll!  I'm psyched to have another red-and-white stripey!  Yes, I know this makes three varieties, but I looooooove them.  Rock n' Roll has been dubbed Herschel, after the character on The Walking Dead.  Originally, that was the name of the flowerpot Herschel now lives in - the pot spent about a week in the trunk of my car, thumping and bumping around.  My husband made a comment that I must be keeping a severed head in the trunk, and being a Walking Dead fan, my daughter christened it Herschel.  Poor hubby didn't get it, but my daughter and I find it hilarious, so now the whole thing is Herschel.

Rock N' Roll (not sure whose photo, if it's yours let me know!)

Problem #1 solved!  But that leaves me three new roses, no pots, no dirt, and I'm too sick to drive.

What I do have is a big plastic bin.  And a slightly healthier husband, who did not want the money I spent on new roses going to waste.  My mighty man took to the roads and lugged me home 35 pounds of potting soil (for which he will be spoiled shamelessly later - hey, some girls want diamonds, I just wanted dirt!)  Into the plastic bin went the three amigos, and I covered them up with soil.  It's the first time I've had to heel in, so hopefully it works out well!  This weekend I will get out to HomeGoods, get myself my new pots, and put them up properly.  I've got two Dark Nights and a Purple Tiger going in!  I've traditionally had trouble with purple roses, but that was in-ground; hopefully this will go better.

Dark Night Rose - again, not my photo

Purple Tiger (will credit if it's your photo!)

This done, I surveyed my little rose queendom and grabbed my pruning shears.

I got about 80% done.  The little guys were a breeze, of course.  I think my Harry Wheatcroft may have bitten the bullet (not my biggest worry, really) but he might yet surprise me.  My Hypnotize looks like she had a rough time, too, but I'm pretty sure she'll pull through.  Everyone else came through just fine!  There was more dead wood than I was really expecting, but not so much I worried about it.

My Knockout rose got a hard pruning, and I'm not done yet.  After a growth riot last year, she'd taken over half the little plot she's in and killed off a lavender plant doing it.  Grump!  She was also growing a little too far into my neighbor's yard.  I cut her back by about a third, and will do more next week.

JFK also got cut down to size; he's usually over 8 feet tall, so now he's about 5'6.  There was quite a bit of dead cane on this guy, and I think the younger canes will breathe easier now that they are gone.  Oranges & Lemons also got a good trimming, though she has more room to herself anyway.  The only rose I have on a trellis (for a few more weeks, anyway), I did a wee bit of training before I neatened her up.

Having put a lot more thought into what I want where than I usually do, I'm planning to reorganize where a few things are.  I have a Mexican Saxifrage which draws a lot of bumblebees in the backyard, which I plan to transplant out to my front yard.  This year, it's all perennials out front and bulbs, butterfly attractants, and roses in the backyard.

And that, rosy-cheeked readers, is the first entry of 2014.  Thanks for reading and happy gardening!