why I grow roses

Why do I grow roses? Could it be for the ethereal blossoms of this 'Tranquility' rose?

Or the history of this 'Old Blush' rose, which is going to town this year?

Well, yes, it is for their beauty. But at least as much for what you can't see, the fragrance. My 'Bolero' rose smells of waterlily and sweetened whipped cream.

'Evelyn' smells like ripe peaches and a touch of rose.

'Bishop's Castle' has a rich and almost powdery scent that you could bathe in.

'Abraham Darby' doesn't just have a mango colored flower, it smells like mango, or tropical fruit.

And although 'William Shakespeare' makes me swoon just looking at it, the strong sweet fragrance of violets gets me heady.

spring 2016

 Four years in this house and the garden is finally starting to come together. The rosemary 'Gorizia' is getting big, and the apple trees are big enough to be visible.

'Bolero' roses, Penstemon heterophyllus 'Blue Springs', Salvia officinalis 'Minima' and Nepeta 'Walkers Low' with the 'Hidcote' lavender making mounds and the Dianthus 'Coconut Surprise' coming along.

'Iceberg' in the pot, and Salvia daghestanica. 

 I still think I need to take out the lipstick red 'Knockout' roses, but the whole garden will turn pink anyway when the rest of the roses start to bloom. I should probably take out the cardoon. But they are so yummy!

spring wind

The winds came again in the night, a thief with impunity to steal and thus coming not in silence but with a malevolent roaring that seems almost a mockery of my impotence in protecting my charges. The train-wreck sound wakes me in the night, and as it continues, I lie awake in the dark, hearing the damage that it is wrecking on my garden. Morning shows the destruction. The lily stems have snapped.

Leaves are torn off the trees.

The steel chimney cap is hurtled yards down and fortunately narrowly misses the ‘Evelyn’ roses that have already suffered crushing damage in their lives. It also misses the lavender that survived last years rot-fest. Somehow the eight screws that hold it in place have been worked free by the relentless wind.

 

When I step out to take photos, I am pelted by chunks of ice, blown on winds the weather report tells me are gusting at 65 mph. The wires in the street lights usually tap the poles with a ding---ding---ding, now ring rapid fire staccato dada-ding-da-ding-dada-dada-ding-da, ceaselessly. The violence of it as the gusts slam into me take my breath away. I find it nearly impossible to capture the intensity in a photograph.I dash inside as it starts snowing, the wind blowing the stinging snow first this way, then that way, the unpredictability of the wind making walking an unsteady thing. This is spring in Albuquerque, perhaps a degree or two more severe than usual.

If you look closely, you can see the snow coming down.

Yesterday, I made a trek to Agua Fria Nursery in Santa Fe, purchasing more of my favorite blue/purple Penstemon linarioides for my gravel walk, whose gravel I finished sifting last week.

Just starting to bloom in my garden.

After this trip, another Penstemon caespitosus will keep my solitary plant company.

existing plant, just starting to bloom

new friend

 I also bought Campanula sarmatica which I had in my old garden and was sad when a very wet monsoon season caused them to rot. Now I’ll have the dusty blue bells in my garden, and the almost too-vigorous self seeding. I have also been missing the  Echinocereus reichenbachii var. albispinus I had in my old garden, and now I have a replacement, as well as a cultivar called ‘Kimble’ which seems to have spines almost like Echinocereus rigidissimus, tiny regular octopi of spines in rows, but of pure white. I don’t think I’ll be planting my new purchases today. Maybe it’s time to give up on plants such as lilies.

townsendia glabella

 You might find these unassuming native daisies to be boring, especially because these photos are taken on a cloudy morning when they are not quite open, and when they are on their way to fading. When I purchased them, I did so because I wanted something different from my usual fare of purple/blue mat Penstemons, and I thought that plain white daisies would be a good foil for the real stars of the garden. But these lowly daisies have qualities of their own.

To start with, they began blooming with the early crocuses, and like crocuses, they continue to bloom despite the vagaries of weather, even through the snow. Unlike crocuses which last maybe a week, these have stayed in bloom for at least 6 weeks now, and the first flowers are only just beginning to fade, while new ones form. I expect to see blooms for at least another month. Flowers begin with a purple flush, and the purple stays on the backs of the petals.

Plants stay a compact mound, the peduncles stay short so while you would never pick the blooms for cut flowers, you also don't need to tidy them after bloom, when those flowers turn into puffs of seed. So far they have needed no irrigation since the drink or two I gave them at planting time.

So while these may be boring little daisies in a photo, they are much more enjoyable than I expected. And those Penstemon that I planted to be the stars of the show? They just started blooming, and will be finished in about 10 days. The crocuses are long gone.

I was going to toss 'Bolero'...

Last year, 'Bolero' was so damaged by thrips that I was just on the edge of removing all seven bushes. I didn't get around to it, although I complained a lot. No way I can bear removing them now. Third year's a charm? Or is it the blue cup thrips trap?

The plants are compact. The leaves are disease free (not saying a whole lot here, though) and glossy. Flowers are four inches in diameter, deliciously fragrant (I've heard described as waterlily, but there is also sweetened whipped cream in there). Bushes are very slow growing, but certainly not wimpy.
Blue cup just visible behind the bush.

Doesn't it look a little like 'Eden'?

orchids

I've been sorely neglecting the photographing of my orchids. They've still been blooming. I just haven't been documenting. Darn work. Always getting in the way of life. Today I finally got around to photographing what's in bloom today.

 Dendrobium moniliforme 'Sekkoku'.
I've loved this plant since I purchased it a few years ago. In my conditions, it's easy, blooms a lot, produces many keiki's,  and has a delightful fragrance. What more can one ask? I missed the peak bloom, which has been going on for the last week or two. The flowers are starting to fade.

 I was on a rampage of purchasing grocery store miniature phalenopsis when I bought this one. Definitely some P. equestris in its background, as last year's stem now has a keiki at the end.

 I like the backs of the flowers more than the fronts.

 Another grocery store phalaenopsis. When I saw it, it called to me: "save me!" I could not resist the call. I love the spots, no matter how common this type of phalaenopsis is. When this type of phalaenopsis goes out of fashion, and people stop producing them, and all those other ones were tossed into the trash when they were finished blooming, I hope I still have this one.

Dendrobium 'Micro Chip'
I purchased this  at the San Francisco orchid show a couple of years ago from H&R Nurseries. When I got it home, all the new growths shriveled and died. I thought it was a goner. It has made a comeback, however, and it is amazing. The flowers are numerous, charmingly formed with cute maroon spots, it is easy to grow, the flowers last an incredible amount of time, and to top it off, the flowers are lightly fragrant. Actually, to top off the top-off, each growth can produce consecutive spikes of flowers in a season, and they can re-bloom the following season! Some of my growths have produced 4-5 spikes. It has even produced flowers from leafless pseudobulbs.  How amazing is that?!?! I've never seen an orchid like this.

 Dendrobium moniliforme 'Himeginsetsou'
Also purchased a couple of years ago at the SF Orchid Show, from Andy's Orchids. This is the second flush this season, the first one covering the leaves with the pale pink, lightly fragrant flowers. When I got this one home, it had come loose from the mix, and I was worried. It has recovered nicely, however, and the variegated leaved definitely add something to my collection.

Neofinetia falcata
It's not that these haven't been blooming that I haven't been photographing them. On the contrary, they've been blooming all winter (the nice thing about having a dozen divisions). I need to show them more love. I also have a number of the non-blooming collectors varieties, that are grown for their leaves. But I don't have the blooms to incite me to take photos.

Lc. Rojo 'Barbara'
I expected this to produce a lot more flowers this year than last year. Nope. The growth is larger, but it is losing the leaves on the older growths, so that there are only two growths with leaves. I guess it doesn't like my conditions. It makes me very sad. Lc. Rojo was one of the great loves of my youth.

Hippeastrum 'Red Lion' x papilio

A hybrid of my own making! I'm thrilled. It's like I've given birth.
2 years ago I pollinated Hippeastrum papilio onto 'Red Lion." The cross produces a lot of seed, but only one grew. It grew very slowly the first year, making a bulb like a small pickling onion. Then last year, it zoomed. It produced a huge plant in a 3 gallon container. Here it is.

The satiny sheen is just like it's Momma.

 

Two to a stem, just like its Pappa. I think the back is just as pretty as the front. Looks a little like 'Ruby Star."

Here's Pappa.

 He decided to bloom last summer like this. Not much stem with the direct sunlight.

Here's Momma.

What a kick. I don't know if I'm brave enough to try hybridizing roses.