cuttings

Today was potting-up day. The rosemary cuttings were separated and potted. Hmm...I was worried that I wouldn't end up with four plants of 'Blue Spires' that I needed for the plan, so I took a few extra cuttings. Now I have 11. Also have one 'Frimley Blue.' Now what do do with the extras?

I'm not sure what happened to the 'Frimley Blue' cuttings, but most of them rotted. So many variables: but they looked fine until I moved them out of the orchid house and onto a windowsill. Maybe too cold, maybe too dark. Maybe both. Probably for the better, since I have nowhere to put 'Frimley Blue.'

The 'Winchester Cathedral' rose cuttings have rooted and two are putting out new growth. This is one of the greatest joys I have in gardening: seeing the new growth on the cuttings. I think I get even more excited by that than having the plants bloom. Weird, eh? I think I should rename myself "The Propagator." Unfortunately, "The Propagator" is at odds with "The Garden Designer" who sighs and says, one more time, "Where are these going to go?"

robin

 

Mr. Robin has been very industrious in my garden.  He built a very loose messy collection of grass on top of this light fixture (I wouldn't even call it a nest) two days ago, which I promptly swept off with a broom after noticing how many droppings he left around the place. I felt guilty when I heard a popping sound and looked down to see shards of turquoise and golden yellow lying around. 

 

But two days later, and the nest was back with a vengeance. Neither Mama nor Papa were around all evening. They made the nest tall enough that I couldn't see into it, and I didn't have a mirror, so I tried using my cell phone to see what progress had been made. Hmm. Needs a flash.

There you go. That was a busy two days work.

clematis

Clematis are new to me. Of course I had known about clematis, but I had never grown them. I'm not really a vine person and people never really grew any clematis in California other than the evergreen clematis C. armandii. I've always loved the colors and shapes of the flowers, though. I didn't think they would grow here, in the dry heat, but when I moved into this house, there was a tiny plant at the base of honeysuckle, overrun and looking miserable. The one flower it produced was lovely, however, and when I saw my neighbor's clematis, I knew I had to take better care of this one. I think that it is Jackmanii, since it is a common variety and the people who lived here only planted plants that were readily available. I'm glad of that in this case, because this has got to be my favorite color (the Knockout roses, on the other hand...).

'Betty Corning' was planted this year, and it has produced its first flower. "Betty the Beast" she has been called for her vigor (despite delicate flowers), but she has been slow out the gate in my garden. Perhaps it is because when planting it I had to slice off most of the roots from the edge of the rootball on this very potbound plant. She is supposed to be fragrant, but I detect nothing so far. I hope she becomes the beast and competes with the honeysuckle. She makes a wonderful complement to the Jackmanii.

random garden observations

 Looks like all 'Samba' wanted was more sun. After the aborted stem in March, I threw the plant outside, where it suffered through light snow, heat, 50 mph winds and forgotten waterings. It put out another stem.

Hmm. Maybe too much sun. And too much wind. 

My entry bowls were planted with this sedum dasyphyllum and 'Dragon's Blood' when the curved billed thrashers ripped them out. I threw all the bits back in the bowl and mounded river rock around them to prevent the birds from doing it again. The result is not so bad!

Campanula rotundifolia still blooming its heart out.

The newly planted 'Bolero' planted last week, now has to suffer through near-100F temps and intense high-altitude sun. Poor things. It really is not a good year for the new roses.

The 'Alexandria' strawberries planted last week are fine, whereas those planted 2 days ago are flat on the ground despite careful watering.

My Lowe's rescue 'Chicago Hardy' fig is tiny,

but looks like it is producing a fig.

Whereas my big 'Petite Nigra' fig is just putting out a a lot of leaves.

'Mrs. BR Cant' likes the heat. Finally putting out some growth.

Something is chewing branches off 'Polly' Peach. I tried mouse traps, but whatever it is, was able to trigger it without getting hurt, because the peanut butter was entirely licked clean. The rat trap was licked clean of the peanut butter without triggering it. The poison bait is half gone today, though. I may never know what it was.

My little 'Iceberg' rose cutting from November is growing. I've had to pinch off the flowers to get it to grow instead of produce flowers.

I didn't think lilies would grow here, but that glorious pot of lilies at Agua Fria Nursery in Santa Fe was taunting me. 'Scheherezade' is bigger this year.

Showing off the secondary buds that are forming. Something to look forward to in a month. Maybe next year I will get the famous tertiary buds. Did I forget to fertilize it? Gotta run out to do that now.

'Black Dragon' is supposed to be a selected form of Lilium leucanthum, that is said to now be lost to existence (extinct), so I was surprised to see it offered by McClure & Zimmerman. Still had to order it, since I loved those candelabras of trumpets with dark purple exteriors and white interiors as a child. But here is the plant growing...

 

 ...and this is L. leucanthum from The Lily Garden. I wonder if the one from M&Z is going to turn out pink or something.

The clematis is producing its first flower, many more buds this year than last year. Funny how the posting makes the flower practically blue.

See? I don't just grow roses.

mine is not an instant garden

My garden would never be featured in a television show. My garden is the antithesis of "Extreme Garden Makover!" But I like to think of it as Slow Food as opposed to fast food. It's better. It's healthier. And it is there for the long term.

Before

Case in point: planting the lavender.
I spent at least half the morning planting 3 'Hidcote' lavenders. The goal was to get  lavenders under the 'Ashmead's Kernal' apple tree on the left (white wrapped trunk).  I had already planted lavender to the right of where I'm standing, and some 'Bowle's Early' to the right, behind the rosemary. The goal was to plant 'Hidcote' under Ashmnead's so that when the lavender bloomed, there would be alternating sides of lavender as you walk down the path. According to my records, I had removed the dying Mugho pine from the near side (from this view) of Ashmead's on 3/23/2014, and planted 3 'Hidcote'. Today, I removed the scabiosa (isolated purple flowers on the far side of Ashmead's), took up the gravel, sifted it, changed out the drip irrigation, dug in soil amendment (a dubious practice, I admit) then finally planted the 3 'Hidcote' lavenders, irrigated them, then replaced the gravel. To get this:

After

Yep, the lavender is in there. Here's a closer look. See them now?

I plant lavender from 2-1/4" pots, whereas in an instant garden, mature sizes are planted. It will be a year before they are visible from a photo. In an instant garden, the effect would be instantaneous. But there are benefits to planting the smaller size.

You might think that the primary reason is economics. $3 per plant at the smaller size, versus $10 a plant for gallon sized means a $42 savings for those 6 plants. Then try $120 for a 15-gallon tree, vs. $10 for a 1-gallon tree. Then plant 10 trees. But that's just the obvious reason, and to be frank, not my main reason. I happen to think that the smaller the plant, the better it grows as it matures. You ever notice how self sown seedlings grow much faster and stronger than the original plant? Down the street, there is a commercial landscape that planted 5-gallon rosemary (which looked miserably spindly) and it took 4 years to looks as good as my rosemary above, planted last year from cuttings.

Faster growth from smaller transplant size occurs for various reasons. There is the issue of being "rootbound', with roots growing in circle. There is the issue of the roots being able to cross from the planting mix into the very different surrounding soil. In addition, I think that a large issue is that the planting mix they are growing in, in a pot, is very different from what they need to grow in a garden rather than in a pot. In a nursery, the plants are watered daily, and they need a fast-draining mix. They also get fertilized frequently to push growth to sales size. This is not what happens in the garden, at least not in my garden, and the bigger the pot, the larger amount of this artificial mix, stuff which isn't what the plants need to really grow in the garden. I saw this when I dug out the mugho pine, and the Raphiolepis: roots encircling a mix which is peat, perlite, bark, volcanic rock.  Some of the roots penetrate into the native soil, and I notice that the more roots that get into the native soil, the better the plant looks. The mix is bone dry, whereas the surrounding native soil has some moisture. Thus, the plants planted from 5-gallon pots, do worse than the 1-gallon, which do worse than the smaller pots. Of course size is relative. And I want to limit the amount of potting mix that gets into my soil, for fear that it will destroy the texture of the soil.

So my garden is slow.  Not only do I do most of the work myself (as well as work full time, and maintain the house, and have a life), but I plant small, and I wait. No television crews, no dramatic makeovers.

So you think that gardening in this way would make me a patient person. Sorry to disappoint you, but no. I learned this again today. I had plans to take out the rose 'Mrs. B R Cant,' a tea rose (not Hybrid Tea) which was not performing well. I had read on the web, that it would be big, vigorous, have the cabbage formed flowers that I love, would take the heat, and be exquisitely fragrant. There was good growth last year, but there was no fragrance to the flowers whatsoever. This year, all the roses in the neighborhood were finishing their first flush and Mrs. Cant just sat there. I am aware that Mrs. Cant, being a tea rose, is borderline hardy here, descending from roses from milder climates than mine. So I figured it didn't tolerate even last year's mild winter well. So I bought something to replace it yesterday. Of course now that we've had a week of 90 F temperatures, Mrs. Cant has begun to put on some vigorous growth. A flower opened today which was, you guessed it, fragrant.

still in the awkward stage

So now what to do with my new acquisition?

there is no perfect rose part 2

Three days of 90 degrees and today's 30 mph winds have tested the roses. 

'William Shakespeare 2000' was well on its way to being a close contender for the near perfect rose for me: great color, vigor, blooming well, great form, and terrific fragrance. I had cut a flower for the office, and indoors, the fragrance was almost too strong (!). Then today's wind hit and shows the plant's other great weakness (other than weak stems and need for lots of water), intolerance to heat and wind. Interestingly, it was the center petals that showed the most dehydration.

Even the newly opened flowers had crispy edges. 

'Eden', my other contender, but failing miserably in the fragrance department, fared a little better, but even before the wind had some browning of the outer petals. Now there is more browning. 

I guess it's not really fair to compare 'Marie Pavie' since the first flush was already fading. It was at the top of my list last year, when she showed the ability to grow and bloom well in the August heat. A distinct musk fragrance which wafted gave her an edge, although the grayish pink color made her less than perfect to me. We'll see how she does through the rest of summer. 

'Mrs. B R Cant' doesn't even get started until the weather heats up, so with this heat, she is just beginning. She is on the verge of getting removed since the flowers are not fragrant, and she didn't seem to tolerate the winter very well. But if she puts on a good show in the heat when all the other roses are languishing, I will reconsider.

Annemarie's heritage rose is finishing its first flush, and the flowers are hardly fazed from the heat and wind. It's not the prettiest rose, but it sure is tough, and flowers smell like sweet peas.

What shouldn't have been, but was a surprise to me, was that the clear winner of today's survey was 'Iceberg,' which hardly seemed fazed (Annemarie's rose is second but only because I'm not fond of the flower form, not because of any intolerance to dry hot wind). In the late afternoon, 'Iceberg' had a fragrance as strong as I would desire, although not as strong as WS2000. It is not really comparable though, since the fragrance of 'Iceberg' is like warm honey over vanilla ice cream, whereas the fragrance of WS2000 has a sharpness to it.

This is one of my plants, still a baby, but blooming away with it's first flush. 

I just planted 'Bolero' so I can't compare, but everything I've read suggests that it might be the winner in terms of weather tolerance, flower form and fragrance. The ones that I planted over a month ago that have survived their torture trip of shipping seem to be tolerating the wind okay. Time will tell.

there is no perfect rose

Searching for the perfect rose is like searching for the holy grail. It may not exist, but the joy is searching for it. It probably does not exist because we are imperfect ourselves, and that representation is of searching for the perfect in ourselves. I planted two of the roses last year that I think are among the most beautiful roses I've ever seen, and they are starting to open now.

I first saw 'Eden' when I was in France, where it is planted everywhere, but I first saw it at the Jardin du Luxembourg. There it is called 'Pierre de Ronsard.' It impressed me not with its huge blossom, but the delicately shaded fading to almost white on the outer petals and darker pink in the center, so that the overall impression is of light loveliness. This was a weird thing for me to realize, since pink roses are a dime-a-dozen, and I am not a "pink" person (at all) but I liked this one. I really liked it.

'Pierre de Ronsard Jardin du Luxembourg 2006

Sadly, when I went back in 2012 to the Jardin de Luxembourg, Pierre had been removed. 

'Pierre de Ronsard' 2006

Then I saw one in my neighborhood 2 years ago, peeking over the wall. This year it is even more impressive, and I almost stopped my car in the middle of traffic to gawk at it.

It's funny that the photos do not capture this rose well, so you may think 'Eh!", but I knew that I should have one in my yard.

'Eden' is not without its faults. The outer petals get brown edges in my climate. The leaves are a coarse like a hybrid tea.  It has large thorns. The leaves could be a richer green (but that may be my fault or my garden's fault). I've heard that it is susceptible to thrips and some foliar disease, but not so far in my garden. It's biggest fault, which is nearly unforgivable in my book, is the lack of scent. You would expect a rose that looks like this to have a gorgeous fragrance, and it is described as "moderate" by some, but to my very sensitive nose, it is barely detectible.

William Shakespeare 2000 on the other hand, has a delicious fragrance. I don't remember my first sighting of it, probably on the web, but I remember I found myself a bit slack-jawed. Then when I smelled on in person, I was lost. That's what a rose should smell like. It was strong, rich, but even better, with nuance. This is one of the first flowers on my two bushes (twigs, really) of WS2K this year. Although not perfect, they still stop me in my tracks. So maybe now you know why I was so angry with the wind for snapping one bush at the base.

William Shakespeare 2000 is not a perfect bush. It has weak stems, and I realized that it was the only rose bush in the garden where the branches were broken by the wind, and you don't get flowers if the stems are snapped off. The stems also do not stand upright, but I consider that part of the grace that separates it from Hybrid Teas.

One big fault is that it does require moist soil. To produce a big dense flower, this needs a lot of water. WS2000 wants to grow in a swamp (at least it seems that way in a desert climate and granitic soils). 

 To me, the English roses look their best when fully open, or at least half open. Roses in the bud are much less interesting. I suppose that's why I like the English roses, since the Hybrid Teas are supposed to look their best in the bud or at most half open. That's a very short time, especially in the heat. Another analogy with life, I suppose. Older is more interesting. My honey should be happy with my perspective on that.

Boring in the bud.

So neither are the holy grail of rosedom for me. But they are a start. I've just got to keep looking.