Powdery mildew

After a little reading today, I learn that spraying seaweed on my roses' mildew may have just spread it -- or at least, a better tack is fungicide, which I applied today.

I also learned that powdery mildew was first recorded in 300 B.C. by Theophrastus, a pupil of Aristotle who founded the science of botany and was occasionally so literal he was thuddingly dull, a trait I have some sympathy for.

Given the intervening 2300 years of study and treatment, you'd think I should've been able to diagnose and treat the disease a little better, but nooooo, I have to go reinventing the wheel. But the cool thing, as Jay and I were saying, is that 2300 years ago, somebody walked out to his garden and had the same problem I'm having.

Roses recovering

White fungus has set in on a few branches, but the astonishing news is that the row of rosebushes that looked like a poster on "How to Identify Black Spot" has suddenly, in the past couple weeks, put out a few fresh green leaves and -- I was shocked -- real live roses. Jay had to call me out to the side yard to look at them: They're actually blooming!

"Double Delight" is the flashiest, three or four blossoms, and more of a blended bright pink than the juicy red-and-white in the catalogs so far, but its scent (though strong) is not a pure rose scent to my nose.

"Fragrant Cloud" is the best surprise -- a really rich dark coral and a really strong true rose scent. I don't know about these notes of "tangerines and oranges" that J&P rabbits on about, it smells like pure tea rose to me, which is a joy. Beautifully shaped blooms as well.

Rock-solid "Belinda's Dream" is hanging in there, "McCartney Rose" put up a feebly-colored straggler, and even the doomed "Tiffany" that I bought a replacement for is making a bid for recovery... though I should probably go ahead and move it to the hospital anyway.

Sad to say "Brigadoon," which had been doing well in the relative shade, now looks worse than the others! I will keep up the regular watering (like a coward, I've been lurking inside the fence and watering with the remote timer, not daring to go observe the suffering in person) and perhaps they could all do with some seaweed for encouragement as well.

For now, though: They're not dead yet!!

Jonquils are toast

I sincerely hope they're dormant. The thriving stand of "Grand Primo" narcissus that bloomed from January 4 through March 5 has gone from yellowed stalks to completely, flat, dead. Deader'n a stump. Please, you little plants that bloom like fireworks and are supposed to like my scalding alkaline clay, please come back next spring and make me glad again!

Daylilies blooming

'Scarlet Orbit,' 'Chicago Petticoats' and 'Pandora's Box' have begun to bloom (observed first on Mom's birthday).

'Pandora' is a little earlier than billed, and should be followed by 'Little Maggie' and 'Marcia Fay,' then 'Pardon Me' and 'Rosella Sheridan.'

I did them a disservice by planting them under the baby oak tree and not next to the minisprinklers, but then it's so hard to get a hole dug in this nasty soil that the expedient thing to do was just plop them in the spots where the previous homeowners' plants had been! Getting them planted quickly was a good thing, at least.