Tuesday, June 09, 2009

New rose garden planted!

Well, it's official: All the rosebushes that have been struggling
along the increasingly shaded fence (our bur oaks are getting big),
plus six brand-new ones, have been newly installed in a flowerbed my
genius husband invented at the northeast corner of our yard. The
genius part: It's a corner so sunny that the grass never got a good
grip, meaning it was sparse and weedy -- but the roses will love it.

He put in several weekends' worth of labor digging it out, edging,
weeding and preparing it, then transplanted all our rosebushes. A
batch did not survive, so we ordered more, and now there are a total
of nine or ten teas and floribundas, plus two miniature roses -- all
labeled, with a new watering system tucked at their roots, under a
blanket of fresh, sweet-scented cypress mulch.

It's so beautiful it actually draws us out to spend time in the front
yard. Thinking of how it will be when there are pink, coral, cream,
red and yellow blooms to cut makes me absolutely giddy! (Mister
Lincoln, Aromatherapy, Spellbound, Gemini, Full Sail, New Zealand,
Rainbow Sorbet, Gypsy Carnival, Elegant Lady and two anonymous
grocery store minis.)

Two roses that were doing well on the fence remain in their spots:
Belinda's Dream and the McCartney Rose were doing so well we did not
want to dig them up. Luckily they are at either end of the fence and
sort of bookend it in pink blossoms.

Sunday, January 18, 2009

Narcissus poking up their little green noses

With Jason's help again, took another sunny garden stroll today. The plants in pots on the deck have taken a beating with all the dry cold (although the Mexican oregano continues to appear unkillable and Larry the Lemon is, as Jason phrased it, thanking us for bringing him in on the really cold nights by covering himself with buds and blooms -- even without the benefit of Rabbit Hill Farm's Buds & Blooms, aka magical rabbit poo.

The new Thalia and Grand Primo have almost all sprouted, as have the new Louisiana jonquils -- though the latter have unhealthy brown tips on their sprouts that worry me. The established Grand Primo appear at least a couple of weeks ahead of the new ones, two to four inches tall! (Or else I planted them two to four inches shallower :)

Bella'roma and, particularly, Sonia have lots of clean new growth, and the climbing roses look spindly but half leafed out. Didn't visit the outside roses today, so don't know about them. And Jason reports the potted impatiens on the front porch are droopy, but alive.