how is your spring garden?

[eks6426]

This past weekend my fiance and I worked on cleaning up my front yard cottage garden. We got 8 huge contractor bags full of leaves and dead flower stalks. I was amazed considering my front yard is really not that big...40 feet across by maybe 40 feet deep. Best part is my guy is excellent at yard clean-up. His skill at blowing leaves and raking has made my front yard look better than ever. And I got to concentrate on the part I really love...taking care of my little flowers. It''s always such a nice sight to see the perennials poking their heads through the ground again. The crocuses are blooming and the tulips & daffodils & hyacinths are getting ready. I am so happy spring is finally here!

 

[Mara]

i have been meaning to respond to this thread for a long while but just haven't had the time to sit down and futz around with my photos!!

these were taken about a month ago before the first spring flush on my beloved roses...

now the flush is long over and the roses are starting to get ready for flush #2 on some and others are taking their sweet time growing new buds.

the first one here is my Abraham Darby english rose, the second is my beloved Heritage english rose...it looks great against the brick and black wrought iron but is a floppy sucker, and the third is my very first miniature rose ever purchased (~8 years ago) that has come with me to every apartment, duplex, and townhouse i have lived in since then...Snow Bride. Snow Bride is an absolutely excellent flower producer and a very hardy, healthy mini with huge blooms which I love in miniatures.

 

[Mara]

and here is the second batch....

the first one here is my last english rose, Evelyn...all the English roses have the most amazing scents but they are notoriously floppy stems with very heavy flowers, so sometimes in bud stage is when the plants look their best IMO...

the second one is my old favorite, Tiffany...my Mom grew this since I was a child and it was one of my favorites...it''s kind of an odd plant from a growth perspective (mine is tall and skinny), but the flowers smell fabulous and are a stunning shade of pink.

i took some new pix this morning....hopefully i can get those up soon too!!

anyone else got some spring pictures of beauty??

 

[MichelleCarmen]

Mara - your roses are gorgeous! I''m jealous. . .lol!

We have one rose bush in our front yard, but it looks terrible. . .we finally spoke with our neighbor behind us and I guess the people who owned our house before us NEVER mowed their lawn, even when the house was on the market. . .believe or not, these neighbor people mowed it for the guy who lived here simply out of aggravation. Anyway, the yard was in terrible shape and since we''re already planning to move, I haven''t bothered to do anything with the various shrubs/bushes, BUT, I have been doing a TINY bit of container gardening

Very fun. . .

It really sucks planning another move. I cannot wait to settle into a house and make it HOME!

 

[Matata]

I''m reposting these from another thread. My spring garden is green and very wet. We''ve had lots of rain the last two weeks and my roses aren''t looking so good. I hope that after a few days of sun, they start doing better.

A ruby throated hummer at the feeder

 

[Matata]

I loooove the color on this columbine.

 

[Matata]

Too huge....let me try that again

 

[Matata]

Gerbera daisy in a pot

 

[Matata]

Lavender, can''t ya just smell it.

 

[Mara]

Love the lavender Matata...lavender is one of my FAVORITES. I am a French lavender kind of gal...I had a bunch of bushes in my old garden, they got huge and very woody...there was a house in our old neighborhood that had a whole front yard of just lavender, it was heaven to walk by there on warm nights and smell the air heavy with the perfume!!

I have always loved Gerbers too, but I can''t stand that they are such stingy performers with the flowers...unfortunately nothing lasts in my garden if it doesn''t suffuse itself with blooms at least 3-4 times a year...gotta be picky with the patio garden...only so much room yanno!!

Right now I am obsessed with my hydrangea. It''s a Nikko Blue and I bought it about 3 years ago at a nursery for the EXHORBITANT price of $100. However, it was HUGE with something like 60 blooms on it, the beautiful bright electric blue that NB is known for...it just captured my heart. It was a 7 year old plant when I bought it so it''s about 10 now and I am ashamed to say that I have been horrible to it. It''s in a huge pot but I never really knew how to care for it and I planned to put it in the ground last house but then we were planning on moving etc and so I am glad we didn''t...but now on my hot sunny patio it just fried last year. I bought a humongous pot to replant it into and plan on mulching it like mad and mixing in bark compost with the soil to try to retain some moisture during the summer days but honestly I don''t know....I have been reading the GardenWeb hydrangea forum like mad lately trying to figure out how to make this thing come back from the near-dead state it is in from a few years of mediocre care. When I stopped to think about what it used to be like and what it looked like last summer, it was very sad. So I''m dedicated to it this year, gotta stop spoiling the roses and pay attn to another plant baby for a while! It''s demanding attention!

So if anyone has hydrangea tips, please assist me...I may be a long-time gardener but this tempermental plant freaks me out!

 

[Mara]

here are the ones from this morning...the colors are so vibrant right now!

first is my Asiatic Lily...i am not sure re: the name but i think it is Desert Song. I have these mixed in with the pots and roses, etc.

then we have my new miniature rose...don''t know the name but love the pink, with purple pansies, love the contrast...

another miniature rose which darn i can''t recall the name of now but it''s a named variety so I will have to go dig out the tag later...I got this in March at the Garden Show from Nor''East...it''s doing quite well already with multiple blooms...

then we''ve got my dutch iris...again this variety''s name escapes me but i got them from John Scheepers last year.

 

[Mara]

and for fun i made a small bouquet of mini roses and some queen anne''s lace from my anniversary bouquet that greg sent me!

 

[belle]

wow! you guys have such beautiful gardens!

the blooming season for irises is all but over here. this is one of the last to show.......

 

[belle]

and here''s a staple of the desert garden...a group of red hot pokers, just waiting to bloom!

 

[yellowfan]

Mara,

your roses are beautiful

are they much work?

 

[MichelleCarmen]

All these gardens/flowers are gorgeous

Mara - do you have an beginning tips for rose plants? I've decided to try and revive the rose bush the previous owner abused

The stems near the buds are either brittle & stringy or soggy stringy. . .any ideas? Thanks. Oh, and the leaves also have black spots.

 

[Mara]

ahh i wrote this big long thing about roses...hit the wrong button and poof..all gone.

now i''m off to kboxing class but i will try to replicate the post later this evening!!

 

[hoorray]

Hi MC,

My 2cents is that it''s easiest to do the big fix it things to roses in the winter during the dormant season. But in the meantime, I would spray it for fungus and bugs (sounds like you have the black spot fungus, which is common in damp climates.). Fertilize them with rose food every 6 weeks or so -- check the instructions of the food you buy, but specifically get rose food. These days some combine the funguside with the fod to eliminate the spraying -- big plus! Simple things like this will make a big difference. I''d check the watering system to see what is going on. Roses tend to like to be deep watered periodically. Once they are established, they don''t need frequent watering, and generally arent'' too picky about the watering, but your spindly and soggy stems don''t sound good. Once winter roles around, I would cut them back hard. (50% or so at least). Cut off spindly growth, crossing branches, etc all at a bud. Get a good rose book, and it will talk you through the basics. Roses need care, but it isn''t complicated. Once you start getting beautiful flowers, continual light pruning/deadheading, spraying, and feeding will keep them looking great during the bloom season.

I think deadheading roses is therapeutic, not work

. I miss my 40+ roses from my previous home.....

 

[Mara]

It's my belief that growing roses is as hard as you make it.....

...you can do little and do the basics like water and fertilizer and see what happens, or you can roll up your sleeves and delve a bit into finding what works for the particular plant itself. It's as involved as you want to get in my opinion. Some of my rosees are so easy to care for I don't have to do much more than the basics. Others take a bit more work and/or a waiting period while I see how things pan out.

Lop has some great points in her thread...personally I would immediately cut back the rose 50% and not wait til winter...I would cut back all the spindly stems to a thick stem so that the new growth will not be thin. I would also pinch back any buds off it for about 6 months to let the foliage and stems grow strength rather than blooms which take alot out of any plant. You can use a slow-time release fertilizer like an Oscomote or do a Miracle Grow or organic composts...everyone kind of has their own recipe on what works best and for me experiments are the best thing to find out what works best for your plants and climate.

I never spray my roses for black spot or mildew...I have never found anything that actually WORKS long term...what works for me is pulling off the affected leaves. Even if this is 80% of the plant. Then I cut it back about 50% to strong canes...and let it re-leaf. Right now I have one rose that has mildew, but it's prone to it...so I just let it go...it will eventually get healthier and/or heartier or it will continue to have mildew...in our area here it's kind of a hit or miss. Helps to start with a strong variety of rose that is not prone to mildew!

Re: Blackspot...one way to combat this is to not water in the evenings and/or don't water the LEAVES...get the water only into the pot or the ground near the roots. This is why drip watering for roses is soo loved. Roses can get mildew or blackspot especially when you water in the evening (which I sometimes do) and then water the leaves inadvertently...the water does not have time to dry before sun sets and it get's chilly (here anyway) and then that contributes to diseases.

Re: Watering, roses love water but do not like wet feet so make sure your soil is well-draining and/or compost in some necessary items if possible. Or grow it in a pot where you can oversee the soil content and know what it is getting vs not. Roses also throw deep taproots so you need to be sure that you can accomodate that deep root as well as the shallow smaller ones, but it is the deep taproot that is the lifeblood of the plant. So the deep watering every once in a while does help, or a slow drip.

So like what I am finding with my hydgrangea...nursing a plant back to health means you probably won't see flowers off it for a while as you let it heal itself...but in the long run I think the plant will be happier and you will be happier next year when the rose has come back and is leafing and blooming off strong canes with less disease.

Roses are definitely a gardening passion, I used to have 40-50 of them...now I have pared it down to my 6 big ones and a handful of miniatures. In my patio garden, a strong plant and blooming schedule is required because I don't have too much space to baby things as I would have in the ground. So I only brought my favorites or best performers with me...but like lop, I do sometimes miss my masses of rose bushes...tending to them was the best mental relaxation!

Enjoy!

 

[MichelleCarmen]

Lop and Mara,

Thanks so much for taking the time to help out.

As far as watering goes, I haven''t been doing this. . .during this time of year, it rains frequently enough that most of our plants seem satisfied. Unfortunetly, water on the leaves can''t be helped at the moment.

But, I''ll try cutting the bush back, feeding it and DEEP watering it and see what happens.

Since the idea of planting a rose bush in a pot was brought up, I''m going to try this. I''d be nice to take a plant I invest time in with me when I move.

I''ll post more questions later - lol

 

[Mara]

The good thing about roses is that they are VERY hardy....they are much harder to kill than people think! There are rosebushes that are found in old neglected cemetaries from 100 years ago that managed to stay alive on the most basic of elements and eke out a survival. Sometimes they actually thrive that way!!

Growing a rose in a pot may make sense for a beginner as well because you can easily learn what the plant likes, and does not like because you know what you are putting into that soil vs using ground soil where you have no idea what the soil is made out of unless you do a chemical test on it. Some people may think they have sandy soil but underneath possibly it's very clay like, but unless you know that you cannot act accordingly.

Plus then as you noted you can take it with you...

Leaving my old cottage garden behind was sad but there is always the promise of the 'next' garden which is what is so fun!

 

[hoorray]

I agree with Mara that you should cut off the spindly, unhealthy growth right now. And then cut them back to just a few strong stalks with a good shape in the winter. I fought both black spot and rust in my old garden because it was very damp all the time. It wasn''t from watering, it was from the weather, so I relied on the sprays (which were a pain) and then started using the systemic stuff that was combined with some fertilizers.

Mara -- I had beautiful hydrangas in Half Moon Bay. They grew so well there that at one point our big news was that there was a hydranga bloom thief in town. Someone was cutting all the blooms from front yard hydrangas in the middle of the night. Probably selling them for big bucks at some flower stand! They thrived in damp, shady spots. They needed drainage and alkaline (I think) soil and lots of water. Maybe you should try moving yours out of afternoon sun if you haven''t already.

 

[Mara]

lop I love hydrangeas...I know they thrive in damper more mild climates so hope this one sticks around!! I''ve been watering it daily, so far so good.

Here is another batch of flowers from today...love my asiatic lilies except for the pollen...got it on a sweater the other day, ugh!

This second image is of some sort of bulb I planted and forgot what it was called (purple) mixed with the perfect pale blue of forget-me-nots, one of my FAVE flowers. It''s like a weed, which means it comes back each and every year in random pots, love it.

 

[Mara]

and here is an image of one of my roses which is horribly prone to mildew. The bloom is amazing, it has tons of petals, so many that I have to peel off the first few outer layers or else the whole room will not bloom fully, it just balls up. However, you can see on the stem and the leaves that they are coated in a fine mist powdery mildew...and it slightly disfigures the leaves.

Hopefully this is just a spring thing (some of my other roses have rust and blackspot from all the rain we've had!) and it will harden up for the hot summer. But our hot days and cold nights very much promote mildew on the prone plants, and this beautiful baby is a prone one! Gotta keep a watch on it.

 

[Blue824]

I don't know how all of you had pretty flowers in your gardens back in April & May, I think it was still snowing here then

but these past few weeks has when our garden is at its peak...so i was out this weekend and I snapped a couple pictures and then remembered this thread.

I don't plant anything, I just like to sit on the deck and look at the pretty colors around

A rose. The pretty butterfly I chased around the gardens. Pretty pink flowers that I probably should know the name of but don't

 

[widget]

Ooooh...I wish I''d seen this thread in the spring!

I really don''t have much a garden, except for some roses fenced off to keep the deer away. Last spring I went crazy with my digi camera and took lots of pictures of the wild flowers that grow around here. (No.Cal)

Well they''re history now, so I''ve been reduced to taking pix of interesting weeds!

widget

 

[Mara]

Blue, I love your rose!!

Widget, nice weeds...

I have some roses about to bloom, maybe in a day or so I''ll have some pix. I did post a beautiful pink one in the Picture Gallery from this weekend!

 

[cute330xigrl]

Date: 8/10/2005 12:33:35 AM
Author: Mara
Blue, I love your rose!!

Widget, nice weeds...

I have some roses about to bloom, maybe in a day or so I''ll have some pix. I did post a beautiful pink one in the Picture Gallery from this weekend!

still in august you''ll have roses blooming?!?

if my garden can look as gorgeous as you ladies have made yours...i wouldnt even think twice about where im having my wedding. sweet sweet job !

 

[Mara]

Date: 9/5/2005 6:39:00 PM
Author: cute330xigrl

Date: 8/10/2005 12:33:35 AM
Author: Mara
Blue, I love your rose!!

Widget, nice weeds...

I have some roses about to bloom, maybe in a day or so I''ll have some pix. I did post a beautiful pink one in the Picture Gallery from this weekend!

still in august you''ll have roses blooming?!?

if my garden can look as gorgeous as you ladies have made yours...i wouldnt even think twice about where im having my wedding. sweet sweet job !

hehe I have yet another flush happening right now as well as some that are gearing up for one last hurrah...which should last until around first week in October. After that the roses will start to go to sleep...but I end up having various blooms through ''winter''...here in CA it''s very mild!

 

[MichelleCarmen]

This isn''t a photo of my garden, but instead I''m showing the fruits of my garden labors

Fresh blueberries!

We harvested bowls and bowls of these delicious treats and I made some muffins (which the kids gobbled up) and we ate the rest as is - ripe off the vine.