Well here is a first. Some evil birdie snatched a nearly open bloom and snacked on it this afternoon! I know they smell like candy, but isn't this a bit much? The remains of the rose were crumpled up in a neighboring pot... Now that is sneaky!
Being halfway or more through May, I would normally expect to see more going on in the garden. This is clearly a weird year. With most of my shrubs preparing for their third year since planting, this should be when the real displays begin. And likely they will, but the oddly late onset of spring (after two weeks of it in February) have much in a state of confusion. I enjoy talk of "berries" because at this point many of the roses really do show their shared ancestry with their fruity cousins. [caption id="attachment_3935" align="alignnone" width="640"] An Abraham Darby bud...[/caption] [caption id="attachment_3936" align="alignnone" width="640"] My cluster planted box... Charles Darwin to the left, Claire Austin in the rear, and Lady Emma Hamilton in front. LEH is especially beautiful even before…
Firstly, I must apologize for the lack of recent posts. I returned from a work trip to Asia (which went extremely well -- I could have happily spent six months there) only to end up deeply immersed at work. But at last, signs of spring are upon us. Now that the days are long enough for me to walk around the yard after work/the gym, I can finally inspect the plants on a more regular basis. The last few days have been the biggest change, with nearly all of the roses at various stages of leafing out. Eugene is in the lead, with multiple buds already formed and growing (in all honesty, this is stunning performance, as it had already leafed out three weeks ago with snow on the ground).…
If ever there was a sign of the degree to which I've been infected with rose fever, it's in the choices I made in varieties. How else can one explain using a chicken coop heater to stabilize the ambient temperature in a corner of the garage, thereby enabling the survival of certain cultivars that, ordinarily, would not be hardy in one's climate zone? As of yesterday, the most sensitive plants have emerge -- both having already started the process of leafing out, despite storage in total darkness. Papa Meilland is listed as hardy to 7b, which is exactly where I am. Since I only just received it last spring and want it to put on some size, the goal was zero winter dieback. [caption id="attachment_3874" align="alignnone" width="640"] Papa Meilland, in…
In previous years, I used a fluorescent fixture (with T5 bulbs) as a grow light for my seedlings. This year, I've tried an LED grow light -- partly just for the sake of comparison. I wish I could say I've seen a difference, but so far, there hasn't been one. I can assume there is an improvement as far as energy efficiency. However, since the scope of my gardening has increased, the old T5 unit is still in use. Thankfully, a pair of fluorescent bulbs would hardly be capable of exciting the electric meter to where the house might be turned into some sort of residential equivalent of Airwolf. All in all, the LED light works fine, I'm just not so sure that a modest increase in efficiency is worth…
I love evolution and phylogeny. With animals, you can see how similar traits were adapted over time given different environmental pressures or happenstances. Now that we know T-rex was feathered and mitochondrial DNA has suggested its closest living relatives include the common chicken, that trip to KFC has new meaning. With plants, it's especially interesting because closely related groups often, as with animmals, retain the genes responsible for the production of certain chemicals. This is the reason many roses have scents with fruity undertones -- just examine the leaflets of a rose and compare with those of a blackberry, and you'll see how close these cousins really are. This is also why rose hips are so high in Vitamin C. And again for the same reasons, it turns out that…
With temps dropping to the single digits, easily the coldest weather we've had in years (especially after last year's non-winter), I am wondering how things look inside the garage. Clustered around a chicken coop heater in the left rear corner are my Gloire de Dijon, Papa Meilland, and the other potted plants. I now doubt the heater has been enough to keep them more than ten degrees warmer than the outdoor temperature, but we'll see how hardy they really are. [caption id="attachment_2698" align="alignnone" width="640"] Gloire de Dijon in mid-November, and still not dormant[/caption] Despite repeated frosts in October and November, this caged lion not only refused to go dormant, it actually was still growing, albeit at a slower rate. Impressive from one of the only plants in my collection that…
The best way to keep insect pests at bay: foul the area with something so noxious they'll never know what hit them. Enter the cayenne pepper. In this case, you're looking at ground Ristra Cayenne pepper from my 2015 crop. Unfortunately this particular batch happened to be so delicious to me that I chose to keep it for my[caption id="attachment_2450" align="alignright" width="350"] Ristra Cayenne pepper, about as potent as non-chemical pest control gets. [/caption]self, but the concept is sound. Aphids, whiteflies, rose slugs, and a variety of other insect pests will absolutely hate it when you dust your plants with hot pepper. Just fill a spray bottle with water, mist the plants so the pepper flakes will stick, and sprinkle them onto the leaves. At the risk of having the…
One of the best natural fertilizers this side of dung is, well, the other side of dung. Alfalfa pellets, widely available at livestock stores, are about as good as it gets and can be used in a number of ways. Sprinkled lightly into the soil and worked in, they decompose slowly, adding a range of nutrients and organic matter A cup or two soaked for a few days (or longer, if you can bear the smell) in a large pail of water, in which case they create a sort of "compost tea"i was driving away vermin with the odor of this fermenting grog for weeks at one point last spring I learned about this trick for use with roses, and promptly experimented on tomatoes as well, with equally strong results.…
This happy little ganglion is actually James Galway #3, replacing a year-old plant I had to put down the previous fall after it contracted Rosette (aka RRD), a virus that terminally disfigures roses. [caption id="attachment_2213" align="alignright" width="640"] An own-root James Galway[/caption] Thankfully,this happy critter is healthy as kale and ginger smoothie. This is a perfect example of what an own root rose looks like before planting, and David Austin's nurseies sent me a particularly mature one. Since I needed to quarantine the location of the original location for at least a year to ensure the disease doesn't spread, when this arrived in April of 2017 I planted in a large pot alongside the garage. It grew surprisingly large and strong there in one season -- probably also because it's a…
