2010 Getting in the planting groove

Recovering nicely from two years of gardening neglect. Well, it was actually depression after my father-in-law died and I was no longer his caregiver. I didn't do much gardening outside but I did do some in the house.

Lost a couple African Violets but managed to bring a Poinsettia back to life. ha ha. The Poinsettias are at least two years old now. No red leaves but they don't need sun and are a nice green spot in the dining room.

Also nursed a spider plant back to full health. The two Trumpet Flower cuttings are now small potted plants on the kitchen window sill. Best of all, one of my orchids is going to bloom! Wow! I haven't had any orchids bloom since my father-in-law died. I am very happy.

The new David Austin Rose catalog arrived today

I held the catalog in my hands and it felt strange because I have become so unattached to my roses this year. :( So sad! Probably because the Chief Mulch Master managed to kill at least six of the roses by covering them with pine straw last fall. WITHOUT my blessing. But I didn't have enough valid info to tell him that was an unwise decision so the pine straw stayed. And with each rain through two seasons, the poor roses were bathed in an acid bath. :( So sad! I didn't know that was happening and it took a while to figure it out. By then, six rose bushes were dead and a couple are struggling along.


The New Dawn at the base of the deck stairs fared the best. This photo was taken in mid May of 09. I sure wish the New Dawn was a repeat bloomer. The canes go all the way up the deck stairs. During the summer, the canes continued to grow and now they grow along under the kitchen window. We're talking over 25'! WOW! So it's possible I will have my kitchen window framed in roses next spring. :)

The roses in the barrels on the deck are ok but they didn't bloom much, no doubt to the acid problem. They were covered with black plastic over the winter so not as much water ran down through the pine straw mulch. I plan on moving two of the barrel roses to the yard and getting some prolific repeat bloomers for the barrels.

I'm also growing two trumpet flower plants from cuttings my mom gave me. Her plant this year was huge. I hope my little baby Trumpet Flower plants make it through the winter so I can plant them outside next spring.

Freezing

Last night the temp was supposed to drop below freezing. I figured my roses would be fine but moved the planters on the deck inside. I covered the kitchen island with plastic bags and also the dining room table and had the Rose Support Team schlep all the planters and pots in. There were only 16 so the boys didn't complain too much.

Here is a picture taken this morning before I had the boys take the planters and pots back out to the deck.



Tonight the boys will have to schlep them all back in again. And then the next night...

The boys enjoy weight lifting so I'm just giving them slightly more awkward weights to lift. I told the guys the sooner they get the garage ready with the plant stand then the sooner the musical planter game will be over. The plant stand was a shooting range all summer in the backyard.

little shoots

Not in the ground, but rather little shoots in the spirit, the kind that have to come up after a major upheaval and turning of soil.
My sense of humor got kinda shot the past three months. Ever since March when my father-in-law died. He funded all my rose plantings. He had a terrific, unstoppable sense of humor and still laughed up till he lost his voice a couple days before he died. He loved flowers of every kind. I suppose I let my humor go with him. But I noticed small shoots coming up the other day. It's impossible to live this life without humor and more impossible to keep a blog without humor and most impossible of all to tend, um...

LIVING:
Fair Bianca on the Deck
Fair Biancas 1 & 2 in the front yard
Molineux on the Deck
Lost Tag Forgot Name DA rose on the Deck
New Dawn at the base of the deck stairs
Graham Thomas in the patio area
Jude the Obscure in the patio area
Pat Austin in the patio area
Eden in the patio area
Another Lost Tag Forgot Name DA rose in the patio area
Happy Little No Roses Yet in the back yard
Another Happy Little No Rose Yet in the back yard
Bright Red Forgot Name rose by the swing
Blush Noisette in Prince Charming Serenade Spot
Zepherine Drouhin by the chimney
Scepter'd Isle by the mail box
Jude the Obscure in the ditch
James Galway in the front yard
Queen of Denmark in the front yard
Rose of the Nifty Thorns in the front yard

DEAD:
Molineux in the patio area
Pat Austin in the patio area
Some Lovely Red and White rose in the backyard
Another Lovely Red rose in the backyard
Two More roses in the backyard
Two Roses in the front yard

WAITING ROOM BUCKET:
Pat Austin
Heritage

without some kind of sense at all.

At least I pruned them all at the right time, after the first flush of blooms.
The scent from the Blush Noisette is really strong. I'm going to plant another one of those next year. It's cute and quite healthy.

So many changes...

There has been so much happening since my last post that I barely know where to begin. The biggest change is that my dear father-in-law, Robert Monroe, departed from this life on March 6th, 2008. It has taken me two months to leave the dark season of sorrow behind. I didn't even notice that spring came and went and now summer is nearly upon us.

I can't update all my rose adventures in this one post so it will have to be spread out over a number of posts. My roses are beginning to bloom!!!!!!! I'm fairly certain that the deer are either shot or they no longer remember that I have roses. Either way, I haven't seen them since last fall. The roses all have big juicy buds on them and nary a deer in sight.

I've taken some photos during the spring and will gradually post them and the accompanying text to this blog in the coming days. I only bought two new David Austin roses this year. At the time of purchase, I wasn't sure what my gardening life would be so I stayed on the conservative side. The bare root Pat Austin and lovely Heritage are still in a bucket of water on the deck. Shame on me! I'm probably going to take the Molineux out of one of the barrels on the deck and replant it in the patio area. It's not doing well in the barrel. I'm going to experiment by putting both the Pat Austin and the Heritage in the same barrel. It's not advised to put two rose bushes in one barrel but I really can't think of anywhere else to put the Heritage for now.

A couple days ago I got all the Cascadia petunias in the planters with the new geraniums. The white petunias are paired with the red geraniums and the red petunias are paired with the white geraniums. Last year I decided to go with brighter color on the deck, thus the new red addition. But now that everything is blooming, I seriously miss my beloved pink. Pink is cooler and more soothing to look at out the back door and I really need that now.

Roses under Wraps

It's funny how much I've become attached to the roses on the deck. They made a valiant effort to keep putting out buds for weeks, even after a couple frosts! Of course the buds turned brown from the cold but that didn't stop the bushes. They still got new leaves too, even though I cut them back.

We're supposed to get a couple nights well below freezing. So I decided tonight was the night to cover them. I'll miss the green on the deck.

Tonight the Chief Mulch Manager told me there was no mulch but he made a valiant effort to look for some around the house anyway. There was a little left around the roses in the planters but the rest had blown away with fall's winds and rain. We covered the roses with double layers of black plastic, and pushed the planters right up against the house and back door. They probably weigh 100+ pounds each so it took three guys to lift them and move them. The next time I have planters, I'm going to drill holes around the top so rope handles can be inserted for moving the planters if necessary. It's really, really awkward lifting a barrel that weighs so much!

I'm going to figure out a way to decorate the black plastic so it doesn't look like I have big black blobs right outside the back door. Since it's winter, I should make them look like snowballs or something.

I'm really excited about what spring might bring. This will be the third year for the roses. Blush Noisette growing down below the corner of the deck kept getting clusters of roses well into fall, despite me not watering it and despite the drought.

We twisted the thorny New Dawn up around the hand rail as it grew all summer so it would reach the top of the stairs. It's amazing how high that one goes! If I undid all that twining, the vines would probably be 15' long. I'm not going to cut them for winter just so I can see how they fare.

It wasn't the brightest move to wrap the thorny vines around the handrailing though, making the railing a serious hazard to use and virtually unusable now. But hey, I'm still new to rose growing. How do other people get roses up around their decks and railings? You just have to go down the steps carefully and watch where you place your hand on the railing. No big deal.

It's hard to predict which roses will live through the winter. If any die, I want to plant a similar rose in it's place. But that means I have to order now before they sell out. If I order replacement roses, and the current roses don't die, I'll have to figure out where to put all the replacement roses.

Such predicaments gardeners face! It's not like I can give a plant to a friend. "Here, I don't have anywhere to plant these rose bushes, which will grow 15' high, 5' wide and need a lot of water, pruning and protection from deer. You can have them for free." Yep, my friends will line up for my generosity.

Winterizing

Last night the weather was supposed to dip below freezing. To 29, actually. At 10 pm, last night I remembered that. The Rose Support team obligingly dragged the monstrous 6' high, A-Frame plant rack made of two by fours into the garage. It spent the summer in the backyard as a shooting gallery, covered with cans and various shootables. The plant rack is in the middle of the garage again, covered with all the terracotta planters from the back deck.

Last night before doing all that heavy lifting, the Rose Support team asked me "So... do you want all the dead plants in the garage?" Um, just because a flower isn't flowering doesn't mean it's dead. Just because it has drooping leaves doesn't mean it's dead. Nor do brown leaves mean dead. I'm sure the lack of sun in the garage will have a quick effect on all the geraniums, cascading petunias and poinsettias.

I haven't watered the planters in a month. Now that the plants are in the garage, I feel compelled to water them. There's nowhere for runoff so I'll have to water sparingly.

As for the roses, I'll have to watch the three potted ones on the deck carefully. They are still getting new growth and occasional roses. I hate to cut them back yet. Last year they made it throught the winter fine until I uncovered them just a week or two too soon. A killing spring frost killed my beloved Pat Austin. Next year, I'll pull out the current rose (can't even remember the name now) and put in a new Pat Austin.

Next year will be the third year for the Fair Bianca, second year for the Molineux and first year for another Pat Austin on the deck. I'm really looking forward to spring because I finally learned how and when to prune. Proper pruning of roses makes a HUGE, HUGE difference in the performance of the plant.