Is This a House Call?

A gardener came into the nursery on Sunday where I work at my temporary seasonal part-time job needing help with her roses. (She actually came in on Saturday and the staff asked her to come back Sunday 'cause the rose lady would be in then.) She pulled a rose bush out of a bag and asked what was wrong with it. Well, there was no soil on the roots and it clearly had been the same specimen produced the day before, so it was looking very dried out.  We spoke for a while, I asked what type roses she had, how long they had been planted, the care, etc.

Come to find out,  Billie, the gardener has planted about a dozed roses out at a cemetery where her husband is buried.  She goes out to the cemetery to water the roses once a week.  So I ask where the cemetery is and perhaps I can take a look and see if I can help.  We make plans to meet on my next day off.  I won't mention the cemetery is across the entire metroplex but I pick a time to best avoid some of the traffic.

I get there a little early and have the opportunity to take a few photos.  

 A little history.

Blowing in the Wind

F.J. Lindheimer

This was the bud from my previous posting. Out walking the dogs this morning and noticed she was open and about to be blown apart with our 35+ mph gusty South winds today.

Martha Gonzales

Tried to get Martha's beautiful bronzy foliage in the photo but the wind did not allow it.  At least this photo came out.

Frost ?!!

Just heard on the radio we are under a frost advisory tonight. You can see the sun in the loft has almost been blocked out by all the tropicals I have hauled in so far. I did this on Monday and Wednesday in preparation of the drizzly day we received yesterday. If you could have seen me yesterday as I was bundled up from head to toe for the 50 to 45 degree day. Hey, it was 112 degrees just a little while ago.

I put out a couple pounds of dutch clover seeds around the barren areas of the loft garden. Luckily it was a nice slow drizzle most of the evening and none of the seeds washed away.

Hamlet is loving his perch. Luckily the plants have not taken over the perch (yet).

So far things are looking very good in the beds that are finished (? - are they ever really finished?). The red you see in the herb ring is a bowl of red snapdragons for my sweetie. The only flower he ever really asked about so when I saw them I had to get them for him.

Livin' Easy (orange rose in front) has a growth spurt from the fertilizer and cooler weather. She has performed very well for being in such a horribly hot spot in the garden. You can almost see the other roses blooming in the back of the bed. One caster bean has grown just as I expected. The others have not performed as well due mostly to the horrible soil in these beds.

See the red spot front on the right...? One lowly snapdragon (or two) made it through the summer and being run over...

I do have a spot picked out to try to keep the greenhouse this winter. I am in winter denial for now because I have an other project in mind.

All along the east side of the loft I have been torturing the last of my roses in pots. I was worried they would not receive enough sun and become diseased but...

not so much! This is Clotilde Soupert in all her glory. She is a polyantha with the scent of a bourbon.

Photo of an older bloom - still smells like an old fashioned rose. She has been known to ball (the petals stick together and bloom will not open) during humid weather. This was not a problem this summer.

I am going to plant her here along the pathway with what I call "Magic Carpet" (aka Polygonum capitatum or Persicaria capitata) that has finally taken hold. I will have to mulch this area this winter as the Magic Carpet is fairly tender here in North Texas.

Are you ready for winter? Or do you have projects you want to get finished, too?

This is my first time to link to Tootsie's Fertilizer Friday/Flaunt Your Flowers today. Go by and see some pretty postings.

Bluebonnets at 65 mph

You have to take a few photos for bluebonnets to be somewhat recognizable for a blog posting.

Quick trip to Ikea and back before my sweetie had to be to work.

Seems like the bluebonnets are early this year (this far north)?

Maybe it was all the snow on the ground here in February.

Yellow on the fence here are Lady Banks roses. Beautiful.

Isn't Spring grand?

Back in my old 'hood, yellow and white Lady Banks artfully trained on this archway. I wrote about this little place when we first started looking for a home in Fort Worth.

Rose Hips - What Now?

No, seriously. What do I do now?

I have heard you can start roses from seeds but have never heard the step-by-step process. I know the seeds will not produce plants with blooms like their mother as roses cross-pollinate. My question, will these specimen work? I realize this maybe an exercise in futility.

So I looked on the internet and found these directions from the Alaskan Rose Society:

Mrs. Lester Mears of Palmer, a consulting rosarian of the American Rose Society, gathers rose hips at any stage of ripeness, from "one pink cheek" to mushy-ripe, preferably before the prolonged winter freeze.

Sowing rose seeds is easy. Here’s how Betty Mears does it. Mrs. Mears removes the seeds from the hips and washes them in a cup of water to which she adds a drop of detergent and a drop of laundry bleach. She rinses the seeds, then dries them on a towel. (Soak seeds in 3% peroxide for 24 hours - dispose of seeds that float.)

Milled sphagnum moss, saturated with water and squeezed dry, is mixed with the seeds. Mrs. Mears puts hers in a small jar, making sure some seeds are visible through the glass so she can tell when germination takes place.

The jar is covered lightly and stowed in the refrigerator, labeled and dated. you could use a plastic bag, secured with a twist-tie, and check it occasionally to keep it moist.

Depending on variety, rose seeds germinate in a 40-degree refrigerator in 30 to 120 days. When thread-like roots show through the jar, they’re ready for potting up, so check them as the time draws near. You may get one seedling, or many.

Shake the peat moss out of the jar and plant the seedlings in little pots or flats of commercial potting mix.

Set the pots on trays of wet gravel or enclose them in open plastic bags to create a greenhouse climate.

Give the young ones all the light you can, either at a window or under florescent tubes. Mrs. Mears turns her pots as the plants bend to the light and fertilizes them every other week with a diluted water-soluble fertilizer.

So, any other words of wisdom?

Rosa 'Grootendorst Supreme'

Day 3 of my 365 Project is the rose called 'Grootendorst Supreme' (1936).

Currently, being tortured in a pot, this rose is responding well to the cool winter weather by giving me beautiful "fall" color. Just as the blueberry I posted yesterday, foliage of ordinary plants can provide color in a dreary winter world.

This hybrid rugosa's thorny canes are not as mean as they appear.

A dark red rose with one inch blooms in clusters for USDA zone 3b and warmer. I think each flower looks like a carnation with its serrated edges. Not well liked in the rose world since it's small blooms have little to no fragrance, the bush can get a little gangly at times. In northern parts of the US it will bloom in the spring (early summer) with some repeat later. In the south (like Texas) you will be lucky to see many blooms at all. Some rosarians report black spot, etc. which I personally have not seen.

This branch is new since pruning last October.

It must not be struggling too badly as it seems I have leaves to come. So, why do I grow this rose with so little attributes? For the vision I see today and the hope of many blooms in the Spring.

"The 365 project is a photography project where you document a year of your life by taking a daily photo. Everyone can take part and join in! All you need is a camera." Click here to join in.

Iceberg in Text

I usually do not have any luck photographing white flowers. Very frustrating for me as they are my favorite. Boring you say? Well, it all goes to my mission to one day create a fabulous moonlit garden.

A daily tip on a computer site which I subscribe discussed a textart software (ASCII art) called ASCII Generator dotNET (catchy name, huh?). So I ran outside to take a photo - Iceberg was the only thing blooming. Aargh! Give it a shot. Tried the "snow" setting and it gave me the shot you see above. Downloaded her photo into text generating software and viola...

This is a screen print of my desk top. I can hardly wait to find some more colorful things to photo and try this again.

Learn all about it here. While you are there subscribe to Kim's daily info - it is a great source of computer, internet and electronics information. Try the ASCII art software and let me know how it goes.

Stick sans yard art

Sweetie, Along Life's Highway was scoring dinnerware in the garden. I never thought to take a photo of the plates!

Unfortunately, all I have is the stake that used to hold the cup and saucer before the hackberry tree took it out. Should I take it and fix it? What do you think?

Mahagony nasturtiums at the front door are still blooming.

Button bush is in full "button".

One of the plumeria is about to pop. I think this is the one I got from my boss when I lived in Florida.

Althea close up.

Belinda's Dream is still full of blooms.

The rose bush I can not kill is back and about to bloom.

These tomatoes are so shiny.

I am cleaning the garage today.

Really I am. I look out the back windows of the house and keep getting distracted. I am cleaning the garage today.

I see the velcro week that is overtaking the larkspur and 'Moonlight' (lower right of fence panel) rose. I need to water, weed, mulch... I am cleaning the garage today.

I need to clean off the top of the patio covering, pull the weeds around the fence panels... I am cleaning the garage today.

"Peggy" Update

My sweetie is back at work. It has only been 2 days since he last saw "Peggy Martin" but she is even more spectacular today. I had to take her photo again - I love her so.

Peggy Martin

Also known as the Katrina rose as the original rose withstood 2 weeks under 20 feet of salt water from Hurricane Katrina. Read the whole story here and here.

Said to be a vigorous rose she will reach 15 feet tall. Vigorous does not mean fast growing - if anything I will tell you she does not show her true nature until after the 3rd year in the ground. The first years she barely had any canes and only bloomed in the spring. Now you can see she has enveloped the pole here and has finally become vigorous.

I will photograph her again as this is just the beginning of this girl's blooms this season.

Today's chores

Cleaned all the velcro weed from around the roses I am torturing in containers.

Cut out the hackberry seedlings from around the fence panel holding "New Dawn".

Stopped to smell "Canary Island". (Nice!)

Got this shot of "Therese Bugnet". She was covered in velcro weed also. Had to give everything a deep drink of water. Have not had any rain since the middle of last month.