The pugs and I just came in from a walk around the garden. The roses that I showed a few days ago are still blooming like mad, several other roses, slower to bloom, are in bud, and the climbing roses along the green gated garden are amazing. I didn’t even realize, in the tangle of rose vines that I cut back last year which took weeks, that it wasn’t just the pink rose that covered the fence but as it got near the end of the front side of the green gated garden a light, lemon yellow rose was growing down the rest of that side and around the front to the gate. It is so lovely I had to show you. And the pugs were there checking everything out as I took pictures.
Back inside for awhile I ate a light lunch, cleared up some things on my desk and then decided to go out and cut a bouquet of various roses around the yard that are in bloom. Isn’t it stunning? They are now in a vase on my kitchen counter.
A few days ago I cut a bouquet of my beloved Veilchenblau rose. They do not do well at all as cut roses for the house and faded by the next day. It is a sprawling rose and overnight has gone from one or two clusters of roses to the whole bush covered with them. I will have to enjoy them in situ…
Veilchenblau is incredibly fragrant, each cluster of roses a work of art changing colors each day as it opens more fully. It is an early spring rose and does not last long, I have to go out every day and visit it while it is here. It passes all too quickly.
This is the season for roses. It gets too hot for them in our blistering heat and high humidity and most of them fade away over the summer but many will come back in the fall. Veilchenblau is a “once bloomer” and blooms in the spring only. It is not remontant, something I usually look for in a rose because here though they don’t like summer’s heat a number of those that rebloom will bloom up to Christmas here with our mild winters.
I grow many kinds of flowers. My deck is filled with pots of flowers and the green gated garden is about to be seeded for late summer and fall bloom, but the roses have my heart in the garden, the pugs in the house. Pugs and roses are my loves, the pugs of course most of all. They are sleeping and snoring beside me just now, and we have a vase full of roses to remind us of our afternoon in the garden. It has been a beautiful day. There will be more…
The Experiment ~A 365 Day Search For Truth, Beauty &
Happiness: Day 1 ~ Introduction To The Project
“Do or do not. There is no try.”
Yoda
Your roses are lovely, Maitri. I’m not personally a rose person, but enjoy them, nonetheless.
Here in Umbria, there’s been a wonderful yellow climbing rose that’s now in full flower, along with others. I’ve just drenched the shrub roses in the back garden, thinking that they’ll need it, as our HomeExchange partners won’t be here until mid-August, as we learned recently.
But they have a Czech HomeEchange family right behind us, which we didn’t know about, and we’ve patched up the hose, so hopefully all will be well in the garden here!
There’s been lots of rain at home in Asheville, with cool weather, so our plants there will be fine. We’re just sorry that the folks from Kauai had a lot of cool rainy weather while they were in Asheville, after time in NYC, in the first part of April, when it was really cold!
Thank you so much Lisa, and yes, we each, as gardeners, have our favorite flowers, don’t we? And those that we don’t care about. I planted a lot of roses in 2010-2011 in the year after I bought the house. And roses are gluttons! They like lots of food and water. Fortunately they were well rooted so after the fire the neglect didn’t kill them but neither were they hardly blooming anymore. I pruned hard and fed well last year and fed again in early March this year and they are really coming back and putting out a lot of blooms which is heartening. I will be feeding well all throughout the season. Next year they should do even better.
I am so fascinated by your whole Home Exchange adventure. I had heard of this but never knew anyone who did it before you. I hope you enjoy the rest of your time there, and what a shame about it being cool and rainy in Asheville. Well, I bet your garden liked it!
My mom was a Rose
so every rose I see
brings her home to me
Thank you for sharing your beautiful flowers, such a boon. I am grateful to live in Florida where we can have flowers all year long. But Springtime has its own magic. Right now the gardenias are popping out everywhere (i have untold numbers of gardenia bushes), just in time for the “goddess gathering” i am co-hosting on Sunday!
With flowery affection,
xo
ka
Thank you for enjoying my flowers with me dear Ka. They do make me so happy. And oh! Gardenias! Of course they are perennial for you there in Florida. It must be a glory there right now and what a delight to have them blooming for your Goddess Gathering. Enjoy!
Much love to you dear sister…
M. xoxox
What glorious roses! They’ve come on so well with your careful tending, the lemon yellow one is especially lovely. Thank you for sharing. xxx
Thank you so much Jenny, I am so happy to see them doing so well. And I will keep feeding them through the season and they will do even better next year. Onwards and upwards! It is my joy to be able to share them…
Maitri, when you say you fed the roses hard, what does it mean?
Marge I didn’t feed hard, I PRUNED hard meaning that the roses had grown big and wild and out of control since not being cared for since the fire, and I had to cut quite a bit off of them. That makes them grow back stronger and healthier and they will bloom well if “cut back hard and fed well.” I use a good organic rose food which I spread liberally all around the rose and water in well. I will feed with this food again + bone meal + compost. Roses are heavy feeders and won’t bloom well without being fed… 🙂
I understand that your answer depends on many aspects; for example, when one plants the roses, what the rose species is, where the planting zone is, and the like. When and how much do YOU feed them? I have read so many books and booklets pertinent here in Kansas and I still kill my flowers and plants. Dejectedly, Marge:(
Beautiful! Thanks for sharing!
Thanks Noni. It is my joy to share my roses…