Hot Hot Hot Weather Roses

For 3 days since last Saturday, my garden was experiencing the sizzling hot tropical weather. It was unbelievably warm for an alpine region especially for the month of May. Day temperature was 33 degrees celcius and that broke the record of July, from the summer of 2006.

It is very rare that I'm sweating so much unless working out on the cross trainer, but the last few days, suddenly my sweat glands decided to work extra hours that a new deo stick was called for and I found out by accident that deo sticks can also help keep sweaty palm dry. Question is; how often do you get that nervous until the palm of the hands get all sweaty and clammy?

We are currently enjoying a little over 15 hours of sunlight and the day will get longer and longer in the coming days. When the sun is exactly on top of the house, it is a bit like sitting inside a pizza oven. To be in a pizza oven during the weekend is a real torture. Being in an alpine country, the house is not equiped with fan or air-conditioning and a few days a year of over 28 degrees celcius is tolerable, but when it get over 30's and became too warm for comfort, I felt like a melting wax, soft and spilling all over the floor totally out of shape. The coolest part of the house is the wine cellar but this is not a place to chill out because there are no windows in there and the air is quite stale and musty.

So, the best place to be during such extreme warm days is out in the garden. Even though the air is hot outdoor, at least it is moving air with a plus of perfume in the air from the roses and other seasonal flowering shrubs. The only set back is that, during such warm days the pollen count in the air is also very high. After a train of 20 or more continuous sneezing, I ran back into the house until once again I'm spilling all over the place like a melting wax before running out into the garden once again seeking some cooling comfort under the trees.

Quite interesting in the last few days is that when the sun goes down, the night temperature did not drop below 20 degrees celcius. It remained warm the whole night through and very rare that I could sleep at night with all windows wide open, as if in a holiday chalet somewhere in the equator region minus the mosquito. That doesn't mean we don't have mosquito here. It is just too early for mosquito season but the night moths and other tiny little flying insects like the fruit flies are all over the lamps and constantly diving into our drinks. Those tiny flying insect will also fly straight into my eyes like a head on crash. I also noticed the fruit flies are very attracted to the wine glasses full or empty and then they float lifeless, probably drowned from the alcohol contents.

The extreme yo-yo difference between cold nights and warm days since early spring had caused a lot of confusion to the outdoor nature. The late emergence of predator bugs and other destructive pest are just one of the little signs of global climate changes, and when they did appeared, I saw the neighbour's cat had caught one of the blinchli as it is called here and brought the reptile home as a present to his people.

In other parts of the world this blinchli is also known as blind worm but actually it is not blind at all and it is not even a worm. It is a reptile; Anguis Fragilis, predators to the destructive slugs and other soft bodied insects. Whenever I'm working in the garden and saw one that's patrolling the garden, I usually dropped everything and ran into the house, close all doors and put on some music trying to erase their picture in my head. They are harmless animal but they look like a small snake. I have a phobia when snakes are concerned.

Some roses are very sensitive to the temperature changes especially during the time when they are forming their flower buds.

This year, there are so many roses in the garden that are showing the side effects of unstable temperatures. I’m seeing more and more vegetative centre or phyllode on the banksia Purezza blooms as they unfurl their petals. Phyllode means an expanded petiole taking on the function of a leaf bladeProliferation is not really a pretty sight but there is really no cure for it because this is what happened when the climate and temperatures rise and drop unpredictablably. Some roses are just too sensitive to such changes. You don't see such malformations on commercially sold roses from your local florist. This is because those florist roses are cultivated in a controlled green house environment to achieve the "cookie cutter" perfection uniform buds and flower formation.

Home grown garden roses on the other hand must learn to adapt to local climatic and temperature changes. Roses are basically very easy plant to grow and maintained. Once established roses are very draught tolerant and they don't really require much attention at all. The number one factor which roses required most is at least 6 hours of sun for them to really thrive. They are quite flexible about their other requirements, and most of them will still produce flowers even without fertilisers or deadheading. Of course a few minutes tending to their basic needs will boost and perk up their performance. Given the right amount of care and feeding, they without fail will reward you with abundance of awe.

All my roses are standing up well in such current heat basking in the hot sun except for the newcomer Madame Lombard who's showing some kind of heat stress and dropping petals before unfurling
This is probably because her bareroots are still not strong enough to support all the blooms she's making. By right I should remove all the flowers so the plant can concentrate on establishing roots first, but I am so curious to see how the flowers look like and which colour group it fall into before I decide her permanent position in the garden. This is not the fault of the rose but only me and myself to be blamed.
Souvenir de la Malmaison is definitely the number one rose that prefers hot sunny days instead of wet weather. It hasn't look so good like this for a long time because rain followed by sunny spells spoils the petals and make the plant look nightmarishly ugly with mumified balled up blooms. The extreme difference between warm and cool temperature since spring started had also made this rose very confused during buds formation. Actually there are so many roses in the garden looking a bit chaotic in their petals arrangements due to the weather phenomena.

With a fairly stable temperature, Souvenir de la Malmaison in my humble opinion is one of those most breathtaking roses to adorn the garden with a fragrance I can only describe as dreamy and sedating. The petals imperfection shown in the picture above clearly reflect the kind of weather in the last 2 months. Isn't that amazing? Roses not only speak the language of romance but they also record the weather pattern in their petals.
Similar to Souvenir de la Malmaison thin petals, Hermosa (picture above) is another one which cannot take the extreme weather changes in my garden's wet and rainy micro climate. With the last couple of days of really hot weather, the petals successfully unfurl and the blooms opened up beautifully. The thin petals, almost like tissue papers are easily saturated by rain, causing them to stick together. When the weather dries up, the wet and saturated outer petals stuck together, forming an outer shell or hard case and thus preventing the inner petals to open up. Further dampness after the hard case developed usually lead to central petals fouling and the whole flower just rot in waste.

This is just a tiny observation from my backyard which relate to bigger issues of global warming potential. My world is your world too. Help reduce carbon footprint. Recycle whenever you can.
Green up your world, colour it with flowers and enjoy your garden.

____________________________________________________________________
Copyright © Rosesarerae All Rights Reserved

I have fallen for the jasmine one more time

Some 3 winters ago I forgotten to keep track with autumn frost dates. When I came back from a few days away, I found the 4 years old Jasmine plant had turned into ice sticks. The plant's pot had been empty for a while. Since no other plants took over the pot, I replanted a new jasmine in it.

This is a warm climate plant. Its doing extremely well in the heat at the moment, releasing fantastic fragrance from the clusters of tiny white flowers but its real home is in the conservatory. For 3 months a year, Jasmine get the chance to be outside enjoying the outdoor fresh air on the patio of the moonlight garden.

This jasmine thrive well all over the place in the mediterranean part of Europe. Seeing it in bloom in my garden, even though not so grand in stature because it is living in a pot on wheels, the wafting fragrance reminded me of all the romantic warm places down south and the warm asian countries.

While visiting India, I remembered seeing a lot of jasmine blooms stringed together with fine thread where temple devotees put it around the neck of the temple deities. It is probably the same one I saw during an Indian wedding.

I guess I'm incurable. What is a garden full of fragrant roses without the wafting sweet smell of jasmine to make the evening double heady?

____________________________________________________________________
Copyright © Rosesarerae All Rights Reserved

Savaged Garden

Gardening as a hobby, especially in my case with zero farming background, means I depend a lot on my childhood memories growing up observing my parents and grandparents tending their backyard garden, and recalling all the chores and the workflow of things the way they managed their gardens. Those days, there was no such thing as online shopping or glossy catalogue, so they usually start their plants from seeds or air layering, cuttings and other propagation techniques which was quite fun for a kid to try, sticking a twig into the soil, patiently wait and see if it takes root or not. It was a lot like playing in the sand box and trying to grow sun flowers in it.

When I became a teenager, I was not very much into gardening. I always like flowers but at that time, I had other interests, was very active in school's extra curiculum activities, and burying myself with music scores over the weekend. Those musical notes did looked like sprouting seeds though. I didn't go for summer holidays with my parents because every summer break I was involved with students' exchange programme from all over the world, which means which ever school around the world I was sent to for the 3 months, my mother always asked that I bring home some plant seeds and even brought home a tiny lemon grass from Peru. Mum was ecstatic and that lemon grass was growing in her living room throughout winter months! Then I started college and off to the university and during those years, whenever my parents went on their short break or holidays, they left me in charge to water their garden and pot plants. That was quite a task, because my mother collects mediterranean plants, and whenever she comes back from the warm south, without fail, there are cuttings of all kinds of oleander and other plants and all of them are thirsty plants in summer but need special winter care which usually dies off during winter months because the air indoor is too dry.

While my mother collects flowering plants, my father was collecting trees! All kinds of trees, from fruiting trees to ornamental trees that after some years, their house disappeared amongst the amazon like woodland. There's a saying; "Teach your children by examples" and I think my parents did exactly just that. Today, I see myself becoming more and more like my parents, collecting plants from all over the place and my kitchen backyard is now a part-time nursery because the green house is running out of space.

It felt as if spring just started a few weeks ago but BANG! suddenly summer is here. Today was 27 degrees celcius but the moment the sun goes down, the quicksilver dived down to the 9 degrees. I haven't even finish digging up planting holes for the bareroots which arrived last February and some of them are already blooming in their temporary pots. Time move so fast, and I have too much things to do and the garden is now lining up the top 10 priorities. The tasks are almost endless.

Blaze Superior, which I started as a cutting taken from mum's garden, is blooming for the first time this year.Another one I rooted as a cutting, taken from my mother's garden many years ago, is also an early blooming rose. My mother can't remember what rose this is, so that kind of left me in the dark over the identity of this rose. It could be Clair Matin but it can also be something else. It has gotten quite tall. All I can afford is a side profile. Will try to climb the nearby tree for a full face picture. Conrad Ferdinand Meyer, a 3 metre tall rugosa rose, excellent for hedging because he is very thorny. Exquisite fragrance. Etoile de Holland, seen from my dining window. A typical tea rose that nods but the fragrance waft in the air, and when I open the window, the house smells wonderful. Best use for arch or pergola where the beauty can be enjoyed by looking up. I probably will move this rose again for the pergola late autumn this year but I'm not sure how I'm going to do that without shortening its canes. Its already 3 metres tall. Once matured, it can reach 6 metres tall. Butterflies are very dreamily pretty floating in the air, but their larvae are very destructive.



Even though gardening is just a hobby, to be very frank, at times I do feel overwhelmed by the list of things to do in the garden especially due to my climate with very short growing season.

I don't really have much time to walk around the garden and hand pick those horrible pest, not especially when I have too many plants. I cannot control nature and since I understand the fact that when I started the garden, I am putting, adding and inviting lives into it. If the bad guys thrive and damages can be seen, that means the good guys are also around but they probably over ate and too chubby to move faster and catch up with the baddie destructive larvae that don't sleep and ate the garden around the clock.

I also notice, at certain time of year, depending on weather phenomena, while their predators are still incubating or sleeping, certain critters, bugs and insects became extremely active very early in spring, especially when the temperature is warmer than usual and their population tend to explode in numbers because these insects lay dozens of eggs after each mating season .

There are options lining up the garden stores with array of portions for quick and fast working ingredients to combat the garden invaders, but I am most reluctant to employ these products. It maybe the easiest solution but in long run poisonous application of insecticide can lead to an imbalance of the garden’s natural bio diversity.Tipping the balance of the nature will lead to an irreparable long term damage to the environment in general. Anything that destroy the irritating bugs, will also destroy the good predator bugs and other wild life in the garden environment.Last winter was a hard one and this spring, and the garden allies predators that eat up those pesty bugs showed up very late.

This metallic predator bug above and the silver gold bug below are good allies but if only these bugs can multiply like rabbits and eat up all those nuisance pests.

The leaf roller bug is getting more and more bolder this year. I have so many rose bushes that look like they are rolling up tobacco with their leaves. That snail on the rose cane is probably trying to hide from the snail eating birds. Interestingly, they cleverly manouver between those thorns....

____________________________________________________________________
Copyright © Rosesarerae All Rights Reserved

Where there's a will, there's a way

Finally, after 2 years I am delighted to see the blooms of this rhododendron Yakushimanum Anuschka for the first time. The flower heads reminded me of the pink candy floss from the funfair and they fade to a lighter pink when the petals unfurled.

I wish I could plant more rhododendron for the shady part of the garden, especially at the edge of the woodland clearing where I'm creating a new outdoor garden room surrounded by tall trees, unfortunately the soil test in that area revealed pH 5.6 and not acidic enough to fill in the requirement of rhododendron. Clematis on the other hand thrive in this kind of soil pH reading as sweet soil suits them really well.
I really like this Rhododendron Yakushimanum family. The blooms are big, showy and can bee seen from far away. The colour of Anuschka really shine on grey days during early spring. This one really cheered up shady corner behind my kitchen which receive only 2 hours of direct sunlight in late afternoon.
Like Hydrangea, pieris and many other plants which requires planting medium higher than pH7, changing and amending the garden pH reading is going to be a continuous effort because there are natural lime rock up above the garden slope which probably leaches the calcium into the garden soil.


They are shallow rooted plants and they like peaty well drain but damp acidic soil. At the moment, this Anuschka is growing in a big planter with a special mix of soil for rhododendron but I'm going to try it anyway and plant it in the woodland by adding alot of humus into the ground until the area where its going to be planted feel spongy.

....if I don't try it, I'll never find out.

____________________________________________________________________
Copyright © Rosesarerae All Rights Reserved

Patron Saint of young seedling and flowers

Yesterday, 12th of May was the Holy Pankratius day. According to the Swiss folklore, Pankratius is the Patron Saint of the young seeds and flowers but I haven’t found any record which states that the Saint is a hobbyist gardener of horticulturist.

As I read further, I found out that St. Pankratius was born in 290 A.D and at the age of 14, he died of martyrhood under the Emperor Diocletian in Rome. So, I’ll let him rest in peace.

According to the local farmer’s almanac;
If it freezes on St. Pankratius day, the garden will be ruined but if it is a nice day on St. Pankratius, the wine (grapes) will be fine.

The weather wasn’t that great yesterday. Half of the day was dry but cloudy, cool,
and raining from midday onwards.
In pictures above and on the left, I thought the rain drops looked a lot like cut diamonds on the Ladies Mantle or Alchemilla Mollis leaves.

There was no freeze or frost last night, so my prediction this year will probably be the same like last year, with lots of rainy days, bindweeds and other unwanted weedy plants will be growing at the speed of light. There will be plenty of flowers with notorious roses ball expected throughout the seasons.

With the amount of rain falling down from the sky at the moment, the horrible dreadful yucky Iberian Slugs are back into motion.
There was a time I forgotten to sprinkle some wood ash around the Iris patch, within days these slugs wiped out the entire row of iris down to the little stumps.

They even eat roses blooms from the low growing ground cover bushes.

This Arion lusitanicus Mabille (Stylomatophora: Arionidae) is very destructive to the garden plants.

Here you can see its already on the leaves of the rose bush. They are very clever at choosing the bushes with the least thorns to begin with.

____________________________________________________________________
Copyright © Rosesarerae All Rights Reserved All the contents in this blog are copyright protected and digitally traceable.

Iris - The eye of the garden

I have read several articles regarding Bearded Iris being high maintenance plants because they must be divided every so often to encourage blooming or if planted too deep in heavy clay soil, the rhizome will rot and so on and so on.

What those articles did not mention is that this plant is a favourite food for the slugs, which happen to over populate my garden because the birds don't like eating them compared to earth worms, garden spiders or whatever other insects.

......but I really like the flowers so much that I gave it a try anyway. Every autumn, as I divide the other perennials, I divided the Iris too. Let's call it fun chore, and yes, sometimes I found the rhizomes rotted after the winter months because I had accidently planted it a wee bit too deep and the winter snow added the insults by pushing down more soil on top of them. Garden casualty happened, but it is not a disaster. We live to learn, everyday....

As long as the soil is free draining and the rhizomes is half way exposed from ground level, and the exposed part of the rhizome is dry, they will be fine. This is one plant you don't need to dig the planting hole deeper than a few inches. A bit like planting cactus, the roots goes into the soil and the flesh part remain on top.

I find not only the flowers are beautiful, the shape of the leaves are also very interesting to provide some contrast to other plants whose leaves are generally rounded or oval shape.

____________________________________________________________________
Copyright © Rosesarerae All Rights Reserved All the contents in this blog are copyright protected and digitally traceable.

Spring first bloom

This is a new comer to the garden and the second Banksia rose I've collected so far. I wish I had planted it long ago because she is so simple yet so beautiful, even the overall leaf shapes are beautiful, and healthy looking. It took me so long to make up my mind partly because I wasn't sure if it is able to survive my cold alpine winter. I have never seen this rose grown locally too and it's not available here anyway. I had to get it from Italy, whose climate is ermm....mediterranean!

After years of reading about it and up to my chin with my own drool, I decided to give it a try. Worst comes to worst, I'll roll it in and out of the conservatory. Height of 9' 10" to 18' (300 to 550 cm). Width of 10' to 12' . (305 to 365 cm) I must be out of my mind, especially I've already got the other Banksia Alba that's already growing in the conservatory, but this Banksia Purezza is a hybrid with ability to withstand cold temperatures down to -17 to -20°C that is -5 to 0°F
That means, I am really pushing the limit of this rose, because my garden's location and elevation is exactly at that limit. So, I'm really keeping my finger, hands, toes and knees crossed for this rose this coming winter.
She is so beautiful, and the only one of all the Banksia that repeat bloom.

The first spring bud from Rosette Delizy was looking good until it fully opened.

Pests are my number one suspect which caused such a deformation. This is just one of those tiny disappointing thing I have to live with since I decided to garden without using chemicals. Organic gardening is very much dependent on bio diversity and at this time of year, the garden predators are still out numbered by the destructive pests.

____________________________________________________________________
Copyright © Rosesarerae All Rights Reserved All the contents in this blog are copyright protected and digitally traceable.

Rainy day roses

More first blooms opening up.....

Spring Magic, and the first drop of rain. It is also known as Frühlingszauber, is a Hybrid Spinosissima, documented as once bloomer but in my climate it repeats in autumn though not as much as the first flush.

Gertrude Jekyll first bloom showing side effects of yoyo temperatures which leads to serious proliferation

Rosette Delizy, looks like a very interesting coloration. This is from the bareroots which arrived in the garden 3 months ago.

oops...it's pouring.....

____________________________________________________________________
Copyright © Rosesarerae All Rights Reserved All the contents in this blog are copyright protected and digitally traceable.

Rosa Ecae Golden Chersonese

There's a lot of sun in this Golden Chersonese rose shrub with its fern like foliage and golden rich yellow flowers, similar to that golden yellow of Forsythia. This rose is a hybrid between 'Canary Bird' and R. ecae

On a bright sunny day, it glowed with a golden hue that every picture looked jaundiced.

According to the book, Wild and Old Garden Roses; this rose comes from Afganistan and was brought to the UK in 1880 by Dr J.E.T. Aitchison who served as an army surgeon in the Afghan war of that time. He named it after his wife's initials E.C.A.

According to the Ultimate Rose book; Chersonese was a Greek name for a place now better known as Gallipoli. The Golden Chersonese was apparently a legendary place of wealth and beauty.

In mid spring, the shrub is smothered with deep golden yellow blooms with a sweet fragrance on reddish graceful arching branches.The blooms fades to a softer and lighter shade . This shrub rose matures to a height of 2 meters (6 feet tall) with about the similar side spread of 2 meters (6 feet wide) sideways.

This is certainly the perfect shrub for brightening dark corners of the garden. I used it as a hedge at the far end of the garden to lighten up a drabby shaded area and it worked really well.

I find the best positioning is where the breeze can bring the strong sweet fragrance into the sitting area of the garden, while pottering or sitting back enjoying the warmth from the mid spring sun at the same time inhaling the wonderful scent in the air.

This is a once blooming rose that began opening its blooms in mid spring about the same time with Glory of Edsell
Other early bloomers that opens the door to the rose season early this time of year includes Sericea Heather Muir, Sericea Pteracantha and plenty other wild rose species.

____________________________________________________________________
Copyright © Rosesarerae All Rights Reserved All the contents in this blog are copyright protected and digitally traceable.

To Mum With Love

What is it like to wake up in the morning to see first roses in bloom with mum's name written all over it and she's away?

Well, I went into melancholic mode. I miss her presence, her hugs and her smiles.

.....but I know that she know that I love her.

HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY to all wonderful mums out there.

____________________________________________________________________
Copyright © Rosesarerae All Rights Reserved All the contents in this blog are copyright protected and digitally traceable.

Sericea Heather Muir

This tall rose, maturing to a height of 9 feet (3 metres tall) with the same width side ways make a great interplanting candidate for a flowering hedge. She is a once bloomer and start opening her off white, strong fragrant blooms early in mid spring

This is a species or wild rose with a neat elegant up right growth yet not as stiff as those from Hybrid Teas and best of all its very disease resistant and carefree.

________________________________________________________________________Copyright © Rosesarerae All Rights Reserved All the contents in this blog are copyright protected and digitally traceable.

Sericea Pteracantha

Thorns or prickles from rose bushes comes in all shapes and sizes. Those from this rosa Sericea Pteracanta bush actually look interestingly decorative.

The reddish thorns or prickles on the new growth cane of Sericea Pteracantha rose shrub on the right looked very similar to many other thorns or prickles from other rose bushes but as the canes gets older, the thorns expanded into a wing shape.














This is another rose shrub which makes a good candidate for hedging.

________________________________________________________________________Copyright © Rosesarerae All Rights Reserved All the contents in this blog are copyright protected and digitally traceable.

Flowering hedge - Part 1

Hedges are very important for windy gardens because they act as a wind breaker and are much more efficient for breaking and dispersing the back force of the wind compared to hard structures such as walls or wooden fence.

While roses shrubs demands good air circulation, they really do appreciate some protection from gusty strong wind especially the bitter cold wind in winter months.

When I first created the garden, my first vision was to achieve a formal look, so I planted rows and rows of evergreen Buxus Sempevirens, Mahonia, Leyland Cyprus and Prunus laurocerasus for creating a little bit of privacy because they remain green during winter months, and they are are also the defining back bone to the overall garden design.

The buxus and the Mahonia is a slow grower but the other 2 are fast growing tall hedging plants which requires constant trimming. After the third year, the garden was nicely green but also looking very heavy and dark especially on cloudy grey days.

Later on, I decided hedges shouldn't be boring, so I began planting a second layer of seasonal flowering plants, decidous and evergreen mix together infront of the evergreen hedge. This immediately lightened up the dark corners of the overly green garden.

Chemomeles or flowering quince (picture above) look stunning when interplanted in the view line of the Mahonia (picture below).

After a couple of years trying to straighten, bending and controlling plants growth, I realised that every single plant have got their own characteristic and personality, that all efforts from my part to make them grow according to my ideals resulted in making them gawky awkward and very unnatural looking.

I have since left them alone to do their own things. Afterall, my garden setting is located next to a natural woodland. Its only natural that I go along with the surrounding wilderness and not spend too much time getting bothered by unruly growth from plants that's overzealously trying to invade its neighbouring plants. I planted this red maple leaf tree thinking that one day I would like to plant a white rambling rose to scramble over it. At the moment the golden yellow Kerria Japonica seemed happy in partnership to the red leaves.
Syringa Vulgaris stood out beautifully infront of the airy pink Tamarisk.

Spirea can lighten up dark corners efficiently but it would thrive even better when grown in full sun. This shrub can grow up to about 5 feet tall (1.5 metre) It's not evergreen but a pile of brown twigs in winter.
In my effort to have continuously colours and bloom every day for the season, I've planted and still planting different varieties of flowering, fruiting plants, tall species rose and wild rose shrubs amongst the evergreen hedge to create different interests for the 4 seasons.

Most of those roses I've chosen for the garden hedge produces beautiful rose hips in autumn.

Interplanting the living fence with tall rose shrubs did the trick and provide abundance of colours, scents and excitement to the outdoor living, but it is in winter months that I really feel the satisfaction watching the birds enjoying the rose hips as part of their meals.

The vicious rose thorns along the hedges also make the trespassers think twice before slipping through.

________________________________________________________________________Copyright © Rosesarerae All Rights Reserved All the contents in this blog are copyright protected and digitally traceable.