Winter is looming in the air

Next Saturday night, we will move our clock one hour backwards. We will soon officially enter winter time. There was a cold front 2 weeks before we officially entered the winter time zone and the temperature kept going down and down to the mid single digits. At higher altitude in some parts of the country are already receiving snow fall. The famous ski resort and the villages around Davos, where head of states and the world known economist meet up during World Economic Forum is already white with snow. Skiing season is already starting in some parts of Switzerland.
My garden is quite high in altitude, about 700metres above sea level. I'm still quite lucky that my surrounding is still very much golden red autumn. Some days, when the fog comes in, I am above the fog-line. Sometimes its nice to walk at the wide open spaces of the corn fields and take in the colours, even when the sky is grey. The warm colours in the nature really cheered me up.

Whenever the sun peeked out from behind the clouds, I took the chance to be outside in the garden and bathe in the golden light of autumn.

Last year, the snow arrived on the last day of October. Honestly, I'm not looking forward to the first snowfall in the garden. I'm really not ready and the garden is still full with buds and blooming despite the drop in temperatures.

The cool temperature really brings out the intensity of the colours from the flowers and leaves. There are still small bugs flying around collecting nectar. They must be very hungry now that there are less wild flowers in the meadows.

Sometimes I just sit there amongst my plants and observe the wildlife busy enjoying the autumn beauties.

They really taught me to make the best of the last moments in autumn and try to enjoy the garden leftovers even when it means I have to go around with thick pullover and a layer of windbreaker.

Nature is an amazing teacher.

Quirky autumn

The weedy hazels are going nuts! They are steadily falling all over the place at the back patio and rolling down the garden staircase. Some will be eaten by the wildlife, collected by the garden mouse and squirrels for their winter food and a few will sprout out by themselves next spring.

There's time to grow and there's time to die, and autumn really is the beginning of the decaying stage to some plants's tissue prior to winter freeze.

The days around here are becoming shorter and shorter and the mornings are very foggy. Very soon, I will be seeing only a few hours of sun after the fog disappeared. At this time of year, the sun has lost its teeth too. The sun maybe shining but not warm enough to go around without a jacket or pullover to comfort the goosebumps. With the temperature steadily cooling down, some plants' leaves are slowly losing their ability to photosynthesize. The first one to change colours in the backyard are the parthenocisus creepers.

The Red Ace seedpods of Euonymus Europeaus or European Spindle tree are also ripening pink, and very soon the seedpods will split open revealing an orange coloured seeds.

This snail is eating the fungi that are growing on dead leaf.

For a long time, I thought the snails are similar to the destructive habits of the slugs Arion lusitanicus Mabille, Stylommatophora, Arionidae etc etc.

I've always thought they ate soft new growth on plants just like the slugs, but recently, I found out that the garden snails feed mainly on fungus that grow on decomposing matter. It is only during spring time that these snails run out of food options because during that time of year, the ground temperature is still too cold and the rate of decomposing matters are zero to none. Poor thing is so hungry after a long winter sleep, that when they stumble on our plant seedling, they are not able to distinguish between food and potential garden beauties. At other time of year, these snails are happy to leave the garden beauties and live on fungi, especially those that grow on leaf surfaces. Sticking themselves underneath the leaves also helped them hide from the snail eating predator birds.

Mould, fungi, fungus and their spores are stirred up by damp conditions, more so during autumn weather. The ground is still warm and the humidity helped the fungi to speed up the rotting and decomposing of vegetation from the falling leaves etc. This is part of the nature's organic recycling. There are many different kinds of spores floating in the air that we breathe and when the condition is right for them to settle down, they will grow and thrive. Without the help of the fungi, our garden soil will be starved of decomposing organic nutrients.

There are good and bad things about the mould, fungi and fungus and can be found anywhere, even in our fridge, any part of the house that is damp with poor air circulation, such as the bathroom, inside our shoes, on our skin, nail bed, garden bed, shady areas which receive minimal sunlight, on the plants and their leaves and the list could go on and on. This is one of the reason why watering roses in the late evening is not encouraged, because night dampness enable the blackspot spores to adhere to the wet leaves.

Where weather is rainy, blackspot infection becomes prevalent like the picture above. This year, a very serious case of fungal infection was seen on Yolanda d'Aragon's leaves. Black spot is apparently more prevalent in areas with clean air and low pollution. It seems that the blackspot fungus cannot grow on leaves that are covered with a layer of pollution grime. Since I garden organically without chemical spraying, half of my roses bushes had already shed their leaves due to the black spot. Christopher Marlowe above is no exception, but as my gardening friend Maribel once said, "what is a little bit of spottiness amongst friends", so I let it be. Afterall, this blackspot fungi is not hazardous to human's health. Given the fact that I only garden for my own pleasure and as long as the blooms brings joy and smiles everytime I step out into the garden, I have learned to ignore, pick up the black spotted leaves and throw them away.

There are other fungi, or otherwise also known as mushroom that popped up in the wild especially during this time of year. Some mushrooms are edible, considered a gourmet delicacy, such as this golden egg yolk chanterelle mushroom and there are also a few which has been identified containing medicinal values.

Mushroom farming has enabled us to enjoy certain type of mushroom all year round, but in autumn, collecting edible mushroom from the wild can be very adventurous and fun thing to do but this must be done only with someone who is a mushroom expert. Some mushrooms are poisonous. Ingesting this pretty looking mushroom (picture below) can cause harm to human's health but interestingly not the slugs!
Here's a cropped part of the slug from the picture above.

This goes to show that there is nothing poisonous which can kill slugs.

Lavender Lassie

This rose is one of my favourite. Even though it has quite big prickly thorns, I've got it planted very close to the entrance of the house. The mauve or purple blend blooms are very double and big, up to 3 inch in diameter. Blooms are big and heavy, causing the canes to arch sideways, adding character to the overall shape of the plant. Sometimes after heavy rain, the cane collapse to the ground under the weight of the blooms.It is very fragrant, wafting in the air, a wonderful welcome as I approach the square of the patio entrance. Repeat cycle is very short and reblooms generously. It can grow to 12 feet, so I will put an arch to support the canes next spring.

Due to generous reblooming, this rose require heavy feeding.

Hermosa

.....a very old rose dated back to 1832, bred by an amateur rose breeder, Marchesseau, in Angers and was introduced by Rousseau nursery in 1834, also in Angers, France.

Its interesting to see beautiful flowers that had survived the journey of the years and had so many names given to it. It has been referred to as Armosa, Mélanie Lemarié and Madame Neumann.

Blooms are pink to lilac pink with thin petals and quite sensitive to rain, a bit like the petals characteristic of Souvenir de la Malmaison. The whole bunch of my spring blooms from this 2 roses was unable to open up during spring and early summer. The petals got saturated after the rain and they end up rotting inside the mumified dried-out outer petal crust.

This is a tricky tender rose for my climate. It has a Bourbon, China/Bengal genes in it. I’ve also read it being described as Indica Bourbonica.

It is hard to believe that Hermosa is the seedling of Old Blush after comparing the size and growth habit of this 2 rose plant. Old Blush seemed more tight, branching wide open, sideways spreading but remains relatively short, while Hermosa is much loose, lanky in its growth habit and taking less space sideways.

I think this rose will perform extremely well when grown in warm and dry climate. This is a healthy, black spot free rose. While others are losing leaves from black spotted leaves, Hermosa remain green throughout the growing season and kept blooming with a very short cycle. I will try and support its growth and let it bloom its heart out in the garden. Maybe it will adapt to the surrounding elements of my garden's micro climate.

Christopher Marlowe

Gardening for flowers has its high and low.

Gardening with roses has it high and low too.


There are rose varieties that bloom riot at one go and then, that's it. The following 11 months are quiet and nothing else but leaves and loud thorns.

There are a lot of varieties that repeat bloom again and again, each time producing riotious colours that are so loud, they sent me reeling to the garden centre looking for annual plants in neutral colours to help tone down the glaring tones.

...but I have been warned about Christopher Marlowe's true colours. I remember Rachel bought this rose plant during her impulsive moments. Once at home, she found the colours of Christopher Marlowe just doesn't quite workout with her existing roses and colour scheme.I remembered spending hours chatting and proposing to her into buying more plants to either tone down the colours, or to create a bridge that can linkup and add the flow of the rainbow along her fence.

....and then, one day I found myself walking in the garden centre and immediately attracted to the unique colours on Christopher Marlowe. One pot of Christopher Marlowe arrived in my garden. O wow. Suddenly the most boring corner of the garden lighted up! The following days, I scouted another garden centre and another and another. I ended up collecting 5 well established Christopher Marlowe. I dug out a round patch and planted them all in the same planting hole.

This is a fragrant rose. At peak blooming period, the fragrant waft in the air like a big tidal wave. On grey cloudy day, the colours of Christopher Marlowe really brighten up my mood.

Thanks to Rachel for introducing her impulsiveness. I wouldn't have notice this David Austin rose due to its compact short growth. Somewhat, in my garden climate, this rose never grow higher than 2 feet tall.


By late summer, this rose lost 70 percent of its leaves due to black spot. I don't bother with the black spot fungi spraying, but even with very little foliage left, they still repeat bloom for the last autumn display.

A blog break that is now "broken"

It felt like it was only last week when I got all excited about outdoor freedom of summer living, flip flop, t-shirts and shorts and was complaining about the very hot days without fan or air conditioning, ....tick tock tick tock, woke up this morning, autumn is staring right at my face.

The weather is bad at the moment. I have now added my local weather station on the top page. As I rumble and ramble about life in the alps, you can see for yourself if I'm shining under the sun or bundled up in layers of wool knits with chattering teeth. There's no sun at all the last couple of days. Some parts of the garden is beginning to look very gloomy as half of the colourful flowering plants are done with their flowers and busy making seeds. Weedy seeds can be seen on cobwebs everywhere. We have cold air coming down from the north pole at the moment and it is raining, foggy and grey sky, but this cooling temperature will create a magical autumn colour display for the next coming weeks. Had to push myself out into the garden, with an umbrella in one hand and took some pictures before the prolonged rain spoils those last bit of garden beauties.
Mevrouw Nathalie Nypels, sounds like a celebrity's baby's name (ha ha) This is a Dutch name and this rose was bred in the Netherlands in 1919. I got this rose as a bare roots last winter and she is less than 2 feet tall but she didn't waste anytime at all this year. Bloom cycle is very short and every few weeks there's a bunch of flowers on the bush. There are no fragrant unfortunately, but for the joy of blooms, and adding some colours in general landscaping, I find this rose is very hard working. I didn't have a "real" holiday this year because I forgotten to make proper plan during 2008 hectic year. It has never happened before that I was so busy to the point that I forgotten about planning annual leave but I am lucky to have such great friends who made my short 10 summer days spent with them unforgettable. I was in a beautiful region in northern Italy, breathtaking landscape, challenging climbing walls with endless treks for mountain biking and walking around. I will update my summer add-ventures blog later. More than 1000 pictures to resize!In between rock climbing and all the outdoor adventures, I also managed to document some roses that grew up on that altitude.

The chrysanthemum are full with buds, and the delphinium are about spent. It is very rare that I get to see the second repeat bloom but this summer was extraordinarily dry. That in a way did cut down on slugs mobility and their chomping activities.
Overall my garden is looking quite tired and very overgrown with weeds at the moment. Its amazing how tough those weedy wild plants could thrive even with very little rain during summer months. While I was away, I did missed some of the peak period of summer bloomers but there are others still busy making buds for autumn repeat.

We usually get our first snow at the end of October. Very soon, I must allocate some time for the endless must do tasks in the garden before the arrival of winter. I didn't do any garden upkeep at all during the peak summer time. It was simply too hot and cannot recall the last time I go around deadheading. Interestingly some roses like Stanwell Perpetual continues making buds without asking much for deadheading.
This year, since mid spring until now, Stanwell Perpetual has been very generous and very floriferous and there are still little buds forming even at this time of year. This is one rose I will take with me to the graveyard. Shall add that the next time I update the will. Ha ha.

How to tell someone their socks stinks?

Last month, I received an email from my friend Linda asking, "How do you let a person aware that their socks or shoes stinks?"

Well Linda, This is a very sensitive issue and many people I know dare not point it out to someone that their socks or shoes is making the air in closed enclosure very sour and smelling bad, worst in a car, a flight cabin or small office. Not many people can take direct hints in a positive constructive way but I have found that subtle and friendly approach always worked wonders.

Never ever use sarcastic remarks as this will embarassed the person unnecessarily. If it is in the airplane, the flight attendant is the best way to pass a small note to the passenger sitting next to you. Write in a polite way, on a small note, asking the person to keep his or her feet in the shoes throughout the flight. If you feel uncomfortable about letting the person next to you aware that you could smell his or her socks odour, you can also asked the flight attendant to spray some air freshner in the cabin. The flight attendants are trained to discreetly walk up and down the aisle with a small air freshner spray hidden in their palm.

A small trick I've used that helped me through sticky times is to have a few sachets of wet freshner which I carry in my bags all the time. This wet tissues comes in many different scents and I like the citrus aroma as it is very refreshing and great way to clean the hands at the same time neutralising bad odour in the air. It is also not overwhelming strong like a perfume we usually dabbed behind our ears. I usually don't put on strong concentrate fragrance when flying because some people are allergic to the fragrance of concentrated perfumes.

Most of my colleagues at my office knew that I am a very happy go lucky person and always making jokes, to lighten up the daily stress. I often use jokes to hint about socks or shoe sales and the importance to change socks daily to avoid foot fungus from breeding in the shoes. After 2 years, sneakers especially are known as a notorious breeding ground for fungus and these fungus can contaminate other shoes as well. When foot fungus got mentioned, most people become concerned about foot and shoe hygiene. This tactic usually worked very well. A while ago, I approached a junior intern and asked him, " do you have a cat at home?"

His answer was, "yes, why?"

"I'm just curious," I said, "thought I could smell something like cat's pee from your shoes even when you're a few feet away, but don't worry, its not a very strong one. I just happen to have a very sensitive nose," and told him a few things about my cats at home and how they like to sleep under the shoe racks. I use to have cats before but not anymore.

After lunch that day, that young intern stopped by my office and thanked me for letting him know about his shoes. Apparently, during lunch hour break, he had bought a new pair of shoes.

I immediately seized the opportunity and complimented him on his choice of style and said, "you know, your shoes will take up better mileage and smell fresh even longer with a daily change of socks. Cats don't really like fresh smelling shoes."

Ever since that day, we established a better working relationship, and more open to each other during project discussions with a level of trust like never before. I think people generally are concerned about this sort of things. It is just that, our own nose is immune to our own bodily smell and without the help of another person's nose, we will never know how much we stink.

Just like in many real life situations, it is not what is being said that matters, but how it is being said that makes the difference.