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My Autumn Weather

Thursday 9 July 2009

Comte de Chambord Twit me

I probably am the last person on earth joining the flock of other Twitters, but finally I am twitting.
I can see twitting is great for busy people who is always on the go. I'm not sure if I want to connect it to my mobile phone yet. To twit means; to harass with persistent criticism or carping. Will that be too overwhelming for me? I'm going to take my time and think about it. In the meantime, I still have to find out how to link Twitter to this blog.

OK. Got that done.
follow me on Twitter


Many years ago, when my gardening craze started, I haven't got a proper green house and my "make do nursery corner was then a just big huge planting tubs under the trees in the woodland" just next to the existing garden. The bottom part of the big tubs are filled with proprietary commercial soil to keep my seedlings plants nursery pots moist all the time. One rainy summer, I failed to check the collected rain water resevoir level and the bottom part of the watering system was flooded and the bottom part of the roses pots was standing in still water. After a while, when I was ready to plant the roses into the ground, I found the rootstock of Comte de Chambord had rotted and the plant had produced its own roots. As I gently pulled it out of its nursery pot, the plant separated into 2 plants. What a boon that was! I planted them in 2 different parts of the garden, one under dapple shade of the woodland and another in full sun on the bank of a south facing slope.

The one in the dapple shade is doing much better and the blooms opened up full like the picture above. The blooms from the bush that's on the slope bank are more exposed to strong sun and rain, failed to fully open up to its maximum, usually half opened and then they are finished. Intermitten rain and sudden strong sun is not good for any type of blooms for that matter. There's no way I can change my rainy weather unless I move south and garden in the Mediterranean climate. Every day I learn to make the best of whatever the weather brought forth and count my blessings for all the beauty in life. What good will it do to whine and complain about depressing and disappointing matters? Such is life. Things can only get better with positive mind set.

Comte de Chambord is a very beautiful rose when fully opened like above and smells divine. It is disease free plant, not one dot of black spot and requires no maintenance at all other than a bit of fertilizer after the first flush and dead heading to encourage second repeat bloom in late summer or early autumn.

Saturday 4 July 2009

American Pillar on the Fourth of July

I have a few roses bred by American's rose breeder but American Pillar is one that is doing really well in my alpine cool garden climate.
As you can see, on a cool grey summer day, the colour really stand out!

To my rose gardening friends in the US; Cyndy, Nanine and her yellow truck, Paul from Ashdown Roses: my warm thoughts are with you.

To my dear precious followers of this blog; without you all, this blog is nothing but lonesome rambling.

To the tech. support experts; Chuck, Bonnie, and everyone from there including Collette who lend me their guiding hand, put up with my whining and helped me through difficult times coping with the trial and tribulation of maintaining this blog, for without you all I probably would have quit blogging few months ago.

This blog still exist because of all your persistence in your support and I thank you all from the bottom of my heart.

Happy Fourth of July to all of you my dear friends in the USA and God bless.