Bloomscrolling--what's in bloom where you are?
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Lovely roses. I've given up on hybrid roses. My family in Oregon can grow them spectacularly, but my luck with them in New England has been kinda heartbreaking.
My bloomscroll today is the native blue flag iris.
@rustyfingers said in Bloomscrolling--what's in bloom where you are?:
Lovely roses. I've given up on hybrid roses.
I'm trying own-root roses from this outfit:
https://heirloomroses.com/blogs/about-us-ordering/about
Costco had them online last year and I bought three of them. Everybody made it through the winter, though there was a fair amount of dieback. I had planted one is what turned out to be too much of a shady area, so I moved it this year and it's rebounding nicely.
OTOH, I'm now remembering why I stopped growing roses years ago...they seem to be susceptible to every imaginable disease and insect that's out there....
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Bayer Rose and Flower systemic works very well.
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#2 I know as Agapanthus Africanus - Lily of the Nile.
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Only one of the four roses I planted last year made it through winter unscathed. The one that did, however, is really looking good!
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@AndyD thats's a cool photo. @Steve-Miller , Love those yellow roses.
Today I present blue-eyed grass, a New England native, and a member of the iris family
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Nice!
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Potted up some flowers today.
Back patio. The iris in the background were an Easter egg left to me by the guy who designed my yard. I’ll have to ask him what kind they are. Geraniums are a gift from my neighbor. I swapped him for an oak leaf hydrangea that I never really bonded with:
https://share.icloud.com/photos/0e89XbypnA0WQ3B710xSITYUg
Next to the fountain:
https://share.icloud.com/photos/0daLMleLrzMLwlIO8YcAEv3lA
Side of patio. The tall plants (“thrillers” for those of you also watching YouTube videos on arranging such things) are Japanese iris. They’re pouting and the flower buds died. Maybe next year.
The dark purple spikes are Salvia “Hummingbird Falls.” They weren’t in the pot two hours before the hummingbirds found them and they’ve been visiting on and off all afternoon.
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Two little fuchsia. (Fuchsias?) All of the larger ones were either a dull orange or sold out.
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Only one of the four roses I planted last year made it through winter unscathed. The one that did, however, is really looking good!
@Steve-Miller That rose is beautiful, I love the color. The winter was harsh to my roses this year. The climber that had reached heights over my head lost all its tall canes. There is new growth along the base of the plant, so I'll try and save it. I must wrap and stuff with straw this November. The white rose lost all but one cane and I accidently strimmed that one off. I don't know if the rose is salvageable now. One other rose is down to practically nothing. I'm lucky that my yellow rose survived and is doing well.
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@AndyD thats's a cool photo. @Steve-Miller , Love those yellow roses.
Today I present blue-eyed grass, a New England native, and a member of the iris family
@rustyfingers I love blue-eyed grass. Once in a while I'll come across one that has popped up on its own.
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I planted some a few years ago that disappeared. I found a volunteer on the hellstrip this season and found these really healthy specimens at a native plant sale. Figure I'll put them on the hellstrip if that's where they want to live. Do yours volunteer in a sunny spot?
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Two little fuchsia. (Fuchsias?) All of the larger ones were either a dull orange or sold out.
@Steve-Miller nice. my mom always had a hanging basket of fuchsia. I never had any luck with them. Probably wrong climate.
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Bernard, it can't be easy to grow climbing roses where you are. When I had them in Montana, the advice was to dig a ditch alongside the plant, untie it from its trellis, lay it down in the ditch, and then cover it, first with dirt, then with straw or leaves.
I always thought that very impractical, so I just put cages around them and filled with leaves, or piled a hill of dirt at the base. If they are on their own root stock, they'll come back better than ever in the spring. If they are grafted, eventually you will lose them.
Here in Helena I divided up some yellow ramblers from a friend's patch and planted them two springs ago. This year they are going to bloom along my split rail fence--lots of healthy looking buds. I think they are pretty much indestructible, because Helena is a much tougher climate on roses than Missoula, and I didn't do a thing to protect them.
So if you lose yours, look for a cold-hardy variety growing on its own rootstock.
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I am desperately trying to get my flower beds weeded after too much neglect. Lovely things blooming in them that are hiding in the quack grass--tulips, penstemon, blue flax. The iris have risen above the fray, as have the mixed columbine. Daffodils are done. Great lilac bloom this year--the white volunteers bloomed and the scent was everywhere! They are pretty much on their last legs now. Clematis and roses are about to bloom. I have a wonderful old damask rose I brought over from Missoula that has spread nicely. Scented carnations along the walk. Peonies are coming on. Apple and cherry blossoms--including chokecherry. And our Nanking cherries bloomed profusely this year. I still can't do photos, but you all know what these things look like.
More impressive is our bird population: we had a falcon--a kestrel--fly down our chimney and set up house in the glassed in fireplace. I managed to get him snugged into a towel while Mr Pique held a blanket up over the door to the room. We kept him overnight to make sure he wasn't injured, then with the blessing of a raptor rehabber, released him in the morning to the great excitement of his mate, who was waiting for him.
We have a bluebird nesting outside my office window--little blue eggs, and the male stands guard all day.
The other day I heard a red-tailed hawk screaming in our woods. I looked up and he was hanging on to the top of a pine tree while magpies dive bombed him. He must have been diverting them from a nest.
Tanagers, gray jays, Clark's nutcrackers, flickers, grosbeaks, red-winged blackbirds, and many other birds are everywhere. We try to keep this a cat-free zone, though not always successfully.
Our neighborhood is called The Birdseye, and tonight Mr. Pique observed that the name may have come from this area being a birding paradise.
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