Bloomscrolling--what's in bloom where you are?
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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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Your words are worth a thousand pictures
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Neužmirštuõlė aka nezábudky aka Forget-Me-Nots are blooming in my yard. Have never been successful getting a decent photo of them, so I won't even try. Here's one I stole:
Used to have large swaths of them around our Door County house. Just a few patches here and there in my yard in Chicago. They always want to be at the edge where sun meets shade. I just let them do their own thing!
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Today we have the New England native Canada windflower/anemone on the hellstrip
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Today, our first rose bloom--it's a David Austin floribunda and the only non-native rose I haven't killed yet. The natives are doing fine, but of course they aren't so showy and they aren't in bloom yet.
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That's a beautiful modern rose.
About 30 years ago my Dad took down an aging trellis and used the best round poles to make a pergola over the garden path. Mam planted a couple of old fashioned highly scented climbing roses either side.
The pergola was necessarily renewed about ten years ago, but the established roses are trained all over it. Quite difficult to photograph nicely
And from the other side
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@AndyD said in Bloomscrolling--what's in bloom where you are?:
I have to admit that growing older, I prefer plants with fragrance and colour
Which is why my yard is pretty much a failure as a Japanese garden.
That arbor is spectacular!
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Love it!
Today, we finally have the first peony blooms. They reliably bloom on Memorial Day weekend except this year
We have another with white flowers that still hasn't bloomed. And another that rarely flowers (maybe too close to the sidewalk?)
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That's a beautiful modern rose.
About 30 years ago my Dad took down an aging trellis and used the best round poles to make a pergola over the garden path. Mam planted a couple of old fashioned highly scented climbing roses either side.
The pergola was necessarily renewed about ten years ago, but the established roses are trained all over it. Quite difficult to photograph nicely
And from the other side
@AndyD Your Dad's pergola reminds me of my aunt, who is a master gardener in Washington State (or was -- she's in her 90s now) and has a beautiful trellis filled with the most gorgeous and fragrant pink roses. I commented on it when I last visited her and she shrugged it off, saying that she can't smell them. She had no use for them since she specialized in growing things to eat.
I think I remember that lack of smell can be correlated with dementia. She was exhibiting some signs during that visit.
I agree it's challenging to capture the experience in a photo.
