Gardening by Mistake

I got behind posting some of the pictures from my garden this week.

Andrea Stelzer

One of my roses grown from seed

(If you know roses, you can probably guess the mother)

Jardin de Bagatelle

Mme. Pierre Oger

Zepherine Drouhin

Graham Thomas

Margaret Merril

Just Joey

Crimson Bouquet

Views of the arbor:

This is a view from the front. The right side is New Dawn (not in bloom yet) and a clematis. The rose on the left is Zepherine Drouhin. The white rose on the back and top is City of York.

This is a view of the back of the arbor. Ignore the weeds I haven’t gotten to yet, please! The arbor is about 8 feet tall and 10 feet wide, to give some idea of the size of City of York. The rose on the right side is ‘Viking Queen.’ I believe she’s going to be shovel pruned this fall.

This is a close up of City of York on the top of the arbor:

I love peonies. I have only 3 at present, taken from my grandmother’s large clump, but I would have more if only they rebloomed. They are magnificent when they are in bloom.

And mine are fragrant, as well. Looking at them this week, I’ve been toying with the idea of adding a couple of peony bushes to my rose beds. I haven’t decided yet if I will or not. I suppose if I put a little effort into it, I could add varieties which bloom at different times (early, middle, late) to stretch out the show a bit. I do think their dark green foliage could make a nice filler/backdrop in the rose beds.

I spent some time in the garden yesterday afternoon and my friend, the hostile crow, kept me company for some time, clucking at me and making a call that sounded to me exactly like “Good day!” (And I don’t mean the friendly kind. I mean the “Good day, Madam!” kind, the kind that is inviting you quite coldly to depart). After some strafing, clucking and “Good day-ing” me, the crow just left. I don’t know if it was at that exact moment that his chicks were deemed safe from me, if he just decided I wasn’t going anywhere or I wasn’t posing a danger, or if he just gave up. Today, I spent some time weeding, and I didn’t hear one cluck or invitation to leave. I rather missed my angry friend (although I did not miss the air attacks from behind).

However, I’m not entirely alone out there. Yesterday I discovered a mourning dove’s nest in my arbor, built into the rose canes covering the top. I found her quite by accident. I was amused by how she froze and just seemed convinced that I couldn’t see her. She stayed there, frozen, while I took some pictures of her. They aren’t great pictures, though, since there were a lot of rose canes and foliage between her nest and my camera.

As I was heading in, this guy flew past and landed ahead of me:

My best identification (which some entymologist may show to be incorrect) is that this is a coreus marginatus, or dock bug. I think the tips of those antennae are pretty cool!

I usually start my seeds, pot them up and grow them awhile before planting them outside. I like to wait until I think they are of a size to withstand the weather and any encroaching weeds. Today, though, I thought I’d try something a little different.

I have something like 13 echinops ritro seeds which have germinated and they have a nice long radical. As I said, normally I’d pot those up. Today, I decided I’d plant them straight into the garden. I don’t start plants from seed in the garden because it never works for me. But I thought I’d try these. I took some of my popsicle sticks to use as plant markers, so I keep an eye out for them (for weeding and watering and not stepping on). The mulch on this bed is thick, about 3 inches. It is cedar chips, fairly compacted together and not easy to just sweep out of the way. After digging down to the soil and planting one of my sprouts, I decided to see how well the others would do planted in the mulch itself. After all, the weeds certainly think it’s a wonderful place to grow!

My test is lopsided, of course, with only 1 of the 7 seeds being planted in the soil, the rest being planted in the mulch. (The remaining germinated seeds that I didn’t plant outside today will get my usual treatment tomorrow— potting up). And I’m not convinced I’ll have any luck at all— I think every plant out there that I’ve grown from seed I’ve started in a pot first and then moved outside, including even those which don’t like to be transplanted (like borage). I just use paper pots for those so I can just pop them into the ground without disturbing the roots.

At any rate, I’m looking forward to seeing what happens. And tomorrow I’ll be potting up some other seeds that are not going straight into the garden. I also have some cuttings which are ready to be potted up. I hate the potting up part so much that I tend to put it off until it’s too late. I’m about at that point with some of the germinated seeds. I’ll have to suck it up and do it tomorrow.

The blooms on my ‘Winchester Cathedral’ rose bush turned pink last year. They are supposed to be white. I knew Winchester Cathedreal is a sport itself, so I figured it must have reverted to its parent plant, ‘Mary Rose.’

Today, when I looked at the bloom, it just didn’t seem to be the same bloom but different color. I looked up pictures of ‘Mary Rose’ and ‘Winchester Cathedral’ at HelpMeFind, the best online source of rose information.

This link shows you the pictures of Winchester Cathedral.

This link shows you the pictures of Mary Rose.

The pictures of WC do show a pink rose, and I’m unsure why that is there. WInchester is very white. If it is that pink, it’s reverted back to Mary Rose, or it’s another sport. Notice that both Mary Rose and Winchester Cathedral are classified as “Very Double” rose forms. That means 100+ petals.

Here’s what is blooming on mine today. It’s a brighter pink, more neon, and it is far from “very double.” I actually like it far better than the original Winchester Cathedral. This bush was on my “to be shovel-pruned” list, but I may just keep it now.

So, what do you think?

I’m out in my garden almost every day, and usually multiple times each day. We had a lot of rain the past couple of days, so I hadn’t made it to the rose garden for about a day and a half. When I went out last night, I was enjoying all the blooms now open. It’s the big spring flush!

As I wandered from bed to bed, I became aware of a bird on the electric line above me, clucking. He was clucking insistently. As I walked across one bed, he scooted down the wire, following me, clucking. When I began walking toward another bed, the bird dove off the wire and flew straight at me, veering at the last second. Okay, it seems pretty clear that the bird, a crow, has a nest nearby. I thought it would be interesting to figure out where it was. I noticed if I walked in one direction, he clucked but left me alone. If I moved the opposite direction, he immediately began doing his fly-bys. You know, the funny thing is that I wouldn’t have known about the crow nest if this bird hadn’t started trying to chase me off.

I’m pretty sure I know where it is, although I don’t know the exact location. In other words, I’m sure of the tree, but I have no idea where in that tree it is, although it must be high up because I read that Great Horned Owls will use their empty nests.

When I finished walking through my beds and annoying the crow, I headed in. Darned it that crow didn’t follow me, clucking the whole way. My city lot is a half acre. It’s no farm, but for a city lot, it’s big. My garden is not right up against the house. That crow followed me, giving me the evil, clucking eye from atop the house and various trees as I made my way to the front door.

Later, when I went out, he came swooping over to watch me again. I was nowhere near his tree. Apparently his turf covers most of our 1/2 acre.

I’m sure I looked like quite the idiot today, wandering around my yard with a camera and telephoto lens, trying to get a good picture of the crow. He’s a wily guy, though, and won’t come lower than the tops of trees (except when he’s strafing me, that is). Here’s a picture of him in mid-cluck:

Update: This bird is a grackle, not a crow as first believed.

I’d been debating ordering some plants online. I’d decided against it, thinking that I should just concentrate on growing plants from all the seeds I have, instead of spending more $$. And then today I had the idea of stopping at our local Ace hardware store to check out their plants. Oh my goodness! I was so glad I hadn’t placed that order. I got better plants for less money, I think. They had 4″ perennials for $2.49 each and they were in very good shape!

I ended up with:

• 3 penstemon ‘Husker’s Red’
• 3 dianthus ‘Firewitch’
• 2 phlox subulata ‘Candy Stripe’
• 2 perovskia (Russian sage)
• 2 blue alpine asters

That’s 12 new plants I can add to my gardens in my fight to fill up the gardens before the weeds do. I know that’s not much in the face of many hundreds of square feed of garden, but I’m quite tickled. These are things I wanted and didn’t expect to get. Yay!

I potted up the cuttings this afternoon. I ended up potting:

• 1 cerastium
• 1 origanum ‘Hopley’s’
• 2 coreopsis ‘Early Sunrise’
• 5 thyme (2 different varieties)
• 1 agastache
• 5 ajuga

There are a couple of ajuga that have started roots, but I’m going to wait a bit longer before I pot them up. One of the coreopsis looks like it won’t make it, so I’ll be surprised if I ever get to plant it in the garden. I plan on growing these in pots for at least a few weeks, maybe until fall.

I plan to get more cuttings from my plants yet this evening and start another batch. The citrus thyme I took cuttings from a week ago has grown like crazy and could use more clipping. I’m not sure exactly how much of that I’m going to want, but I’m pretty sure that I’ll have more than that. If it makes it as a good ground cover, as I hoped when I bought it, then the thyme is welcome to grow and spread.

On another topic entirely…

Yesterday we drove DH’s grandparents with us and the kids to Topeka (about 90 minutes away) for a dual birthday celebration. Papa is 93! (And DH is 39). On that drive, Ceda told me that they have given up growing tomatoes this year. The spot where they always planted them is too much of a slope and there was concern about one of them slipping and falling. I know how much Papa loves his tomatoes, though, and I just couldn’t stand it. So today, I picked out a cherry tomato plant and a large pot. I’m going to pot it up and set it near the same spot, but easily accessible next to the driveway. I hope that this will work and that they’ll be able to enjoy tomatoes this summer. I know Papa always grew the big ones, but I hope these cherry tomatoes will still be good. I’m going to go pot that up and we’ll take it over tonight. I may take my gloves with me. Ceda told me that the roses were being choked by some perennial. They are, and no wonder: the perennial choking them is vinca vine. I hate that stuff! It is wonderful if you need tough groundcover, but only if it is in a location where it can run rampant or cannot escape from it’s spot. This vinca vine is having a merry romp through the roses and other plants. I know that I won’t stop it, but I figure if I rip some chunks out tonight when we drop off the tomato plant I can at least slow it down marginally.

I haven’t made any walks through my garden today, which is unusual. Usually I walk through it at least morning and evening. I’ll get out there in a bit to see what’s new today. Here are two pictures from yesterday.

Andrea Stelzer

Charles Aznavour

I admit it: I couldn’t wait. I peeked before my self-imposed Monday date. Truthfully, I took a peek at two cuttings on Friday, with disappointing results. I thought that would get me through until Monday afternoon, but this morning (Sunday), when I saw my propagation chambers, I was gripped by an irresistable need to know how they were all doing.

The results were fairly good! New roots were small on those cuttings which have roots, but since the longest they’ve been in the box is 8 days, that’s not surprising. What rooted? Ajuga, thyme, cerastium (when I checked on Friday, nothing. No roots and it looked like it never would root!), coreopsis ‘Early Sunrise’ seedlings, and agastache. Of course, I expect I’ll be running to the garden later today, collecting more of what has rooted so I can start more new plants. I wish I had a few more (and more exciting) choices, however. I may try some of the gaillardia and salvia ‘Rose Queen,’ as well. As pretty as the ‘Rose Queen’ is and how well it has done– and under such inhospitable circumstances– I’ve been wishing I’d grown more of it from seed than I did. Cuttings would be quicker than growing more from seed. I also meant to take some veronica cuttings last week but forgot. This would be a good time to do that, as well. I only have a few veronica at present but would like more.

I’m slapping myself (figuratively, although I probably should do it literally) because I didn’t think of asking for any cuttings yesterday when at my MIL’s house. She’s got a house and yard from BH&G. Although a lot of her stuff is in shade, I bet I could have found something there! I do still need to get to my parents’ house and take some dianthus cuttings.

As for the cuttings which haven’t rooted yet, there is still hope as nothing had outright died yet. Admittedly, the phlox subulata appear that they are in the process of dying. (Very disappointing, too. I’d like a lot more of that in my garden). The rose cutting of ‘Improved Blaze,’ of which I did not want more but was using as a rooting test, has lost all of its leaves. It is now a stick. But at this point it’s an alive stick, so we’ll see. This is how all rose cuttings have gone for me in the past, so I am not optimistic.

I did propagate a coreopsis ‘Zagreb’ earlier in the week entirely by accident. I was pulling out some of that noxious Convolvulus arvensis and a piece of the ‘Zagreb’ came with it. The piece had roots, so I planted it in another bed. If it “takes,” I’ll have a start of it in that bed. So far, it looks like it’s going to make it. That was Monday or Tuesday and I think it would have shriveled up by now if it wasn’t going to survive.

Just when you think the summer flowers are never going to bloom— pop! They start blooming when you aren’t expecting it!

Yesterday, when I checked City of York, this is what I found:

The bud has opened more since the previous day. So, when I went out today, I expected the sepals to be pulled back further. I was very surprised to find this instead:

There were only a half dozen flowers open, but the thousands of other blooms aren’t far behind!

Nearly Wild is suddenly exploding into blooms, as well:

This one is from an OP rose I grew from seed. I have a few of those lining the fence of one side of the garden.

This is the first year my Salvia ‘Rose Queen’ have bloomed. Until recently, I was wondering what the big deal was about these plants. Now, however, that they are coming into bloom (most plants having many stalks of flowers), I am becoming charmed by them. They are doing well in a hot, dry location where they have been left to fend for themselves. And the blooming period looks to be a long one. What’s not to love about these plants? Here’s how one is looking today:

The time when the roses begin their first flush is approaching quickly. The roses are covered with buds swelling with their contents. The sepals are beginning to split and peel back and it’s only a matter of days before the blooms burst forth. Recently, I posted a picture of a City of York bud. Here’s another picture. The change is noticeable. I expect to be enjoying the perfume of this rose bush by Friday or Saturday.

Also on the progress front, I spent my morning out in the garden weeding. There are still some areas around the arbor which are choked with weeds. I haven’t gotten to those yet– until today. Today I made some good inroads on reclaiming some of that area.

A mini is in bloom today:

Three or four years ago, while visiting my great-grandmother, I dug up and brought home some of her iris. These iris are special to me because they are a reminder of my great-grandmother. (She’s still very much around, btw, living on her own at 112 years of age). When Grandma moved to town from her farm, when they retired, she brought these iris with her. And now I have some in my garden. If these aren’t heirloom iris, they surely must be close! The second image is looking down into the iris from above.

Yesterday I posted an image of a Salvia ‘Rose Queen’ preparing to bloom:

And here it is starting to bloom (you need to click on it to see the full-sized image to get a good view of the flowers):