Frank's New Roses

After years of listening to me justify my plant purchases, ruined carpets from Georgia red clay, and crazy water bills during Georgia's drought years, Frank has finally caught that plant bug.  Sometimes he's a little hesitant in expressing his illness, but it's definitely there.

The symptoms:  (1)  It was Frank's idea, not mine, to take a tour of English gardens last fall; (2)  There have been many more questions than in the past about the particulars of a plant, it's likes and dislikes, etc.; (3)  He made an observation that he didn't know where to buy rose gloves.

In any case, Frank officially has his own rose collection in the midst of the Stepchild Garden, and I'm delighted!  In the middle of clearing away the sod and cutting into the Georgia red clay, he observed that perhaps it's time we found a younger helper to work in the garden now and then........

The circular bed is starting with five English roses, since I've had good luck with them in the ridiculous Southern heat and humidity, and I'm hoping Frank has the same (or better results). 

In the center, he has "Claire Austin," a white climber named for David Austin's daughter.  Choosing this color was a little challenging, because it's going to climb a blue pillar that matches the "Hummingbird Blue" door of the "Not Shed."  This particular rose is an incredibly beautiful white, and I can't wait to see it start to climb!

James Galway, a classic pink rose with an old-fashioned rose fragrance. 

Mardi Gras, a 2008 All American Rose winner with a somewhat "peppery" fragrance. 

Othello, a deep beautiful burgundy. 

"The Pilgrim," a beautiful multi-toned yellow, because Frank absolutely adores yellow roses. 

Photos of the bed to follow as soon as things start to flush out a little in the next couple of months!  (These photos are David Austin's, not mine)

Only English Shrub Roses!

I was pruning and deadheading roses at the Big House yesterday, and it was just like every other week.....me ending the process by declaring, "I'm only ever growing English roses!"  A couple of the hybrid teas are looking like Charlie Brown's Christmas tree between the black spot and miscellaneous funky things they all seem to develop, but the English roses are blooming their guts out!  This top one is Graham Thomas, which never seems to stop putting on a show.

Abraham Darby was just planted last year, and is certainly holding its own with the others...... 

William Morris is a delightful, exuberant, "fluffy" rose with a really wonderful, almost spicy fragrance. 

All of these are David Austin roses, which we got locally at Autumn Hill Nursery. 

Some August Blooms

Even in the crazy heat of summer, there are some really beautiful blossoms to be found.

And it would hardly be a Georgia garden without a peach.....but check out the size of that Moon Vine bud! The vine is climbing up the tree, and I didn't have the heart to pull it out.

The Tour

“Of course you can look at my garden if you’d like to consider it for next year’s tour……”

“Why not?” I thought, “this will motivate me to finish some of the things on that list.”

Reality check! There are at least one hundred items on that list to finish by May! Some of them are as “simple” as painting the house!

In all seriousness, I really am flattered that my garden is on the short list for next year’s Cobb Master Gardeners tour, and it really will give me the motivation to tie up lots of loose ends…..not sure the house will get painted, but certainly the doors will get a new coat of color. (At least that nasty sweetgum got cut down a couple of weeks ago, so I'm making progress.....)

Perhaps the most notable feature about my garden is the 120 foot “mixed” perennial bed, that wraps the corner of the property. I know that tradition dictates that a perennial border is supposed to be in the back of the garden, but I have sun along the street in the front of my house, so that’s where the perennial border went!

Over the past few years, it has filled in beautifully, and looks pretty awesome, if I do say so myself. There is a sheared evergreen hedge that runs down the middle of the bed, so it provides a great background for the colors. The problem, of course, is that many perennials really don’t come into their own in Atlanta until June, and the tour is in May.

At one end of the border there is a pretty substantial arbor, which is quickly becoming engulfed in a combination of New Dawn Rose, Golden Celebration Rose, and Roguchi Clematis, all of which should be blooming for the tour. (This photo was the day of installing said arbor, since the New Dawn kept pulling down the old Smith & Hawken arbor). Where the bed turns the corner, there is a Doublefile Viburnum Standard that is about 12 feet tall and should also be in full bloom in May. There really will be a lot of perennials showing off their stuff for the tour, but I still want a little more "oomph."

The challenge is finding some really cool perennials to add into the mix that will be peaking in mid May. Any ideas? I have tons of iris and hydrangeas that will be blooming, so I’m going to try to stick with highlighting blues and bronze colors. This other photo is “Eye of the Tiger” Dutch Iris, which will be blooming in five different spots of the border. So far I’ve only thought about adding in drifts of annual coleus in some of the bronze colors, but I’d love the input of some other clever garden folks!

Some Photos from Friday Morning

I've still not figured out how to put text directly with each photo, but here are some updates as of Friday morning. It was chilly and overcast, with all of the plants still covered with morning dew.

From top to bottom: A Rubra Dogwood blossom; the "Heuchera Village" made from all of the heucheras moved out of winter containers and planted in the scilla bed; a closeup of the Doublefile Viburnum (AKA Favorite Tree), and the Abraham Darby that was planted a couple of weeks ago. (It was under heat all winter, so is very early this year, and the fragrance is just unbelievable!)

What is up with the Weather???

Today started very cold, but by midafternoon was in the high 60's and absolutely glorious! I'm finally convinced that spring is here to stay, after the brief snow showers yesterday afternoon.
Truly, if someone had been out of town for the past two days, they would never have believed that it was that cold.

Fortunately it didn't get "crazy cold" until around 5 AM where I live and work, so we were spared a lot of freeze damage. We were also lucky to have very high winds for the past couple of days, which doesn't allow the frost to settle. I was really afraid for the budded peonies and hydrangeas, but all looked really good this morning.

At the Big House garden, we were able to shut the heat off in the greenhouse and actually leave the door slightly ajar. Some of the most tender things like coleus, tomatoes, and the like are still tucked into the warmest corners, but it's time for some of the sturdier plants to start getting used to being outdoors. In the middle of the afternoon, the exhaust fans came on, indicating it was hitting 90 degrees in the greenhouse for the first time in months!

I was concerned about some of the new roses that got planted last week, but my "rose lady" thought they would be just fine, and she was right on the mark! The Abraham Darby's that went in last week (they had been in heated greenhouses at the grower until that point) are just covered with huge super fragrant blossoms. It's been such an interesting year with weather, I'm still amazed at the combination of late daffodils, late camellias and early roses all blooming at the same time. The combination of fragrances is really overwhelming, with the HEAVY fragrance of the hollies mixed with the roses. Add in the sight of Eastern Bluebird, Goldfinches and Cardinals all at the same cluster of feeders, and it's the icing on the cake!

Lastly, since I know you're all dying to know, Favorite Tree (doublefile viburnum) came through the freeze without a blemish....you can all relax and get on with your day!

The Releasing of the Roses

Since the horse fans have "The Running of the Roses" every May in Louisville, it only seems appropriate that we have "The Releasing of the Roses" in metro Atlanta.

I never knew it was such a big deal until I went to Autumn Hill Nursery this afternoon to pick up the new roses for "Missus." It was like a mad house there, with all of these people picking up roses! I almost got into it with the chick from Sandy Springs who though she was going to switch the tag on my tree form Neptune with hers! (The neighbors won't be hearing from her any time soon.........)

For those of you who don't know Autumn Hill, it is a really awesome nursery in the Hickory Flat area of Cherokee County, where all of those other growers and nurseries are. Autumn Hill is where to go if you're looking for some more unusual things (Cliftonia, Carolina Silver Bell, unusual perennials, etc.), and a great collection of high end containers, fountains, and such.

Pictures will follow once the new Abraham Darby is in place next to the Graham Thomas!

A Bit of Spring Cleaning

After a weekend of cold drizzly rain (which we desperately needed), it was a treat to be in the garden today in the warm sun. It got into the high 60's, and was the perfect day to do some "spring cleaning" in the vegetable garden and the big perennial beds. Can you believe we're only a month from planting summer annuals?

The blueberries are positively covered with blooms, which are pretty in the walled garden, since everything else there is either still dormant or just starting to grow for spring.

I managed to pull out some of the winter cabbages, which had started to bolt with this warm weather, and are developing that funky odor that occurs when they start their decline. Time to move the last of the "Antique Shades" pansies from the nursery area to the displays at the front of the house, since it still needs to look good for another month before the spring things arrive. They are the perfect color for the brick of the house, but a challenging cultivar that needs lots of babying.

Took the broom to the creeping fig that covers the wall in the garden; it starts to look pretty ratty at this time of year, so the broom makes quick work of brushing away the dead leaves, exposing the new growth; it was exciting to have to tiptoe through the spears of asparagus that have just started popping up in the past couple of days! One of the luxuries of being the gardener is standing in the garden, in the silence, in the sun, eating the first stalk of the season's asparagus......

I was raking away the last of the autumn leaves from the vegetable beds (we leave a light covering there for the winter), and discovered the tiny little shoots of sweetpeas around the base of the tuteurs....I can't wait to see them start racing up the slats in the next couple of weeks!

Across the gravel walkway, the peonies are showing their heads (one in a particularly hot spot is about six inches high already), so I got to put out their cages for another spring show. Peonies always make me smile, thinking of my grandmother calling them "Pee-OH-nies" with the New York accent that still came through, even 70 years after leaving her childhood home.

I finished my day giving a haircut to the "Sunny Yellow" Knockout Roses that arrived a few weeks ago, grooming them to go into containers at the pool in a few weeks. There is something magical about spring, when you can literally watch things grow right in front of your eyes!

Leave the dreaded leaf blowers and power mowers in the garage for just another week! Sit back and enjoy the simplicity of the spring garden.....and look for those first spears of asparagus!

PS....The sakurafubuki is getting closer!

The New Climbing Roses

The garden where I spend most of my days is incredibly beautiful, and was well designed when it was newly installed ten years ago. As a result, my job is made somewhat easier, because I'm really nurturing beautiful things and "tweaking" as plants age and grow. I'm fortunate that the owners of the garden also appreciate that I do as much as I can organically, so it is a garden that actually benefits the surrounding area.

If there is a flaw in the original design, it is the placement of five espaliered camellias on a brick wall in full sun that must reach 110 degrees most afternoons in the summer. At this moment in February, these poor plants are gasping for breath, doing their best to push out some pretty amazing blooms, from their parched and fried trunks.... they are underplanted with vinca, which also struggles and has never looked all that good. (If vinca is struggling, it will give you an idea of how bad this particular spot is for plants).

Anyway, the plan for this summer is to replace the camellias with climbing roses, underplanted with creeping rosemary. For the roses, I'm installing Blush Noisette, which was originally developed in Charleston, SC, in the 1700's. It's a beautiful fragrant rose specifically bred for the heat and humidity of the southeast. Between the Noisettes, I'm planting Snowgoose, which is an amazing white rambler from David Austen.

Finally, we're adding in Clematis Princess Diana, and Clematis Roguchi, which should scramble through the two different roses! Not that I'm a competitive gardener or anything, but I can't wait to see this in summer! Even Patti (the rose hater) has got to like this combo!

A Bad Gardening Day or a Good Day in the Garden?

This has been one of those weekends with "fence sitting weather," which I usually find very frustrating. Yesterday was in the high 50's with tons of sun, and it was one of those days when we gardeners are just chomping at the bit to get a jump start on the season. I kept starting to work in the garden, then would stop and tell myself it was too early to do this or that, since it is going to fall below freezing for the next few nights. I raked the fallen pine needles off the Creeping Jenny, then raked it back over the tender new leaves; I pulled some old leaves out of the crowns of the hydrangeas, saw the bright green new growth, and put the leaves back. After a couple of hours of this dance, I satisfied myself by raking the lawn and making things look at least a little better....I'm much more casual about where Sadie visits during the winter months, so it was definitely time to rake.

Today I was equally frustrated by having to wait for spring to arrive, though far less inclined to be outside working in the garden with the cold winds that arrived overnight. Not wanting to waste the beautiful sunshine, I decided it was the perfect day to just enjoy the garden. I had to stop at the big house to water the greenhouse, and got this photo of the creek bank. These are the most adorable little daffodils (whose name I don't know), which are amongst the first harbingers of spring.

In my own garden, this morning was a great time to see how things have done over the winter, and I was reminded of how many people have contributed. Alice's yarrow is slowing spreading and filling in lots of empty spaces, the irises I dug with Dad last September are coming up in their new Southern home, Phyllis' gloxinia is showing signs of life, the New Dawn Rose that Frank so nervously selected is bigger and stronger than ever.......

My morning stroll was pleasantly interrupted by Alice calling to say, "I've got bags of Japanese Blood Grass here.....any interest?"

I think I'm rather happy that it's too cold to work outside today!

A Gardenia, Two Lorapetalums, A Hydrangea, and a Rose

I had the chance to run in to the Southeastern Nursery Show late Friday afternoon as things were wrapping up, but was glad that I did! Probably as a result of the economy and the ongoing drought, the show was definitely smaller than in previous years, but there were some special plants to be found in many of the displays. I got to spend some time chatting with Mike Sikes from McCorkle Nurseries, and really fell in love with some of their new introductions.

The Heaven Scent Gardenia is new for this year, and is pretty fabulous! Reblooming, covered with blooms (that were forced for the show), nice fragrance, and a great form. The interesting twist to this little gardenia (matures at 3 to 4 feet) are the great seed pods that turn from yellow to orange to red through the winter, when most gardenias aren't at their most attractive.

Carolina Moonlight Lorapetalum is on my "gotta have it" list for this year. White blooms rather than the usual pink-red, with an olive green leaf. I'm never 100% convinced when I'm told what the mature size will be on a lorapetalum, but this one is supposed to max out at 7 to 8 feet. I have the perfect place to put an informal hedge of five plants!

The "Little Rose Dawn" Lorapetalum isn't new for 2009, but still relatively new on the market (I actually won mine as a doorprize at the GMGA Conference in Athens in January 0f 2008). It has done beautifully at my house, even with this roller coaster weather of the past year, and is starting to show the unusual branching pattern that this cultivar is noted for. One of my favorite plants is the Doublefile Viburnum because of its beautiful "layered branching," and this particular lorapetalum seems to be doing the same thing. It grows wide rather than tall (it's supposed to become pretty massive at 7 feet tall and 15 feet wide)...sort of loose and fluffy looking like a Van Houteii Spirea....picture above.

There is a new hydrangea that will most definitely make it into my garden this season. "Twist-n-Shout" is the newest in the Endless Summer series. My plant snob side always pooh-poohs things like Endless Summer, but this is a pretty awesome plant, and it's a reblooming lace cap....will let you know in August if I'm still so smitten with it!

Lastly, the "Amber" Flower Carpet Rose is just beautiful! Can't wait to use it in hanging baskets off the side of the bridge that goes over the creek! Blooms late spring through late fall, and I'm going to mix it in those baskets with Diamond Frost Euphorbia and Marguerite Sweet Potato Vine....it's going to be like a perpetual bouquet of roses, I hope! (Check out the photo above)

McCorkle doesn't sell retail, but I know Buck Jones carries most of their lines, and I'm sure many retailers will have them this season. It's the rose in the pink pot and the hydrangea in the blue one.

Something New in the Garden

Just got the new "Sunny" Knockout Roses today. As much as the plant snobs are going to say about it, one cannot challenge the fact that the Knockouts are pretty awesome in the landscape!

I'm not putting them into the high brow rose bed, but at the top of the waterfall, nestled amongst deodor cedars and Emerald Spreader yews, this cluster should be pretty awesome! I think the bright yellow against the blues and dark blue greens of the conifers should be pretty amazing

The flowers on this one open bright yellow and fade to cream, and it's the first of the Knockout series to really have a scent. Obviously in 36 degree weather in Atlanta, there ain't a whole lotta bloomin' goin' on, but I can't wait for the sun and warmth to hit these babies! I've attached a photo from their own facts sheet, and will add a photo of my own results later in the season!

Stay warm! The word is 60's for the weekend! With rain! Does it get any better than that?