How did the year 2017 look for the garden? What were the successes? What were the failures? What should we continue doing? What might we improve? These are a few of the questions I'd like to ask and answer. It's mostly notes to self, but anyone with a really deep curiosity about gardening in the mountains of Arizona might find something here of interest.
Successes
- Foxgloves and Delphiniums can be grown with some supplemental water here.
- Roses can be transplanted during summer, provided the ground is thorougly damp. Also, provided they are watered through any unusually dry fall weather.
- Starting a watering program early in the spring can benefit a tiny number of roses, most notably the hybrid tea roses America and Looping. Possibly it benefits other roses that are not fully dormant then.
- Daturas prove quite durable. In late spring they sprout and grow quickly, usually some time after they have been ruled dead. One feral plant has reached 10 feet across on our property.
- Dahlia Fantaste du Cape (we believe) grows huge and produces massive flowers. It seems to have overwintered from a 2016 or 2015 planting.
- Some limited success in using Liquid Fence and Gain dryer sheets in deterring deer. We got some growth out of the almond tree this year using both of these deterrants A hopeful sign.
- Iris planted in July establish pretty effectively.
- Artichokes grown from seed get knee high by frost. We'll see if they come back from their roots in spring.
- Pruning seems to have reinvigorated Abe Darby. Any beneficial effects of pruning on other roses has been mostly cosmetic, not restorative.
Failures
- Almost anything other than rocky mountain penstemon in the driveway bed seems doomed, though perhaps spring will revitalize the iris, daylilies, yarrow, aremesia, and other plants there.
- Euphorbias are trickier than assumed, but will grow in soil with some clay and supplemental water if not nibbled to death by javelina or ground squirrels.
- Hybrid tea roses, other than some Kordes varieties continue to fail owing, in part, to their disinclination to grow when the weather is coolish. HTs on their own roots are especially tricky.
- The new level of the ground outside the fence has created a platform for deer to jump the fence into the garden.
- Most of the oriental lilies planted last season never came up. Casa Blanca is one exception.
- March pruning evidently killed Grande Dame. Leanne Rimes has not fully recovered.
- Pretty much every dahlia planted this spring failed except for a few Bishop of Llandaff. A number were in places that do not receive supplemental water.
- Possibly every plant in the driveway bed other than narcissus and rocky mountain penstemon has disappeared. Drought? Javelina? Summer 2018 will tell.
- Iris planted in September may not really be worth the discount. In any case, it is imperative to keep the plants watered in fall. Water every other week when there is not rain...
The Driveway Bed
This bed stretches out along the half of the 250 ft driveway nearest the street. In spring we had a few sweeps of narcissus that were very pretty, Thalia and Golden Dawn. The yarrow did well enough when there was moisture. And some gaillardia seemed to work for a while. Red Velvet yarrow (Annies) may not have established before drought. There is a blue flowering ceanothus (Annies) planted at some distance from the almond tree, and despite considerable neglect it is still alive. Plant more.
Narcissus Thalia and Golden Dawn in Mid Spring
New plants tried this year included a one gallon wisteria from White Flower Farm that died promptly from drought. Two of three gallon lonicera Major Wheeler survived through September, but the one in the thin soil and full sun appears to have expired. The yarrow, daylilies, salvia, gaillardia, maximilian sunflower and even the artemisia have disappeared. Even the variegated yucca has collapsed. Except for the artemesia, the disappearance could be explained by frost - at least it could have in a year when it got really really cold - which it did not this year. In the spring, we shall see. Two Desiree Parmentier roses were moved there in the summer during the monsoons, and there was some hope for a while that they would survive. But the winter drought might have finished them off. By contrast, the Madame Alfred Carriere moved there last winter - that's right, the one that is in a nearly constant stasis - seems to be hanging on. Two of the three Pink Pet roses transplanted in summer are stone cold dead, but the one that has long canes and looks like it has a tendency to climb is still alive. Comice de Tarn et Garonne has lost about 75% of its foliage from browsing since it moved here last summer, but it still appears to be alive.
From late September until now it has been bone dry. And the driveway bed is seen by a number of animals as a rich source of food. Those animals would include rabbits, deer, javelina, and squirrels, ground squirrels, and desert rats. So even the iris have suffered from browsing. Going into January, only a small number of plants are in evidence. There are two or three native grasses, the scrub oaks and Arizona cypress, of course, and the rocky mountain penstemon, where it has established is still definitely alive, even if it is hard to distinguish from the vast expanses of mulch. We expect the nepeta to come back. So too, the day lilies and iris. And, of course, the peonies we planted there in the fall. The roses mentioned above survive. And Rene Andree which seems to sail through anything. Winchester Cathedral has suffered from drought, but it seems to be alive.
In the nibbled-to-the-ground department there are two surprises. One is a datura which is clearly nibbled off above knee height. Could it be that deer do not know it is poisonous? Or is it actually not for them? Just as surprising is that the rugosa rose planted out there has been nibbled to the ground along with the foxgloves in the same bed. What animal feasts on poisonous and prickly plants in the same meal? Obviously an animal that must be of some concern....
We've installed quite a number of iris in the beds in this area. Among this years additions are Tom Johnson (dark blue) Again and Again (pale yellow) and Penny Lane (orange) in the almond bed. Picasso Moon and some Tom Johnson transplanted from the fenced bed were installed in the sandy stretch by the stream where almost nothing grows. We opened a new bed behind some tall grasses, so it can only be seen at an angle. It's mostly planted with Harvest of Memories, though this seems to be one yellow that is rather severely nibble by voles or ground squirrels. Badlands (we think) keeps company with these. Near the stream bed we added something like eight Victoria Falls. Italic Light, Jazzed Up, and Poesie were squeezed into the bed by the street to keep company with a few other violet shaded iris. Kathy Chilton, which reminds us much of Supreme Sultan in its yellow/maroon coloration was planted in the same almond tree bed. We also added a number of peonies from Gilbert Wild. Three Bowl of Beauty are planted in front of the Arizona Cedars. A Karen Gray and three Adolphe Rousseau are planted near the end of the driveway in the shade of the scrub oak.
What are we to plant in this bed in the spring? We have decided already that the knoll near the street would look good if it were graced with a very foliferous rose, and we've decided to try next Sally Holmes. Our assumption when we ordered was that proximity to the datura would, for some time, provide a measure of protection by association. But three or four roses have died quite promptly in that spot, so we must assume that the next prickly plant we try there will actually be a prickly pear cactus. Even they get browsed; but they do sometimes survive the weather.
The 'dead tree hole' has been a perpetual source of disappointment. Its light soil evidently requires some measure of amendment to retain moisture. Clay and mulch. Absolutely nothing survives there. And for this reason (ironically) we have two or three roses on order to plant there. Brothers Grimm FT is slated to be the next rose to die in this spot, but Home Run is on deck after that. Both were selected for being quite vigorous, and if tended meticulously for a year or two there is a vanishingly small hope that either might actually establish. Two or three times I have written instructions to myself in very large font faces never to plant roses in the driveway bed again. And yet, I keep on doing it. Mostly because my rose orders exceed the space I am willing to vacate in the fenced beds. I do not get smarter quite so fast as I get older, it would seem.
The Fenced Bed
Early blooms in the garden included narcissus Ice Follies along with some Fortissimo daffodils that clutter one rose bed. There were just a handful of tulips. Evidently if they are planted in little groups far apart from each other they remain undetected by nibbling creatures. There were just a tiny number of the blue hyacinths from plantings five years back, and there were a few that came up in pots where they were planted to be protected from squirrels. In a technical sense this was a succes, from an asethetic standpoint, not so much.
Ice Follies narcissus on 20 March 2017
It was not until we moved the "mulch" pile that the deer decided it was safe to jump over the fence. It was mostly trimmings from the garden and a little mud that was removed to allow a seasonal stream to move through the property more expeditiously - more as a stream and less as a marsh. In moving, the thing was spread out over a 300 square foot area and raised the level of the ground just outside the west end of the fenced garden by something like a foot, making a fence that had been a little marginal, an easy jump for a deer. Suddenly all the roses in the garden were fair game. It used to be that the deer would jump over the fence only to eat rose buds. Then they would do it to eat new foliage of roses. Suddenly they were doing it to eat the canes of young roses, too. Belle Epoch, Beloved, Don Juan, and Charisma are three roses that suffered this fate. Whether they survive is a question that could take more than a season or two to determine. In the absence of collateral damage by browsing deer, moving the mulch pile made the walk through the garden a great deal more pleasant; but it did make the roses more vulnerable to browsing and this might prove to be a very difficult problem to manage until we have a taller fence.
We tried foxgloves and delphiniums for the first time this year. It was with mixed success. Of the eight from Gilbert Wild, one thrives, perhaps three survive. All of the apricot dalmation foxgloves from WFF died instantly, or they might as well have. By contrast, two of six Candy Mountain foxgloves from WFF survive. They look like they will actually amount to something in year two. This is not what we would call a major victory; but it does suggest that with modest care foxgloves might be amenable to this location. We had similar luck with the delphiniums from WFF. Two lingered for maybe eight weeks without growing. Two grew to four feet and bore blue flowers. The two that did get this far along were planted where they got some dappled shade in the afternoon and in soil with a pH almost a full point lower. They were trained in red tomato cages, which seems a nice touch. The performance is something like as good as Anchusa Alkanet from Annies Annuals. In fact, if they come back next year (not betting on it...) they will arguably be better. For blue flowers we also tried batchelors buttons. These grew quickly, blossomed nicely, and died before mid August. It's a somewhat mixed performance. While they were alive they were of easy care and they delighted. But it was a remarkably short tenure in the garden.
The foxgloves and delphiniums were planted along with datura, castor bean Carmencita, and euphorbia to discourage burrowing animals from nibbling at roots of other plants. It is impossible to declare the experiment a complete success since in the fall we have observed new burrows in the lower east beds. We also oberved that the euphorbia planted along the east fence were nibbled to death by voles or ground squirrels within two days of being planted there. To the extent that these plants have survived long enough to please us, we can declare success. Two of six or eight euphorbia grow in the Artemisia bed just outboard of rose Kardinal. They grow vigorously enough that we expect them to survive. One more grows near a new apple tree.
The fenced bed is housing ever more iris. Cultivars that have pleased us much are Matt McNames, Vapor, and Hollywood Nights. Clarence is rather less striking but it is intensely fragrant. With the bright orange California Poppies we found the bright purple iris Swingtown to look good. Hopefully, Good Vibrations (White/Orange) will look good in the same bed, assuing they actually grow. To the artemesia beds we added Chinook Winds and Heartstring Strummer (both pale blue) as well as Absolute Treasure and (possibly) Victoria Falls. Near the rose Kardinal at the steps are three new Color Strokes. Somewhere in the mix are five new Splatter Art. The iris Slovak Prince lives in the Maple Bed and we've planted Suspicion and Padded Shoulders there, too. Team Spirit and Bellini are here, too. Possibly Jurassic Park. Nearest the acquilegia caerulea we planted Absolute Treasure which we hope will be a matching blue. To the bed by Cherry Parfait we added the white and blue iris Revere.
Iris Chasing Rainbows (perhaps)
New Moon (3, yellow) is planted near rose Selfridges at the Pink Lady Apple Tree and Snowed In is nearby. In the very dry raised bed we placed three Noctambule (White/Blue) and Strictly Jazz. We squeezed three Blenheim Royal into the stream bed with Julia Child, hoping for some simultaneous flowering here. Honeycomb is planted on the east side of Pink Lady apple.
The apple tree in question is a Mutsu (Crispin) from Starks, planted this spring. It's a dry location and there is still much question about whether the tree will survive; the soil is shallow and lean here. That goes double for the Granny Smith apple planted this spring by recliner rock to replace one presumed dead. A Grand Gala and a Golden Delicious were in the same order. One of these was planted just north of South Africa, the rose between Mme Alfred Carriere at the square and Malvern Hills. The other, not sure. Also in the order was a plumcot, It was planted in a pot and transplanted between two mahogonies in the lower east bed in mid summer near the monsoons. It had some ups and downs; but there is still much hope that it will survive. So in this order we retain high hopes for two of about six trees. Meanwhile, earlier apples get by. Pink Lady seems vigorous and almost immune to browsing. Arkansas Black gets browsed, but builds up very slowly and surely. Gold Rush is a full 12 feet high and bearing apples. Golden Delicious was nibbled by coati, who would remove the apples, go somewhere else, eat them, mostly and leave the half eaten apples behind. Once the apples were gone they lightly pruned the tree, too.
Peony Scarlet O'Hara proved such a hit this year that we decided to add more peonies to the garden. Never mind that the other twenty some peonies always seem to disappoint in some other way. From Gilbert Wild we got Gardenia which will replace two failing DA roses at the square, Diana Parks, a bright red, and Pink Luau, each of which will be planted near Gardenia. From Cricket Hill we purchased two tree peonies Magical Red Haired Woman, a white with red spots which was planted in front of Hermosa rose in the juniper ped, and First Arrival and intersectional peony with lavender/watermelon pink flowers which was planted in the Maple Bed.
Scarlet O'Hara glows for a day or two
Attempted Vegetables
As always, tomatoes were a bit of a disappointment. Tomatoes with tiny fruits generally fared the best, Sweet Million for example. We did focus this year on tomatoes with a short time to maturity which did help. And we observed that there are spots in the garden where the soil grows tomatoes far better than pots do, even when the soil in pots is pretty nicely ammeded. One slicer, perhaps Celebrity, was on the cusp of doing well when it was cut to the ground during the mulching process in early fall. Nor does buying big tomato plants and putting them out too early help. This puts them in defensive mode and they stop growing. Smaller tomatoes, once it does get warm catch up and overtake them. Those arriving two weeks late, though are toast. So there is exactly one day in the season appropriate for putting out tomatoes at exactly one stage of growth. One goes screaming into the night.
The potatoes grown in pots were mostly a disappointment the number of edible tubers proved way too small. Grown in the ground plants and tubers, alike, are eaten. Pot grown potatoes, once dug up,were eaten by the coatis if left outside. Kale was a disappointment. The voles ate the beetlike roots and the deer ate the foliage. Sweet potatoes were a disappointment. We doubled the number of viable plants in an order of 25 from about six to twelve by soaking them for two days in water before planting out. Six or eight grew into plants more than eighteen inches across. We never bothered to dig them up. Shallot plants, at peak, began to disappear underground at the rate of about one per day. The voles know when to eat them, even if we do not. The figs, I think, died of fall drought as did the lovely trachelospermum jasminoides in pots. And all the indoor plants, too, starting with the banana. We turn our attentions for future edible crops toward arugula, corn, zucchini, amaranth, and sunflowers, all of which have had some measured success here in other years.
Managing Critters
It is usual for the very first roses of the season to be ruined by thrips, here. And aphids are a perennial problem. This year we noticed both of these problems more. Photos from previous years indicate that thrips are not a new problem. In fact, in its eight year tenure in my garden Baronne Prevost has grown to more than seven feet in each directions and it has never had a spring flush of flowers actually open. One of the several reasons is thrips. They suck the life out of the thin-petalled blossoms and they end up desiccated before they have a chance to open. I find a plant covered with dried out rose buds. Abe Darby is another rose that is hit particularly hard by this problem. So, too, Blush Noisette. Each of these roses produces rather fragrant blossoms, the kind thrips love. The thrips are fond of iris, too. Almost every photo of iris flowers in my garden this year is marred by tiny dots the size of thrips.
This year I tried some sticky paper to attract thrips and immobilize them. I remain unconvinced that it made a difference. The sticky paper, to its credit did reduce the amount of airborne material of all sorts that happened to collide with its surface, and it remained sticky for a very long time. But it was ugly. And I could not detect thrips on its surface. Perhaps I need to hang the sticky paper earlier in the season, early April rather than mid May. If I could catch the thrips before they are feasting on iris blossoms there might be a hope of reducing their numbers by the time roses open.
My approach with aphids was even a little more lassez-faire. On rare occasions I would spray them off the tips of roses when I saw them. Mostly I left them in place. It was not until July that I realized that even though this approach might strike any sane person as being completely mad, it might possibly be the best approach of all. For a full six weeks in the middle of summer, whenever I was kneeling close enough to a rose plant for the plant to actually touch me, I would get up and find a praying mantis (should they not be called preying mantis, I wonder?) on my elbow or on my shoulder. Evidently I am very easily mistaken for thrips or aphids. So I did a tiny amount of research about the mantis. The advice is: if you want to attract them to your garden you must plant roses. Who knew? Well, I have roses in spades. And I credit them with cleaning out the thrips and aphids over the last half of the season. The last time I saw a mantis in the garden this season it was buried head-first up to its waist in the cupped flower of Ambridge Rose, one of the last fragrant blossoms in the garden this year. That would have been in late September, I believe. I would like to believe, too, that with a population of mantis this large in the garden, the thrips-free season will begin a few weeks earlier next year. And I wonder whether deploying those sticky strips might actually be a bad idea.
I will confess that I do not know what critters are burrowing beneath my roses beds. I saw a gopher a few months back. It was standing around nibbling on its lunch which it held between its two hands. And I felt a rather deep flash of kinship and admiration for the little beastie. Now I know why one uses gopher cages. The subterranean critters I have trapped in my garden are definitely not these critters. They look a great deal more like rats with big claws and disturbingly long incisor teeth. Not moles. Possibly voles. I will confess, too, that after losing a mature aspen and half an adolescent apricot tree I got out the big guns and did some serious extermination work. And there was quiet in the garden for a few months.
In November an animal moved into the lower east bed. It's an animal that moves more earth than the voles. And there is some evidence that it comes out at night to nibble on the canes of smallish roses. Voles, by contrast, eat the roots of roses to a nub. So now I have to figure out how to rid the garden of this new invader. And, I think, there is now some light re-infestation by the old one, too. Where is Rikki Tikki Tave when you need him?
In moments when they are absent, the deer seem completely manageable. A couple Gain dryer sheets here, a dash of Liquid Fence there, and your garden is good to go. On those days when you stare out the window and watch the deer herds jump over your fence en masse, brush aside one of those dryer sheets, and nibble on fresh rose foliage, though, one's heart sinks. It really does not take very many such events to kill a rose bush. Sometimes light browsing will do it. But I suppose it can be more serious when they nibble the new canes to the ground. When I moved here nine years ago, there was no evidence of deer except in the months of June, July, and August. This year they left in December. And if last year is any guide, we will see them by mid March. We observe them eating tiny bits of different plants known to be toxic, as if they understand that they can train their own bodies to eat any plant under the sun. This activity allows them to persist and multiply until they can overrun the defenses around Stephen's Garden and nibble all the roses completely out of existence. Or so it would seem.
Rabbits nibble continuously on small plants in the garden; but once a plant exceeds about ten inches in height, it escapes the notice of a rabbit. They do a lot of damage to small plants, but tend to leave established ones alone. So one can manage them. Javelina are more difficult. Like deer, they will eat almost any plant that shows green. Rugosa roses (canes and all),Euphorbias, foxgloves, and daturas, alike, have been nibbled away by them in the unfenced garden. Once, they pulled up a red flowered yucca, to gnaw away its roots. There are some agastache that they will not eat. And some native grasses and penstemons. How is one to grow anything at all if javelina are going to show up two dozen at a time, excavate all the plants, and consume them tip to root like a wood chipper? (For those who would shoot the things, know that they are protected here in AZ to the sum of $500 per animal. So if one were to try to eliminate them the old fashioned way, one could face hefty fines.) They are wary animals with poorish eyesight, so it might be possible to spook the animals. But I don't have many good ideas for how to do this, yet.
The New Roses
We had one major rose order and several minor ones. The roses in the Edmunds order were uniformly the largest. But the care that they had received since being dug up was very uneven. Most were rather severly desiccated on arrival and a good 25% died quickly despite daily watering. Fully half of the rest were dead down to the bud unions and grew from there rather than from the dead canes. The roses from that order that will likely survive: Stephen's Big Purple(1 of 2), Autumn Sunset, White Licorice, and Neil Diamond. Dead are America, Arizona, Secret (2), Sexy Rexy, Easy to Please, Fragrant Plum (1 of 2), Papa Meilland (1 of 2) and Vavoom. Kardinal, Ingrid Bergman, Fragrant Plum, Papa Meilland (1 of 2) and Polynesian Punch are still undetermined. Only one of these, Papa Meilland, was very seriously set back by nibbling animals before it died. The canes of most of the rest were too tall for the native rabbit to reach, although Polynesian Punch, like a number of roses with some multiflora heritage dies seem to resist browsing to some extent. On a hundred point scale I would have to rate this order about a 58%.
The four roses from Jackson and Perkins were materially better hydrated on arrival. The two on their own roots, Beloved and Lady Banks Yellow survive, although Beloved has been nibbled to a nub and is not expected to survive. Mardi Gras was nibbled to death in a week. Brigadoon simply never sprouted. It's worthwhile considering this source again, if one covets HT roses grown on Dr. Huey roots.
All the roses from David Austin Roses failed this year. The Poet's Wife seemed to die of iron deficiency (chlorosis,) as did an established Charlotte twelve feet away. This is not the first example of chlorosis among DA roses that we have observed. I have to wonder whether the yellow DA roses are especially prone to the problem. The Lady Gardener was the wrong color and was shovel pruned. Sadly, the other roses were planted in shade so deep they never got started. Not that they were especially great specimens on arrival. I am inclined to try again with the two yellows, but I will buy DA roses from distributors who have higher standards, not directly from DA roses. Not unless I am up to threatening them with a registered letter to the founder regarding the poor quality of their stock. IME, it would seem that only such a threat will produce large grade #1 plants from a direct order.
I received a number of roses from Rogue Valley Roses. With these I've had varied amounts of success. For roses shipped as bands they had fat canes, and tall. Some, however, seemed to lack some element of vigor. Cornelia, Blairii II, Comice de Tarn et Garonne, Konigen von Danemarck, Excellence von Schubert, and Brown Velvet grew very well and may survive. Some portion of (Paul Shirville, Silver Jubilee, Quietness, Felicia, Capistrano, Lady Hillingdon, Lemon Spice, Remember Me, and Marie Curie) might survive. Not sure which ones. Duet and Buff Beauty were put in large pots and died on the patio during the late fall drought. To their credit most of these did pretty well while they had adequate water.
Several orders from Heirloom Roses arrived, but in each order it seems something unique went wrong. As we mentioned, Belle Epoch was nibbled to a nub in fall. Peace never grew a whit. We had some nice blossoms from Rose Rhapsody, whose gimungous reddish pink flowers look almost tropical. Eureka boiled to death in a pot that had an insufficient number of holes. Two Kordes Joyfulness survive and have bloomed, but the blooms have a strange bleached-out mottling that makes them look a little worse than nothing. And there are six miniature roses including Cutie Pie, Herbie (not sure ... )
We received four roses from Northland Rosarium and they looked really healthy on receipt. Easy Going survives, just. It seems to have an acceptable level of vigor, so there is hope. Sheila's Perfume has grown little, but it survives. Gypsy got stepped on three days into its tenure and the stem broke off at the ground. There was much hope for John Davis for some time. Even though planted in the driveway garden where it was not protected by a fence, it did not get browsed by rabbits or deer. But between the javelina invasion of late fall and the late fall drought it died. Sometimes a rose dies very convincingly and one knows it's just not a good fit for the garden. This one, though, shows some promise.
We received four roses from High Country roses. Before being chomped by deer, Charisma bloomed a few times even though it only gets about four hours of direct, unfiltered light. Very promising, if we can protect it. One instance of Lady Banks Yellow came from here, although we cannot remember which one. It started in a pot, and was transferred to the margin by the east end fence where ground squirrels (we presume) eat the foliage off every plant except gaillardia, lavender, and daylilies. It was two or three weeks before they figured out how to pull the lithe young canes to the ground to chew off the leaves. It's not dead, yet. Rose of Hope (Kordes) was in the order and was planted near the grapes. Despite getting water a little less frequently than it should have, it has hung on. And there is still hope for it. Mr Nash, presumed to be Doubloons, was also recieved and potted up. It developed some threadlike leaves round about the time we were trying to learn something about RRD and has been isolated pending more info.
In fall, A Reverence for Roses had a sale, and I bought Napoleon, Cramoisi Superiuer, Carefree Beauty, and Penelope. All four roses had four foot long canes on them - really big for bands. The only hope for their survival was to get them to grow big root systems through the winter and water them like a maniac in the spring. The first two are in pots. Penelope is in a space near where Grande Dame was removed, where it will get some light shade and plenty of attention. Carefree Beauty is sort of just dug in. We'll see what happens. None seems dead yet. Napoleon is setting leaves after having been nibbled a bit by deer. The roses were very pleasingly priced... so whatever happens will be good.
Established Roses
For about three weeks in spring Malvern Hills was covered in small floers and if it was the star of the garden, it nearly qualified as a small galaxy. During its first five years we were not sure we could keep it alive. Now we are not sure we can keep it at all: it seems too willing and able to crowd out everything else. We certainly have to learn how to prune the thing effectively. It does have a tendency to shade out a well established South Africa and two red floribundas whose names I forget, perhaps Showbiz.
As ever, Europeana put on a good show. It is clear that the rose responds to watering since the one nearest the path is much larger and more vigorous than the two further away. As we write in early January it is covering itself with very dark burgundy foliage, a spring flush very well suited to late April. Sombreuil, behind Europeana shot up and is now a big V-shaped thing. I find it difficult to resist the temptation to divide it in half. I do need one just like it not far away. Al the roses I have bought from ARE since I bought this one in about 2012 have died. That, I believe, is when they began stripping the roses of leaves before shipment. Next door is a rose whose flowers could be mistaken for Sombreuil's but it grows with a more delicate tree-like habit. It was sold as White Cockaide, but pictures I've seen of that rose at HMF depict a true high-centered HT style rose. This is definitely not it. There is also a temptation to move one of these two white roses. Both, however, interact nicely with Europeana. Next in line, on a pillar, is a four foot high Baltimore Belle. The thing enters its third year in the garden this year. It has definitely been a slow starter, but I have quite a number of roses that took a full six or seven seasons to hit their stride. And this may well be another.
Set among artemesia and iris, Europeana blooms with Sombreuil
Kardinal was just about DOA when planted, but at this point in early January it seems to be setting new foliage along with a few other HT roses (Leanne Rimes, America, Fire Fighter, Neil Diamond) and Pink Noisette. Ingrid Bergman is a little more coy. Or maybe IB has been having more trouble getting moisture. Meanwhile Big Purple has just recently lost all its leaves, and seems to be settling in for the winter. Mme Alfred Carriere has lost its foliage this winter - probably because of fall drought: this did not happen last winter. Darlow's Enigma, Ilse Krohn, and Jeanne d'Arc lost their leaves owing to the rather extreme drought and the frost combined. Most of the DA roses have foliage at this point, especially those in the gulch, where the ground has a little more moisture. Crocus Rose, though not at all near the gulch is among the DA roses with the most foiliage. As does Larissa, it evidently has an extraordinary facility for regulating the release of water from its leaves. And it uses its leaves to more energetically move water from its roots. That's my working hypothesis, anyway.
Abe Darby and Golden Celebration are among the most barren of the DA roses. Most, like Graham Thomas and Jubilee Celebration, fall in between. Ghislaine de Feligonde retains most of its leaves, but nearby Dixieland Linda is bare. Most of the old foliage is gone from Julia Child but JC shows some signs of incipient growth. Morning has Broken ( or is it Good Ole Summertime?) is still covered with old foliage and seems happy enough. Unlike the DA roses, the fairy tale roses are bare. Pomponella and Caramella FT are both without leaves.
We moved the rose once known as Psyche in late fall and though it was materially pruned, it suffered mightily for it. We wondered for some time if it was surely dead, but we watered it weekly. Its four foot frame, though completely leafless remains convincingly green. Now that there is moisture in the gulch we hope it will be revived. It might prove to be the first of several "Barrier Roses" outside the fence, if it survives and resists browsing deer.
Looking at photos from the year we can say that Rainbow Sorbet, the two that survive the pruning of two years back, seemed to be in bloom all summer. It's a bizarre rose. It's habit is so open that the plant can easily look ugly. But it is almost always in bloom. And the blossoms are always interesting. At any point in time it is arguably both the ugliest rose plant and the garden and the most photographically interesting. Somewhat less ugly and not quite so frequently interesting is the rose Colorific. I somethimes think I should plant more. But the answer really depends on whether I am successful in controlling fungal disease which ravaged it during the monsoons. Teasing Georgia proved to produce more roses than expected. Here is a rose that seems to be pretty close to being bullet proof in my own garden and almost terminally beautiful in bloom. Definitely a keeper. In the same paragraph one must praise Lady of Shalott for precisely the same qualities. The latter might be just a little more vigorous or generous in bloom. Tess of the d'Ubervilles is a little less generous in bloom and not so pretty of habit; but it continues to be a serviceable rose blooming alongside Lady of Megginch. I think it was Princess Anne growing in the gulch that suffered the most from fungal disease this year, but the rose seems to just keep growing. And I was wowed by Susan Williams-Ellis as the rose bloomed in the shade of the juniper.
Other roses in the gulch include Magenta, which, at head height, we hope will prove big enough to flower. It should look good with Erinnerung an Brod which continues to get bigger without making flowers. We were disappointed by the flowers on the rose presumed to be Bishop Darlington, a cultivar we have never ordered. But the hips on this rose are large and tasty, perhaps the best in the garden. Who'd have known? Conrad Heinrich Soth, a multiflora somewhat less dainty than Ballerina but with the same sort of flowers, stretches out across the gulch and is tempting us to bring out the shovel and remove it along with the failing Queen of Sweden and Peter Frankenfield. An unknown dark pink multiflora not eight inches high grows near the front as does White Out. Old Red Moss, squeezed between a pink DA rose and Soth is making headway and might, in its third season, make some rose blossoms. If one is very observant, one might think the plant looks out of place because its foliage is a little bit more of a pale green and it posesses far less gloss than pretty much all of the nearby DA roses. But we have to hope that when everything is in flower, we will be focusing on the blossoms, and when nothing is in flower we will not be paying enough attention to notice.
Julia Child had a generous spring bloom cycle, but did not bloom much later. Caramella Fairy Tale is not the rose we expected; it spreads out widely, making fat canes and doling out flowers of rather complex muddy coral and tan colored roses. But it does seem vigorous, and immune to every insult. Portlandia, which has been moved twice in two years grows slowly but surely, and it produced some very pretty copper hued roses. This rose is definitely a keeper. It looks surprisingly good next to Caramella. Graham Thomas had one or two lovely flushes this year, but proved better at making foliage than flowers. Ditto Ascot. On the other hand, the South Africa rose planted with these two roses covered itself in flowers. So did Day Breaker.
Caramella FT, a nascent blossom.
Westerland was a disappointment this year. So much so that at one point I decided to remove it. Instead, I removed about half of the oldest canes, acidified the soil with sulfur, made plans to fertilize it well, and began watering it more vigorously. Next door, Lady Pamela Carol, a rose especially attractive to marauding deer, has continued to build up slowly and is now nearly waist height. This rose has a delicate beauty which is impossible to describe or even to photograph; and a level of persistence which is admirable. It's a rose that could make just about any garden just a little bit better. Olympiad, also a deer target, has been wasting away for three years. Originally, when I ordered a new plant I was targeting another part of the garden, but there is some chance that I will simply replace the one that is there.
Every year the white hybrid perpetual Gloire Lyonnaise (I think) gets black spot. So I moved it next to Westerland, a less conspicuous location. The pink rose that remains next to Aromatnaya quince I presume to be Jacques Cartier. It has a constitution not far removed from that of Nouveau Monde and (my instance of) White Cockaide: persistent, disease resistant, branching beautifully with dignity and grace, drought tolerant, and frost tolerant. It's a good combination. Its pink button-eyed blossoms are about two inches across and fragrant. It never bothers to produce many at once, but there is some repeat. Were we ever to get it to produce a great show of bloom, it would be a world-beater. Excellenz von Schubert (a newly planted rose) lives nearby and Sheila's Perfume is a few feet closer to the gulch, also moved there this fall.
All of the rugosas this year proved a bit of a disappointment. The rugosas bore hips, but I never did detect their flowers. The newer ones Hansa, I think, are still to young to bear. New Dawn sport Awakening is only just now beginning to settle into its space in the gulch. We have hopes that it will get better. Red Eden has proven to be a disappointment on several fronts. One is height. It's just not growing to five feet high in most places. And the blossoms do not open. Except for the fact that it doesn't bloom and you could not see it if it did, I cannot complain much. On the other hand, Prosperity is doing very well in the gulch with lots of repeat blossoms. It's fully six feet high, maybe seven. It produces very full flushes of flower at least twice each season. And it seems bullet proof.
In the maple bed things range from one sort of disaster to another. Nicole is a wonderful shrub which I only hope to keep alive owing to its ... shrubbiness and its loveliness in flower. I also hope that as the root system establishes it will grow a little more drought tolerant. Maiden's Blush keeps going, just, but never flowers. Great Western bloomed for the first time in spring 2016 and was only just less disappointing than it was in the previous years when it did not. It was brief, sparse, and the blooms desiccated quickly. The orange Las Vegas has grown big and healthy. It holds its orange HT blossoms high above the plants in front of it. Sadly, though it does not quite go with the local color scheme. Hermosa lost one of three branches this year due to drought, but it seems to be doing well in the winter. There is reason to hope that with the right care it will be better than ever in 2018. Silver Jubilee, Peace, Folklore, and Rose Rhapsody were planted in the bed replacing Desiree Parmentier and two Pink Pet roses. Together with the Folklore at the south side of the bed and the recently planted one in the Julia Child bed, this brings us to 3 Folklore, which we hope will finally be enough. But we can't be sure.
Zephyrine Drouhin (two plants) finally reached the top of the arch and bloomed nicely this year. Both plants will probably be happier if they get some pruning and fertilizing this year. And better protection from powdery mildew. Thor and Gruss an Zabern are both taller than head height, and if they receive the right care there is some hope that in the next year or two they will be glorious. Of course, we had such a hope for Baronne Prevost. The thing has grown huge, and nothing, it seems, can induce it to make flowers that open nicely in the spring. This definitely is a candidate for more severe sping pruning. And for more thorough spring watering. Chevy Chase, nearby, is doing great.
Finally there are the roses at the south-facing wall: Rosanna and Ascot. These things have become monsters. The former should probably be pruned to remove about half of the canes. The latter should be pruned to reduce the length of existing canes by half or more. And we need to get a low wall built here so that water is retained.. It may be the first of the microterracing projects.
There are several minis of note, although most of them I get confused with others. I think it is Magic Dragon that grows north of the square. It has turned into a pretty good plant, four feet across and nicely branched. At a foot shorter is Water Lily, a little wonder that produces the very best sprays of perfect whitish roses I have ever seen. The plant wants pruning. Moved this year were two Rise 'n' Shine. At moments they look better than they did before they were moved. But not always. Winsome was moved late in the fall, and we will have to find out in the spring whether it survives. Hurdy Gurdy was in a recent order and only after we had crammed it into a corner did we learn the thing reaches six feet in height. Time to do something. But what? Our mind does not fully comprehend the term "six foot miniature." Perhaps it would go well with the other giant miniatures like Gourmet Popcorn. Or interwoven with Orfeo. This is why we write these blogs. Without doing this I'd never have conceived of this. And it now seems like a good idea.
Experiments with Pots
For each cultivar one considers growing in the garden there is the question "Will it do better in a pot? Or not?" The reasons for growing plants in pots are many. One is portability. If one has plants that are not cold hardy, one can move them indoors for the winter. Another is isolation from nibbling animals. Rabbits, ground squirrels, voles, and pocket gophers have some difficulty eating plants in pots. So plants that need isolation can do better here. This issue can sometimes be more important for smallish plants than for larger ones. So one might sometimes grow a rose in a pot to a certain size, then plant it in the ground. The size in question is determined by the animals that might nibble it. We have been doing a kind of ongoing experiment here on growing plants in pots. And the results are very mixed. We'll try to summarize what we have come to know.
Roses - Roses short enough to be browsed by rabbits are generally best grown in pots until that same thing is no longer true. As soon as they can survive outside pots they generally do better there. Since each cultivar is preferred by a different animal the answer quickly gets complicated, though. Don Juan, for example, is a deer favorite. So unless one is potting it into a very large pot or storing the pot far from where deer have access, potting makes little difference. Most roses are browsed in early spring by rabbits. In this case, being in a pot can make a huge and critical difference. And as with other plants, roses in pots remain more tweeky to care for. They do need to be watered regularly regardless of the season.
Hyacinth - Squirrels will dig up hyacinth bulbs and eat them. But they are not quite capable of finding all of them. Hyacinth do grow nicely in pots, but the effect is not always pretty.
Dianthus - Pinks can do very well in the ground here. But on occasion they are browsed by furry creatures. We believe it might be the javelina that are most fond of them, since they disappear in waves with the presence of these animals. Still, we are pretty sure there are other animals that will chomp on them. They do look pretty good in pots, and it seems just a bit easier to keep them watered this way.
Tomatoes - It seems that in the coolish part of the late spring the roots of a tomato grow well in a pot. But there is a point in early summer here, where I think they generally overheat. So being in the ground is better. Tomatoes grow like lightening under perfect conditions. Otherwise, they really just sulk. One thing for sure: if you put tomatoes in pots you need to rebuild the soil by adding tons of the right things: NPK, micronutrients, mycorhyzzae, and so on. You need to use light colored pots. You need to water daily. And so on.
Potatoes - The idea of growing potatoes in pots seems absurd. But the number of subterranean animals here is huge. And they love to eat potatoes. So growing potatoes in pots is the only viable option. All the things we said about tomatoes apply. My own guess is that potatoes like the air and ground temperature somewhat cooler. So if one has bright sun and a tree that is not too big or to dense, one might grow tomatoes on the south and west sides of the tree. And potatoes on the eastern and northeastern sides.
Figs - The figs in my garden are in pots. Or rather, the plants that were figs this summer grew for three years in pots. I must assume that they perished in the fall drought with my other potted plants.
Hyacinthoides - Dead in the ground. At least the ones planted in Fall 2015 never did come up. They are assumed to have been eaten, but they might have taken a year off. Who knows?
After considering all of this, what have I learned? That my relationship with my garden is both richer and more complex than I had imagined. That gardening does really bring me in a closer relationship with nature, that this brings a lot of satisfaction and some measure of frustration. That one can extend the bounds of where a plant grows by a little bit on one or two directions, but that overreaching too far can bring more problems than benefits. And that, as with any pursuit, you reap what you sow.
Good Luck in the garden through 2018!
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