Viewing comments posted by Mike

The large, well-spaced, irregularly ruffled petals of Blueberry Hill sometimes remind me of big jigsaw puzzle pieces. The yellow stamens nicely complement the violet / mauve color of the blooms. It's slower to repeat than other varieties in my garden, but that may be due to its placement, where the afternoon sun is blocked by nearby arborvitae.

The deep, bright yellow color of Midas Touch makes it stand out like a beacon in the garden. No matter how many other roses are in bloom, one's eye is inevitably drawn to its strong, vivid color, especially since the blooms are held aloft a bit higher than some other roses. It's one of my favorite cultivars for that reason.

Amber Queen has a special place in my heart. It was one of the first roses I ever grew, and one of my photographs of it won Best in Show at the American Rose Society's national convention (photography division). The color varies a bit with lighting conditions, but is usually a creamy amber or light golden tone. The double ruffled blooms reveal themselves in layers as the buds slowly unfurl.

An antique rose of mounding form, covered in numerous clusters of penny-sized blooms and very small leaves. It will produce tiny hips if not deadheaded, but cutting back will ensure repeat blooms throughout the summer.

An interesting climber with elongated arching canes of moderate height, and clusters of unusually shaped blooms the color of fruit punch. Susceptible to black spot in my New York garden, and often lacks any foliage among the lower 3 feet of the canes. The canes die back over winter more frequently than other cultivars, so the growth structure and fullness of the plant is somewhat inconsistent from season to season.

Miami Moon is a real shorty. In my garden, that means it's often obscured by surrounding plants, which may account for its limited blooms. But boy, they sure are lovely.

Traviata grows as a tall, upright rose in my New York garden. The long-lasting blooms have petals of a strong substance that generally don't shatter or even fall to the ground as they age. The entire flower usually holds together until it's time to snap it off due to browning on the edges. Makes a good cut flower for the vase.

I planted Red Barrenwort as a groundcover in the dappled shade of my New York garden under the canopy of a towering New Dawn climbing rose, where it was very slow to spread. It is semi-evergreen through the winter, but by early spring the leaves are dried, brown, and tattered-looking. For that reason they need to be cut back and removed for appearances' sake, before new foliage re-emerges. For a groundcover, this has seemed like high maintenance to me, but since it never really spread beyond the small space where I planted it, I came to think of it as just another perennial that needed an early spring clean-up as the new growing season began.

Adds very distinct form and texture to the garden. Its bluish-purple globes remind me of small alliums, but this plant has a density of leaves that grow right up the stem, thinning along the way up. The foliage can look a bit tattered over time when exposed to hot afternoon sun, but it is a very hardy plant.

The airy, "spidery" flowers bloom continuously from May through July in my New York garden, rising out of cone-like buds that are interesting in and of themselves, even when the petals fall. It does especially well in poor alkaline soils. It has usually stayed in place in my garden, but is considered invasive by one of my neighbors, who welcomed me to dig up as many as I wanted from his garden -- and I did!

My all-time favorite plant for shade or dappled shade. Mixes well with lungwort, bluebells, heuchera, smaller hostas, columbine, and lamium. The tiny little flowers that rise above the leaves are lovely, but I grow it primarily for its foliage.

The plant looks great spilling over my neighbor's stone wall, but I haven't had as much luck with it. What I've learned is that it prefers average, dry soil, rather than the rich moist soil found in my garden. Where Basket-of-Gold is concerned, moist rich soil + summer humidity = untidy, short-lived plant. For this reason, I've read that many southern gardeners grow it sort of like an annual (planted in the fall so that it blooms in early spring and dies in the summer).

In my New York garden, Italian Arum is an eye-catching novelty, with its cone of bright orange-red berries, peeking out beneath its tropical looking leaves. Fortunately it has always "stayed put" and never been invasive in my garden; perhaps our frigid winters help to keep it in check. At the end of the growth cycle the leaves become limp and slowly fade in color and vigor, and they are best pulled out at that time.

Japanese Anemones provide a welcome explosion of blooms during August and September in my New York Garden. They rise above very abundant foliage on elongated stems. The plant likes rich, well-drained soil, but it can also be invasive in those conditions, surrounding and crowding out other plants.

A terrific groundcover that likes to creep down slopes in my yard and spill over rock borders onto the garden path. The bluish-purple flowers are long lived. The purplish green leaves provide a nice background for the long-lasting, bluish-purple flowers that rise above on little stems. Will occasionally get crown rot in hot humid summers. Flattens out and dies back during New York winters, to re-emerge in the spring.

If you value fragrance from your roses, you need look no further (I grow it for that reason). David Austin describes it thus: "The most outstanding characteristic of this lovely rose is its beautiful and perfectly-balanced Old Rose scent. This is often described as being the quintessential old rose fragrance." But be prepared for a vigorous, "robust and free flowering" habit. I have to cut mine back periodically to keep it in bounds.

I've grown several varieties of pulmonaria; in my experience, the darker green leaves of the longleaf lungwort are a bit sturdier than the lighter green, more oblong leaves of other cultivars. None of them like any direct sunlight as it makes them wilt, and they need consistently moist (not wet) soil, but the longleaf seems to wilt a bit less in direct sun or when it needs a drink of water. The tiny flowers that bloom above the leaves in the spring are reminiscent of bluebells, although the pulmonaria's flowers can also have tinges of pink and violet. It's a great plant for deep or consistently dappled shade.

Formerly only a florist rose, Red Intuition is now distributed as a garden rose. It is instantly recognizable due to its alluring red on red streaked petals. I obtained my first specimen when it was only available in the US from Wisconsin Roses as a maiden rose; meaning, you received it as a brand new graft on its dormant root stock, had to let the root stock leaf out and let the graft take hold as a new bud union, then cut the foliage and the main shank off just above the graft, and let the graft take over. When I first read what I would need to do, it seemed a little intimidating at first, but it turned out to be an easier process than I first thought. Best of all, it worked, and it gave me a sense of what growers do with the plants before we ever see them in the nurseries. (For a detailed explanation, visit Wisconsin Rose's website here: http://www.wiroses.com/maiden_...)

There's something about this rose's cluster of bright cheerful blooms that always reminds me of smiling children's faces. I almost expect to hear laughter emanating from the bush when I walk past it in full bloom. I like it so much that I have five specimens in the garden. However, I've noticed that each of these plants' habit, shape, height, and vigor seem to vary from one another. If you can find a strong, solid specimen in a nursery, or plant a bare root specimen with a strong root mass, you're likely to be rewarded with dependable blooms throughout the season. This is one of my "must-haves" -- I wouldn't want to be without it.

One of the most fragrant roses in my garden; you can smell it standing a few feet away in the earlier parts of the day, before the fragrance fades in the afternoon sun. The blooms are very large and are the color of fruit punch. I always get excited when the buds start to unfurl, as I know I will be in for a real treat for the senses over the next few days. The blooms are reasonably long lasting and very showy.