It's already August and I still haven't finished some of my spring clean-up chores. Tons of wild annual geraniums going to seed everywhere I look. Luckily, the new plants will be easy to pull out of inappropriate spots, and the feathery foliage will be welcome in other spots.

Our thumbnail photo for this summer month is Summer Lodge, a striped russet rose some of us would kill for. Unfortunately, it isn't available on this continent.

That one would look good in my garden. Really too bad it's not available over here....at least not yet.

Ah Zuzu, you posted a rose from Sharlene (not one she bred but one she has). It is beautiful and I am not a fan of orange roses! Stripey's will get me every time! I spent yesterday afternoon searching to see if I could somehow get New Imagine from Canada. No such luck. Even tried to see if someone from Europe might have it that sends roses to the US. Again, no luck. ARG! I was too nice in letting other folks get the last roses from Ludwigs and my order got lost in the shuffle. Have not tried Mexico or South America...yet...Then there are those Barni roses I would love to have as well, Ottavio Missoni and Accademia.

Glorious rose! The hot colors are perfect for the weather most if us can expect this month.

I just got 20 yes I said 20 new roses yesterday!! They were priced between. $2 and $10 original price $28 each. I told them i would take them all if I could have them for $1 each. All but 1 are Week's Roses. Most are in pretty good shape.
Chihuly

Be my baby

My little no name mini


List of my new roses

Thanks to everyone here I made sure to plant them the correct way. Can't wait to post pictures. Thank you everyone for all of your help!

Wow! What a deal! Congratulations.

Ah, your bed of roses will be beautiful! You will have to show us pictures when you get them all planted.

What a steal! Congratulations!

Mustbnuts said:Ah, your bed of roses will be beautiful! You will have to show us pictures when you get them all planted.

Still so much work to do. Only have 1 rose left to plant.

Such industry! It's already looking good.

Twenty roses ! WOW !

When I purchased my house, I was gifted with over 100 roses as a housewarming gift. I didn't plant all of them because some of them needed much better conditions than I could provide. However, in my BEST year, I could only plant 20 roses in one season.

Peggy, I don't know if you need help learning how to winter protect your roses in your zone, but, if you do, just ask ...

RoseBlush1 said:Twenty roses ! WOW !

When I purchased my house, I was gifted with over 100 roses as a housewarming gift. I didn't plant all of them because some of them needed much better conditions than I could provide. However, in my BEST year, I could only plant 20 roses in one season.

Peggy, I don't know if you need help learning how to winter protect your roses in your zone, but, if you do, just ask ...

Wow 100!!! What a gift! Did they offer to help plant? Haha. Thank you so much I'm sure as we get closer to fall I'll have more questions. I've been reading alot of the post which have been so much help and found some good information from Chicago newspaper articles but I'm sure I will have more questions as they come up. From what I've read i got them just in time for a last feeding. This weekend I'll get more soil and a ton more mulch. I've been using cedar mulch. I tried regular wood mulch and had a huge ant problem. I removed it and put cedar now I hardly see any ants.

Peggy ....

The housewarming gift was a "thank you" from the nursery for a favor I had done for them ....

Everything was covered with snow when I bought my house. I thought what I call the "house pad garden", which is in back of the house was all lawn.

Nope. It was covered with weed barrier and decorative rock ...

The only reason I told my story about my garden is to show that it's possible to change the nature of your soil ... even if it is all rock ...

RoseBlush1 said:Peggy ....

The housewarming gift was a "thank you" from the nursery for a favor I had done for them ....

Everything was covered with snow when I bought my house. I thought what I call the "house pad garden", which is in back of the house was all lawn.

Nope. It was covered with weed barrier and decorative rock ...

The only reason I told my story about my garden is to show that it's possible to change the nature of your soil ... even if it is all rock ...

Your flowers are absolutely gorgeous!

I want SUMMER LODGE!! Oh well, TROPICAL LIGHTNING will have to do.

Haven't had much time to get on here lately. We've been working on adding on to our chicken run so the girls can go out and play in the compost and around some of the roses (which will be dug out when it cools down). Don't want them to be able to take off down into the backyard without supervision... which they keep trying to do! And if our dog was out, she'd eat them! She's a brat.

Anyway, here's a few blooms from this last week or two. Haven't had time to even take pics much lately either, but it's so dang hot they look crappy anyway! LOL Oh and we're like 90 min away from the Carr Fire, and the smoke from it and the Mendocino Complex Fire are wreaking havoc on us. Smoke, ash, intensified UVs, smell, etc.

PEACH SWIRL


SUSAN MASSU


JULIO IGLESIAS


RASPBERRY SWIRLS


SHEER ELEGANCE


ROTARY SUNRISE


SHUG


And these are my sweet little brown towhees. The poor things made a nest a few months ago over the chicken run just under the aluminum awning and unfortunately, they lost the babies. I think they left them alone too long getting food and they hopped out onto the awning and the blue jays or other birds got them. But they still flit around together like a pair. I'm wondering if they mate for life?

Beth_NorCal said:
Anyway, here's a few blooms from this last week or two. Haven't had time to even take pics much lately either, but it's so dang hot they look crappy anyway! LOL Oh and we're like 90 min away from the Carr Fire, and the smoke from it and the Mendocino Complex Fire are wreaking havoc on us. Smoke, ash, intensified UVs, smell, etc.

And these are my sweet little brown towhees. The poor things made a nest a few months ago over the chicken run just under the aluminum awning and unfortunately, they lost the babies. I think they left them alone too long getting food and they hopped out onto the awning and the blue jays or other birds got them. But they still flit around together like a pair. I'm wondering if they mate for life?

CA towhees can mate for life. Also their babies sometimes leave the nest after 8 days, so they may have left rather than have a different fate. The pair will probably be around for the mating season and they can have up to three hatches during a season. If you want to keep them around, they love millet and are generally ground feeders. Most other wild birds don't usually love millet. They are very cute!

Fires continue here as well. We are now starting week four for the Furgeson fire up at Yosemite. Smoke has just been awful. Can't really do anything outside because it is so bad. It may be another month before it is out. UGH! And we are just at the middle of fire season.

Well, I couldn't resist and decided to purchase two roses from Burling. I think next spring, I might try to cross pollinate them and see what develops or cross pollinate them with some of my other roses. I purchased Roller Coaster (AKA Minnie Mouse) and Vneyard Song (AKA bunch of grapes). I asked about ordering Purple Lodge but she is watching it at the moment to make sure what she has is really Purple Lodge. Other than going in pots, I have no idea where these two new plants are going to go. I may end up taking out some of my iris in the back and putting them in that bed. We shall see.

Well, the ones in your photos certainly don't look crappy. They're at their peak of loveliness. Peach Swirl looks absolutely delicious.

I received a nice letter from Rodolphe Massu a few years ago. He thought I might like to know more about his mother, for whom the rose was named. Suzanne Massu was a major with the Free French Forces in WWII. She headed an ambulance unit. Kordes named two roses after her: the 1970 hybrid tea that Beth and I have and a 1992 hybrid tea. Both are named Susan Massu although she spelled her name Suzanne.

At least Kordes waited 22 years before they gave this name to a second rose. In the case of Julio Iglesias, Meilland waited only 2 years. Adding to the confusion is the similar appearance of the two. Both are floribundas and both are striped. The 2004 Julio Iglesias is cream with red stripes and the 2006 Julio Iglesias is white with pinkish-lavender stripes. To make matters worse, the one that's cream with red stripes predictably fades to white and pink.

A little cooler weather and the roses and other blooms are happier.

Cafe


Teasing Georgia


Perle d'Or'


Jeri Jennings


Freisinger Morgenrote aka Sunrise


Sweet Dream


and a few other blooms

Oh, pretty, pretty, Sue! Nice to see some blooms. So colorful and pretty.

I did go out and deadhead in the early morning and washed the soot off of the patio and my flowers. I "redid" my yard this late spring by adding more drip, a new fountain and a couple of new spickets (one for the fountain so I could have a contraption that keeps the fountain water at a certain level) and one just needed repairs to make it useful. I totally forgot about a pot of hens and chicks that I have had for years and years. Yesterday, when I was out there, it was rather crispy, so I hope it survives. I gave it a good dose of water.

My Candice just keeps on blooming and blooming. I think this one spot in my yard is one the "sweet spot" for roses. I also think it is the nature of Candice to just keep pumping out the blooms. Last year, the major "pumper" was Peppermint Parfait. I moved him this year, just slightly (he is in a pot), and this year, not so much. I am still not sure that he is getting enough water either, so I will try to keep a check on him in the future.

I know everyone raves about Blue for You but in my garden this rose has nothing but crispy flowers, especially this year. Right now, it is just trying to survive and is not doing much of anything. I find that I have to have three drip emitters on this rose as well compared to everyone else. This rose likes its water.

The stupid squirrels have eaten most of my figs this year. I may only get one or two compared to 75 off of one tree last year. My new neighbor has put out dog food in the yard which attracts them. They stop off for an appetizer and/or dessert on their way too and from. They also like to eat Brother Cadfael which is in their path as well. They travel on my fence the entire back and side of my yard and up on the neighbor's roof and over to the food. I have now called my fence the "squirrel highway." They are constantly scampering back and forth. While they can be cute, in my mind, they are nothing more than rats with a better wardrobe and press agent.

I make my own fig jam and/or freeze them for eating later in the year. Yes, a cold fig dipped in chocolate is just delicious! I will have none this year. If you want "fig crack", try stuffing the center with caramel, dip the bottom of the fig in chocolate and sprinkle the chocolate with sea salt. YUM!

This year, I bought some white nectarines and made jam with those, yesterday, using up the last of my passion fruit.
I gave up on my passion fruit as it is just too hot here for it to bloom and make fruit. When it finally cools down it gets too cold here for the fruit to ripen. I will miss it because I adore passion fruit and you just can't get it here.
Passion fruit and peach/nectarine are a great combo together. Yes, it is over 100 degrees and I am canning. Yea, what's with that???? Can't wait until I can get back out into the yard again!