Hope everyone had a good Mother's day, whether you're a mom or not! I picked up some more plants... some at Lowes (clearance rack!! $1.75 for phlox!!) and 3 roses at Tagawa's (33% off!! Ended up being $24.99/ea) and I had a coupon to boot ($5 off a purchase of $50). So I picked up a Twilight Zone (no buds on it, but had a MASSIVE bud union), a Adobe Sunrise (
http://www.helpmefind.com/gard... I don't care for Star Roses, but I love the color!), and a Bolero (
http://www.helpmefind.com/rose...). I'd been wanting Bolero for a few years, but always went over that one with something else. Today was the day, though.
I have a Sonja in my yard. I've had it for years now (well, not THAT many years.. I think 2010 is when I got it). I find it to be one of my most prolific bloomers.. survives my zone VERY well, isn't too fussy about water, grows like a weed. Only 2 things I don't like about it: the color (not one for pink roses) and the scent. I find it to be almost offensive. It smells VERY heavily of pepper to me.. stinky stinky. I hate it. I don't even like trimming/dead heading it because I get the stench on my fingers & find it hard to wash off. I saw Sonja today at Tagawas and, just out of curiosity due to what HMF says, sniffed it. I found the one at the nursery to be a pleasant rose smell.. not stinky pepper. Any idea? Mine probably totally mismarked? Or do I just have a stinky one? Funny thing is that my coworker doesn't find it to be offensive.
Did no trimming today on winter kill (most of the roses I've trimmed are down to the dirt unfortunately), but rather planted & fed a little bit. Started work on my annual bed in the very front, pulled out a gazillion dandelions (how DO they grow SO fast?), planted creeping phlox, pulled dead off of agastaches. Anyone want some vinca? It's going wild in my yard!! Doesn't matter if it's full sun, partial sun, no sun.. this stuff is a WEED! Also pulled out a million bindweeds. Now THAT is a horrible plant! Have some kind of wild really ugly morning glory growing everywhere. I am pulling this up everywhere I see it.. the flowers are the tiniest things I've ever seen (about 1/16th of an inch) and this plant LOVES to strangle my roses. No idea where it came from, either. The Colorado Ag. Extension hadn't seen this particular weed before. Transplanted my Rose Marie Viaud from where it was next to the house to over on the fence line. I didn't think it was honestly that big. Last year I thought it was this teeny itsy bitsy plant about 2-3' across and was creeping along the ground. I thought the two HUGE 7' canes were from Orange Velvet (I had, in a row, Rose Marie Viaud (
http://www.helpmefind.com/gard...), Orange Velvet (
Rose (Rosa 'Orange Velvet')) and Charles de Mills (
Gallica Rose (Rosa 'Charles de Mills'))). But when I did dig it up, it was actually all from Rose Marie Viaud. I probably won't get any blooms from her this year because I disturbed her so badly, but I didn't want her to get ruined when the painter paints my house this week or next week and she was in a place where she could get badly stepped on / painted on. I'll be moving Orange Velvet & Charles de Mills too, as soon as I figure out where. I want to wait until after CdM blooms as he's a one-trick pony & I love his blooms so much that is the only reason why I put up with his HORRIBLE HORRIBLE prickers/thorns. Not a single rose I have has as many thorns as my CdM.. and according to HMF, he's supposed to be nearly thornless. Ha! He's the worst of the lot! He could teach George Burns about thorns (
Rose (Rosa 'George Burns')). Moving CdM is gonna be a painful process, I can just see it now! When I got dressed this morning, DH was trying to figure out why I was wearing heavy jeans. Then when he saw me digging around in the roses, then he understood. But my arms got pretty badly scratched up too.. and some thorns chew right through gloves!
Pretty tired, but a good kind of tired I think. Now I need sleep!