The thumbnail photo for this month is Sunny June:



This is the month we look forward to the Roses Unlimited annual sale. Judging by past years, it should be announced any day now.

The drought is becoming an annoyance here. I live in a rural area with no restrictions, but all of us are nevertheless conserving water. I used to use sprinklers with timers, but now I'm concentrating on watering everything once a week. As luck would have it, I have seven garden hoses, so it's easy for me to assign a day of the week for each hose and water every plant within its reach on that day. It's proving to be effective because the sprinklers often missed plants that were overwhelmed by larger plants or were in a peculiar corner the sprinklers didn't reach.

The weather here has been unusually cool, so this watering plan is working for now. I suppose it won't work if we climb up into the 90s or into triple-digit heat, but so far, so good.

My roses are starting to bloom and they look good. Can't wait for the big show. Have to spray again but raining so it will wait at least till tomorrow unless it rains again.

Zuzu ...

That's the method of watering I use in this garden. I found a sprinkler head that puts out a round spray and set it under a rose and water under the canopy of the rose. I use a kitchen timer and adjust the amount of time I water each rose to the size of the rose, to make sure they get a deep watering once a week.

Even during the high temps of summer, it has worked well. However, when we have triple digit temps for a week or more, I often do what I call a "feeder root" watering mid-week. Since the feeder roots are closer to the surface, I don't have to water as deeply and I will generally water the whole bed so that the dryer soil doesn't wick away the moisture from the rose.

It doesn't work for every rose, but I'd say it works quite well for most of them. Some roses seem to need a deep watering when temps are that high at least twice a week.

Smiles,
Lyn

May ended up breaking records here for total rainfall. If I get my drip lines laid out and keep the soil moist, it should be a good year. If I let the ground dry out, I'll end up with record-size cracks! Excessive spring moisture can lead to all sorts of difficulties when the weather changes to dry and windy in the summertime. The countdown has begun...I have to have everything weeded, Preened, mulched, and drip where it's needed before the end of the month. Actually I have a big group coming to see the garden on June 13, so that's my early deadline. Right now, I'm on schedule, even with being gone for 10 days. Crossing my fingers that I can keep up.
Antigue Rose Emporium has a sale going on right now with 15 different roses at $10 each. I think I'll resist that one, since I ordered from Brecks, J & P, and Wayside last week. I was very very pleased with the quality of roses I received from all of them. When their quality declined about 10 years ago, I quit looking at them, then when people at gardenweb started raving about them this year, I decided to try again. The roots were huge and healthy, and so far, all have leafed out beautifully.
Two that I got from Palatine early this spring still have not broken dormancy. They are green, but not doing anything. The rest of that order are already blooming.

I'm glad to hear the news about Breck's, J&P, and Wayside. I bought many, many roses from the latter two years ago, and it's nice to contemplate doing it again.

Roses and honeysuckles blooming






Also these little white roses are blooming.

I have a few miniatures starting to bloom. I have lots and lots of buds everywhere, and a few in my 'pond area' have almost opened up (including my Florence Delattre!). But here's what I have open open.. which is good 'cuz we just had a hail storm come through.

Rise & Shine & Winter Magic


Pacesetter & a NoID (the tag went poof )


Magic Carosel


The irises I have blooming

Indian Warchief & a NoID


Dante's Inferno


Other flowers

Rozanne Geranium & both Yellow & Blue False Indigo & James McFarland lilac

Rita, hard to tell now that they were "playing possum"! Beautiful!

Toni, gorgeous bunch of blooms!

I just had a fun rose experience I wanted to share. I was feeling kinda blue (it's my birthday, and it no longer feels like a reason to celebrate),and since plant therapy is the best cure for the blues I went to the garden center. Had just been perusing some rose sites and had been looking at a Kordes rose, Fiji/Cherry Lady. There was one left at the garden center, so I snatched it up and a couple of other plants too. Had about $35 worth of stuff in my cart. I always chat with the lady who works there, and it came out her birthday was just a couple of days ago, and she said she knew I had to be a fellow Gemini. She rang me up and said "that will be $12.72". I said "what?" and she said "hush, and swipe your card".

Most excellent!
Happy Birthday Neal

I really thought the roses would be in bad shape earlier after the winter but looks like they really recovered well.

Happy Birthday to you!!!! Happy Birthday to you!!! Happyyyyyyyy birrrrrthdaayyyyyy dear Neal... Happy Birthday to You!

Margie

Happy birthday, Neal. Yesterday was my name day, but all of my Russian friends must be dead because I didn't hear from anyone.

Happy Birthday!!!!

Zuzu - I didn't know that yesterday was your birfday! Happy happy belated birfday!!!!

Neal - Happy Happy Birfday to you! Hope you have many many more wonderful ones!!

Not my birfday, Toni. My name day: Feast of St. Elena. It used to be a bigger celebration in our community than our birthdays when we were growing up.

Zuzu - I was gonna say, isn't your birfday near mine in October?

Not anywhere near October. It's February 15th.

Thanks everybody! Turned out to be a pretty good day/evening. One friend brought Chinese takeout, another brought some locally made chocolates and craft beer, and I made them indulge me by showing them the roses and talking at length about them (I normally don't talk much about the garden to non gardeners- crickets ya know...).

I like the tradition of name day. It isn't celebrated by many in this area. Zuzu, your birthday is the same as my father's and my oldest niece's.

I'm so in love with Sterntaler/Golden Fairy Tale, I take a photo of it every time I go outside! The only thing it lacks is fragrance, but it is so perfect in every other way I don't care about that.

Here is Fiji in her new home.