Amazing transformation Sharlene! Masterfully designed! I love that little pad with the table and chairs- perfect spot in the shade to enjoy the garden.

Hi Khalid, I was wondering about using my wood ashes also for my roses. Could you give me an estimate of how much to add?. I do have all my roses in the ground so therefore the ashes will be washed during the winter into deeper levels. Our summers are very dry with no rain almost 3 months . So now, (winter) would be a good time to ammend my soil with wood ashes. Our soils are naturally acidic varying from 6.5 to 5.5. My roses are planted towards the higher range but what I sense that reaching ph7 or slightly higher would benefit them. Have you tried adding lime ( construction lime used in masonry)?. I also grow my roses almost purely on an organic basis. I use regularly our sheep barn litter as annual ammendment. I haven't found any negative efects related to salty manure. Our sheep are fed alfalfa pellets and common pasture so I don't see how the manure could become salty. Beyond this I'm very impressed with your gardening and rose pics. Also your respect for Ibrahim. Congrats.!

@Sharlene,

Amazing home and even better landscaping. Love it.

@Khalid,
Here are the pictures of my Julia Child

hampartsum said:Hi Khalid, I was wondering about using my wood ashes also for my roses. Could you give me an estimate of how much to add?. I do have all my roses in the ground so therefore the ashes will be washed during the winter into deeper levels. Our summers are very dry with no rain almost 3 months . So now, (winter) would be a good time to ammend my soil with wood ashes. Our soils are naturally acidic varying from 6.5 to 5.5. My roses are planted towards the higher range but what I sense that reaching ph7 or slightly higher would benefit them. Have you tried adding lime ( construction lime used in masonry)?. I also grow my roses almost purely on an organic basis. I use regularly our sheep barn litter as annual ammendment. I haven't found any negative efects related to salty manure. Our sheep are fed alfalfa pellets and common pasture so I don't see how the manure could become salty. Beyond this I'm very impressed with your gardening and rose pics. Also your respect for Ibrahim. Congrats.!

Hi hampartsum: Thanks for appreciating my roses. I have used wood ash and gypsum as well as garden lime in my rose beds. All three had different effects for me given below:
Wood Ash: High pH (10.4) so has to be used with care. I would not recommend direct application in bigger quantity. I used it normally when it is raining and a couple of tea spoons (may be three) per bush at one time is enough. I would suggest small dozes multiple times instead of a large doze at one time. Wood as has roughly an NPK of 0-0-7-20 with lot of trace elements. This NPK may vary as wood ash is a natural product and different woods may have a different NPK but it will roughly stay in this range, ie, Ca heavy, enough K and lot of trace elements like Zn, Cu, Fe, Mn, Bo etc.

Gypsum: Its mainly Ca (Calcium Sulphate) and I would not recommend it for acidic soil as it will make it more acidic and your roses will be more vulnerable to fungal diseases.
Garden Lime: It's good for raising the pH and is relatively safe to use as compared to wood ash due to lower pH (probably 8.5) but it only provides Ca, no K or trace elements.

I would prefer using wood ash but with care and in less quantity at one time. Zn in wood ash helps building natural defence against harmful fungus.

Shravani Ch: That's a wonderful Julia Child bush you have. Thanks for sharing the photos.

best regards

Few photos taken in last one week. Max temperature ranged between 104 to 109*F with one rain for around 30 minutes.



First photo is of 18 June, next two of 19 June and last photo has been taken on 20 June. I am impressed with the bloom life of Gold Medal in such high heat. Fragrance is mild fruity honey mix. The bush overall hasn't been very vigorous though. Prefers alkaline pH and bursts with mildew when the soil is acidic.


This small bush in a 14" pot has performed outstandingly in full sun. Fragrances enhances with rise in temp. This is a unique quality which I haven't seen in any other rose so far. General pattern in hot climate is more fragrance in early morning when it is cool and as it becomes hot, fragrance vanishes. Glamis Castle has this unique characteristic that it's myrrh scent enhances with rise in temp. Unique and very impressive.


Paul Neyron is one of the best performers in high heat. First photo is on 19 June and second photo was taken today. Fairly strong old rose fragrance. Very impressed with this Hybrid Perpetual.
Just Joey too its time in May but is now blooming well. Bloom size is good so is fragrance.


Spirit of Freedom. No detectable fragrance. Few blooms this year. Blooms are nice though.
Secret: Mild fragrance and beautiful blooms. Hold well in high heat and do not fry out for 2-3 days.
PAOK: Bush is growing well but blooms fry out in 3-4 hours.
Frederic Mistral: Very good performer in high heat. Nice fragrance and long bloom life. Top bloom is in third day. Shade is lighter though.

Beautiful photos!

Some roses are useful as hedging plants. We have a hedge of David Austin's Harlow Carr:



Does anyone else use roses for hedging? Which ones?

I have a "hedge" of sorts at the top of the streetside slope in front of my fence. It consists of 14 Pink Simplicity roses. They weren't planted close enough together to form a hedge, so they offer the cats on my fence "peeking spaces" to watch the goings-on in the street below, as Ambrosia is doing here.

Beautiful roses, zuzu, and what an adorable cat - I love her facial markings. Yes, we discovered that it required very many roses to make a hedge - two rows (which we later expanded to three), with roses and rows planted 18 inches apart.
I've seen photos of other rose hedges, including Queen of Sweden and Molineux - I really like them, and walking along the hedge here is a real treat for the senses. I'm sure that many other types of rose would be great for hedging. Hope to see more examples or suggestions!

The facial markings are cute, aren't they? She gets them from her mother.



I don't have a picture of her father, but he looked just like her brother Chantilly.

Gorgeous. Chantilly looks as though he is some sort of pedigree 'posh' cat, really handsome. And who is the black suited feline with the really shiny fur to the right of Ambrosia's mother?

That's another of Chantilly's sisters. I adopted only two of the kittens. The rest stayed with their mother.

Zuzu, I am not really a feline person but your kitties are beautiful!

@cliftoncat
Mika, I can believe walking along that hedge would be a real treat for the sense!
Big day tomorrow - been watching the polls!

Finally, it has stopped raining - last real rain on Sunday with temperatures around 60F. Today was just sun, sun, sun, 86F and really humid!
Some of the roses are battling with the sudden heat and others seem to have been waiting for weather like this because they have literally burst into bloom.
Today, of all days, I decided to dig out a Zebra Grass to make way for one of my potted roses. Took me the about two hours just to get the thing out and another to divide it because a friend wanted a piece. I actually used an axe and a four-pound hammer! Anyway, it was worth the hassle! The rose is going to be much happier in the ground because it was really pot-bound and I am going to be happier seeing beautiful blooms instead of the striped grass!

Mika, your Harlow Carr hedge is gorgeous, how delightful it must smell walking alongside it! The blooms appear to have a lilac tone to the pink, is that true to eye or perhaps lighting/camera settings?

Sharlene, I have dug large clumps of zebra grass, it is indeed back breaking work! I hope to never do it again! Looking forward to photos of those new blooms!

Yes, to the polling station tomorrow. that we don't leave... there's so much misinformation flying around that the result is anyone's guess.

Back breaking explains it well - feeling the old bones this evening

I have been taking some pictures but just don't have the energy to go through them. Will probably get around to it on the weekend. My Honey Dijon and Stephen Rulo opened today and I love both - so glad I got them!!! Promise to post pics!

Mika - reading the reports, it does seem quite close - will too

Zuzu ... I, too, have enjoyed your cat photos. This is the first time in my life where I have not shared my life with a cat of my own. I have been sharing my garden with my neighbor's elderly cat who comes over to get her love cup filled because she's a bit lonely these days now that the kids are grown and mom and dad are still at work.

Unfortunately, she is still a wanderin' cat and managed to get some poison oak oils on her tail and got me in the face the other day, so I have a poison oak rash on my face today. I'll be careful to wash where ever that tail touches me going forward this summer ...

The bugs are gone, the roses are leafing out and are covered with buds and temps are in the 90s and headed to the triple digits next week. Some of the blooms should hold for at least a few days because the buds formed in warmer temps and all of the roses have mature root systems. We shall see.

Sharlene >>> Some of the roses are battling with the sudden heat

I see that in spring with my first flush when temps move quickly from my winter temps to spring temps. It's almost as if the plants need to be hardened off for the warmer temps ... It's all that rain that makes your garden seem so lush. Everything has it's pluses and minuses in our gardens.

I only have one potted rose left up here, but it's really not potted. The roots have grown through the bottom of the pot and are now growing in the ground. The pot now serves as kind of a support for the rose, which has a weeping habit, so I've left it in place. The rose seems happy.

I just am more comfortable not growing plants in containers in this garden. However, I think I would have a body that was talking back to me, too, if I had dug out a large clump of grass. It took me two days to dig out my last rose hole. I had to take out a volunteer oak tree and contoneaster growing on the slope above where I wanted the rose, as well as clearing the whole area of juniper roots that had invaded the bed. I also put in a root barrier. By the time I got that done, I felt like a little old lady that had no business even thinking I could take on that kind of work. Two days later, I was back at it with another project ...

After our wet spring the heat set in and dried things up pretty quickly, so I got myself set up for easy watering by getting extra hoses and nozzles to keep in various areas of the garden and save myself having to lug heavy hoses all over. Just as I returned home the rains came! Worked just like washing the car!

Along with the official arrival of summer, almost like clockwork, the Japanese beetles have started emerging. As of now they're preferring pinks and lavenders over their usual favorites of whites and yellows. So far just seeing a few around the garden, so maybe the milky spore is helping. I'm considering following the advice of a recent tip I read here about hiding containers of dead beetles in water around the garden. They apparently avoid the smell.

gemini_sage said:Mika, your Harlow Carr hedge is gorgeous, how delightful it must smell walking alongside it! The blooms appear to have a lilac tone to the pink, is that true to eye or perhaps lighting/camera settings?

Yes, Neal, there is a lilac tone to the pink in Harlow Carr. It starts to flower slightly later than some of the other Austins, but is a very strong rebloomer. If you're keen on perfumed roses, have a look at The Lady Gardener - really strong, delicious scent... I almost want to eat it!

Mika, I think I need both of them! I think Harlow Carr will be lovely in my beds of primarily purples, and as for The Lady Gardener- who can have too many fragrant apricot roses?