sunnyvalley's blog: Is Pride Permitted?

“Every accomplishment starts with the decision to try.” ― John F. Kennedy

My original plan had been to try post a review of all the past gardening seasons by the end of December and then start regular blog posts from January 2017. That may have been a bit overambitious. No correction, it was! It’s already February but with today’s post I am accomplishing my goal and actually feel quite proud about achieving what I set out to do even though it has taken longer than intended. So here we go ......

The season 2016 started with a plan to get rid of the front Thuja hedge which had outgrown the troughs they were in. It would have been such a pity to chuck the 100 odd plants so I put an ad out with this picture taken on 20 January:

Thuja GRATIS! The response was overwhelming! It was arranged with the taker that he would come and dig out the hedge himself as soon as the weather permitted. First step of the plan accomplished!

10 days later the weather had turned, 12C and sunshine! The ideal weather to trim the maple again. It had been four years since the last trimming. DD and partner came to help again.


At the beginning of February I wanted to put my order in for 20 rose rootstock which only came to EUR8.00 plus shipping. It seemed a bit crazy not to order a bit more seeing as they had a flat rate of EUR7.00 for shipping. No need for more roses but they had some daylilies and unnamed iris. They quickly responded to my query regarding the iris names enabling me to search for them on the internet. If you ‘google’ tall bearded iris Stepping Out the first link that comes up is....


I had discovered ATP/NGA

I was totally WOWED by the then still ATP (now NGA) website. Besides the iris which I was looking, I found an extensive plant data base, forums and tons of features unlike any other gardening website I had ever seen. I opened my user account on 4 February 2016. NGA has since became a part of my daily life and added to making 2016 one of the most memorable gardening seasons I have ever had! NGA and the members on the iris forum are also partly responsible the addition of the close to 100 new irises added to our garden this year.

So in the end, I added 3 iris, 4 daylilies and 3 asters to my rose rootstock order. I also picked up a couple of iris rhizomes on offer in the big stores.

The first crocus, aubrieta and primulas were blooming by mid-Feb and the Daffs were already showing colour.


February through March was warm last year and the roses were already showing a lot of new growth so I started pruning around the middle of the month, two to three weeks earlier than usual. While I was pruning, I decided to stick a couple of the cuttings straight into the ground without any treatment at all. It was going to interesting observing the progress.


The iris rhizomes that I had potted were sitting in our sunroom along with some rose cuttings that I had rooted over winter – all looking good!


The potted roses that over-wintered in the storeroom were moved outside and we had progress with the removal of the front hedge. The young man who was taking the Thuja underestimated how difficult it would be to remove them, actually I did too! I landed up asking our farmer neighbour if he could help by using his tractor to pull them out. Still took the whole afternoon but we got it done and the hedge was gone!


The big job for us was emptying the troughs and sifting out the roots. We started at the beginning of April. Around the same time, our farmer neighbour agreed to let us use a strip of his land along our front border as trial beds. I promptly mowed the area to mark it.


By mid-April the garden had started blooming and so had the fields around us.
Periwinkle, artificial plum and Magnolia



I sprayed the strip of land which were destined for the trial beds and covered everything with black plastic hoping to kill all the grass and weeds. The troughs were then filled with soil and by the end of the month were already home to some new dahlias.


Photos taken in May 2016



Our June project was putting up the front fence and I also started preparing the front trial beds.


June is ROSE MONTH! The first flush is also the beginning of the hybridizing season. Ideally, you want to give the hips at least 120 days to mature before the first hard frost arrives.





I also tried my hand at hybridizing iris for the first time last year and by mid-June already had my first seed pods developing. The NGA iris forum is full of information on how to go about it and the more experienced members are very forthcoming in giving advice. I had bought quite a few potted iris from various nurseries but my first iris rhizome order placed with Cayeux, France, arrived towards the end of June and I was most impressed by the quality. Mika (Cliftoncat) from the iris forum also sent me a box of wonderfully healthy looking rhizomes from her gardens in France and England, increasing my iris collection even more.


In July, I had my first ever case of rose crown gall! I have since learnt that the bacteria are present in most soils but only infect a plant through fresh wounds caused by cultivation or even insect damage. Here is a link to an interesting article by Gaye Hammond, Houston Rose Society http://www.denverrosesociety.o...
Sadly, I discovered another case in September on my Westerland which I have had close on 10 years. Both roses were destroyed.


Pretty blooms in July




And rose bouquets


I had finished preparing all the trial beds by mid-August which were now home to my own roses and some iris.


September blooms


Last task of the season in November, when the leaves started to change was planting the fall delivery of bare-root roses, 16 in total. I actually take photos of all my bare-root roses showing the label - it sometimes comes in handy when you find out half a year later that it isn't the rose you ordered.


And last but not least, a look at some of the rose seedlings which bloomed for the first time in 2016


And there we have it, the year 2016 in SunnyValley!

As I mentioned in my very first post at the beginning of December last year, this blog is meant primarily as a diary for myself and secondly for my loved ones abroad so that they can see what I am up to all the time. In a total of 10 posts I have covered the gardening season 2007 through to 2016 and I hope that any other NGA members who have been reading my posts have found it interesting and have not been too overwhelmed by the lengthy posts and all the photographs.  

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