Oh, boy! Just one more hour until May in my time zone. It's my favorite month of the year. Lots of roses are already blooming here, but there are still more buds than blooms. Everything will explode into bloom in a week or two.

Things are looking up in other areas as well. All of my friends and I have been fully vaccinated, so I'm finally spending time with lots of friends without fear.

The thumbnail photo for this month is Kniphofia's lovely picture of The Mayflower, an Austin shrub.

My left foot isn't working these days, so I've been unable to go down the stairs into the garden. I tried taking some long-distance shots of views of the garden from my deck, but they didn't turn out so great. Luckily, a large part of my Crepuscule has wrapped its way around the corner of my house and is blooming on the deck, so that one's easy to capture. Here's how it looked this afternoon.

It's really glorious!

Some autumn pinks.


Jude the Obscure


Evelyn


Ambridge


Sharifa Asma


Alnwick


Charleeeeyen (PCdM)


Belle Story


Belle Story


Boscobel

This is the view of the rose border from the holding paddock. The sheep get quite a nice view over the roses and the grass path to the birch trees, which are hiding the outbuildings, and then to the valley beyond. There is a possum trap in there too.

I'm sorry you're having trouble with your foot, zuzu.

Lola those are gorgeous!

I will hopefully have some pics to share soon. My bareroots are taking off nicely. My baby band roses are slow to start but they are showing new growth and are still looking healthy. Some of the roses I planted last year are also lagging a bit behind but I do see new growth starting. Hopefully after I get the rest of the new roses planted and mulch the gardens and give them a bit of fish fertilizer they will start to catch up to the others.

Zuzu, your Crepuscule is a sight to behold -- it looks so beautiful growing alongside the pergola!

I'm sorry your foot is out of commission; that must be so frustrating. I've managed to put knee replacement surgery off (again) with sinovial fluid injections in my knees. It keeps me mobile, but bending down and standing back up is still very difficult and painful. But I've dealt with this condition for 45 years ever since I developed juvenile arthritis as an adolescent. I try to grin and bear it, and if that doesn't work, I gin and beer it.

With the exception of February, this past winter was mildish here in the Hudson Valley. That means I didn't have to prune the roses nearly to the ground this spring like I've had to do in previous years when the winters were harsh with spells of sub-zero temperatures. As a result, I expect the blooms will start the last week of May instead of the first and second weeks of June.

Two weeks ago I planted four bare roots from Regan under protective domes of fine mulch, and I expect to see their new shoots in a couple of weeks. The eight own-root bands from Heirloom that I planted last fall came through the winter like champs and are fully leafed out. They include one of my favorites Griffith Bucks, Paloma Blanca, as well as two Bourbons, Mme Isaac Pereire and Souvenir du President Lincoln, whose onion-dome buds I like as much as their blooms and fragrance. The bands I planted last fall also included a new one for me, Earth Angela, plus Distant Drums, Ebb Tide, and two Red Edens that are growing against south-facing walls of the house. They all look great right now.

Yesterday I received four additional bands from Rogue Valley that included Precious Dream, Tattooed Lady, Incantation, and Mrs. William G. Koning. High Country informed me that my order of four other bands was delayed due to snow and freezing temps earlier this month. They include Red Ribbons, Denver's Dream, Scarlet Moss, and Marilyn Monroe. I'll start them out in pots before moving them to the garden later in the season, or possibly overwintering them in the garage -- I'll make that decision this coming fall. In the meantime, the garden is looking good this spring, I'm fully vaccinated, and am looking forward to returning to some form of new normal as the season progresses.

Everyone's pictures are so lovely. I am still sans computer and should get it back sometime tonight. Two weeks without it and I have discovered how I am very dependent on it! The recovery of my hard drive was a failure. The external drive didn't work and the Google cloud drive only recovered part of what was on the hard drive. Looks like I will be spending the good part of the upcoming weeks going through what pictures I have left and putting them into new files. My DB (dear boyfriend) is having more cancer surgery this week, so it may help to pass the time during the procedure and taking care of him afterwards.

I have had a terrible outbreak of spider mites on my Dave Bang roses. I have not had problems with any of my other roses. Within two days, I nearly lost my Mango Blush. The weather has been very warm which is not helping.

I had a delightful experience in getting to meet the breeder of the rose, Violet Hour. Gail and her husband are so nice and I wish we had a bit more time together. They got to see my front and side yard, but not enough time to see the back. My Violet Hour is now blooming! What a pretty rose it is. Burlington Nursery is going to be carrying this rose. It is so very healthy. I do love my single roses.

Also got to watch Michael Marriott (from David Austin roses) present today. What a beautiful presentation. Nice to hear about companion plants for rose gardens. It was lovely.

Ugh! I can't wait until I can share some pictures again!

I am praying for a successful surgery for your DB.

Thanks Vap! I finally have my computer back. I still have to sort though the pictures they were able to recover and get everything into folders again.

Spider mites on Mango Blush


Connie's Sandstorm


Violet Hour

Take them inside before rain.
Young Lycidas

Lemon Spice

First Impression

I know some of you grow clematis as well as roses.

Do you think a clematis would be ok with Honeymoon on a 7 ft tall 11 inch diameter obelisk? or would it be too cramped? It's the Plow and Hearth 7 ft obelisk.

I have a very colorful surrounding garden planned, and was worried Honeymoon would look too bland by itself in the center. I'm thinking of Golden Celebration and Boscobel for 2 of the roses. Maybe Jubilee Celebration and Molineux for the other 2, depends on if I find some similar colors that I like more that those. The purple/blue will be salvia and the smaller dots will be annuals or perennials that I haven't figured out yet. Just something with a lot of color and under 1 ft tall.

I'm not going to start the outer "petals" anytime soon, probably not until fall or next spring. I was more concerned about the possibly of clematis for now.

Michelle, I grow many clematis with my roses, one of my big climbers even has two. Since I trim the clematis down at the end of the season, so far no issues.
My best suggestion though, if you want them to bloom together, before you plant the clematis, make sure it's blooming at the same time. I have one that starts blooming after the rose has finished it's first flush and when the rose repeats, the clematis is done. I envisioned the peach rose and purple clematis showing off together. I'll be moving that clematis and looking for another one.

New round of blooms:

Crepuscule is at its peak!



Arctic Blue, one shaded bloom, one in sun, still in its nursery pot, not thrilled with the yellow blackspotted foliage so I may plant it somewhere in the back part of the garden and just nurture it along for fragrant cut blooms.



Autumn Sunset



Teasing Georgia


Collette


Vesper


William Allen Richardson


Summer Song


The beauty of Distant Drums is mesmerizing!




South Africa




I have a dark phormium backing my Molineux, had no idea that plant would reach 8+ ft. but it makes a nice backdrop for the yellow blooms.



And a few random shots:








And three baby chickadees in the hanging plant by our back door.

Thanks for the info Sue.

Gorgeous shots! That plant behind Molineux reminds me of the iron throne in Game of Thrones. Distant Drums is so pretty! And those sweet baby birds, awwww.

I am seeing a lot more buds on my roses.

Hubby and I got the obelisks (Kinsman XL Border tuteur) assembled and installed for Eden and Quicksilver. The roses are still just babies but I wanted them in so I wouldn't accidentally hit roots later on or have trouble training the roses. We still have the Plow & Hearth one to assemble for Honeymoon.

Sue - just wow!

What an enchanting back drop for enchanting roses! Distant drums! South Africa! Summer song! I have teasing Georgia and Autumn sunset as well and I'm looking Forward to seeing their 1st ever blooms. Michelle, Your arbors are going to be magnificent.

I decided on Piilu Clematis. Someone in a FB group had Honeymoon paired with it and it looked lovely, and it will help Honeymoon blend in more with the darker pink and yellow roses that will eventually surround the obelisk.

Every time I tried to work outside today I got rained on. But I did get a lot of little projects finished. I decided to go ahead and mulch as much of the 2 front gardens as I can, and left the empty spots where I'll still be planting. And put my statues in place out there. Except the one that is way too heavy to carry by myself.

I left some room around each rose to put some mint compost after they are all planted.

I had to pull all of the mulch off of my 2 Joseph's Coat in raised areas to add more soil and manure, it settled a lot over the winter.

And of course went around checking for buds, again. I found one on Koko Loko. That's the only new one I noticed. So of my new ones planted in the fall only Lagerfeld and one of the Joseph's Coats don't have buds yet.

Sue, gorgeous blooms! Love the chicken in one of the pictures as well.

Michelle, we will take and use any of the rain you won't want or need. Please send it down south! At 2:00 this afternoon it is 95 F in the shade. Ugh!

I discovered that bagged roses are in some stores here already and even though I have ordered what I want for this year I still found myself buying two. I now have a dilemma. I will be moving two Windermeres from under the guest house windows (where they have grown to over 6ft even though the label said 4ft) and need shorter roses for those spots. I have bought or ordered Pretty Jessica, Desdemona, and Roald Dahl and don't trust the labels to tell me their true height. I know that in California roses can grow way bigger than anywhere else so if I take the Californian height as a worst case scenario, which is the tallest and shortest of these roses and how tall have they gotten in California or somewhere similar?

This combo of Shockwave and General Sikorski (my fave clematis) came about by accident a couple of years ago. They happened to be next to each other in pots, and General Sikorski grew up into the Shockwave tree rose. I have kept them in the same place ever since!