Archive for the 'Flowers' Category
This is a picture of one of our two white iceberg rose bushes. It’s blooming again for possibly the last time this year.
Iceberg roses are one of the most carefree roses we are growing. That’s probably the reason why they are planted in front of shopping malls so often. Our iceberg roses grow quickly, especially the one in this picture, and they produce a lot of flowers, even for a floribunda rose, with little fertilizer.
Another reason I like iceberg roses is that they seem to attract bees more than our other roses. Today, for example, I saw bees buzzing around the bush in this picture, and I did not see bees on any of our other roses.
However, iceberg rose flowers are quite fragile. The flowers do not last long. They typically last only a few days. Iceberg roses do not make good cut flowers in my opinion. The one time I tried to make an iceberg rose bouquet, the flowers started to lose their petals a few hours after being cut, and they had lost most of their petals after a day or two.
October 20 2008 | Roses | Comments Off on White Iceberg Rose
I just took this photograph of our black magic rose bush. Black magic roses are great, because each flower lasts for a long time. The flowers open slowly in a few days and then typically remain open for weeks. An individual flower can last for 2-3 weeks before losing its petals. They are the longest lasting roses we have in our garden.
Our black magic rose is shaped as a tall tree rose. It is a prolific bloomer, and it grows faster than most of our other rose bushes (except the climbing roses). The flowers grow on long stems that are great for cutting. Several times a year from spring until fall, our black magic rose is filled with deep red roses that last for weeks before fading, rather than just days. Many other roses, like Mr. Lincoln, de-petal only a few days after opening.
The petals of the black magic flowers seem to be sturdier than other roses. They don’t seem to sunburn or wilt as easily as other roses. However, black magic does not have any detectable fragrance.
October 18 2008 | Roses | Comments Off on Black Magic Rose
This is a picture of our purple solanum (potato flower) bush. It’s a large beautiful shrub. I think it’s decades old, because its biggest trunks are 4 or 5 inches thick. It is filled with purple flowers almost continuously from spring through autumn.
Our solanum grows incredibly fast. If I don’t prune it regularly, it grows like crazy, until it takes up half of our patio area. I usually give it a severe pruning about every 2-3 months to keep it in a box shape. Because it grows so fast and can be trained into different shapes, it makes for a good natural privacy wall. But without regular pruning, it gets overgrown and out-of-control quickly.
Our solanum is frost sensitive. It loses many of its leaves after a frosty spell. During a freeze about a year and half ago when the temperature here fell into the 20s, our shrub lost all of its leaves. But it began to grow back about a month or two later.
October 07 2008 | Solanum | Comments Off on Purple Solanum
Our Mr. Lincoln rose bush is blooming again right now, after about a two month hiatus. Mr. Lincoln is a classic red rose. Its flowers have the strong fragrance of an old-fashioned rose. It’s yet another one of my favorite roses.
The flowers of Mr. Lincoln are very large when they open up fully. Sometimes, I think that is when they look their best. One of the great things about growing one’s own rose bushes is being able to see the flowers open up completely. The commercially grown roses I have bought usually do not open up fully.
Unfortunately, Mr. Lincoln roses tend to lose their petals just a few days after opening. So it’s a real treat when numerous flowers are fully open on the same bush at the same time.
October 02 2008 | Roses | Comments Off on Late Mr. Lincoln Bloom
I purchased this Mirandy hybrid tea rose from a local discount garden center a few months ago for $6.50. It seemed like a great deal, even though the bush was small and looking a bit scraggly. I figured that I could get it to recover with a little bit of care and a regular watering schedule.
Roses seem to like being watered everyday during our rainless summer months. I have been watering all of our roses daily using an automatic micro-spray watering system. This Mirandy rose has doubled in size since I bought it in July. It was full of flowers about a month ago. A few weeks ago, it started growing a second set of blooms. The second set of roses just started opening two days ago.
The flowers have a deep red color with a hint of purple and a sweet fragrance that I typically associate with red roses. They are near perfection in terms of their looks. However, the flowers open quickly, and they typically lose their petals within a few days after opening.
September 29 2008 | Roses | Comments Off on Mirandy Rose
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