Archive for April 26th, 2009

Philadelphus Flowering

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Our deciduous philadelphus (mock orange) bush is full of white flowers right now. The previous owner of the house planted this bush. Because it doesn’t have a tag, I am not sure what kind of philadelphus it is. I didn’t even know it was a philadelphus until I encountered a very similar looking plant at a local nursery.

For the past seven years, it has more than doubled in size with very little care or watering. This year it has more flowers than it has ever had. For several years, it only produced a few flowers each spring. Ever since I removed an old tree that was shading it, this plant has really taken off and grown significantly.

April 26 2009 | Philadelphus | Comments Off on Philadelphus Flowering

First Rose Bloom of the Season

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Our backyard roses are at the peak of their first bloom of the 2009 season. The first bloom of the season is usually the most spectacular, because it is the only time of year when all of our roses have flowers at the same time. We have planted red, pink, white, orange, purple, lavender, and yellow roses around the edge of the backyard lawn. The orange rose in the first picture is a ginger snap, the purple rose in the second picture is an intrigue, and the rose in the third picture is a double delight, which has a nice fragrance. All three are hybrid tea roses.

After our roses finish their first bloom in about 2 weeks, I will apply a slow release all-purpose fertilizer to them to stimulate them to bloom again in the summertime. I have noticed that when I haven’t fertilized our roses after the first bloom in the past, they don’t get as many flowers in the following months. When I have fertilized them, they generated second and third sets of blooms that were as amazing as the first bloom. Last year, I gave our roses 2 or 3 applications of fertilizer, in the spring and summer, and our roses bloomed off and on until early November.

April 26 2009 | Roses | Comments Off on First Rose Bloom of the Season