Archive for April, 2011

More Rose Pictures

These are more pictures of the roses in our yard that are blooming this weekend. The first photo shows our red Black Magic tree rose. It’s not a fragrant rose, but it has very long lasting perfectly-shaped flowers.

This is another photo of one of our pink Color Magic roses.

This is another photo of our Sheila’s Perfume rose.

This is a photo of our Double Delight rose.

This is a photo of our Surprise rose.

April 30 2011 | Roses | Comments Off on More Rose Pictures

More spring flowers

Of course, spring isn’t just about roses. We also have some very attractive white flowers blooming in our yard this month. The philadelphus plant shown below that we have growing near our fence has been looking better every year. Ever since I removed 2 old trees that were shading it, this plant has really taken off and grown rapidly. Every April for the past few years it gets covered in beautiful white flowers.

Below are a few plants called Viburnum Opulus Roseum (also known as the Snowball flower) that we planted as nursery transplants last year. They are full of their characteristic snowball-like flowers now. Ironically, their buds form and open as springs arrives, the temperatures warm, and snow (if you ever get it in your area) is just a distant memory. Both the snowball and the philadelphus are only spring bloomers. Both have a tendency to grow quite large unless pruned regularly.

April 29 2011 | Philadelphus and Viburnum | Comments Off on More spring flowers

Springtime Roses

Roses seem to be some of the most diverse garden flowers. Roses come in a wide range of colors, shapes, and scents. They bloom over a long period from spring to fall, unlike many other flowers that just bloom in spring. Although, the most abundant and most beautiful rose bloom is always the first spring bloom.

Every April and May I am enchanted by the beauty of the 2 dozen or so roses we have growing in our backyard. Below are pictures of a few of them. The first picture is Sheila’s Perfume, which is an incredibly fragrant rose. However, the candy color of these roses tends to fade quickly in a few days.

This second picture is Ginger Snap, which has an amazingly bright orange color.

This third picture is Color Magic, which has very large flowers that darken from light pink to deep pink as they age over a period of about a week.

April 29 2011 | Roses | Comments Off on Springtime Roses

Pear Blossoms

Our Comice and Barlett pear trees are full of blooms right now. The Bartlett pear tree (second picture) seems to have more blossoms than it has ever had. Even our 3 year old red Bartlett pear has blooms for the first time. Our pear trees consistently produce a crop of pears that is proportional to their spring bloom. The Bartlett in particular gets pears every time it blooms, unlike our Blenheim apricot tree, which was full of blooms in early March, but has no fruit on it now. The heavy rains we had here in mid-March seem to have damaged the newly forming apricots. Although, in some past years, our Bartlett pear tree did not have any blooms.

The newly forming fruit on pear trees seems to be less affected by rain than other fruits like apricots and sweet cherries. However, Comice and Bartlett pears are of course prone to fireblight which can cause severe branch die back and can reduce the crop. Although our pears have had touches of fireblight in past years, it has never affected more than a few branches on each tree. In general, fireblight is not a serious problem in our area, because the month of April when pears bloom here tends to be relatively dry.

April 16 2011 | Pears | Comments Off on Pear Blossoms

Lilacs in Bloom

Late March and early April is lilac season in our area. We have several of the Descanso lilac hybrids including lavender lady and blue skies, which do not require as much winter chill as the standard lilacs. I took these pictures on March 31. Lilacs have been one of my favorite garden flowers for a long time because of their fragrance and beauty, even though they only bloom once a year. Our lilac flowers are fading now, just as our roses are starting to open.

April 16 2011 | Lilacs | Comments Off on Lilacs in Bloom