First up: The Rose Garden

I have always loved flowers, any kind of flowers.  But I think my first love was the rose.  When I was growing up, my dad planted roses along our driveway.  He loved spending time every summer feeding, watering, and trimming his plants.  When my husband and I moved into the house I grew up in, I decided that I would revive my dad's rose garden.  It had not received a lot of attention in the several years since he had passed away.  Three bushes survived, and I had no idea how long it had been since any of them had bloomed.

I purchased some new rose bushes to revive the rose garden: an orange Tropicana, with it's neon blooms and fruity scent.  A Hot Cocoa, with it's ever changing colors. An Opening Night, for it's perfect red blooms and traditional scent.  A Blue Girl, because I couldn't resist the delicate scent and unusual silvery lavender flowers.  And a John F. Kennedy, because every rose garden needs a classic white rose to be complete.

I added these plants to the three "Gib" roses (so called because my Gib was my dad, the original grower, and I have no idea what varieties they are).  Two of the "Gib" roses already had active growth - they tend to grow tall and never produce a bloom.  I suspected that the hybrid grafts had long ago died off, and only the root stock remained.  The third plant had a single tiny cane with 5 lone leaves on it.  I had very serious doubts that I would be able to save any of these plants.  But because they were my dad's, I decided to give them one season of attention and see if they could be saved.  If they didn't improve & bloom, I would dig them up & replace them next spring.

I recruited my husband to dig holes and planted my new roses.  My father had created a narrow section the length of the driveway for the roses - I suspect because this is one of the only places in our yard that gets enough sun.  It is shaded in the morning, but gets several hours of intense summer sun in the afternoon. Here is what it looked like when I was done putting in the new roses:



  As the summer has gone on, my roses have performed beautifully.  I have had an abundance of gorgeous blooms, and my plants have been pretty healthy.  I have drowned some Japanese beetles, but thankfully I have only had a few and the damage has been very minimal.  I have fought powdery mildew on one of the "Gib" plants, but since it is just ugly and not harmful I haven't stressed about it too much.  I have fed my plants at the end of every bloom cycle.  Because I have so many new plants and the summer here in IL has been dry and intensely hot, I have watered my roses almost daily.  I am looking forward to not having to water as often next year, when my newbies will be well-established.

Here is a run-down of how the growing season has gone:

Hot Coca

This is one interesting breed to keep in the garden.  I almost didn't buy it.  I wanted one more rose, but it was late in spring and the nursery had a limited selection of decent looking roses left.  I just wasn't sure I would like the color of this dusty pink with its chocolate undertones.  But the idea that the blooms would turn a brick orange come fall finally intrigued me enough to take it home.  Now, I'm glad I did.  This has by far been my most abundant bloomer.  It is rare to see this bush with no flowers on it.  And they are all different!  Each bloom is a surprise, from hot pink to deep mauve, with edges ranging from red to purple.  It is a beautiful plant with tons of foliage, and I have had no problems with this plant at all.

John F. Kennedy:

This plant has surprised me a bit.  I didn't expect that it would have to be babied as much as it has.  Having never been solely responsible for a rose garden before, I didn't realize that the bugs would want my light colored roses.  I didn't know that my white baby would be so intolerant of our hot, dry summer.  This plant is the reason I water every day.  If I don't water it, the new leaves and buds droop pathetically.  I don't really like high-maintenance anything - especially plants.  But, I do love my roses, and so I accommodate my fragile white rose.  The second round of blooms had burnt brown edges, but by the third round I had figured out that it liked a nice cool drink every day and they were much prettier.  If I could convince my husband to dig it up, I would move it to a shadier spot, because I think it would do better with morning sun and afternoon shade.  But, I doubt I will succeed in the convincing, so likely I will be doing a lot of watering of this plant in the summers to come.  Luckily, it is located by the patio, so it's close enough to my planters that watering isn't too big of a hassle.  But if you are going to put a white rose in your yard, I highly recommend considering carefully where to plant it.

Tropicana:

Oh, I love my Tropicana!  The bright, nearly neon orange blooms attract a lot of attention, because these babies almost glow!  They are so pretty, and this plant is so easy to grow.  It has gotten very big in this first year, and produces a lot of blooms.  In addition, the blooms have this amazing fruity scent.  I just love it!  No disease problems so far, and the beetles only went after it once all the blooms were gone from the lighter colored plants.  I highly recommend this rose if you want one that is easy to care for and blooms almost constantly.

Blue Girl:

Ah, my Blue Girl.  I really enjoy this rose.  I was expecting this one to be my demanding plant - Blue Girls have something of a reputation for being bug and disease magnets, as well as being more difficult to get through a cold snowy winter.  We'll see how winter goes, but otherwise I have had no trouble with my gorgeous "blue".  This was the choice target of the few Japanese beetles I battled this summer, but I was vigilant and didn't have too much trouble.  The Blue Girl also needs a lot of water in this first summer, but I think it will do well once it is fully established.  The foliage is gorgeous - deep green and full.  This one has not grown as much as some of my others, and it doesn't bloom as readily.  But the beauty makes the blooms well worth the wait.  I have had three cycles so far - the initial one with 4 blooms, two of which came on very thin canes that drooped with the weight of the flower.  The second bloom was glorious - 6 flowers, all on nice sturdy canes.  This third round has produced only one bloom - I think the heat is taking a toll, as all my plants seem to be a little less profuse on this round.  But overall, I am thrilled with this plant and so glad I added it to my garden.

Opening Night:

Opening Night has been both my most successful and my most troubled new rose this year.  It has perhaps the most perfect buds as they open - hence the name, I'm sure.  These are traditional bouquet-style deep red roses.  They are simply gorgeous.  I debated where to locate this rose - the last open spot was at the very end of the driveway, close to the sidewalk.  I remembered that my dad always seemed to have trouble with the plants he put in this spot - perhaps too much water or not enough sun, as it has more tree overhang than other areas. Maybe even people and dogs passing by and knocking into it - we could never decide.  But I went ahead and put it in, hoping for the best.  For the first two months, it did beautifully.  It is a small, compact bush.  It hasn't grown a lot in height, or branched out a lot.  But it has put out plenty of healthy new foliage and tons of blooms.  It has rarely been without a flower this summer.  But then, I noticed that the new growth was a pale green - it just didn't look right.  I kept my eye on it, researched, and finally decided that it may not be taking up enough iron.  So I added some bone meal, hoping that would take care of the problem.  Then the mature leaves began yellowing, a little at first, but more and more as the days went on.  I then thought I might be over watering.  With my light colored roses needing water every day, I generally watered all my new plants.  So I cut back on the water and waited, and also treated for fungal diseases just in case.  It never showed signs of black spot, powdery mildew, or rust.  I went on vacation for several days, and when I returned almost the entire plant had defoliated.  Still no sign of disease on the leaves - no burnt edges, no spots, no deformities - just yellowed and fell off.  From the light green new growth to the defoliation, this has all occurred in about 3 weeks.  But the oddest part is that throughout this all, the buds on the plant have grown to maturity and produced large, beautiful, healthy blooms.  The buds seemed totally unaffected - but the leaves are gone.  I have increased water, thinking perhaps I was wrong and it needs more.  For now, I am again watching, waiting, and hoping the few remaining leaves stay put until more can grow.  I trim down the canes as the blooms die off, and I am seeing the first signs of some new growth.  If anyone has any ideas, I welcome the advice, because I have no idea what is wrong with this baby.  I hope to make it through the summer, keep it alive, and start over next spring after I cut it back.

"Gib" rose #1

This rose is my pride & joy.  This was the one rose plant of my dad's that I was SURE I couldn't save.  It started out this spring with one tiny, thin, scrawny little cane about 3 inches long with 5 leaves.  I felt sure that the hybrid canes were all dead, and all that was left were suckers from the graft host.  But, I decided to give it a shot.  I let it grow a little, and when it had two canes about 8 inches long, I trimmed them back.  I fed it, watered regularly, and little by little, it started to put out new foliage.  Finally, just a couple weeks ago, I had the first bloom on it.  It was small, but I was beyond thrilled.  Especially when it opened and I saw that it was orange.  I bought this plant for my dad for Father's Day, probably 20 years ago.  I know, because it was the only orange rose my dad had.  The drawback is that I inadvertently planted my new Tropicana, also orange, right next to it.  They are almost the same color, but I am sure that this one is not a Tropicana.  It has a more traditional rose scent, not fruity like the Tropicana.  It has a slightly more salmon color to the blooms.  Also, the petals are somewhat fewer and have a slightly different shape.  The two plants are still very similar.  But anyway, I am so proud of this plant.  It has a slightly spreading growth appearance, because the canes tend to be on the outer edges of the plant, since the middle died off long ago.  But I hope to improve the appearance in years to come with careful pruning.  It has grown tremendously, the leaves are healthy, and it just put out 5 new blooms.  I am just thrilled to have succeeded at saving this plant and being able to have one of my dad's roses contributing to the beauty of my rose garden.

"Gib" rose #2:

This plant is another of my dad's.  It gave me hope early on - it produced several small blooms this spring, that developed into pretty reddish pink flowers.  At the time, I was thrilled.  They were small - but at that point, the plant was still pretty small.  As the summer has gone on, this plant has produced vigorous new growth - it is as tall as I am, and I have cut it back twice because the canes were falling over into the driveway.  But no more flowers.  I have no idea if these blooms came from the graft host - I think it is possible, but it produced 8-10 blooms, which seems like a lot for sucker blooms.  I always got the impression that sucker blooms were few.  But, it refuses to produce any more flowers, despite feeding, watering, and trimming.  I hate to get rid of these plants, but I don't want roses that don't bloom.  So, I'm still deciding what to do.  We'll see what next spring brings.

"Gib" rose #3:

This plant doesn't have a picture, because it has done nothing remarkable aside from growing six foot tall.  It hasn't bloomed once, and it has been plagued with powdery mildew.  I recently cut it back and fed it again, and I haven't quite given up yet.  I have one more idea for getting these stubborn old roses to bloom, and if that fails then I will have to seriously considering pulling them next year.  I want healthy, productive roses, so I may have to suck it up and do it!

I hope to use this blog to document my adventures in gardening, but also as a source of information & instruction for other gardeners, and to facilitate conversations about gardening.  Please feel free to comment and advise me if you know how to get my roses to bloom or how to save my Opening Night!  I would appreciate any tips.

Next up - Rose babies: Becoming a hybridizer