From staunch master gardener OpieJeanne:
We used to have a big rose garden before we moved to the Seattle area, but it’s so wet and cold here that we’ve gradually lost most of the ones we planted here. We used to be involved in the local rose society in the late 70s/early 80s.
Playboy (top photo) is a floribunda hybridized by a Scot named Alex Cocker.
Below is Eden, a big sprawling climber hybridized by Marie-Louise Meilland in France, similar to an old-fashioned “cabbage” rose. It was introduced in 1985 under another name, Pierre de Ronsard, on the 400th anniversary of his death.We planted it 8 years ago against the old fence that divides the lawn area from the vegetable beds. The fence was old when we bought this house and we’re allowing it to fall down as it pleases, but I think this rose and the Blushing Lucy are holding it up. (Blushing Lucy has not yet graced us with an appearance this year.)
The next rose is Queen Elizabeth. She is a grandiflora hybridized by Dr Walter Lammert and the sole survivor of a group of five, the rest of whom have succumbed to the high water table.
Last is Sally Holmes, hybridized by Robert Holmes and named for his wife. It’s sometimes sold as a climber but she’s really a very vigorous shrub rose. The canes are tall and very thick, and require more supervision than less aggressive plants. You can see that she’s not climbing in this photo, because I haven’t waded into the undergrowth yet to tie her up to the arbor. The flowers have a single row of petals, a style called a single. Playboy is also a single.
I don’t know the names of the peonies I’ve included. I’m just happy that they weren’t ruined by rain this year.
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Our daylilies started blooming at the very beginning of July, and are already mostly done for the year, dammit. So I won’t even have any flowers to look at while I’m trying to bring the ‘garden’ wasteland into decent order. (Of course the daylily clumps badly need dividing, too… )
At least the worst of the Heat Dome seems to be over here — for now.
What’s going on in your garden(s), this week?
WereBear
Yes, thank you, there’s nothing I love more than roses and peonies!
Martin
Got to go outside and see my garden for the first time in a month. Finally evicting the last of the consequences of covid/sinus infection from my lungs. Didn’t do any work, though.
MagdaInBlack
Peonies remind me of my childhood, because everyone had them. I do recall that the buds always had big black ants exploring them. Why do ants like them?
Ruby the Giant Geranium on my balcony has 17 blossoms thus far. Her record is 21. There are 4 buds coming, so we may make the record again.
rikyrah
Good Morning, Everyone 😊 😊 😊
MagdaInBlack
@rikyrah: Good Morning! 🙂
HinTN
@rikyrah: Good morning! As for my garden, we got the fields bushhogged yesterday after playing tag with the sprinkles and, finally, outright rains last week. Glad to see that heat dome gone. Now for the dog days. 🌅
Princess
@MagdaInBlack: My understanding is that the ants are essential to open the buds and they wouldn’t come into flower without the ants. But that may be a myth.
sab
Deleted. 2 am issue at 6 am?
sab
For years we have laughed at Cole getting Steve an annual shearing, but our oldest guy (15) just couldn’t cope with grooming anymore.
So he is back from his first professional grooming. He is loving his lion cut.
ETA He looks a lot like Steve.
OzarkHillbilly
@MagdaInBlack: Ants on Peony Flowers: An Example of Biological Mutualism
WereBear
@rikyrah: Good Morning 🌞
WereBear
@sab: Our Mithrandir got a lion cut every year starting at three.
He was a mutant Persian tank with fur that was incredibly dense. He would have had to enjoy grooming, and he did not! Not enough to keep him matt free, anyway.
Mithrandir gets a Lion Cut
Jeffg166
@MagdaInBlack: It’s a myth that peonies require ants to bloom. However, they do have a mutualistic relationship. The peonies provide food for the ants and in return, the ants protect the blossoms from other insects that feed on the flowers.
After the lawn went dormant during the high heat it came back alive with the recent rain and cooler weather. I called the lawn guy to tell him it was growing again. He came Thursday and cut it. The way he cuts it makes the flower beds look really good.
Anne Laurie
@OzarkHillbilly: Thank you for this explanation!
I love peonies just for their leaves, much less their fantastic flowers, but the Spousal Unit HATE-HATE-HATES the ants they attract… so no peonies in our yard, ever. Glad to know it’s not just a ‘local’ quirk, but an established mutualism, so that I can rest with the omission.
WereBear
@Anne Laurie: Don’t let him watch the movie Them.
OzarkHillbilly
@Anne Laurie: My wife loves peonies. We have 4 growing in the driveway island and next year I am putting a flower bed in along the side of my shop (a problem area for me). It will have peonies, and I think maybe a couple azaleas.
OzarkHillbilly
In garden news from the hillbilly haven, I watered the veggie garden Thursday and Friday. So of course yesterday it rained buckets. The veggie garden has been mostly a waste of time this year due to several issues. I managed to finally plug all the holes in my rabbit denial system but unfortunately most of my bean plants will produce little if any. The 1500 Year Old Cave Beans are the one exception. This is the first year I’ve tried growing them and I will get plenty for planting next year.
I am getting peppers and cukes, tho the cucumber plants are sick. I’m gonna have to solarize that bed next year. Same for the melon bed, of which I have one melon on the vine. I planted some West India Burr Gherkin and the plants are thriving but I have yet to pick a gherkin. Haven’t even seen one. The tomato plants are producing but not ripening.
I got my squash seeds in the ground a couple weeks ago and they’ve all come up with the exception of the Rugosa Friulana, another first timer for me. I planted 2 mounds, 6 plants, and only 1 came up. I have my fingers crossed that I can avoid a plague of squash bugs. We’ll see, but it’s been one of those years.
kalakal
@rikyrah: Good morning!
I love Peonies in the spring when the beautiful new shoots appear. Sadly can’t grow them here Speaking of which here it’s WET! Really heavy rain every day for about 2 months. This being Florida the place is a sauna. In the sunny bits between rain I’m mostly pulling up zillions of weeds that have gone wheehee! now that they have water
stinger
Lovely roses and peonies!
zhena gogolia
Has satby left the blog? I thought sure I’d find her here
eclare
Beautiful peonies! We have had a lot of rain this week and cooler temps here in Memphis. It has been so nice. Looks like we get back to “heat dome” temps this week. Ugh.
eclare
@zhena gogolia:
I haven’t seen her in a while. But yeah, she usually shows up here.
SiubhanDuinne
@MagdaInBlack:
Whenever I see peonies, I also think of those huge black ants 🐜 that crawled all over them. I love the flower, but I don’t love the ants 🐜.
I’m not sure why, but we always had rhubarb growing alongside the peonies. The ants 🐜 often migrated to the rhubarb.
Opie Jeanne, your flowers and photos are spectacular!
delphinium
Good morning everyone! Lovely flowers Opie Jeanne!
@OzarkHillbilly: Interesting about the ants-thanks.
@WereBear: Mithrandir is a handsome boy!
Liminal Owl
Thank you for the gorgeous photos! I have never been a gardener, and I so enjoy seeing the results of others’ hard work and artistry.
The roses today suddenly reminded me of a book my grandmother gave me when I was eleven, about the history and development of a particular rose. “Peace,” I think?
Maybe it’s not too late to start… well, if we ever again have a yard.
SiubhanDuinne
@OzarkHillbilly:
Thanks for this information. I wrote my comment #23 to MagdaInBlack before I saw your contribution. I love to learn about this kind of symbiosis or mutual dependence/benefit.
ETA: “Mutualism,” as the article calls it. Good word.
SFAW
@SiubhanDuinne:
It’s to keep the wolverines away.
[Sorry, riffing on an old joke.]
WereBear
The Peace rose, formally Rosa ‘Madame A. Meilland’, is a well-known and successful garden rose. By 1992, over one hundred million plants of this hybrid tea had been sold. The cultivar has large flowers of a light yellow to cream color, slightly flushed at the petal edges with crimson-pink. It is hardy and vigorous and relatively resistant to disease, making it popular in gardens as well as in the floral trade.
It was developed by French horticulturist Francis Meilland, in the years 1935 to 1939. When Meilland foresaw the German invasion of France, he sent cuttings to friends in Italy, Turkey, Germany, and the United States to protect the new rose. It is said that it was sent to the US on the last plane available before the German invasion, where it was safely propagated by the Conard Pyle Co. during the war.
Wikipedia
But there are minis that can be grown in terrariums, with that coloring.
Gvg
I grow “old fashioned roses” or antique roses. A lot of them do better in Florida than the newer hybrid teas or grandifloras. Even the so called landscape drift roses that are supposed to be so great are terrible here. They look like thorny sticks with harsh colored flowers, and not many of those.
Some of the old roses can survive neglect for decades here. The Florida cracker rose is Louis Philippe which was bred in France in 1834 which for some inexplicable reason loves our climate and is very easy here. A bunch of the old French roses bred at that time do very well, but not all. Basically, if it has already survived 100 years, from before modern chemicals, it’s pretty tough. Pick the ones that like your climate. Different old roses like say Oregon or Massachusetts than Florida. Also pick ones that you like the looks of. I don’t love singles. They are easier and healthier but they just don’t pluck my heat strings, so I use my space for the ones I want. Shovel prune after 4 years if they aren’t working for you. Sometimes the pictures in catalogs are nicer than reality. I like very double roses that have leafy bushes under them, not sticks, and that I am not going to spray. I work on improving the soil and I water them. I grow them with other flowers. My favorite is probably Mrs. BR Cant.
One cool tip about the old roses I learned is that most breeders named their best rose in their own opinion, after their mother, such as Maman Couchet The ones named after wives are usually pretty good too. Family ok. Random other people who knows.
SFAW
@OzarkHillbilly:
Got a little more serious (figuratively speaking) about a veggie garden this year. Four raised beds: two for tomatoes (“SuperSteak” and Roma, one bed each, 12 plants per), one for corn and eggplant, one for snow peas and string beans. Two rolling planters: one for jalapeno, one for serrano. Four railing boxes: basil (one Genovese, one sweet), scallions, lettuce (Cos).
I think I’m over-watering the corn/eggplant/peas/beans beds — plants are turning yellow. The tomatoes seem to be doing well, still weeks away from full harvest, but probably overplanted the beds (12 plants in each 4 x 8 bed).
Already made one batch of pesto, will probably be making another batch today. “Harvested” three heads of lettuce, gave one to the SFAW-ette. Probably use one head for salad tonight.
All in all, fair-to-middlin’ so far, but we’ll see how the rest of the growing season goes. The raised bed are those pre-fab galvanized things, and I didn’t really plan out nor set up a true garden. Maybe next year I’ll get serious. Probably not, but who knows?
ETA: This whole comment was triggered by your comment re: watering-then-downpour. I already had an idea that I was overwatering some of the stuff, your comment semi-reinforced that.
MazeDancer
Glorious roses! Beautiful pics.
Quinerly
These are beautiful! Thank you!
I have become obsessed with roses in my Santa Fe gardens. Have added about 20 bushes and climbers in the last 3 summers since moving here. Roses do great and I am picking drought tolerant varieties: Joseph’s Coat Climbers, Dortmund Climber, Sally Holmes Climber, Julia Child, Old John, Cinco de Mayo, Frida Kahlo, Peachy Creeper, Ring of Fire, Miracle on the Hudson, Winnipeg Parks.
Working on getting the fruit trees that were here more healthy. I finally had apricots this year. Right now a bumper crop of plums and peaches. (Peaches are tiny, though). Pears coming soon.
Hummingbirds have arrived. Loving my Agastashes (Hummingbird Mints), cactus blooms, Autumn, Mohave, and Russian Sages.
Love this thread and all the comments. Thanks!
Kayla Rudbek
@Anne Laurie: I have considered getting peonies for years, as we routinely get ant invasions into our kitchen, and my hope would be that getting peonies would give the ants an outdoor food source so that they wouldn’t come inside any more. Since I have a postage stamp of a front yard, the peonies would have to be planted right next to the main sidewalk.
Peonies remind me of my grandparents house, although they had the plants closer to their kitchen and on the south side of the house in general. I don’t recall them having any ant invasions, although we did have to be careful about bringing cut peonies into the house.
MagdaInBlack
@OzarkHillbilly: Cool! Thank you ❤️
Glidwrith
I am learning my mulberry tree has a very short season and that the nearby grape vines love to reach out and strangle it. Need to get out there and rescue the mulberry today.
JAM
This year I’m only growing a few veggies, strawberries, which are looking really ragged right now, two tomatoes in bags, melons and jalapeños. I also had a few scarlet runner beans, but the grasshoppers ate all the flowers. I’ve been picking a lot of tomatoes and jalapeños, and one watermelon that was a little too early.
My natives bed is doing great, it’s full of bumblebees. That was my major garden project this year.
MagdaInBlack
I remembered that there once was a peony farm in Schaumburg, IL, just south of Arlington Heights, where I live.
https://ourlocalhistory.wordpress.com/2023/05/21/a-spring-surprise-the-peonies-of-spring-valley/
LAC
Late to this thread, but I love peonies and your roses are gorgeous!! My hubby’s gardening is going along, but a deer found it’s way in and ate two of our tomato plants. I used a homemade spray of egg, milk, dish lquid and water that seem to chase him away. Oh well, the perils of gardening.