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August 20, 2013

Interesting comparison

Today I will be comparing two roses, one that I grew from seed and one that I am currently growing from a cutting.  Out of my 75+ rose seedlings, the one shown below in the photo on the left was the quickest to exhibit an open bloom.  The seed for this rose was planted on December 1st of 2008, and was obtained from open pollination of the 'Queen Elizabeth' rose.  The seedling sprouted on March 4th of 2009 and had its first bloom on May 31, 2009.  So, exactly 6 months elapsed for nature to work its magic.

The  two roses shown in the photo on the right are being grown from cuttings that I took from my 'Red Galaxy' rose bush.  The cuttings were taken on June 1, 2013 and the red bloom that you see opened today, August 20th, for an elapsed time of 2⅔ months.  Rather remarkable!  If you enlarge the second photo, you will see "notches" on the earlier (darker) new foliage of both cuttings.  This was caused by an old nemesis, a root weevil.  After about four nights of visitations with my flashlight, I was able to find and dispatch the bad bug, so the newer foliage is perfect.


'Queen Elizabeth' seedling of 3/04/2009
Photo taken:  5/31/2009
'Red Galaxy' clones (from cuttings)
Photo taken:  8/20/2013

August 8, 2013

When the HEAT'S ON !

The weather can get uncomfortably hot around here in the Summer, and the watering and deadheading of the roses is best done in the mornings and evenings.  So, when the HEAT'S ON,  a good way to spend  mid-day time is to re-visit the User Guide for my Canon camera and see what interesting things can be learned and applied, especially since I have so many willing subjects (rose bushes) wishing to be photographed.

With the assistance of the PhotoStitch computer software supplied by Canon, I tried my hand at stitching up a "panoramic" (sort of) photo of my big rose bed.  The composite photo came out very nicely, aided by the early morning sun of August 8th.

MOST of the rose bushes in this photo were grown from seed

Update of August 9, 2013:    I tried my hand at another photo today, but from a different vantage point and with some different light of an overcast morning.  Remember that you may click on either of these photos to enlarge them.

MOST of the rose bushes in this photo were grown from seed

Update of August 22, 2013:   Summertime experimentation continues!  The following "assemblage" of photos didn't use stitching, but it did entail usage of a couple of utilities on my computer.  The featured rose blooms are from some of my 'Queen Elizabeth' rose seedlings --