Give me 5 !

It was 5 years ago today that I began this blog, and it is more than fitting to celebrate another anniversary day.  Today's garden report shows that the individual roses are doing very well, while the garden as a whole continues to impress.  I took a couple of photos of the main rose bed two days ago, taking advantage of a rare sunny day for this time of the year.  The first photo below shows a view looking down the gradually sloping bed; the second photo looks back up the slope.  The roses are beginning their semi-dormancy for the winter months, and they have been pruned back about as far as they're going to be pruned.  It is an eclectic group of rose bushes, and a light pruning style will bring out their best.

Photo taken:  December 3, 2016

Photo taken:  December 3, 2016

As a special anniversary treat for you, I 'm including two photos of a select group of rose blooms which, believe it or not, span the 5 years which we are celebrating --

Roses by Day
Photo taken:  December 3, 2016

Roses at Night
Photo taken:  December 6, 2011

Rain records!

Salem just had its wettest October in history.  Not only did 11¼ inches of rainfall set a new record, but 27 days of measurable rain set another record.  The fact that I am writing this post means I survived the deluge, and I am so proud of the two rose bushes shown below that survived with spectacular blooms as well.  The first photo shows one of my unnamed seedlings of German ancestry, and the second photo shows one of my 'Queen Elizabeth' roses.

Photo taken:  November 2, 2016

Photo taken:  November 2, 2016

Update of February 28, 2017:       This has been a wicked Winter, to say the least.  The deluge of  October  has just been "book ended" by the wettest February on record for Salem.  We had 13.29 inches of rain this month.  ENOUGH ALREADY !

A couple of late Summer blooms

As the growing season begins to scale down, a diminishing number of rose blooms doesn't mean there isn't anything interesting out there in the garden.  Two blooms in particular have caught my attention with their uniqueness and beauty.   They belong to two of my 'Queen Elizabeth' rose seedlings that are beginning to grow up.  They resulted from open pollination of their parent 'QE' rose.

The first set of photos below show a deep pink rose that has petals with pointed tips, a characteristic that is seldom seen among roses.  Note how the "first bloom" began to exhibit this trait.

The second set of photos show a rose with semi-double blooms, and I really like the pastel orange blooms that fade to a light pink.

Birth date of rose:  March 29, 2009
First bloom:  August 22, 2009

Today's bloom:  September 16, 2016

Birth date of rose:  March 12, 2010
First blooms:  July 21, 2010

Today's bloom:  September 16, 2016

The "underdog" rose bush

Here's a curiosity for you:  a Google search for "underdog rose bush" or "underdog rose plant" will give no results found.   That will change not long after this post is published.  My candidate for an underdog rose aspiring to become a grown-up is one of my 'Queen Elizabeth' seedlings that now stands close to 2 feet tall and is finally showing some vigor.  The plant was "born" on April 7, 2010 and is now 6 years and 5 months old.  Congratulations to you, my little rose -- your photographs will now be on the Internet for everyone to see.

First bloom:  July 4,  2010

Today:  September 10,  2016

An unusual occurrence

I  was in the garden this evening when a rather unusual thing happened:  one of those non-stop flying machines, otherwise known as a cabbage white butterfly, stopped to stay overnight on one of my rose blooms.   Strangely enough, the rose bloom that it chose is the closest thing that I have to a cabbage rose, an old fashioned rose better known as the Provence rose and also Rosa x centifolia.  I'll leave it up to you to visit Google Images and search for the cabbage white butterfly and cabbage rose.  My rose, shown below, is actually a seedling derived from one of my 'Queen Elizabeth' roses, and I tell more about it in my post of September 16, 2015 titled An "old fashioned" rose.

If we pretend that my rose is a cabbage rose, then this is probably the only place that you will ever see a cabbage white butterfly perched on a cabbage rose --

Photo taken:  August 14, 2016

Photo taken:  August 14, 2016

Supersized

It takes a couple of supersized photos to properly show some of the tall-growing roses in the backyard rose bed.  Most of the roses shown below are seedlings from an open pollinated (very likely SELF pollinated) 'Queen Elizabeth' parent.  Several are now close to 7 feet tall, and many others are also robust growers.  Here are some recent photos; actually, one from today and one from 2 weeks ago --

Photo taken:  July 30,  2016

Photo taken:  July 13,  2016

 When you research the ancestry of the 'Queen Elizabeth' rose, you will find the following colors among the blooms of its grandparents:  yellow, red, and white-to-light-pink.  These are reflected in a couple of my recent photos, again showing seedlings from a self pollinated 'QE' parent --

Photo taken:  June 22,  2016

Photo taken:  June 27,  2016

Mixed flora and fauna

There's never a dull moment out there in the back yard.  Slime mold has made an appearance for the second year in a row, but this time it's a bit larger (see my post of August 21, 2015 -- "Slime mold" is for real).  There it is below, next to my size 10 shoe, and not too far away from a rose bush crown.  And there it is again in a real scary close-up.

Photo taken:  July 7, 2016

 

Photo taken:  July 7, 2016

Not too scary is a bumble bee who stayed overnight on a conveniently open 5 petal rose bloom.  Have to give it credit because there was a tenth of an inch of rain last night.  It was just starting to move around when I took the photo at 9 o'clock this morning.

And it's time again to check the progress of the shade tolerant  'Red Galaxy' roses that I grew from cuttings and are now 2 years old.  Nine of them are quite content along the north side of the house.  The chicken in the background definitely qualifies as "fauna".

Photo taken:  July 9, 2016

Photo taken:  July 9, 2016

Lucky morning

There's been a string of unseasonal cool mornings recently, but today the cool temperature brought some good luck.  Around 9:30 this morning I spotted a very beautiful large orange dragonfly clutching a large rose bud in my backyard rose bed.  From prior experience with other dragonflies, I suspected that it had been there all night, and that it would stay still for a while until the morning sun warmed up its body and wings -- enough time for me to grab my camera and take the 2 photos shown below.  Swift action paid off, because the dragonfly had already flown away by 10:30.  By the way, any mosquito-eating dragonfly is a welcome guest in my yard.

Photo taken:  June 16, 2016

Photo taken:  June 16, 2016

Update of June 18,  2016:      Another dragonfly spent the night up high on a rose bush and remained for a couple of photos this morning.  Although the new dragonfly was smaller than the one shown above, it had the same knack for finding a perfect spot to sleep, which is at least four feet from the ground on the side of the rose bush (south side) that will receive the first sun.  Recalling that this is a blog about rose seedlings, let me say that the rose bushes chosen by the dragonflies are both tall growing seedlings from a parent 'Queen Elizabeth' rose.

Photo taken:  June 18, 2016

Photo taken:  June 18, 2016

It's Show Time !

The roses are putting on a great show again this year, and it's time to share some photos with you.  Shown below are blooms from four rose siblings that were grown from seed.  Their mother 'Queen Elizabeth' rose plant was open pollinated, and these resulting rose plants share some of the Queen's characteristics.  Their tall growth provides a bit of shade for new canes that are showing some very pretty clusters of blooms --

Photo taken:  May 31, 2016

Photo taken:  June 1, 2016

Photo taken:  June 5, 2016

Photo taken:  June 5, 2016

A new rose to track

Sometimes you have to persevere out there in the rose garden, even in the face of some bad luck.  The rose that I had been tracking (with photos) from its infancy didn't live to see a 3rd growing season.  So a little over two years ago I had to start all over again, and I chose a seedling that had more promise.  I'm happy to report that it is now blooming in its 3rd year, and it should easily make it to adulthood.  You too can follow its progress (and learn its identity) --  just click on the tab at the top of the blog, the one labelled "A rose seedling grows up".

 This is how the rose became a rose back in April of 2014 --

April 4,  2014

April 5,  2014

April showers bring April flowers

Here in the mid Willamette Valley, the climate is temperate enough to allow roses to bloom from around mid April until mid November.  That's been the trend for my rose bushes, and the photo collage below shows blooms from nine different roses in my yard.  All have fully opened blooms  before the end of April.

•  Row 1:   These are three unnamed roses whose parent is a rose from Germany.  I grew these roses from seed, so they are seedlings as well as siblings. 

•  Row 2:    These full-blossomed roses were grown from seed obtained from one of my parent 'Queen Elizabeth' roses.

 •  Row 3:   The first rose is another seedling from the 'Queen Elizabeth' parent, but it has only 5 petals.   The second bloom is growing on a cutting that I took from my 'Red Galaxy' rose.  The third rose bloom is on a seedling that happens to be a sibling of the 'Red Galaxy' rose.  The sibling does not have the spotting on its bloom that is characteristic of 'Red Galaxy'.
 
                                                                                                                                              

Mere conincidence?

It might just be mere coincidence, but something greater may be at play.  The first open bloom this year happened on the same calendar day as last year, namely April 21.  It's the red rose shown below from one of my unnamed German rose seedlings.  To see last year's "twin", browse back to my post of April 30, 2015 (Ushering in the new rose year) and look for the rose photo taken on April 21.

The second photo below is of this year's second place winner, almost fully open.  It's a bloom from one of my unnamed 'Queen Elizabeth' rose seedlings.

Photo taken:  April 21, 2016

Photo taken:  April 21, 2016

The Great Awakening

This post isn't about the Great Awakening of the history books (or see Wikipedia), but rather the rose bushes around here awakening from their winter rest, which is always a big deal for me.  Foliage is starting to spread out, and I even saw the first flower bud two days ago.  There it is below in the first photo, bathed in the rain water typical this time of year.  The bud is on one of my unnamed German rose seedlings along the front driveway.  Most of my rose seedlings are in the back yard, and they are springing to life as shown in the photo to the right.

Photo taken:  March 5, 2016

Photo taken:  March 7,  2016