Eight years, and still going strong

This blog is celebrating its 8th anniversary today.  I encourage you to scroll down to find the "Blog Archive" and then select the year 2011.  Therein you will find 12 posts, the first being recorded on December 5, 2011.  If you read the 12 posts, you will gain great insight into my rose growing history.  With that in mind, let's see where the rose garden is today.  The roses have had their light November pruning  and are thus ready for Winter.  One rose bush still had some very late blooms on it, so I left them undisturbed.  You can see it in the back, close to the garden shed.  Note also the long shadow for this time of year, even though the photo was taken around noon time.

The main rose bed
Photo taken:  December 4,  2019

Let's take a closer look at the rose bush with the almost opened blooms.  It is a seedling of one of my 'Queen Elizabeth' roses and has blooms of 5 petals each.  The seedling was born on March 20, 2010, so it is now just 3 months away from its 10th birthday.  It took only 4 months for the seedling to show its first bloom, as seen in the second photo --

Photo taken:  December 4, 2019

First bloom
Photo taken:  July 16,  2010

November blooms

There's been less than normal rainfall so far this Autumn, and some of my late rose blooms have stayed intact for an extended amount of time.  The last time that I had decent looking blooms in November was back in 2016 -- see my post of November 2, 2016 that I titled "Rain records!" (that should pique your interest).   I chose four of the better looking blooms to show you below, after using the wonderful website Befunky.com to string them together in a horizontal "collage".  The first 3 blooms are from unnamed seedlings that I grew from a 'Queen Elizabeth' (grandiflora) parent.  The bloom on the far right is from an unnamed seedling that I grew from a 'Voodoo' (hybrid tea) parent.

Photos were taken on November 9,  2019

It happened again

It would be good for you (and me) to review the post that I wrote on August 2, 2012, wherein I described the development of a sucker arising from one of my 'Voodoo' seedlings.  The title of the post was "A garden surprise".  Back then, it was easy to tell from which rose bush the sucker originated.  Amazingly, I was fortunate to discover another sucker yesterday, but this time the sucker surfaced halfway between two other 'Voodoo' seedlings that are 18 inches apart.  Because it's so late in the growing season, I doubt that the sucker will be able to set a bloom.  I'm going to have to protect this little out-growth until next Spring, when hopefully a bloom will reveal who the lucky "parent" is.  For now, the photos below will have to suffice.

Photo taken:  October 13,  2019

Standing 2 inches tall
Photo taken:  October 13,  2019

Autumn mix

As we begin Autumn, it would be a good time to review the ground cover that spans my main rose bed.  The moss is getting greener, the liverworts persist in selected pockets, and the sagina (see Wikipedia) is turning brown and setting seed for another year.  Slime mold (you might have to check Wikipedia again) has made an appearance for the 5th year in a row, although later this year because of my changed watering pattern -- less frequent but somewhat deeper.  What would a garden be without some slime mold, like the kind seen in the second photo below.  You can also just catch a glimpse of it in the first photo -- just to the right of the sixth rose along the fence.

Early Autumn
Photo taken:  September 25,  2019

Slime mold
Photo taken:  September 25,  2019

Update of September 27, 2019:             For the first time ever, yellow slime mold has appeared in my rose garden.  It is really quite striking compared to the white variety that has visited the garden for the past 5 years.  It suddenly appeared yesterday, and was ready for a photo opportunity this morning.  It appeared close to the base of one of my 'Queen Elizabeth' seedlings which is displaying some very pretty blooms in late September, as you can see in the first photo below.  There's the yellow slime mold in the second photo, conforming to the jagged shapes of the bed of moss.

Photo taken:  September 27,  2019

Yellow slime mold
Photo taken:  September 27,  2019

Kaleidoscope roses

Sometimes I like to show my roses in a different light, and today it will be through the lens of a kaleidoscope.   I had a notion that somewhere out on the WEB was a site that allowed one to run their photos (in my case, rose photos) through some kind of magic kaleidoscope generator.  Lucky for me, I found a great site that allowed me to convert a couple of my photos.  The results were pretty decent, as you can see below.  The roses are seedlings derived from a 'Queen Elizabeth' parent.

Here's a link to the website that I used -- http://funny.pho.to/kaleidoscope-photo-effect/

Unwelcome "vacation"

It's been almost two months since I last posted something to this blog.  A prolonged illness really cut down on my ability to properly care for the 90+ rose bushes in my yard.  But I'm back now, and the roses are getting the care that they deserve.  I dusted off  my camera this morning and took a couple of photos of the indomitable roses that persisted despite a bit of neglect.   There was a pretty bloom on one of my 'Queen Elizabeth' roses today -- this rose variety has a very honest pink color and just the right number of petals.  In the background is the main rose bed populated by many rose seedlings whose maturity has helped them weather the storm.

Photo taken:  August 17,  2019
A 'Queen Elizabeth' bloom

Photo taken:  August 17,  2019
The 'QE' bloom is in the foreground

A new "underdog" rose bush award

I'm sorry that last year didn't provide a 3rd annual underdog award candidate, but at least I have a stellar performer this year.  This rose bush, born on Jan 29, 2010, is finally showing signs of life in its 10th growing season.  Not only that, but I had to upgrade its bloom status from double (17 - 25 petals) to very full (41 or more petals).  Based on a couple of photos that I took yesterday morning, see if you agree with my assessment --

Photo taken:  June 21,  2019

Photo taken:  June 21,  2019

Morning and Evening

The roses are beginning to really look good here in late May.   Just this morning I spotted a pretty dragonfly still asleep in his safe haven.  The day wouldn't be complete without a photo of a peaceful rose bed in the evening light -- I stood on a bench to get a better vantage point to see over the tops of roses that are reaching for the sky.

9:26 am     May 29,  2019

8:36 pm    May 29,  2019

Update of June 11,  2019:     I  couldn't resist taking another "evening  photo" today.   Even though this rose has blooms of just 5 petals, I consider it one of my prettiest.  The bloom shown below in particular has a diameter of 3½ inches.  The sun is setting much later this time of the year, so there is still plenty of light to accentuate the whiteness.

8:03 pm     June 11,  2019

The "Rose Year" begins

The "rose year" begins a bit late this year, with one of my German seedlings offering the first open bloom.  The lateness means that blooms will span approximately 6 months in my garden, but I'll take whatever I can get.  There's a photo of the pretty bloom below, as well as a background photo of its immediate surroundings.

Photo taken:  May 8,  2019

Photo taken:  May 8,  2019

You might be wondering why I call this rose bush one of my "German" seedlings.  You might also be curious about all the taller roses which I have also grown from seed.  What about the interesting "ground cover".  And, is that a suspended CD in the first photo ?  For some answers, my friends, please continue reading my blog.

The year begins

Happy New Year !     This is the first year that I have added a post on DAY 1.  I've crafted a special treat for you, a collage which features one of my prettiest rose seedlings.  You may have seen it in some of my earlier posts, but it deserves to be honored again.  It is a seedling resulting from self-pollination of one of my 'Queen Elizabeth' roses, and is my only seedling with perfectly tipped petals.  For their help in making the collage below, I am deeply indebted to 2 wonderful web sites --  photofuneditor.com   and  befunky.com.

Happy New Year !