Summer 2017-1

Spring showers came late this year and the Summer heat came early. I think I switched from AC to heat and back at least twice each week lately. But the garden is lush and blooming.

 Yellow Primrose.

Pink Primrose.

 This Christmas Amaryllis has never bloomed this nicely...it's at least 15 years old.

Rose Campion

Red Hot Poker

A pass-along Siberian Iris from my brother.

 Red Lily

White Lily

Yarrow is just starting to bloom.

The last of the peonies...this is a beauty.

 Audrey Hepburn rose...very delicate.

St. Cecilia rose

 Gruss an Aachen rose

First Crush rose

This may be the last picture of First Crush since I noticed the witches broom (RRD) growth on a branch and cut it back to the graft. This works about 30-40 percent of the time. Over the last four years I've lost over 50 roses to RRD. It's a war of attrition to plant more roses than I dig. I take cuttings, shop the big box bag roses, and the mail order clearance sales for replacements. I ordered some end of the season bare root roses from one of the mail order nursery's a couple of weeks ago. A mixture of 5 roses for $9.95 with $3.00 shipping. A real bargain!!!!!  They took a week to arrive and I got them planted between rain drops last week. I was surprised at how healthy they were. I've never planted this late. I'll know this fall whether it was a good idea to plant them out in the garden rather than pot them up.