Ring-around-the-rosey a Success!

A while ago, I went on at length about my plan to disguise the ugly stump of a Theves poplar in my lawn by ringing it with roses. Exactly two years ago I cleaned up the firespot (we'd tried to burn it out) and planted white and pink shrub roses between the roots, and a rose I've been calling "wild" in the middle, just against the stump. They did well last year, though there wasn't a lot of bloom.

Well, this is it, two years on. The shrub roses aren't getting big very fast (though to be fair, they started out as tiny little offshoots). However, the wild one is loving the position and the encouragement. It's not actually wild. I have been seeing it everywhere in municipal and private plantings, so it must be available commercially. I don't yet know its name, but I am scouring the rose books, looking for it. Up close, the individual flowers are single, with a heart-shaped petal, and they are pink in the bud, with a bit of a pink tinge even when open.  I think it might be "Pleine de Grace" The pink rose underneath is Pink Grootendorst, given to me by my friend Henry last year. It bloomed last year, and it's blooming again. Lovely.

I was in Summerside yesterday, and they have a lot of shrub roses in their municipal plantings, particularly along the seaside boardwalks. They seem to prune them quite successfully to keep them in shape (though their wild ones like mine are showing new growth above the pruning line, like mine above). I'm not sure whether it will bloom again on the old growth, so I am leaving it alone for this year. If it turns out NOT to bloom on old growth then I'll be able to keep it in line by pruning.

The bed beside the Ring-around-the-rosey is looking well at the moment. I put a sucker of the rosa Gallica Tuscan Superb in the middle last year, and this year it's shyly blooming. The liatris is looking likely to bloom soon, and the pink astilbe is blooming away quite happily. The ubiquitous feverfew is all over the place, of course. I thought for a while that I had three kinds, but now I think the daisy-like ones have centres which keep coming out so they get fluffy in the middle. There's a taller astilbe in the next part of the bed, not blooming yet because it's in shade, like the pink one should be!!

The red climbing rose Henry Kelsey on the Celtic trellis is doing quite well, although the Dublin Bay has yet to bloom this year (you can just see a tiny sprig in the bottom of the photo). The foliage is there but no blooms so far. In other rose news Celestial is out, although it has been damaged by bugs and weather, so no blooms which would look good in a photograph so far. The Royal Bonica has two huge buds, so I'm hoping that today's wind and/or tomorrow's rain don't damage them too much. I think I've decided that the mystery rose in the bed along the south is de Montarville. I saw a photo which looked a lot like it, and the name sounds familiar. It is just coming in to bloom now, as it had a bit of a breakage problem after the winter. It seems to cope with being broken down (or gnawed by mice!) so perhaps that's what I should plan to do to it, if ever it isn't devastated some spring.

Summertime tasks abound

persicaria affinis

Much progress has been made since last I wrote. The best thing has been the discovery of The Flower Patch - we've been back for more plants, including some yellow iris for Karen (she babysat the cats while we were in Halifax) and the rest were groundcovers - persicaria affinis "Superba",  saxifraga x arendsii "Purple Robe", a campanula "White Clips"and a couple more. They are in the bed around the south lawn for now - I'm developing the lasagne beds on the west side and they - or their progeny - will go in there later.

East-west bed, on the edge of the south lawn

In Halifax I bought a mountain laurel (Kalmia latifolia "Heart of Fire") and a couple of perennials - groundcover again, a variegated bugleweed and another campanula, blue this time, I think. We bought them at the Lakeland Plant World in Dartmouth.What a place. Any plant you could want is there, I think.
Anne and I (mostly Anne) tidied up the beds around the south lawn and planted a lot of the groundcovers in there, after edging the beds and doing some mulching. Looks good. The snowballs and spirea have mostly gone over by now, but they were spectacular while they were on.
Roses are coming along, now that we have been having some sun on a regular basis. The 'wild' rose is starting, with one of the Pink Grootendorst underneath, and Samuel Holland is peeping out. The rugosas on the mound are doing well - Blanc de Coubert, Snow Pavement, Alba, Hansa, and Marie Bugnet. Celestial is looking healthier now - should be a good bloom season.

Too busy to post...

 The greenhouse, tidied up. Needs a few more shelves, and doors at both ends, I think, to get the breeze through. So, currently, the things in there are enjoying shelter but not exactly warm greenhouse conditions.
I have planted all the tomatoes out in the garden (except the 6 I plan to keep indoors, 2 Sweet Million, and 4 Early Girl). I need a couple of tomato cages and they will all be ready for the growing season. I also put in the ground cherries and the rhubarb in the lasagne bed yesterday, and planted carrots, more lettuce and spinach, and a short row of beets. I'm really getting into this succession planting lark.
I managed to get most of the plants from Veseys $2 sale, which had been soaking overnight, potted up, Now to wait until they are a bit bigger before putting them out in the garden beds.  Some of them looked quite healthy - and others are definite long shots.
We dug a trench in the western garden and put in the willow twigs - we have been keeping them in water, and the ones with their heads covered have done best. However, they apparently root readily anywhere so we are hopeful.

Must go arrange dinner, as we are at Small Halls tonight! Cynthia MacLeod, Tony McManus, and Nuala Kennedy.

Visits to Plants

Anne and I set out yesterday to visit greenhouses and plant sources in the East, mainly on the lookout for groundcover plants, and willows.
Started at Jewells, where there were lots of big begonias and pelargoniums but nothing much that was unique at all. I did get a pot rhubarb, Anne found a yellow-flowered groundcover, and I got some liquid tomato food, of which I have heard such good reports. Then we went to Veseys. They were having a sale on all of their remaining roots and bulbs, all at $2 a bag. Most were quite dried up, but we got 8 different things - three geraniums, a couple of calla lilies, some white liatris, oxalis, and firecracker plants, whatever they are. We soaked them overnight, and will pot them up and monitor their progress before putting them out to fend for themselves in the garden. Also got two more packets of bean seeds, as the ones I planted have not shown - I think the seed was bad. I also picked up carrot seeds because I suddenly remembered that I hadn't bought any. Have to put those in today. We dropped in to the York Greenhouses but again didn't see much.
Then we went to Covehead and had fish lunch on the wharf (I had a lobster roll - delicious!) while looking at the following view:
 

Then we drove cross-country and ended up in Orwell, headed to Wood Islands first, to the Island Pride Nursery, where Anne found a gorgeous climbing hydrangea ($29.99) and I got a couple of groundcovers, a moss phlox in white and another thing with pink flowers. Can't remember the name right now, but it feels like that plastic "parsley" they used to put between meat trays at the butchers. Then, on the way back, we followed a sign to The Flower Patch on the Glasvin Road in Pinette, and WHAT a Place!

We didn't know how much the plants were going to cost, so just bought three things, a little cushion dianthus (SWEET) a big bunch of Iris Siberica in White Swirl, and a gorgeous Japanese Iris in Wine:

ISN'T it LOVELY??


I have planted it in the middle of the N-S bed - there were two big blooming ones in the clump. Total cost? $12. That's $4 each, folks. Race down there and buy this lady's plants. They are field-grown, weed-free, healthy, and there are shrubs too.



On the way back we drove down to Orwell Cove, just to admire the view, and found this gorgeous rugosa rose growing wild on the side of the road - it's single like mine but a deep, deep pink. There were cinnamon roses too.
Here they are:

And then we found a clump of WILLOW!! so we picked a few samples. We are on the hunt of willow that we can propagate and make into willow things - furniture, living fences, that sort of thing. Can't find any trees for sale (except pussy willow and weeping willow) but whatever kind this was it was hardy, had long branches, and its feet were in the water.

Greenhouse is Up!

 So, we got the hoops up without any trouble at all, and then this morning Anne and I fastened the three lines of strapping to the hoops- one across the centre of the ceiling, and two at the sides. They are much sturdier now that they have been joined together. Naturally it was raining, so we couldn't put up the skin. However, I did finish potting on my seed-raised strawberries, which are looking healthy. Then I had lunch, and after it was drier (and even a bit windy) so I pulled up the two pieces of plastic to see if they would dry - enough to tape them together, anyway. This greenhouse is smaller than the tent, so my shorter piece fit fine, and the longer one probably needs to be cut off. I put the railway ties on the edges, as it was still windy and the canopy was threatening to take flight.

I then went on to work on the raspberries - I used all of the two reels of 12 ga. wire and could use one more - however that took care of 7 of 8 of the needed strands. I then cut up a lot of green polarfleece into strips and got busy tying up the canes. They are still a bit bent over but at least you can get through the rows, and there wasn't too much damage to the fruiting canes - and none to next year's crop, as far as I know. There are still lots of WEEDS, but I've pulled out a lot and could do a lot more.

The greenhouse is 12 x 15 feet, and the hoops were all 20 feel long, so it is about 6 foot or a bit more high at the centre. I don't know exactly how I'm going to fit the door, but we're planning a visit to Lee Valley - they have clips to fit 3/4-inch plastic pipe, and a stick-on zipper for construction sites that might work. 

I have all the remaining plants back in, although I should try to get the annuals out into the garden this week, before we go to Halifax later. I may have to get Karen to water the plants as well as feed the cats!
The roses are still struggling to come out. I did have a Souvenir de Philemon Cochet partially out to day, but there just isn't any warmth in the sun (even when it is out) so I am not expecting any big flush of roses anytime soon.

Greenhouse assembly ready to go

I finally have all the pieces necessary for raising my greenhouse again from the dust. I am planning to use the railway ties (instead of 2 x 6s) to hold down the plastic since that part, at least, worked with the former, tent greenhouse. This way I shall be able to open it, should it get too hot inside. I think I want to have a door at each end, for cross-ventilation. And perhaps that oscillating fan will be useful in there as well.
It was NOT sunny at the PGI yesterday, in fact, if it got above 12 degrees I would be very surprised. It was mighty chilly on the old North shore. Lobster lunch at New Glasgow was excellent, though, and far, far more than I usually eat at lunch!
And it looks like we may be getting a break in the weather. Or else the weatherman is tired of all the complaints and is lying. I am hopeful, though, because Anne arrives today, and we have some serious Small Halls concerts to attend!! As well as the usual visiting and gardening and so forth.

Two burgundy tree peonies out today. If it would only warm up, I would have quite a few roses, too. C'mon, sun!
Because I'm outdoors so much, knitting has suffered a bit. However, I am making reasonable progress on the stranded "Thistle" shawl, and I just have to finish the toes on my illusion socks. Then, I should try to complete one of the two Briggs & Little sweaters that have been on the go for so long.

Peony and Iris Time

We put the rest of the raspberry posts in on the weekend - we ran into some issues with the septic tile, which is lurking just 16 inches below the surface, so we decided to brace the posts, rather than putting in a middle one. I bought 12 big zinc screweyes and 200 feet of 12 ga. galvanized wire. It's chilly out again today, and rain is threatened for this afternoon, so I may not even get a sample wire put up today - and tomorrow I'm volunteering at the PGI (it's supposed to be sunny, drat) so I am cleaning house and doing some baking, as my sister arrives on Friday for a visit.
I ordered my rebar for the greenhouse - it comes in 20-foot pieces! but luckily they are going to cut them up into 2.5 foot pieces for me. They only had 6 pieces of conduit (I need 16) so I will pick it up in Summerside when I pick up Fred tomorrow after the golf. They have 25 pieces in stock at Kent in Summerside. They might have some more of the screweyes too. I need four more.

The burgundy tree peony is blooming (it didn't bloom last year) and it's gorgeous. It's also the first of the three to come out. The white one took a kicking from the snow and its trunk was broken (I must stake them next year), so it's just coming back, and no blooms this year. But the pink one has three buds as well. Last year I was a bit disappointed that they bloomed so early, but I'm pleased this year - they make a nice bridge to other, later blooms.

The white iris has been out for some time, but the other-coloured ones are not out yet. I have quite a few of those common blue-and-yellow ones to divide and move - and share - after they bloom.

I planted some more vegetable garden yesterday, 4 Sweet Million and 8 Early Girl tomatoes, 10 zucchini and 5 shallots. I have the other bed-and-a-half to prep. I put the other two Sweet Million in pots - I am hoping to be able to raise them in the greenhouse, and maybe some of the Early Girl as well (and extend the tomato season). I have found more asparagus coming up - there are now 6 plants (of the 10 I planted), and one of them is already branching.  When they get a bit of headway I hill them up with soil-and-manure. I don't want to fill in the whole trench, as I still have hope of the other 4 showing up.
I also planted some of the cleome I started from seed - I'm pulling out the forget-me-nots and weeds in the middle of the borders and plopping them in - they are still small but they seem vigorous. There are many more to go as well.
Helen gave me a bag of gladiolus that Veseys had given her and she didn't want, so I potted them up too. No more putting bulbs and corms in without starting first (in the spring, anyway. Wouldn't work with fall bulbs!!).
I had dropped in to the York Greenhouses on Tuesday and got three kinds of tomato plants (Sweet Million, Roma and Early Girl), two flats of impatiens (pink), lobelia (bush-type, white) and white begonia, with green leaves this time. I also got a flat of 6 amaranthus with burgundy leaves. The low stuff is for the edges of the borders, and the amaranthus is for a change from cleome!