Roses

Here's a photo of the Moondance rose in bloom.

Today I fertilized the roses on the east side of the garden and the Spellbound roses in front with Bayer. I'll need another day for the rose garden but it may have to wait until after Easter. I spent a few days this week weeding the garden and mulching. Also planted six mail order replacement lavender that arrived this week. I moved two this morning that did not look well in hopes of saving them. I tried one in a pot and the other in a dryer place in the garden. It will be interesting to see if any survive and if the company replaces them for a 3rd time (or is it the 4th?).

Finally Spring

A really good gardening day weather and time-wise. I spread weed & feed on the front lawn and sprinkled cayenne pepper in the front rose planter. The four Spellbound roses seem to be doing well there despite the cat that digs around them and leaves little gifts. The cayenne seems to deter the cat somewhat but there is still digging going on. Buds are forming on the Spellbound roses so I am looking forward to blooms soon.

The new Moondance rose and the Bella Roma are in bloom in the rose garden. Something has eaten one of the Bella's buds and I hate to spray that bush. The hummingbird made her nest there last year. I have seen two hummers in the garden recently, a male and female but no sign of a nest. The Double Delight tree rose had one mostly white bloom and now is putting out a lot of buds. The iceberg tree roses should be covered in flowers in two weeks, just in time for Easter. One Veterans Honor near the back of the garden has buds but not the one in the rose garden. I did some weeding and separated some of the daffodils that are multiplying. I moved the freesia from the front to the backyard where they should suit other plantings and fall over the sidewalk and not the driveway. Perhaps I'll plant more daffodils in the front along the drive. Finally I need to move a lavender that is too close to a sprinkler in the front yard. I think I'll look for a rose or one of those pink flowering shrubs I see all over town to put there.

Pre-spring rose gardening

Moving the four Spellbound roses took a lot more work than expected mostly because of problems preparing the front planter. I moved all the plants to the backyard garden except one small carousel rose. I couldn't get it dug out. There were lots of roots in the planter from the tree in the front yard. DH came to the rescue but the little rose had to be cut apart from the tree root and could not be saved.

Then it was discovered that one of the sprinklers was leaking and needed repair. Finally the soil could be prepared and yesterday the four roses were moved. I had soaked them a couple of times during the week so they came out of the ground easily. The new soil in the front bed was also easy to dig. After they were transplanted I fertilized with a mixture of Alfalfa Meal (full box), SulPoMag (1/2 box) and iron (bag), sprinkling about a cup around each rose. This was covered with Rose Grow and watered in. All the roses in the garden were given this feeding. Today we mulched and now we wait to see how these roses do in their new bed.

Early Spring

The weather recently in the 909 has been beautiful and spring-like. I went to a class on rose care at Armstrong and found this is the time to move roses so I've been preparing to move 3 Spellbound roses that aren't doing well. One is overwhelmed by the giant lavender and the other two may not get enough sun. I moved one last year and it did better but not great. So far I have pulled all the bulbs from the front planter and dug out the sprinklers to replace them with longer stems. If it's not too windy today, we'll change out the sprinklers, move two azaleas to a shady corner in the back and add soil to the planter. I may save the actual move of the roses until next weekend as it's pretty windy today.

Moondance

I planted a new rose today; Moondance. We bought it driving through Santa Barbara at a nursery with a huge variety of roses. I had seen it in the Jackson Perkins catalog but this was easier than mail order. It replaced a Weeks rose that never did well. I also pruned all the garden roses and just have a few left to prune in the front yard.

I'm going to try moving 3 Spellbound roses next weekend. They are not doing well where they are so I'll try them in the front planter which needs to be redone.

The photo shows the Moondance rose just a few weeks after planting.

Hummingbird again

I pulled out some geraniums that were taking over the sidewalk and a rosebush whose buds continually shriveled. It has a Weeks tag on it and most my others are from Jackson & Perkins.

As I walked along the sidewalk to the patio a hummingbird flew past and hovered near one of the potted lavender in bloom. Then it flew to the large lavender. I must have watched it for a full 5 minutes. This bird was particularly beautiful with red markings on each side of its head. It's such a treat having the humingbirds visit the garden.

Hummingbird

It was rainy yesterday but between showers I looked out the kitchen window. There was a hummingbird feeding off one of my new potted lavender. I watched it for more than a minute until it flew to the trees behind our house. We haven't seen them in the winter, perhaps because there isn't much for them to eat in our garden. We'll have to think about installing a feeder.