Tuesday, Jul. 25, 2006 – 5:51 p.m.
2006-07-25 5:51
ok… enought trying to go back and catch up…. I never seem to get around to it.
SO: This past sunday I got out into the rose garden for the first time in a while. It really needed weeding and was still suffering the effects of being chewed up by Japanese Beetles. The good news is that beetle season is about over. I only found about a dozen or so. Dropped them in the soapy water; so satisfying. I did some dead heading and then dived into weeding the two beds farthest from the house. They are the ones that needed it the most. After weeding one bed, I had to go get another trashcan because the first was pretty much full. I also got around to pruning the Rosa Mundi patch. Unlike most modern roses, Rosa Mundi grows as a “patch” of slender canes up from the ground. It doesn’t branch much but it does spread via canes that run along the surface or just under the mulch. So it goes through much of the bed and I have to hack it out of the areas where I DON’T want it. In the process, I also pruned out dead canes from the Madame Hardy and Rembrandt. Because this was all long thin dead branches, it didn’t get put in the trashcan; I just piled it up as a big prickly pile. I need to find some twine and “bind it” so the trash folk will pick it up (hope they are wearing gloves…) Weeding the other bed filled up the other trashcan. If I prune anymore this week, I will have to use one of the paper bags.
Note to self: Next time you decide to prune and weed like that, WEAR YOUR LONG GAUNTLET GLOVES! My arms look like I have been in a cat fight.
Let see… June was the wettest June on record. I would tell you how much I got but I had to replace the batteries in my remote raingage and that ended up clearing it.
I did spray with Merit (for Japanese beetles), Banner-Maxx (for fungus), and and Messenger over the 4th of July weekend. I need to do the 3×3 application of Mancozeb to knock down the black spot but given how wet June was, I am a little surprised it isn’t worse.
Looks like one of the stems I got back in May at the rose show might have rooted. Most of the leaves have fallen but I did notice some new growth on one of the three stems. I also lost one of the O.S. Cherokee roses that I rooted over the winter. I had ended up with three rooted cuttings (two OS Cherokee Roses and a Francesca), out of 10 rooting attempts, but when I repotted them, one of the Cherokee roses must have gotten damaged because it just wilted and dried up.
I did lay out new 1/2″ watering hose in the center diamond bed. I had been using the 1/4″ hose but I just ended up with too many bushes in that area and I don’t think it was working all that well. Now I have the garden hose connected to a 1/2″ supply hose on which I have attached a number of 1/4″ hose sections that go to individual plants.
I also need to tie-up the climbing Souv. dela Malmaison. It is getting to the point where it too is reaching out and grabbing me when I walk by doing things like mowing the lawn.
Let’s see… what is blooming right now…. Going from memory: Blaze, Peace, Europeana, the Fairy (of course!), White Pet, Iceburg (but not a lot), Centergold, Crepuscule, Alister Stella Gray, KittyHawk, Miss Flippens, Fragrant Cloud. That’s about all that come to mind. Of course, a bunch had bloomed earlier but took heavy hits from the beetles: Perfect Moment, Suffolk, Scentimental, Glowing Peace, French Lace, The Prince, Artistry, Voodoo, and Queen Elizabeth fall into that catagory.
Enough for now.