Handicapped Gardener

 

 

In early April, since I’m unstable standing or walking, I thought I would trim the unruly Sunny  Knockout ® Rose sitting on my roll-a-long walker.  I gathered all my equipment and settled next to the bush with my hand pruner.  Imagine my surprise when my hands we no longer strong enough to squeeze my favorite Felco pruner.

 

I ended up using  Fiskar’s Power Gear loppers  -  a little heavy for my weak arms but it was possible  for me to make cuts. I keep trying to find ways to work in the garden with my limited strength and balance.

  

See Sunny  Knockout® Roseblog August  28, 2010   

Inclusion Body Myositus (IBM) blog June 10, 2012   

Sunny Knock® Out Rose

Picture July 2009

Sunny Knock Out® is not my favorite rose.

Picture June 2010

I bought Sunny Knock Out® in May 2009.
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It has good points. It has been black spot resistant even though it is planted next to roses that have the fungus disease. It blooms all summer. I water the roses periodically but it seems to be more drought tolerant than the other roses and keeps a deep green leaf color.

But - It is not as pretty as some of the other Knock Out® varieties. As the only fragrant variety, I haven’t noticed any fragrance. The bright yellow blooms fade quickly to a dull cream. It doesn’t need dead heading but it looks like this most of the summer.

Pictures August 2010

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Old Rose

Rosa 'Zephirine Drouhin' (Zeff-e-REEN Drew-HEEN) thornless Bourbon rose


I seem to be enamored of roses this spring. Or maybe it’s a very good year for roses. Or maybe I’m just taking more time to stop and smell the roses.

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This pretty rose is on an arbor at Miller’s House Garden behind the Lukenbach Mill in Bethlehem’s Colonial Industrial Quarter. 'Zephirine Drouhin' was introduced in 1868.

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Jill M. Nicolaus on davesgarden.com wrote, “Sweetly scented, fluffy pink blooms, tough as nails, shade tolerant, and nearly thornless…does that sound like your average hybrid rose?” Jill explains her experience with this rose.

‘Kathleen Harrop’, another old Bourbon rose. grows on the opposite side of the arbor. It is also thornless and a sport of ‘Zepherine Drouhin’.
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Most of the plants at Miller’s House Garden are labeled. You can pick up a plant map in the little message box on the left side of the entrance path. The garden is maintained by the Bethlehem Garden Club.

(More info on 'Zephirine Drouhin' from NC State University here.)

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Bethlehem Rose Garden

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This week was a perfect time to visit the Bethlehem Rose Garden. Roses are in full bloom. Rows of color fill the park.

The varieties aren’t marked. This spectacular color caught my eye.

A pretty combination.

Exquisite white.

As I walked through, I stopped at the war memorials around the garden.

With Memorial Day a few days away, I thought of the poem we learned in elementary school.

In Flanders Fields
Lieutenant Colonel John McCrae, MD (1872-1918) Canadian Army

In Flanders Fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses row on row,
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below…

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Have a wonderful Memorial day and THANK YOU to the men and women of the U.S. Armed Forces.

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Garden Bloggers’ Bloom Day - May 2010

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My garden is in the tweens – between the end of the rhododendrons and the beginning of the roses. But there are some colorful flowers this month.

The allium (Giant Persian Blue) blooms have quadrupled in number from the five bulbs I planted seven years ago.

Lupine (Russell Hybrid) enjoys a warm spot along a blank wall.

The deep pink rhody and white iris are one of the last of their type to bloom.

A single rose on the arbor holds the promise of more to come.

Bloom day is hosted every month by Carol at May Dreams Gardens. Click on the links to garden blooms around the world. You can also enjoy Carol’s work with a garden designer and watch her vegetable garden evolve on her award-winning blog. Thank you Carol.

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In Search of Lost Roses

In Search of Lost Roses By Thomas Christopher (1989)

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I’m back in my Winter Gardener mode – time to read garden books.

This little book introduced me to the Rose Rustlers - a posse of Texas old rose enthusiasts that gather in November to scour the countryside in search of lost roses. (The term “old rose enthusiasts” does not refer the age of the rustler.)

They start out with buckets and shovels to find roses of Texas’s past. They search through cemeteries, abandoned towns, fields and private yards. Their sense of adventure and quest for discovery encompasses a passion that rivals Columbus. Texas hot, dry climate makes roses that have survived for decades truly a treasure. I would like to read more of their personal adventures.

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(Climbing Rose Blaze - 1932)

Lost Roses chronicles rose history from the wild roses of Greece and Rome through Napoleon’s Josephine’s 10,000 seedlings. Roses that crisscrossed continents with opium traders and settlers. China’s natural order to modern hybridization and genetic engineering. Damask, bourbon, gallca, cyrene, moss and many others are carefully indexed.

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(‘Madame Isaac Pereire’ - Bourbon 1881)

As I read I sometimes googled the rose mentioned to get an idea of what it looked like. With only a thimble of old rose understanding, I found tracing roses from France, Italy, Greece, England, China and America complicated. But, I came away with an appreciation of the depth of knowledge necessary to identify the old roses. The book illustrates the obsessive passion of old rose collectors.

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Roses in June

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June is the month for roses. But, this week’s rain has definitely put a crimp in my rose viewing pleasure.

I snapped a few pictures between rainy days.

Rose ‘Blaze’ (above) has bright red blooms every year. It’s an outstanding color. We’ve seen people stop and take pictures with the roses as a background. It’s been in the family for two generations – propagated by burying part of a cane. I remember having the red roses in a vase at my graduation party. Family lore says it was originally liberated from Bethlehem’s Nisky Hill Cemetery.
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Rose ‘Madam Isaac Pereire’

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Black Spot

I do the best I can to prevent black spot. I use compost tea on the roses every two or three weeks. I spray canes and leaves with baking soda water in early spring and several times during the year - (1 gallon water, 2 tbs. baking soda, few drops of dish soap). I change the top layer of mulch in spring and fall. I make an effort to keep the beds free of fallen leaves and water only in the morning with a soaker hose.

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Rose ‘Mrs. Baker’

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I try to stay relaxed about black spot. If the roses get a little black spot it doesn't seem to cause permanent damage. The roses are healthy and there are plenty of other flowers in the garden by the time black spot appears.

Knock Out roses are supposed to be disease resistant. I’ve wanted to try a Knock Out rose for years. I have also wanted to add a yellow rose to the garden.

A $5 off sale at the local nursery on the new ‘Sunny Knock Out’ clinched the deal. Although the bright yellow roses fade to pale cream, the saving grace may be their fragrance. I can’t wait to see how it performs this summer.

I don't think 'Sunny Knock Out' will be any competition to the family status of ‘Blaze’ but it should be a nice addition to the rose bed.

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(More information on black spot from Doug Green and from Virginia Cooperative Extension,)

(Background in the top picture is for Donna at Mama Mia Days.)

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The Winter Gardener

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The Fragrant Year by Helen Van Pelt Wilson and Leonie Bell

Some books give you that warm, fuzzy feeling. This is one of them.

Published in 1967 as collaboration between internationally known writer, lecturer and gardener Helen Van Pelt Wilson and expert plant illustrator Leonie Bell, The Fragrant Year is full of information for a scented garden.

The romantic style created a pause from holiday stress for me. Wilson writes with a love of plants evident in her poetic pen.

Chapter 15, “Autumn Aromas”, begins –

“Summer slips so gently into autumn, and the warm lush scents of plants in full leaf change so imperceptibly to the crisp dry smell of those soon to fall, that until the one low branch on the great sugar maple above the rock ledge turns significantly to gold we are hardly aware of the slow passing of another year.”

After reading through the somewhat long list of plant fragrance classifications, I suspect my unsophisticated nose would not be able to make the distinctions. I’ll have to take the authors’ word on the nuances of fragrance.

The information is precise. The authors lived and gardened in zone 6. Varieties of plants sorted by season and listed by botanical name fill the book.

The longest chapter “Just Roses” contains rose history as well as a discussion of varieties, their growth habits and scent.

In the section “The Bourbons":

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“By the end of the nineteenth century, ’Mme. Isaac Pereire’ had become a favorite. Considered one of the most fragrant of all roses it provided pounds of petals for the potpourris then so popular. . . . Bushes grow to 6 feet and some canes reach higher; bending them down discourages bloom.”

(Photo: In my garden - Bourbon Rose, Madame Isaac Pereire, 1881)

The book provides transportation to an earlier time. Whether read from beginning to end, taken in small doses or browsed by areas of interest, it is a lovely guide to building a scented garden.
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Garden Bloggers Bloom Day - November 2008

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(Christmas cactus – earliest of my cacti to bloom, white with a pink tint. )

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In the comments on my October Bloom Day post, HappyMouffetard said, “Welcome to GBBD. It's addictive, and makes you look at your garden with fresh eyes each month.”

She is right. It creates “stop and smell the roses moment.” It is addictive. Another great idea from Carol at May Dreams Gardens. I'm glad I got these pictures taken before the last two days of rain.

(Can you guess the blooms I would not have noticed if it wasn’t for GBBD? HINT: most of them.)

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Deep pink mum – a potted Easter gift - planted in ‘06 and moved in ‘07.

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Yellow mum volunteer – 2nd year.


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Calendula – re-seeds every year. Another reminder of my Grandmother’s garden.

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Sweet alyssum – continues its perfume in the autumn sun.



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Dusty Miller – flower bud removed. Proof in the picture.

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Rose – climber ‘Don Juan’ – the last rose of summer.




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Lamium – Dead Nettle under the locust tree – either ‘Elizabeth de Haas’ or ‘Purple Dragon’

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Nicotiana – another re-seeding annual

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Snap Dragon – stands bravely against the frost.

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Red Azalea – silly shrub thinks it’s spring.

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Also not pictured:
Sedum seiboldii – October Daphne – at the end of it’s color.
Lavender ‘Grosso’ – a few fall blooms.

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Frost

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Now you see 'em.
Now you don’t.

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The first frost happened here on October 20. The annual canna dig-out started shortly after. I used the same process as my November 10, 2007 post.

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The pile of rhizomes is large again this year. I will only keep the bunch in the foreground. The others will be given away to anyone who comes to get them. The rest will be compost. I don’t have room to store more than one container full of rhizomes.

The beautiful coleus are all brown and shriveled. They will be added to the compost.

Before frost.

After frost.

I removed most of the zinnia, cleome, impatiens and other annuals. I’ll get the marigolds and petunias later this week. The pots have been put away. I trimmed the holly. I’ll clean up the prickly leaves that fell on the ground.

It’s a little early to put the roses to bed. In the next few weeks, I’ll trim the long branches, clean up and remove all the fallen leaves. I’ll spray the canes with my baking soda/water solution. Then I’ll cover the base with a hefty layer of mulch. According to some experts, this should be done after the ground freezes. But, if I wait for the ground to freeze, the mulch is also frozen. Did you ever try to shovel frozen mulch?

My biggest incentive for all this fall cleanup is spring. There is too much to do in spring. Any cleanup I can get done in fall, will give me more time for other jobs in spring.

There will be plants to divide and plants to move. Ornamental grasses to cut and dig out. The brick garden edging that didn’t get moved this year will be started next spring (I hope). Then there’s mulch and compost to spread. Weeding will begin anew.

I always eagerly await the garden work after a cold, dark winter. Can you imagine?

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Watering the Garden

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This year I’m trying to get through the summer without watering my garden. I’m trying to conserve water and save money.

Of course, the potted plants need to be watered. I watered some of the annuals when they drooped. New perennials need water until they are established. But, I’m talking about hours of soaker hose watering of the entire perennial garden.

I’m talking about what will live in my climate without extra water.

Fortunately, we’ve had a year with adequate rain, until now. After a few weeks of no rain, heat, and humidity the soil has turned concreteous. Mulch, free from Bethlehem’s Compost Center, is indispensable. I am amazed at what is surviving (make that looking pretty good) without any extra water.

Some of the perennials have slowed blooming but are still very alive. The purple cone flowers look a little tired.

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Roses are struggling but blooming. The Japanese anemone, asters and mums have set buds.

The ground cover lemon thyme and creeping jenny do not seem to have a problem.

The mum ‘Clara Curtis’ doesn’t seem to mind being dry at all. In fact, ‘Clara Curtis’ continues to bloom and bloom.

As I said, this has been a year with adequate rain. And I woke up this morning to a little less than half an inch of rain in the rain gauge. I’m not saying I will never turn the soakers on but I’ve learned that I can do with a lot less watering than I thought. We’ll see how brave I am during a drought.

I’m thinking about a rain barrel. Raising vegetables is another story.

What’s your strategy for watering?

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