Wednesday, July 27, 2011

A Walk Through the Garden - Part II

Some roses really resent the heat and go dormant, but others don't mind it at all. Granted, the blooms are smaller and less fragrant, but on some plants there are still a lot of them. I try to cut as many as I can get to for the house: on the bush most blooms open in the morning and are gone by afternoon...

Violet Carson, a floribunda
This is my first year with campanula primulifolia (below). I am so glad I got it! 

Like all my other campanulas, it is summer and fall blooming. It is heat-tolerant too (it faces full west and gets lots of heat from the retaining wall right next to it), and the blooms are plentiful and showy in a nice soft blue.


It provides good vertical interest in the garden, and I hope that as time goes by, it will give me more and more flower spikes. 

This richly colored cabbage-like rose is Cynthia Brooke, a hybrid tea. I got it because its blooms resemble those of Soleil d'Or, a beautiful turn-of-the-century Pernetiana rose. Soleil d'Or itself is an ungainly blackspotted sparse plant stingy with blooms, and however gorgeous the blooms are, I passed on such an ugly plant. With Cynthia Brooke I am hoping to get beautiful blooms on a better looking bush, and so far I have been happy about its looks and disease resistance. 

I love the intricate patterns inside foxglove flowers. I have struggled to grow them (they fry in the heat but refuse to bloom in the shade), and finally found a place with a bit of filtered light where I can enjoy a few blooms.


There is a wide planting bed all along the backyard fence that I share with a neighbor. I love flowers, and so does he. He grows morning glory intertwined with the potato vine on our shared fence, while I am trying to grow climbing roses and squeeze in as many perennials as I can.. The result is a colorful tangle, messy but exuberant. Sometimes, I shake my head in frustration, but often I quite like it :).


Because of a long growing season, everything gets quite big. 

Classic Woman, a Romantica hybrid tea, easily reaches 7' by summer's end

The neighbor's vines are quite aggressive in trying to invade my garden and strangle my roses, so  they get severely pruned in winter to keep them at least somewhat contained. Lots of work, but pretty, if you don't mind your garden not looking tidy...


This is the time when the garden is at its peak, with most of my plants in bloom. However, I am already beginning to look forward to a wonderful October flush of roses, and fall foliage and first camellia blooms...

I love penstemons, and so do bees!

40 comments:

  1. Cudownie, ze wśród ukochanych róż masz inne śliczne kwiaty i tak ich dużo. Pozdrawiam ciepło

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  2. Hello, Masha!
    Oh, how lovely. Very enchanting pictures... So romantic... Everything is just perfect !!! So nice to see the beauty in your pictures! The have cheered me up immensely.

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  3. Dear Masha ~ Your roses and other bloomers are just beautiful! It must be such a treat to walk around your gardens. I love the back fence garden that you share with your neighbor.

    I also look forward to October. This heat and humidity really saps one of energy.

    Happy Summer Gardening ~ FlowerLady

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  4. You do have many flowers bees adore. Great photos too. My foxgloves bloom so early, then seed themselves, the bees really don't get a good shot at them. But like you, I like their patterning, which you don't see much unless you get in close.

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  5. Penstemon are one of my favorite plants but they do so poorly in our humidity. I think I might have better luck if I stick them in pots next summer and treat them like annuals. I have a native white penstemon that blooms briefly in early summer. It's blooms are pretty blah, unfortunately but the bees love it. I love your Cynthia Brooke roses! Have you ever grown Jude the Obscure or Tamora?

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  6. Thank you, Giga and Sandra. I am glad to hear from you.

    FlowerLady, thank you for the compliments. Spring and fall are the best times here too - warm and full of flowers.

    Donna, your foxgloves must look way better than mine - I just have a few straggly blooms...

    Casa Mariposa, most penstemons are native to the West Coast, but I have read about some that do well in the East. I will try to find where... I love Jude the Obscure, and will grow it always just for the fragrance. This year my plant started throwing 6' tall canes - I can't believe it! I passed on Tamora - I have a lot of roses with that myrrh fragrance which I don't really like, and it is particularly strong in Tamora. It is a great rose though...

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  7. Masha, your garden looks just wonderful! I love the variety of companion plants that you are growing together with the roses, this time especially campanula primulifolia caught my eye. I will check out Annie's Annuals for companion plants for my zone as you suggested in your last response to my comment, thanks for the tip! Your roses are of course gorgeous, too. 'Cynthia Brooke' is a very beautiful one, I like the flower form a lot. I am just curious how many roses are you growing by now?
    Christina

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  8. Christina, thank you and good luck with Annie's Annuals. I have a few plants from that nursery, and most do well for me. I don't know to a plant how many roses I have right now: I just SP'ed two this past weekend (Janet and Fragrant Masterpiece). A little over 100 probably....

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  9. Che foto meravigliose!Che stupendi colori!
    Ciao Luci@

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  10. The digitalis makes me want to stick my finger in, just like an ornery kid. lol. that is why they call them foxgloves, right?

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  11. Speaking of campanulas, you might enjoy 'La Belle' - tall spikes of double-flowered lavender. It looks really nice in rose arrangments. I'm impressed with its vigor in my garden!

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  12. I love that messy, exuberant look! Although, morning glories are not allowed in my garden as they spread everywhere! Love the blue spiky campanula.

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  13. I bought a packet of campanula seeds just because they were on sale. After seeing your campanulas (better than the picture on my seed packet) I can't wait for my little seedlings to flower.

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  14. I love the colors and flowers along the fence. The purples and blues of the morning glory's look so pretty together.

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  15. VW, thanks for the tip. I found "Telham Beauty" which is a single type of c. persicifolia, I might try it... There is never enough blue in my garden :)

    Holley, morning glories are not allowed here either, but there is no accounting for neighbors...

    B-a-g, there are different types of campanula - they vary widely in appearance. It will fun to see what yours will grow up to be!

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  16. Grazie, Luci, and nice to meet you! I am glad you like my blog. Thank you for letting me know.

    Greggo, I don't know... This is where my English is not good enough :)

    Lona, thank you. I love it too, I just wish they weren't so invasive...

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  17. Hi Masha! Your garden is so impressive in every season! :)

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  18. Grazie, Dona! I am glad to hear from you again.

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  19. Such a beautiful, romantic garden! It's always a treat to visit your roses, Masha, I am looking forward to our summer...

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  20. Thank you, klaraau01. I am looking forward to reading about your summer on your blog.

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  21. Beautiful Post. Love your mixture of annuals, roses and perennials, they blend so well together.

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  22. Thank you, RR. I am glad you like it.

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  23. Masha, le tue meravigliose rose.....i tuoi bellissimi fiori, hanno conquistato il mio cuore.
    Grazie per il bel pensiero che hai lasciato sul mio blog e mi unisco volentieri tra i tuoi follower. Felice giornata! Luci@

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  24. All your plants look so healthy. I too love Penstemons. Foxgloves too, they grow wild around here. I grew some white ones from seed last year.

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  25. That is a wonderful campanula. Thanks for sharing it!

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  26. Grazie, Luci, for your compliments, and thank you for joining my blog. I am looking forward to reading yours, too!

    Bridget, thank you, you are so lucky to have wild penstemons! We have to drive to see them.

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  27. Your roses, perennials, and photos are all gorgeous! The tangled bed that you share with your neighbor is a thing of beauty. :)

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  28. Thank you, Julie and Sweetbay. Sweetbay, that's how I think most of the time, except when I have to deal with the tangle...

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  29. Masha that campanula primulifolia looks wonderful and thick so it shouldn't fall over. I love the color of you penstemon, do you remember its name? You have beautiful colors in your garden, it would be nice to see pictures of wider areas because I'm very curious about it.
    Alberto.

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  30. Alberto, grazie. I am pretty sure the border penstemon is "Midnight", I love its color too. The wider areas are a bit of a problem to photograph technically because of high sun glare we have in here in the summer. For example taking a picture of that white rose above with dark blue morning glory is difficult because either the rose ends up over-exposed, or the morning glory under-exposed. The more flowers there are in the picture, the harder it becomes... I will try though :)

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  31. Yeah same problem here. Pics taken with morning or evening light could be stunning though. Otherwise I try to accumulate as much pics as I can during gray days.

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  32. Beautiful pictures. I really enjoyed your blog. Thank for sharing.

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  33. Masha, your garden is beautiful. I love the exuberant look. "Classic Woman' is gorgeous! The foxglove photo is amazing. I love foxgloves, but i have the same problem as you. i'm still hunting for the perfect spot where they can grow and thrive.

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  34. Aberto, there aren't any here... Sometimes I take pictures early in the morning (if I am not too lazy), but evening pictures don't look great, and I can't seem to edit the white balance to get the colors right...

    Anonymous, thank you for taking the trouble to let me know. I really appreciate it.

    Deb, thank you. If you get them to grow, please let me know!

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  35. I like the last picture, is absolutely lovely.

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  36. Masha, if you continue with such gorgeous photos of roses and other flowers, I will have to buy some more land, as my wishing list is growing and growing....and growing.

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  37. Thank you, Corina, and I can say exactly the same about my yard and your roses!

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  38. What a lovely blog!!! Since you like foxglove, have your tried African foxglove? If not, it needs to be in a spot where you want something tall.... mine gets 5-6 feet tall and blooms most of the summer. It will take the hot Memphis sun and tolerates our summer drought with very little extra water. It also self seeds......

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  39. Mash a, I love the bed you say is untidy! I love the mass of colour and naturalness of it! The penstemons are too beautiful!

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