A New Lavender And Some Roses

My spanish lavender collection is growing faster than I anticipated.



I stopped by a local nursery this past weekend to get some compost for my tomato bed, and stumbled at the last second upon four miserable wilting lavender plants. They were unusual in having sky-blue flowers, chartreuse bracts and a very strong lemony fragrance.

This variety is called Tiara Blue. My plant was terribly root bound, and I had to cut the bottom of the root ball off completely because I couldn't pry the roots loose even after I made the customary cross cut through the bottom... It didn't seem to mind at all, and is looking better and better each day, with more flowers opening and bracts growing bigger and fluffier. It goes wonderfully with the more common purple varieties.

My roses are slowly opening, and I caught a few blooms on camera before the rains started again. Devoniensis, a tea, finally matured enough to give me some gorgeous flowers, even if they only look so good in spring. In summer, the size and petal count go down substantially...

Purple Pavement, a rugosa, is beginning to bloom. I love its spicy clove fragrance and round red "tomato" hips. My plant is own root and so happy it sends suckers as far as 5 feet away from the main plant!

And here is a self-seedling of Purple Pavement, my very own white semi-double rugosa. The blooms seem to be slightly bigger but otherwise it is identical to its parent. It is also strongly fragrant.



And another rugosa, Roseraie de l'Hay. It has wonderful color and fragrance, but rebloom is less than spectacular, and hip production is not as good as that of Purple Pavement.



Elie Beauvilain, a tea-noisette, is blooming with abandon. I will have to remember these flowers till next spring: while I do see occasional blooms throughout the rest of the year, they are nothing compared to its spring display.





The Imposter's flowers always cheer me up. The rebloom on my two plants is very fast, and they continue blooming even while producing abundant hips.






Sophie's Perpetual, a china, is blooming with some ground cover erodiums. This rose has a very horizontal growth habit so far, but is very clean and completely prickle free.



Mme Berard, a climbing tea, is beginning to bloom too. I love the perfect shape, the strong fragrance and smooth canes. It does have a bit of mildew, but not too bad.



It is very hard for me to photograph the colors of Condesa de Sastago which can be blindingly bright but I seem to have finally done a good job with this opening bud catching bright red blending with hot pink on the outer edges of this Pernetiana rose.



And here is a satiated (I hope) ladybug. I have seen a lot of them in my garden this spring, and there are very few aphids. Now I wish they could do something about the mildew too :).