It's Not Sleepwalking but...

I had a rough night last night. Reason?? Don't know. I got home from work the usual hour but lately I've been struggling with these late nights. As usual I wasn't really fit to be driving even if it was around 1 AM and no one was on the road.

Anyway, I got home and decided to go right to bed. Of course, I turned on the tube to watch what I would of Animal Planet. I usually watch about 5 minutes of it before drifting off. This was the case last night. I woke at 2:13 am. I even looked at the clock and noted the time. The TV was flashing noisely so I grabbed the remote, flicked it off and stuck the remote in the drawer of the nightstand so the cat wouldn't knock it down and lose the batteries.

I woke at 4:08 am. I even looked at the clock and noted the time. The TV was flashing noisely so I grabbed the remote, flicked it off and stuck the remote in the drawer of the nightstand so the cat wouldn't knock it down and lose the batteries.

This is no lie!!! Husband told me the TV was singing sweetly when he got home from work but was off when he came into the room. This means I have no idea what time I actually turned the thing off. He usually gets home around 5 am.

I finally got up at 5:35 am when Shalimar wouldn't let me sleep anymore. It turns out that she had an accident with her food dish and needed me to clean it up for her.

This morning the remote was in the nightstand drawer so the cat wouldn't knock it down and lose the batteries.

A Love of Growing Roses

New Dawn ~ Large Flowering Climber/Rambler. Introduced in 1930. A sport of Dr. W. Van Fleet. Light Pink. Rated 8.6 out of a possible 10 for garden roses. It is also one of the cleanest roses in this area, getting virtually no disease and not pestered by insects save the Japanese beetle.

This particular photo won a 2nd place award in a national photo contest.

I've always loved roses. I loved getting them from suiters as well as seeing them in the garden. As a child, my mother never grew many. It always seemed that they were nice for a year and then, the next year would come back a different color and shape. She was always told they went wild. What happen, however, is that most roses sold in nurseries and even the box stores are grafted roses. It's cheaper to produce them this way and much, much faster. Because of this, most all roses have a graft at the bottom between the roots and the plant. If this dies, the plant dies, but the roots can live on sending up sprouts of it's own. Hence the "wild" rose. New Dawn, as are most old roses, is easily started with it's own roots; roots to China and is ironclad.

(a borrowed picture from helpmefind.com) Candy Stripe

About 12 years ago, Husband thought it would be a good idea to get involved with a Plant of the Month club and the first thing he bought was a rose bush for me. It was a little rose called Candy Stripe, a sport of the Peace rose and introduced in 1963. The company that was sponsoring this club was a company I no longer deal with because of their reputation. This will explain the next statement of this rose which I new nothing about at the time. This rose is rated 6.1 out of a possible 10 as a garden rose, which is considered way below average for overall strength and disease resistance. This rose has since died for me. On receiving it, I decided I needed more roses to make a rose garden. We went to the local Lowe's garden center and found roses! I got a HT by the name of Rio Samba; an antique rose called Anne Marie de Montravel (which turned out to be an imposter), the Peace rose and another Hybrid Tea called Mister Lincoln. At the same time I also got on line and found a group of rosarians on AOL who gladly helped me with the rose care and I was sunk. Having always liked roses, I now had a passion for them I'd never known before. I found the different classes of roses, the history and being able to grow them to be fasinating. I also had the opportunity to meet some of the most interesting and wonderful characters ever. For me, it's a journey well worth traveling and the journey is far from over. Who knows where I'll go from here. I have yet to exibit, though I do the photography. We'll see.

Creativity

Starting at the ripe age of eight, I was entered into the 4-H programs that the area sponsored. In this area I was taught how to sew. If any of you know about the 4-H programs, they usually encourage compitition which comes during the annual Pennsylvania Farm Show in January. I've always steered clear of this, not wanting to put my sewing on display.

When in high school, I also took some of the Home Ecomonics classes to refresh what I learned in 4-H with the sewing as well as learn nutrition and how to prepare it. I'm sure the cooking part is all basically the same everywhere, but different in the area you live. In this area when I took the course, cooking was in mostly preparing garden fresh vegetables, canning and cooking for a meal, processing fruits and gourds such as pumpkins directly from the garden for storing and prepration for food and great desserts such as pumpkin pie. The sewing was a bit more of a challenge for my teachers than for me. Having had started it in 4-H and prepared for compitition, though I never entered anything, my HS teachers were at a loss to find something that I could learn. So, instead of letting me use any of the new nifty White sewing machines they had, I had to make a complete garment, dress and jacket, just as they were made a century before - before the age of the sewing machine complete with zippers, hooks and eyes and ric-rac. This took me an entire semester to complete, but I have to admit, the garments never fell apart, ripped (at the seams anyway) and I eventually gave them to Goodwill because I out grew them. These were not only put on display in the lobby of the school, but I also was asked to model them at the annual fashion show the school put on in it's auditorium. This was my first compitition in anything. The grade I got didn't hurt either.

Today, I still enjoy making my own clothes and do so. I like being creative and making something that not only fits better than the stuff you get in the department stores, but is also unique in that you may not find another garment like this one anywhere. And I wear everything I make.

When I was 14 and doing the hand sewing in school, my mother couldn't figure out why I didn't sew more. She thought that everyone liked doing things they did well. Not me. I was 14. I had a whole world in front of me that was hugh and new and needed exploring. I wanted to explore it, not be tied to a sewing machine for the rest of my life. So I set out to see what was out there and try my hand at everything that interested me. Sewing was only one part of that world.

When we built this home, we chose this neighborhood because there were custom built homes here. I wasn't interested in the cookie cutter homes other developments offered. I wasn't everyone else and didn't want to look like everyone else. We were given limits to how small a home and how inexpensive we could build, but I still got to create out my own house plan according to the rythem of my family. Since we've built here, the developer has gotten another builder for this area who has said he would not build custom homes, but will construct a couple of cookie cutter homes a year to sell. There goes the charm of the neighborhood. I think it's sad that a builder, who probably knows nothing of creativity, has the nerve to tell people what rythem they should have. It takes away from the interest of the area. Right now, no two properties look alike. As a matter of fact, each and every one is completely different in style and rythem but none look out of place of junky. I have a one-story with an European flair. My next door neighbor is much more formal with a large Cape and classical landscaping. The other neighbor has a one-story, multilevel roof line contemporary with a comtemporary flair in her landscaping. The neighbor across the street is totally traditional. I think it's sad that this will now stop.

Well, back to my sewing. Right now I'm making a pair of shorts.

A Rose in Review

Sweet Sixteen - shrub. Introduced in 2002.

Each year the American Rose Society has a little judging called Roses in Review. They are actually asking their members to evaulate certain roses that haven't been evaulated, or they don't have enough info on the roses to rate them for garden and show.

Last year I was surprised to see that they had rated Sweet Sixteen rather high for the garden. I've had this rose since 2002 and frankly haven't had a really high opinion of it. But I was also aware that I had it squashed between six other roses. For three years it continued to flounder for me.

This year, I had this new very large bed around some spruce trees that I was planting in roses. I pulled several roses out of the over crowded bed and put them back in the new bed with the left over munchkins that had made their way into my garden. Sweet Sixteen was one of two of these roses that went back there to flouish. I can see now why the ARS gave it a high rating. Since it settled it's been nonstop blooming and the bush is compact and well leafed. It also appears to be quite disease resistant. All my roses back in this new bed are doing very well.


Little Darling - shrub. Introduced 1956. Rated as 8.2 out of 10 as a garden specimen.

This little rose is also in the same bed with Sweet Sixteen and is doing exceptionally well. However, Little Darling won't stay little. I understand it gets to be a massive bush. This one was taken from the garden of my deceased friend, Bob Sanders. When he passed, his wife called me and asked that we come and get the roses and a couple of trees. Of course I said yes and that's now Little Darling came to live with us. This rose is growing like gang busters and I'm hoping it'll show me it's true worth nex year. Right now, I'm not complaining.

Mid July

Anne Marie de Montravel. Polyantha. Introduced in 1862.

This morning, bright and early around 7:00 am, I was outside as usual to water the potted plants and to repot a new rose. This time of year, I'm usually out very early, if I'm out at all because of the intense humidity. The time now is 8:30 am. The temperature is 80 degrees with 80% humidity. There is a possible thunderstorm predicted for these parts today, but that won't happen until late afternoon when the temperatures start to drop. It's going to be a hot one.

My water barrels are full which is a good thing. My potted plants will die in a day without water and I have enough to sustain them for about two weeks if I don't try to water any of the garden plants. The garden plants shouldn't need it though. The subsoil here is clay and holds the moisture nicely. Since we've been living here I haven't had to water established plants.

In the past four years, folks have asked me to root them speciality roses. Oh, some of them are easy enough to get, but the ones I've been asked for have special meaning....New Dawn, a lovely rambler requested by a family member in memory of our Grandmother who kept it growing over her front porch. Gruss an Aachen, a floribunda requested by a friend who wants one started own root rather the the grafted ones that die in a few years. Anne Marie de Montravel, a polyantha asked for by a club member who loves the exotic and hard to find roses. I've been trying all these years to get some cuttings of these roses with no luck. Actually, New Dawn did root once for me. It is growing nicely in a starter pot waiting for me to turn it over to it's new owner and new home. I will do this the beginning of August with instructions on how to get it started before winter.

All three roses are considered antique roses by their age and history. Usually these roses are good starters but I simply haven't had any luck with them. The cuttings would go almost 8 weeks and finally die instead so setting new roots. On a whim, and seeing something a little different in an unusual catalog, I ordered some rooting cups to try rooting these roses this way...

It's been six weeks for New Dawn. I'm watching this rose closely. It has shown a change in the strength of it's leaves, not loosing any and the little bud unions seem to be fattening like it wants to send new growth. This is a good sign that the plant is making new roots.

It's been four weeks for Gruss an Aachen. Again I'm watching this one even closer. It too has shown me a change of strength in it's leaves, not loosing any and the little bud unions have new green canes starting. This tells me that there must be roots in the cup somewhere but as of yet, I've not seen them. So, I leave the new plant where it is for the time being. I'm hoping to see new roots against the cup's sides very soon and will repot it into a starter pot and prepare it for it's new home.

It's been five weeks for Anne Marie de Montravel. This morning it was repotted into a starter pot and placed in a shady spot out of the heat and direct sun. The roots it was growing were large, white and healthy. I saw six of these roots climbing into the water wells of the cups and knew if I didn't get it out of there, I could end up damaging the roots severely. When I took it out of the cup, I was pleasantly surprised to see the cup fairly full of these white healthy roots. The canes have new growth starting at the bud unions but so far haven't developed into new canes. Needless to say, this one will be watched the closest especially since it's progressed to the next phase of it's development.

Seeing this makes me wonder if Gruss an Aachen may be in the same state of growth. But, without seeing the young roots, I'm not sure I want to take that chance. I will give it a little more time. If it starts pushing new life, then I will be fairly certain that there are new roots growing. And this one does seem to want to do this.

I am disappointed in New Dawn. This one has always been extremely easy for me to start. I did get one plant from the parent, but not with the rooting cups. I'm hoping it's just slower to start but it can't wait to much longer or it will not survive the winter.

In the meantime, I will be staying indoors mostly, out of the sun, heat and humidity. I have new clothes I want to make for my new position at work and will keep myself busy with that. I have cloth for three skirts, two tops and have discovered that I have enough cloth left to make matching scarves and sashes for the skirts. I still don't know when I'll be moving into my new position but am getting anxious about it. The time is coming closer and I can feel it. I'm ready.

Early July

As July 4th rolled on by, the garden made a change in scenery. The strawberry have given way to the raspberries of which I couldn't resist a pie. The roses have finished their first flush and are now inbetween flushes of bloom; a good thing since the Japanese beetles are raging right now. Now, we have the lilies of all varieties coming for a show as well as the coneflower, sunflowers and black-eyed susans. The hosta are showing their flowers as well as the hollyhocks, mallow and daliahs. This time of year is just as pretty as when the roses are in bloom.

The lilies are the show stoppers right now. The lovely salmon colored lily is called Lori Goldstron. This year, the plant isn't looking all that great, but the beautiful flower belies the idea that the plant is weak. I'm thinking that it is weak due to the hail storm last year which nearly killed it but hopefully next year it will finally show it's strength.

One of my favorite day lilies is Indian Giver; a lovely deep purple with a yellow center. It's not the largest day lily flower nor the frilliest but there is simply something about this flower that draws my eye even from a distance. It must be the color.

Only just a few here from a fairly large variety of lilies. I like them all such as Grand Cru; a medium yellow with orange centers and lightly spotted with brown.

Each season has it's own beauty. Just wait until the oriental lilies are blooking!

A Rainy Day

Patio Pearl. Floribunda. This rose was introduced in 1990 under another name and class. It started out as a miniflora called Pearl Palace. However, it definitely was misclassed. This bush gets far to big in every way to be classed as a miniflora and does seem to fit better in the floribunda class. When this rose is at the top of it's game, it is outstanding but the conditions must be perfect for this to happen. Beautiful as it is, it's petals often water spotted, burned and the leaves are almost always disease spotted. It's actually a very strong rose and has good winter health. It doesn't appear to like the humidity we get around here. It blooms like mad.

Today is another rainy day. It isn't like we've not had many of these lately. I shouldn't complain. When we first built and moved into this house we had the worst drought in history for this area. This past week we managed to survive about 19" of rain and it's raining again! It's beginning to look like a rain forest out there. All 36 of my trees aren't complaining I'm sure. Oh, that's 39 trees if you count the ones the neighbor planted on my property. Don't worry, she knew she was close to the line and asked us before she planted them. Then when they arrived, the nursery man realized that to plant them where she wanted them would be to close to her drainfield, so he planted them on my property.

Since it was raining today, the kitchen was the optimun place to be. I made dessert for dinner tonight and a batch of raspberry jam. The jam was made a little differently this year. It was more work but I think it will be well worth the effort. For dinner is Salmon with a dill/lemon butter. I never used to make this, but once while visiting in California, my friends, Jane & Mack made it for me. It was so good that I started making it at home. Husband doesn't eat salmon, so I will always make him something else. But it's now my favorite fish. I usually make it with tater tots and salad.

My 4th of July was a quiet day. I hope yours was too.

Musings

Lavaglut. Floribunda rose. Dark Red. 24 petals. Introduced in 1978. Rated at 8.7 out of 10 as a good garden rose. I have to admit, it's impressing me! It's a smallish rose with just as small blooms but it's a true workhorse in my garden. I have two bushes that I had gotten from the garden of a friend who has passed away and this year, each bush has been covered in bloom, rolling from one flush to the next without a break. The disease resistance is also impressive. Of course, I still spray it for blackspot and mildew but it is still cleaner than some others. I recall my friend telling me that these bushes are own-root, having gotten them from a nursery we commonly know for having own-root roses. My friend had them for one year, but never took care of them because his health wouldn't allow him. I've had them for one year, they've doubled their size and are looking very healthy.

I spent the weekend relaxing. No cleaning for this girl. Instead, yesterday we took a ride to the stepson's to pick up some barn siding he had for his dad. They live in a rather small bi-level house with three bedrooms which stepson had one for his office. Well, with a third baby coming, they need the office as a bedroom so he started cleaning it out and tearing it out. They will redesign it for the second daughter, Hanna, who will be 4 on her next birthday the end of this month. Any more babies and they will need to get a bigger house. It's hard to believe how rapidly these children are growing. Abigail Marie is 8. It won't be long until she's a teenager and driving. She's already had her first driving lesson at the age of 2. Abby has turned into a lovely sweet child. Hanna is a bit more tempermental. She has a temper that could melt lead and hasn't figured out how to handle it yet. When she finally starts preschool which should be soon, she will mellow out some.

While out, we also made the rounds to the local Home Depot and Lowe's. The last time we were at Home Depot, I was rather disappointed but this time I actually found two shasta daisy's that looked quite healthy so I got them for the back perennial bed. At Lowe's, I found a Julia Child rose, the very last one, on sale for half price and being a rose fanatic, I couldn't leave it behind. On returning home, we planted our new arrivals and got them safely secure before the storms came. They are doing fine today.

I've gotten a good bit of the deadheading done, but still have a good bit to go. Hopefully I'll be able to finish it this week and start over again. Weeds, deadhead, weeds, deadhead, weeds, deadhead and so on.

A Friend Visits

A Zebra Lythetail butterfly came to visit the very vibrant orange butterfly weed the other day. This is an older butterfly. You can tell by the tear in his wing. As the butterflies age, they carry the battle scars of life. They will also loose some of their brilliance as well. This one, however, still had some beautiful markings.