Weather

The weather the past three days (including today) has been more like the early to mid April weather we usually get. It's been raw and rainy with temperatures barely reaching 50. The plants don't seem to mind at all. There's very little to no chance of frost so they are busy growing and the roses are getting ready to bloom. It just seems strange to have weather this raw and cold this time of year. And just think...I was getting used to shorts!!!

With each passing day, the garden is changing now. Right now the lilacs are in bloom and as long as the weather stays cool, over cast and wet, they may extend their bloom time.

Everything is in high color right now too. The brilliant leaf color of the spring is always sensentational. The dogwoods are about done, the cherry trees are done. My tri-c0lored beech is just coming out and I'm sure it really wants to roll up it's leaves and go hide for another week. This and the Vitex are the last trees to come out in the garden.

I look out my window and see only one rose, a hybrid perpetual called Baronne Provest. This large OGR is now about 7' tall with a spread to match and I've lost count of the fat buds ready to open. Each year when I prune the roses, they get what they need. Last year Baronne Provest needed a deep interior pruning. It slowed the flowering down somewhat but this year the rose promises to be more than gorgeous. When those buds unfurl, I'll open my office window and allow that intense fragrance to waft through the entire house...and it will. Of course it has the help of two other of the most fragrant OGRs I grow, Charles de Mills and Rose de Rescht. Charles de Mills is slotted for a deep pruning this summer after the blooms are done. Since Charles de Mills is a spring bloomer, I'm hoping I won't ruin to many of next year's flowers. Rose de Rescht was another that got the deep pruning last summer. The fourth OGR, hybrid perpetual, Frau Karl Durschki, is such an open, flouncy rose and it needs these deep prunings every March. It is a repeat bloomer, so it can take a serious pruning without skipping a beat.

The only problem I have with Frau Karl Druschki is thrips. Having a very large, dinner plate size white flower, the thrips have a field day with it. I've started using a systemic with it every year to help control the thrips. It seems that thrips love the lighter petals and will generally seem to leave the reds, mauves and oranges alone. The whites and pinks are the roses attacked. At least in my garden anyway. Oh, BTW, my favorite rose color is white.

I regress here. I was hoping that the sun would burn it's way through the cloud cover today. The Landis Valley Historical Society is having their annual heirloom herb festival today and I always go. This year I'm taking my friend Linda who's never been there and loves all old things. Most of the plants sold at this festival today must be a registered variety before 1940. Personally, I like the taste of the heirloom vegetables better than what is common to grow today. Oh, you do have more problems with bugs (they eat too, you know), and there's not a whole lot you can do about that. I've found that if I get out at the crack of dawn and harvest, I can get to the produce before the bugs do. I also encourage lots of birds to come and help themselves to the bugs.

I'm also funny about tomatoes. I can eat citrus but in only small amounts at a time. So, if I want to make hamburgers, I like a tomato that is fairly acid free. The very best tomato I've found for sandwiches and eating raw is a lovely smallish yellow called Yellow Queen from the 1800's. So far the only place I've been able to find this plant is at Landis Valley. Each year I plant one and it produces the most perfectly round palm size yellow fruit that doesn't seem to split or get blight. The taste is sweet and it's easy for me to eat.

I also get my herbs there. Since neither my husband or myself like the texture of celery, I plant an herb called lovage. It has the same taste as celery without the strings. It is a perennial herb but I will harvest it for two years as strawberries and replant it before the plant gets old and tough.

About three years ago I went there and got talked into a found rose, a rambler called Queen of the Praries. It is registered as being introduced in 1843. I took it home and planted it across the back fence in the back 40 and completely forgot all about it. It got no care at all. The next spring, I was back there to dig up some alfalfa that seeded in the bed and found this little rose. It was the most magnificant rose I've ever seen. No winter kill, extremely drought resistant and growing handsomely. It only gave me three small flower last year. I researched it and found that this almost lost rose will bloom better as it ages with a lovely fully double, fully fragrant pink rose. Right now, at the beginning of the growing season it spans 26 feet of fence. It has quite a number of tiny buds and I don't expect it to bloom until around the end of the month. After it blooms this summer, I'm planning on rooting some cuttings to extend it to the far side of the fence. This fence I'm referring to crosses the back of my property of about 130 feet. I'm figuring that one more rose will do it. There are few roses that I recommend that are as good as New Dawn and Dr. W. Van Fleet, but this rose is even better in my opinion. It just doesn't falter.

It's a bit early for the roses, those some of my rugosas are coming into bloom. It's time to clean up the cameras and get them ready for another year of photo shoots.