Just a comment about climbing roses. Make sure it is an easy rose to grow with little or no black spot issues. You don't want to be spraying over head with some sort of poison and it drifting back down on you.
White Flower Garden/ Anyone Have One? Or suggestions?
What excellent advice!!!!!
I do not use any poison sprays. So, yes, I will search for disease resistance. Thank you for your suggestion.
Today, I ordered climbing Iceberg at my local nursery. Hopefully it will work out.
I'm sure it will work well. Give it the care one always gives roses and a blessing. :)
birder ~ Thank you!
Today I picked up my Climbing 'Iceberg' rose, and I planted it.
The peonies are getting ready to bloom. There is a chance of rain tomorrow. In that case, I'll stay inside and start some more seeds and transplant some that are getting large for their initial containers. The weather has been 50° - 55° lately with a constant wind, though dying down for brief periods. After the rain, it is supposed to be 80° near the end of the week. Does that mean that spring is over?
85* here, Hot and Windy. :(
85 yesterday, 47 today! BRRRRR!
Speaking of white flower gardens, my four doublefile viburnums have been in bloom for days. They are shade tolerant, so they are in my back yard accompanied by a big bed of geranium 'Bevan's Variety' and geranium maculatum, the native one that we see on the trails here.
This message was edited May 21, 2017 4:26 AM
Oh, how beautiful!
Here is an update on the "White Flower Border".
The irises (almost) cover the dying bulb foliage. I am looking for ways to maximize this small garden border, yet always having something in bloom. Also I want to maximize the appearance, while waiting for other plants to grow. In other words, trying to take advantage of seasonal plants and then not have large gaps. I probably should have planted some annuals to pull out while the hibiscus 'Blue River II' is still dormant, but showing green buds. Maybe next year I will sow some cosmos there until the hibiscus shows up, as it is a very large gap.
The peonies are starting to bloom. The white one was sold to me as 'Festiva Maxima'', but it has absolutely no red flecks, just pure white. What do you think that this peony is?
The Rock Rose is still going strong. It requires very little care, but pruning after bloom. Last year I probably did not cut it back enough, so the weight of the snow pushed it down and now it is spread out and not quite flat, but lower to the ground. If I did not prune it, it would get very large, and then, of course, it would start creeping due to snow weight. It is good to have a "feature plant", in turn, but due to the small size of this border, every plant needs to be kept within bounds.
Donna ~ If I ever intend to extend the border, a doublefile viburnum would be next on my list. But for now, I am just trying to keep up. I will try and get a few more landscape pictures so you all can eventually see how this is all coming together.
I have planted some other things in there and they will be coming up soon. It is fun to see this garden evolve.
The first two images are of what was sold to me as 'Festiva Maxima', but has no red flecks at all. It may not be 'Festiva Maxima'. Do you know which one it is?
The next three are of a chance seedling between the "white one" and a pink one. Both the white and the pink ones are full. The hybrid has a pink outer cup which fades to white and does not require staking, like the others. Since it does fade to pure white, I am keeping it in this border. It has such a beautiful shape in all stages of bloom.
This message was edited May 31, 2017 8:33 PM
Oh Evelyn, the great news is that the 4th one is 'Mrs. FDR' aka 'Mrs. Franklin Delano Roosevelt'. The first picture. Hybridized in 1932 by Franklin. A prize winner. One of my favorite peonies. One of the greats. It morphs into several shapes, all of which are beautiful. It was one of the first I ever ordered after the initial debacle. But it will require staking. It gets absolutely huge, with tons of secondary buds. It's glorious, but it will need the strongest peony hoops you can find. "Doesn't require staking" is a sales tool.
The bad news is that you do not have 'Festiva Maxima', which brings back annoying memories. I once ordered three FM on a special "we have a bumper crop, so buy one and get three" and got one actual FM. The other two I finally identified as 'Ann Cousins', which is all white, and 'Kansas' which is bright red. I informed the company of the error, and not only did they not honor the intent of the original order by sending me two FM's, but the sent a 'Lady Alexandra Duff'. At least really liked that one. And then another company sent me a 'Coral Charm' instead of FM.
So I went to a Canadian company instead and got my three Festivas two years ago. Huge plants. And they look like this, in the last three pictures, with red flecks and a yellow heart.
I realize now that all my correct peonies came from Canadian companies, and they were all huge, robust plants, vastly superior than any American peony I ever received. I don't know why. They bloomed with multiple flowers the first year. Last year, only the second year, they required staking. The two companies have changed hands so I can't vouch for them now, but I have a lot of experience with peonies (I have 20) and 75% of the American ones from highly regarded and rated companies were either the wrong peony (two or three years ago ordered three of the single red 'Burma Joy' and got three huge pink 'Edulis Superba') or roots so poorly formed that they rotted (eyes on both sides grown vertically, which allows the grower to stuff more roots in a space). Happily, it wasn't my money because very kind people gave me very expensive peonies from one particular company (five of them) and they all failed. A failure worth approximately $150 because of the company's markup.
The best American company for quality of peony was White Flower Farm (buy three...) The four peonies were all great. But I didn't order three of them. Now I see that this happens a lot. I have gotten incorrect peonies from four American companies in total. They all have or had great reviews on Garden Watchdog. One is a Top 30.
Tell the company they sent you the wrong peony. If you do they will replace it. When I have done this, (three times) they were always replaced. One replaced three many years later when I mentioned on a thread in Daves that this highly regarded company had sent me duds. One of their adherents tipped them off. First they implied I didn't know what I was doing. After my somewhat testy response they sent the three I had ordered. At least I think so. One never appeared and the other two are just blooming after three years.
Mrs. FDR? This was a seedling between the "white bomb" and the "pink bomb". There is no way else it could be there.
This is the first year that there was a bloom on it. I thought that it somehow broke off from the white one, when moving it so many years ago.
So now you have me even doubting my memory. I wonder why it took so long to bloom.
It is so different from the other two. It has a much stronger stem, as the white one's blooms are so heavy that they flop right away, if they have no support.
The new one stands up well without support. I will have to research this further, as I may have moved it there many years ago. If I did, it was supposed to be 'Minnie Shaylor', of which it could possibly be. Now I am really confused.
Since the it is the first bloom ever on it, it might be Minnie Shaylor. I did look that up on helpmefind.com and there is a resemblance. Much more so than if it were to be the child of the previous two fluffballs.
I recall trying to rescue that peony, as it never bloomed and it was nibbled by deer constantly.
Thank you for helping me solve that mystery. Also look up 'Miss America', which looks identical to this. A member on NGA/ATP showed me a picture of her Miss America, and it looked identical to my plant. So...it may be that, after all...so confusing!
Upon further investigation, 'Bowl of Cream' is identical in pictures to my white peony. Now I will try to find out what the pink one is.
Well, upon further inspection, my new peony is not FDR. It is possibly 'Miss America'. That is the very closest and the picture from the member looked exactly like mine. Actually when I saw her photos, I thought they were mine.
I'll be glad when plant DNA tests become easier and cheaper. That way, you can know for sure.
I have contacted Admin but so far, no response....