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| Roses and hostas and mulch - oh my! |
I feel relaxed enough to start writing more Creation Gardening posts.
I am limiting my plant selection to roses and hostas and Joe Pye Weed. The Easy Does It roses soaked first in the rain barrel. I obtained some hostas last fall so they can enjoy sun/shade of the front yard.
As gardening books have pointed out, hostas will get along in deep shade, but that makes people want to limit them to planting under trees. We have a distant neighbor who fashioned most of their shady front yard out of hostas, and it is very appealing. But hostas like sun too, and their prime appeal for me is their production of flowers that hummingbirds adore.
The only problem with sun and hostas is from colorful ones being bleached out by too much sun.
I am thinking of hostas as the plants between roses, because the living roots of plants will hold water and fertilize the soil. Most of the organic material in soil comes from roots, so all roots matter.
I have various mints to divide. They are clumping plants, so they do not take over the way catnip does. I can share them with other gardeners too. They can make tall or large mounds once they are growing well. Mountain Mints are tall and large when established.
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| Creation Gardening The cover design and illustrations are by Norma A. Boeckler. |
Roses Go Postal
The mailman began a discussion with me about roses. His wife does not like to prune at all. Since he had a few houses left on the cul-de-sac, I went to find Creation Gardening and gave him two copies. "So YOU wrote this?" I said, "Yes, those are my roses in the book."
Yes, I just told this story, but some of you do not read and memorize everything in this blog - to your peril.
I look my own photos of roses and think, "I grew that? Wow!" Like everyone else, I am stunned by the beauty of roses. I often tell people, "God grew them. I just dug a hole, watered, and pruned them."
As St. Paul wrote, "Sow abundantly, reap abundantly."
But this I say, He which soweth sparingly shall reap also sparingly; and he which soweth bountifully shall reap also bountifully. 2 Corinthians 9:6
I do not recall Paul saying, "Plan abundantly, grow bigly."
I coddled the roses for the winter, with collars and mulch protecting each one. However, four died. When someone says, "Why?" I have to respond, "I don't know. They don't leave a note."
But if I have a large number of bushes, I will have plenty to share with others, far beyond what we need for ourselves and the altar. When the landlord's repairman comes by, I give him a rose vase with roses for his mother. She loves them. We have many stories from people around town about roses being shared and enjoyed. They get Creation Gardening free if they are interested.
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| Bride's Dream - largest hybrid tea rose. |
Buying Roses
When ordering roses -
I like Edmund's Roses; Jackson and Perkins roses are too expensive.
I favor fragrant roses because everyone wants to enjoy the various kinds of scents coming from the bloom. If they get a few Peace (no fragrance) with one Mr. Lincoln, they think the scent-bomb is from the whole bunch.
I favor red roses over yellow because of blackspot being more active in yellow roses. Mr. Lincoln is inexpensive and grows like a weed. Fragrance - chokingly strong.
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| Easy Does It - sunset colors, constantly blooming. |
Veterans Honor is the most perfect red rose ever and lasts forever in a vase. The canes are not as strong as Mr. Lincoln's.
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| Veteran's Honor red set off by Pope Paul II white. The background is Sassy's limo - 1994 Lincoln Town Car. |
Floribundas are going to give more color in the garden, so they are the best choice for that outcome. Some - like Easy Does It - also produce great roses for the vase.
Pope John Paul II is a splendid pure white rose - and prolific in the garden, but wilts fast when cut.
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| Fragrant Cloud - Duftwolke - ranks with Mr. Lincoln in rose fragrance. The color is kinda orange, kinda brick, much more attractive than descriptions allow. The shape of the bloom is exquisite. |
Use Insecticide Indoors, Beneficial Bug Plants Outdoors
Toxins do not belong in the garden. The more we favor the beneficial bug plants - and attract birds with food, baths, and resting areas - the more our favorites will be spared.
Let's say a particular beneficial insect kills the creatures that eat up roses. (Don't forget spiders helping out.) Would you not want to have a strong, willing, hungry army of pest-easters ready for the next round of blooms? That is God's design, which panicky gardeners mess up by killing everything in sight.
If the beneficial bug eats those destructive critters, his family will settle in the area and plot more stratagems against the next invasion. The benefits are exponential, as people have seen from perfect roses handed to them, sometimes with little Hover Flies still trying to do their jobs.
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| Two of my college students fell in love and became engaged, so I put two Falling in Love roses in a vase and delivered them the day they announced their engagement. We attended their wedding. |
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| Falling in Love has a white reverse and great fragrance too. |
