Homage to Peter Beals

With deep sadness I have read the news that Peter Beals has quited us on January 26th...

A big tribute and heartfelt thank you for the magnificent roses he gave us!  His work will ever guide rosarians all over the world.
RIP

 Adam Rose

Highgrove Rose

Queen's Jubilee Rose

http://www.classicroses.co.uk/

Rosa Hemispherica

Folks it's rose planting time again - you certainly do not belong to those who buy their roses in spring when they get tempted by forced blooms and mainly week shots (God forbid) you see at dubious plant stores! Oh no! Rose buying is a very serious matter that should happen after long and deep pondering, miles long lists that get revised each time we open yet another catalogue. 

Those who have a deep passion for roses go directly to the High Rose Olympus - the Beals/Austin/Lens/Delbard breeders without missing a beat... Then there are quite a few exquisite nurseries which offer the above cited Roses plus a respectable lot of ancient beauties.

 

Since making a choice is inevitable ( oh we would love to grow them all, but alas, even those blessed with a huge playing ground have to make choices!), I would like to talk about one of my favourite roses. Its name is not at all poetic - Rosa Hemispherica Persiana, a close offspring of the Rosa Foetida Persiana ( stinky - can you believe that!!) 

Rosa Hemispherica is a pure sulphur yellow rose. It is in fact one of the parents of all modern yellow roses we grow today! But in my opinion the shade is deeper and brighter than all modern ones. No burning or fading out in bright sun and at the same time a soft and solar colour that does not scream of modern neon!

In fact R. Hemispherica was one of Redouté's pet roses, one he painted like no one else.

The blooms. as the name indicates, are fully double and right out half ball shaped. Round, cupped silky balls of petals bloom en masse on fine, very thorny stems and small gray green leaflets.

When in full bloom, R Hemispherica is a real show and even if fragrance is not one of its features, it certainly does not stink in any way!

Alas as most ancient Roses it does bloom only once and quite early in season. But for true rosarians this is no handicap. After all peonies also bloom for two weeks - if lucky, and I would not be without them for any reason in this world.

I would plant it among masses of silver gray foliage - lavender (I know this one is quite obvious, but still a lovely combination), Artemisias, Stachis and Santoline, Festuca Glauca and a dash of deep blue of your choice...

Rosa Foetida - the less cupped parent of R. Hemispherica.

Both roses are not very easy to find, since they are not extremely hardy and get quite upset if grown in wet and rainy climates. Since the petals resemble more to light chiffon they tend to get soaked and miserable under pouring rain - after all they long for the hot climate of their ancient home - Persia!

I would like to close with this amazing picture of a R. Foetida, taken by Roger Roses. It is a hundred year old specimen, or better said WAS since as he indicates, this marvelous rose has been killed, weeded out, by truly insensitive people!
Apart this truly sad note, it gives us the idea though of how tough this rose can be - even if left completely alone.

If you should fell under the spell of Rosa Hemispherica, here are a couple of nurseries where you can get it:

http://www.rogersroses.com/
Museo delle Rose Antiche, www.museoroseantiche.it/ 
Vivaio La Campanella,  http://www.vivaiolacampanella.com
http://www.davidaustinroses.com

What's Blooming Now - September II

Thanks to the fabulous "Vivaio la Campanella" Nursery I identified the blooming rose I have posted this morning. 

It is a Aimeé Vibert a Noisette climber, introduced by Vibert in 1828.

Everything matches, the type of blooms and the fact that it is a late bloomer in June followed by a second flush in September.

Sweet scent and a fairly resistant rose.
Some say it grows up to 3 m but I think it can do much more than that, since mine is grown in a pot and is already that high.

Alternative names:  Bouquet de la Mariée, Nivea, Unique

For fabulous old roses and lots of clematis check this site:  http://vivaiolacampanella.com/
They are real pros!

What's Blooming Now - September

Not much is going on right now among my plants...

The blasting heat of August  turned all activity down and I am quite confident that the gentle Indian summer will infuse some new energy!

Miss Julia Correvon, a lovely and very reliable clematis is preparing herself - or so at least I hope, for a new cloud of curly deep bordeaux flowers... though right now she looks a bit ragged.

The only bloomer on duty is a white climbing rose with a huge growing habit, which I rooted from a cutting and I do not remember what it actually is?!

Rosarians out there do you have an idea???

It blooms with bunches of 4 cm small ruffled flowers of a milky white hue. Some buds are infused with a very pale shade of pink which disappears when they open.

The flowers open completely , revealing the golden stamen. They are sweetly scented reminding apple blossoms which result quite attractive to all sorts of bees, tiny wasps and flies of all kinds.

The leaves are quite pointed and mate, light green.

Unfortunately this rose was the only one to suffer a massive sawfly attack ( of which I have written in a previous post) which will necessarily lead to pretty severe pruning in order to get rid of the branches which got scorched by the fly larvae.

Though far away from any blooming intentions (!!!) my Plumerias produced an impressive bunch of glossy, healthy leaves and even branched out! OK, it took them basically all summer to do so, but since the result is farely pleasing... so be it!

Pests & Beasts

Dear folks! this post is more a help request than a proper post.

Actually it will also open a chapter dedicated to pests and diseases that affect plants in general and especially the ones I grow and care for...

I guess all of us have their own horror stories about that fungus or that type of bug that has wretched (I dare say with an incredible time planning) a crop or a plant just a couple of days before it reached perfection or it opened that first bud we were so eager to see. I guess this is part of the game and since I took the firm resolution to reduce to an absolute minimum all toxic treatments, well the war is bitter and sometimes the losses are sensible!

The past winter has been particularly mild and the result was, against my expectations, a proliferation of nasty little buggers. A pretty severe attack of red spider mites was just one of them. 

But what really annoyed me was a massive presence of sawflyes!

The rose sawfly - Arge Pagana with its quite poetic Latin name, is I am told, a plant eating wasp that deposits its eggs in the tender shots of roses. From there, little (so tiny you can barely see them until it's late!) larvae  develop and in no time devoure the leafs of your healthy rose.
Most books and experts tend to say that the Arge is no serious threat to your rose and that you should eliminate the hungry caterpillars by hand - well and that's all!

The Arge has a saw like cutter on its abdomen with which it stiches the eggs into the tender branches. It leaves a mark on the branch that looks very much like a machine stitching... very neat and regular.

 Sawfly larvae devouring leaves and the ugly scorch the emerging larvae have left behind.

Quite unsightly leaf damage after the larvae have left...

Well, the problem is that all young branches which are supposed to bear blooms, have been attacked by sawflies... The damage is not killing the plant but obviously the blooms are heavily compromised and the rose looks ratty! Furthermore the left scars grow and open as the branch ripens and I suspect that it can fragilise the plant on long term since it can facilitate other fungus or insects...

Now the hamletic quest is - there possibly any type of deterrent capable to prevent the sawfly infestation? Relying on birds and the like has so far, had no impact!  It might work on larger scale in a proper garden in the country, but in the urban environment the results are rather scarce.

No reasonable pest bible gives a clue in how to prevent the sawfly from visiting the roses. I do not mind loosing a couple of leaves, or cutting off one or two affected branches but if I have to chop down an entire plant on the expenses of the flowers, well I get quite mad....

Rosarians out there, do you have any experiences with this bug? I would be glad to get your advice and share your experiences...

Things I like - The Banksia parasol, Seville

Sorting out old pictures, I found this photo of a trully stunning Banksia Lutea Rose covering like a giant parasol a street fountain in Seville, Spain.

The two plants covered a 12 m2 area with a dense matt of pale yellow flowers like a starry sky.
Banksias are among my favourite roses, because in spite of their tenderness, they are real champions of strength.

What's blooming now: Soupert & Notting Rose

Introduced by Pernet Pere in 1874, this relatively small Moss Rose has a charm of its own. The blooms are rather small and intensely fragrant ( it reminds me of raspberries, but that of course is quite subjective) and ruffled. The colour is a strong pink with a bluish hint that fades a bit with age.

Foliage is matte green and the stems are covered with tiny but ferrocious thorns.

Some breeders list it as repeating rose , but in my experience it never did. And so says David Austin too!

Soupert & Notting is a rather small, bushy plant.

What's blooming now: Rose Hot Cocoa

My only modern  Floribunda Rose Hot Cocoa has 10 gorgeous buds! 

After a very bad year, I suppose due to a sort of virus which killed most of the bush, followed by a drastic pruning - she is gaining her health again.

I do not grow moderns - this is my only concession - due to its unusual brickred colour fading to a sort of silvery maroon. Hard to describe and even more difficult ( for my very poor photographic skills) to show the proper shade... 

I quite like this shade because it is not too showy, quite subtle and it mixes well with bronze and orange shades foliage like Heucheras Caramel . I tried it next to some very dark blue -almost indigo spires of a Salvia Farinacea and the result was quite pleasing.

It is actually quite a healty growing rose ( a part from this viral incident) with very glossy foliage and a bit of perfume.

Floribunda Hot Cocoa was obtained by Carruth in 2003. (PP15155, aka WEKpaltlez, Hot Chocolate)

What's blooming now: Roses

I'm inaugurating  a new rubrique called "what's blooming now" with the first flush of roses :

 R. Rugosa Therese Bugnet

 R. Therese Bugnet

 Rosa Hibr. Muschiata Crimson Globe (bud and opened bloom)

 R. Veilchenblau

 Unlabeled Miniature Rose (could not resist at the florist arround the corner...)
planted together with Campanula Portenschlaghiana

 First bud of R. Hot Cocoa after a sulking year

Unknown bulb flower that came out in one citrus pot

( I have thrown away the package label after it failed to show up last year and now it's a nameless kid) If anyone has any suggestion?

Small resurrection story

The past 29 of March Spain was on General Strike. As most major cities, Barcelona witnessed important demonstrations which led to street riots and fires lit in the middle of the streets. 

Though this has apparently nothing to do with gardening, I was quite sad when I realised that my beautiful and huge Rosa Fortuniana which was bursting with young shiny leaves and literally hundreds of buds, has been charred and reduced to a black mass of branches by the heat of the burning bonfires.

On the spot I thought she was irremediably damaged but continued to water and spray her with a highly diluted leaf fertilizer, in the hope of a dim recovery.

Two weeks passed and not much happened. My beautiful Fortuniana, once strong and healthy as a rock, dragged herself with no sign of improvement.

 Little by little all remaining leaves shrivelled an hung sad from the long and arched canes.

And then all of a sudden I detected tiny swelling eyes where the dead leaflets fell off. My darling Fortuniana was alive and struggling to recover.

Strange enough, quite a few flower buds resisted and eventually opened on the totally leafless shrub, perfect white pompoms of petals on blackened, sad branches.

It moved me even more since it would have been the first year I was to see my rose in full bloom. Last year it only had a few shy flowers and it was supposed to fully show it's grace this spring. 

Pampered as a sick child, I hope my darling Fortuniana will have the chance to fully recover for next year.

A happy (Orthodox) Easter to you!

Hristos Anesti !

My rose family

Finally I took the time to present some of my best loved rose babies! To make their "web society debute" so to speak. There are a couple more who do not have their portraits yet, lovely Nahema and Golden Celebration among them, so I will have to wait for the next blooming season.... 

 Crimson Globe, Hybr. Muschiata, non repeating, terribly thorny - I really got to know it in my own flesh since I had to moove it twice - and it was a bloody afair !!  a bit inclined to oidium but otherwise spectacular, very generous ( on this pic it's her first blooming year!) and scented

 Veilchenblau ( or at least so I think? ), non repeating, seems to behave like a short climber, thin arched branches, medium scented, magenta turning to faded lilac and mate grey green pointy leafs

 R. Rugosa

 Hot Cocoa, I gave in for the rich velvety red with a hint of brick brown, otherwise a verrry thorny thing and leggy like most moderns ( on this picture the colour seems much more orangy than it really is...)

 Not identified climber - rised from cutting ( if anyone has any idea about what it can be??) seems to rebloom a second time, but it's behaviour in the first years is not quite reliable, not scented and pure white, very late bloomer

 Not identified, a non labeled pic at a local nursery, prooved to be a lovely and very reliable girl.... not scented, generous clusters of very tightly packed pink flat rosettes, rebloomer

 Very reliable mini roses( ones you can get at supermarkets), non stoppers from march till november ( at least in Barcelona) have been with me for quite some years...
I think it is allways worth to give them a try if one likes the shape and colour - and by now there is quite a choice. A pity they never label them with their proper name! they prooved to be incredibly reliable.
Theese bright orange ones now share their pots with some violet Campanula Portenschlaghiana and the result is quite pleasing

 Climber Papi Delbard, very vigourous and long blooming, but here the flowers last very short time, maybe because of the heat...

 My pet love Chinensis Mutabilis, I'm fond of it's light nodding, simple flowers and besides that it is a real warriour - behind it's slender looks there lurks the force of a wildling
Any trimmed branch roots in a couple of weeks if stuck in a pot!

another unidentified cutting born baby... tall climber, unfortunately it stayed in the old house...

 R. Rugosa "Therese Bugnet", a re blooming, reliable rugosa with burgundy red canes and nice hips in winter

 R. Fortuniana, huge inspite of beeing grown in a pot, cascades it's giant canes over the balcony
Once bloomer in very early spring, pure white, silky flowers that last for more than one month, very pointy,  glossy, dark green leafs - like the Banksias she is related to. It is said to be quite frost tender, but hardly a problem here. Anyone tried it in areas below - 10 C ?? I would like to plant it in a cooler area and still have doubts about it....
this year it was her first blooming season - so happy birthday  ;-)

 Suppert & Nothing, lovely rose fragrance, candy pink ruffled rosettes, though with me it refused to re bloom ?!

Tuscany Superb, in a very unflattering picture... since it's dark burgundy and very velvety petals are quite a show, nice rounded and sturdy bush without the unsightly leggy canes, alas quite short blooming period here