Is Old the New New?

The proverbial baby keeps getting tossed with the bath water.  Its true. And nowhere has this been more debated than in the rose world.  As the story goes, the commercialization of the cultivar "Peace" by Meilland after WWII, ushered in the age of the hybrid tea, which saw a great many roses perish in their midst.  Now, all kidding aside, I think many of us now sigh a big whew, and thank those 1960s, 70s and 80s folks who stuck to their guns and kept around an old rose or two instead of hoisting them all in favor of the latest and greatest.

But come on everyone, lets get real.  Rose growers have long been in the business of commerce, and there has always been "this years winner" be it wines, or flowers, or fashion trends.  Some of those items honestly SHOULD be deigned fit only for the history books (kindles). White skintight jumpsuits for instance. Hoopskirts, knee breeches, knob and tube electric, telegrams. And yes, many many old roses.  There are also those things that come into and go out of fashion throughout the years.  And yes, gardening itself goes in an out of style, and flower type, height, smell, and form all seem to win or lose favor with each successive generation.  Even before the advent of hybrid teas in the later 19th century, the annals of time have claimed many a flower variety.

Rosa "Peace" ~ The Conquerer

So with this as the setup, we have an interesting trend going on now in the rose world, as well as the gardening world as a whole: organic, original, heirloom, old.  Old is this generations next greatest thing.  So much so that I read somewhere recently that hybrid tea roses, once the overwhelming ONLY selection of roses in commerce are having trouble selling and languishing on the shelves!!!  This means that hybrid tea varieties, the good, the bad, and the ugly will perish in the whiplash. Hold on to your favorite varieties now, because soon they'll be hard to come by (life's full of blackspot and then you die).

And so it goes... in my lifetime I'm all but certain that new will move back into being the next new thing, and old garden roses, heirloom vegetables and whatnot will again have to step aside for some amazing new horticultural marvel as the whim of popular opinion moves along.   As most of us probably have found out in our lives, not all progress is actually progress, but no progress isn't progress either.  And sometimes you can't tell the difference for a good long while.  Something to chew on, that.

So to each his own I say.  The fact that there are remontant lilacs and hydrangeas and short versions of every old garden stalwart isn't a bad thing.  It reflects what we the people really want.  Not all of us (I sure as heck would rather the taller dianthus, coneflowers, and salvia's of yore), but the masses have spoken for this day, this moment, and have done for many many many generations.  And hey, my hydrangeas stay in bloom 10 months of the year.  I can live with that. And just to throw it out there, if I could grow lilacs at all down here, I wouldn't care if they came from Mars, and were only available at the "evil box store": I'd be growing them.

So how about this: Lets stop beating each other up about our choices... what do you say?  Organic or not, heirloom or not, OGR or knockout, purebred or hybrid, remontant or species, the choice is yours, and surely any current generational zeal you conform to for anyone's reasons but your own will shortly be the next worst thing.

For the record: in my garden in zone 9a super humid all year long Southern Coastal USA, I fertilize primarily organically with a midseason dollop of osmocote, spray for pests and disease only when absolutely necessary (but I absolutely do), think lawns are sort of pretty, and I grow 18 cultivars of roses:

3 types of knockouts
2 david austin shrubs
1 species rose
5 OGRs (or almost) a noisette, a polyantha, a bourbon, a china and a hybrid musk
4 modern bushes/climbers
2 bermuda/mysteries
1 miniature

They ALL grow quite well, and have no distain for each other.  Imagine that!  I make my own choices, and to those of you who think I do so in an uninformed fashion, I'll also state for the record, I think its nice that you have an opinion.  We all do.  And since nostalgia is such the rage these days I'll add this oldie but goodie: If you don't have anything nice to say, don't say anything at all.  Now I sure do wish that WOULD come back to stay.

The defense rests.

Bad Things (Part II)

Well, it has been a research paper that has held me up,  my anxious garden friends, not jail.  Though post graduate education is sort of like jail, come to think of it.  It seems to take forever to get out, and once you are out, you're not quite sure you can integrate into the real world.

So just a quick recap, for those of you whom I can't induce to read the first part (hint), Bad Things, Part I, exhausted from staying up the night before, due to the arsonist, and returning home with a fresh new pair of pruners,  the protagonist of this tale turned down the path of (mild)evil and decided to liberate two cuttings from their bushy homes in front of a non-abandoned church mid service..........

Before I continue, just so you can get a clearer picture of the circumstance, you need to know that I too am one of those people WHO NEVER DO STUFF LIKE THIS, not because I'm afraid of jail (that never even crossed my mind, you people really are a wee anxious, I must say!), but because I am a rule follower by nature and fall apart if I get caught doing anything.  I don't even tell white lies well.   So when I tell you my heart was pounding because so far all signs had pointed to this being a bad idea, I'm not kidding: it was pounding.

I looked to the left, I looked to the right, and saw nobody looking at the miniature parking lot with one extra administrative space, noticed nobody that looked like church personnel, then slowly, stealthily snuck into the spot.  Finally, I was committed.... or was I?  I had this herky jerky feeling as I put the car in park.. this was WRONG!  Now, not only was I about to borrow rose cuttings, but I was also PARKING ILLEGALLY!  This crime was growing exponentially!  Its like lying, you cannot just tell one lie! Now I understand how people become career criminals... it can happen in mere seconds.  Rose Rustling the gateway crime.

And, what if the m.i.a. church person came? I'd be trapped, potentially by a man of God, and then be forced to lie on top of stealing and trespassing and illegal parking!  Caught up in this moral quagmire induced anxiety, I put the car back into reverse and started to leave.  I really did, but just as quickly I reversed positions and said out loud to myself "Jess, people park in other peoples spaces all of the time.. nobody ever died of this, what is wrong with you!? Just get the (badword) roses already, you could have walked here 3 times over in this amount of time!" and then pulled once more into the space and turned the car running lights off.  Good grief, already.

Now, let me tell you something, having a Prius has more advantages than gas mileage for those sneak-thief oriented individuals.  It is totally silent if you are going under 10 mph or so.  Meaning I could hide the black car in the dimly lit space, totally on, but not looking or sounding like it, and then run out pruners aloft, get the rose cuttings, run back in, throw it in reverse, and peel out silently in seconds flat.  Its probably the best getaway car ever made, come to think of it, so at least I had that going for me.  I looked up and down the street for a car that looked suspiciously like a church mobile, and seeing none I gave myself 30 seconds, and I was off at a trot, like a pro, clicking back the pruner safety as I ran.

The bushes, which are about 7-8 feet tall were encased in shadow, and looked nothing like their daytime counterparts. I couldn't see one stem from another.   "Ah, this is finally going well, ya big wussy" I though to myself as I reached for the large bush to position the pruners. Snip.  One fell into my hand.  I reached in again, feet poised for the getaway, grabbed the bush and .... OOOOOWWWWWWWWHHHH!  I looked at my bloodied thumb.  The bush had meted its justice.  I had a mega gash in my thumb from what could only have been the worlds largest and sharpest ultra-thorn.   This by far was the worst gardening injury I have sustained thus far in life.  I am totally not exaggerating when I say it could have killed me. Yes I am, but I want drama. And holy crap: now I had left DNA on the scene! All those years of watching CSI were for naught...I am the worst criminal ever!

Run away, run away! I took my one cutting, thumb in mouth, and ran back to the Prius, and peeled (silently) out of the parking lot.  I didn't look back until I had reached the corner, the cutting tossed on the passenger seat not even in the carefully retained water.

I would love to tell you that somehow I lost my pruners in this attempt because it would be both fitting and a wonderful story ender, but sadly it wasn't the case.  I made it home, 45 seconds later, no fuzz on my tail.  Safe.

But there is a lesson in here somewhere, a real moral to the story, and just in case you haven't figured it out, this entire tale is to let you all know so you don't make the same mistake I did:

Do not pick roses in the dark.

okay okay, just kidding... and I know, I know.  I did a bad thing.

Bad Things

So, I did a bad thing.  No I didn't litter or hurt anyone or any animal, but I did permanently borrow something.  Without asking.  Yes, it has taken me a while to work up to the deed.  I pass by the tempting place frequently enough and just keep on walking.  Sometimes I pause, but nothing more.  But something happened this evening when I was driving home from Lowe's after purchasing ANOTHER set of hand pruners, having, I assume, thrown yet another pair out with the yard waste.  I keep doing this.  Trim trim trim, bag up for city compost, can't find pruners two days later.  But as I was saying...

You see, I couldn't stop thinking about them, having seen them resplendent a few days ago on one of my walks.  Outside a church that will remain nameless.  Two of them, encroaching on the sidewalk, as they were.  Taunting me.

And there I was driving home, in the dark, with sharp new pruners in the passenger seat, and a half filled bottle of water I stopped drinking abruptly when the bad deed crossed my mind.  And just like that, I decided: I was going to do it.  I was going to steal two cuttings off of the most magnificent rose bushes in all of downtown Charleston, under cover of darkness.  Super double sneaky style.

And there's were things started to go not as planned...

It all started with this whole cover of darkness premise.  Because the time had changed just 2 days previous I had this false sense of lateness.  Also I hadn't slept well that night because there's a mad arsonist in town burning houses down in the middle of the night for kicks and having so far burnt 82 houses in the past 8 years without our top notch PD even having a clue, Monday at 4am another house was alight not two blocks from me.  But lets not get me started on the arsonist here.  Talk about bad things grrrr.   So anyhow,  I was driving the extra few blocks to the target flora, and as I approached the street (urban, buildings on both sides), I realized there were people all over the (badword) place.  I checked the clock.  It was precisely 6:22.  (badword)! Now fortunately there was still a lot of darkness, because Charleston is just one of those places that tries to keep every block just light enough to film a Vampire movie.  So my nerve held.

And then problem #2 became apparent.  The Church WAS FULL of people too!  On a Tuesday. Argh.

And then I realized the most troublesome fact thus far... because it was after 6, but not very far after 6, the evening parking restrictions were lifted and there wasn't a spot to be seen.  I mentally backtracked.  (another badword)!  I hadn't seen any parking spots for many many blocks. Argh.  Plus there were  4 unsuspecting cars stacked patiently up behind me, as Southerners inexplicably have the power to do,  as I crawled past the church bushes casing them.  I turned around looking at my options.   My mental picture of rolling up to the church pruners reaching out of the car and lop lop was withering.  But I also knew my puritanical other identity which usually rules when not exhausted and carrying pruners would never let this opportunity happen again.  I knew it was now or never.  My heart rate ratcheted up as I saw someplace to park... right between the two church buildings in one of the 5 spots labeled "xxx Church Staff Only.  Violators will be Towed.

{to be continued}

10 Shade Tolerant Roses

Standard rose lingo has most of us believing that to grow a rose you need 6 plus hours of sunlight.  We'll I'm here to tell you it just isn't so!  Many many roses will do totally fine with less than 6, and some frankly with less than 4 hours of sunlight.   One of the unusual benefits to growing these shade tolerant types is that they tend to also be disease resistant types as well.  This is a huge benefit because one of the disease proliferating agents to roses is too much shade, so its all for the good, and make sense that if the shade isn't stressing the plant, it won't contract the diseases.

Sharifa Asma

I actually grow quite a few roses at my house which out back gets ZERO direct sunlight from Nov-Feb.  March and Oct, the shoulder months, moves from 2-4 hours, and then the late spring, summer and early fall months I get varying amounts of sun (from 4 to 8) depending on month and garden position.   Living in the city, my garden deals with shadows from buildings, mature trees and fence lines.  Anything that wants to live here also has to contend with fierce root competition.   And yet, my roses really, for the most part, have no issues. And it is a total wives tale that roses need sun in the winter too.  They are DORMANT then. Yep, totally no activity, so no, they don't need sun.  Ask anyone who lives up north where the roses either die back to the ground, or they live close enough to the poles to be getting less than 4 hours of dim light a day, and they can tell you... roses grow just fine when the sun returns.

Knockout

Here are some shady rose rules:

Rule number one, is pick the right roses, and they aren't hybrid teas.  Period.  Sorry.
Rule number two is that once blooming roses tend to need less sun as a whole than remontant (reblooming) or perpetual roses.  Having one of these in your garden is generally worth it, because the once a year show tends to be beyond spectacular.
Rule number three is hybrid musk roses, as a class, are more shade tolerant than others.
And Rule number four, they have knockout roses growing in the medians of the highway for a reason.

Okay without further ado, here is the list of roses I know you can grow successfully in under 6 hours of sun, because I do!  A * marks a rose I know can make it perfectly fine in even 3-4 hours of sun, as I have them growing in such conditions.

Ballerina - probably my favorite

1)Ballerina, Hybrid Musk* (seen blooming like mad in less than 3 hours of direct sun)
2)Any of the Knockout Roses, Modern* (seen blooming in almost no direct sunlight!)
3)Marie Pavie, Polyantha
4)Madame Alfred Carriere, Noisette (Climber)
5)Carefree Beauty, Modern* (mine lives directly beneath a large pecan tree, still covered in blooms)

Carefree Delight

6)Sharifa Asma, English Rose (this rose is new to me, but seems to be doing best SO FAR in part sun vs full sun.. the blooms and leaves do fry easily)
7)New Dawn (Climber) (this does fine in 4-6 hours, but definitely doesn't bloom to potential with less than that)

New Dawn

8)Carefree Delight, Modern
9)Eden Climber, Modern(Climber)
10)Lady Banks Lutea, Species

Carefree Beauty - super drought tolerant too.

Marie Pavie

 Considerations about my garden:  There is no spot in my yard which is dense shade, or even medium shade.   Even zero directly light is pretty bright out there (light shade), because I live in the southern US.  This makes a difference to some degree.  No rose will bloom in deep shade.  Some roses, on the margin will get blackspot in the shade more frequently than it would in the sun.   I do not have major blackspot issues in my garden, and I 100% attribute that to smart rose choices, because my climate is primo ideal for it, and I have had other plants with blackspot like fungal diseases.   I do get powdery mildew badly during the summer on non resistant plants (phlox and beebalm primarily), but my roses so far have been immune.   However, all of my roses are on a drip irrigation system or are in containers where the water situation is heavily managed.  Obviously, some of these are warm zone only roses, but not all of them.

Madame Alfred Carriere Climber - Z8+

Something I cannot comment on, though maybe others can, I don't have a big bug problem on the coast here (the mosquitos are only after us I'm afraid, and the palmetto bugs aren't after anybody they are just gross), so I have no idea how likely these are to have major bug infestations.  I've never seen a thrip or a spidermite in my garden, for which I am eternally grateful.  Outrageous humidity all year 'round does have its privileges.  Okay, so yeah, thats the only one... so far no Japanese beetles either.  Just too much concrete for them in the urban zone, is my guess.  I do have a perpetual slug problem, but none of the above roses are affected.  I think there is just too much else that tastes better out there.

Do any of you have some good suggestions for the not only 'shade tolerant', but 'shade is swell' rose bush varieties that you have tested with your own eyes?

Lady Banks

A Visit To An AARS Test Garden

The All American Rose Selections committee each year recommends what it considers to be the highest quality roses that have been introduce to the market during the calendar year.  Most years there are between 2-4 different varieties which get the AARS stamp of approval which takes into account novelty, form, color, aging quality, fragrance, habit, vigor, repeat ability, and disease resistance.  Each year in 10 sites across the USA these roses are planted and watched to garner the rating.

Temptation

I happen to live about 70 miles away from one of these test gardens, at Edisto Memorial Gardens, located in Orangeburg, SC.    At this AARS test gardens, along a lovely stretch of the Edisto River, they have maintained nearly every single winner since 1940, along with other donated heritage and old garden rose varieties.   These donated OGRs are healthy in this area, including a large variety of Noisettes, a class originated in South Carolina.

Looking over a sea of Opening Night, 1998

So what's it like to come upon hundreds of varieties of roses winners, planted in drifts of 30-50+ of each variety?  Its overwhelming!  I started out taking a picture of each and every one, and made it through about the first third and gave up, deciding to take photos of only those that struck my fancy after that point (and more than 300 pictures).

Donated Noisette

It is interesting to see these 'best of' selections en masse, both because you can see how styles have changed through the past 70 years, and you get to see what types of roses regularly are winners.  There is no doubt that the AARS favors hybrid teas and floribunda roses above all others.  Recently though, shrub roses have begun to pop up in the ranks on a regular basis (such as Rainbow Knockout, 2007).   They also have a huge soft spot for the graduated color roses, those that go from white to pink to red, or from yellow to red, or from yellow to orange, etc.   Orange seems to be one of their favorite colors in general, along with brilliant reds, whereas white roses are few and far between throughout the years in comparison to all other colors.   Yellow, on the other hand, has recently had a comeback, with nearly half of the past 5 years roses of that hue, including this years winner.  Most of the winning varieties were magnificently fragrant, and specifically fragrant in the classic tea rose scent.  There were a few though (Cherry Parfait, 2003) who carried very little scent whatsoever.

One of the wonderful things for me, living in the local area is that ability to see these roses in local climate reality. While many roses were still blooming, it is after the first flush here and I could witness roses who were downright ugly in the post bloom stage (Bonica, 1985), who had a tendency to terrible balling (Tournament of Roses, 1989) or whose habit was not for me.  I could see those that stayed three feet and those who grew 10 feet tall, which as a hybrid tea looks pretty odd to me!  

Bad Balling on Tournament of Roses,  1989

Unballed Blooms are Beautiful though. Tournament of Roses, 1989

A few of the notables for me (no photo retouching, these are the actual colors, in the worst washout 1pm lighting too!):

Gemini, 2000

Showbiz, 1983

Can double as a nightlight! Carribean, 1992

Strike It Rich, 2007

The oddly named Seashell,  1976
If I came upon a seashell this color I'd fight a battalion of shell seekin' old ladies off!

The very famous Double Delight,  1977

Midas Touch, 1994

Crysler Imperial, 1953 Best Red Bush IMO. Great full shape.

Bazillions of very double flowers and no balling on: Secret, 1992

Elle, 2005 who was incredibly fragrant too

Glowing Peace, 2001

Lady Elsie May, 2005

Daydream, 2005

And my breathtaking favorite, the Garden Party Rose, 1960.  This rose has the standard hybrid tea shape, but I can ignore that, given the huge fragrant blooms.  Love it.  I might just have to procure myself one!

ps. no flowers were picked in the making of this blog post, however, it almost killed me to not take a sample of the Garden Party.  Particularly seeing as I was all alone in the gardens minus a middle aged couple with Queens accents, the lady of the couple shouting intermittently, "Hennnrrrry, wheres the purple one Henry?  I don't see the purple one."  "Hennnry?!"  "yes, dear"  "Henry, where's the purple? I don't see the purple."  "To the right dear" (without looking up).   This of course went on for a good 10 minutes before the wife called him an old fool and stomped off.

Additions For the Spring

As garden madness approaches fever pitch, I though I'd mention the 'upgrades' to the garden this year.   Hardscape, I got nothing.   Softscape, I went and bit the bullet and got myself all underdirt strung up with soaker hoses.  I am going to do my best to avoid powdery mildew and outrageous water bills this summer.  Granted, if it ever chose to rain during the summer that would help. (hint, hint Mother Nature).

But of course the new additions of note are the plants.

Image Courtesy of Antique Rose Emporium

I have added another antique rose to my collection.  Rosa "Ballerina," which is a single with appleblossom like flowers, and a heavy repeat bloomer.  Or so they say.  Also a nice fragrance.   It is a hybrid musk from 1937, chosen because it is not in a full sunlight situation.  It will get about 4 hours of direct sun, and another 5-6 of very bright indirect/reflective sun.   I'll be keeping you updated on how this 'shade tolerant' varietal does.

I purchased 2 additional Blue Storm Agapanthus to join the other 3 clumps I already have.  This varietal is shorter, by a good foot than the ones I dug and replanted from my Mom's garden, though it is the same traditional color.  I have had good success with getting these to bloom profusely and immediately, and I do it by literally planting them directly beside each other with zero 'room'.  Works like a charm.  Some times indeed you should listen to your mother.

I couldn't help but buy this tiny miniature rose from Lowe's with its perfect pink color.  It was labeled as 'Rosa'.  I can't tell you how obnoxious that is to me.  Come on now, you are telling me the person who planted this rose didn't know what type it was?   I will probably have to spend the next 20 years trying to figure out what it is.  I guess this is their solution to their terrible mislabeling of plants!  Before long everything there will just be labeled "Plant" or "Your guess is as good as mine."

I have bought two more urn style pots to plant the remaining $2.25 knockout roses I was able to acquire last November! (4 gallon sized roses for 9 bucks, steal of the century).  They are already blooming in their nursery pots they've been stranded in since last year.  I am really bad about this.  Its amazing that I actually don't kill stuff more often.  I know this whole urn potted rose thing works because I have a red knockout from last year that managed to become a 4 foot tall bush in one.  Knockout Roses are tough as nails and would probably qualify as a weed if people didn't like them so much.  They'll grow in anything!

After last years crazy tropical look in the shade corner, I'm going to try for a little different look this year, and acquired a couple of double impatiens to make the area a little less tropical looking.   It was cool and different but really not my cup of tea, particularly set against the sunny rest of the garden.  I'm not sure what else I'm going to do with this section... particularly if the persian shields come back.  And they might, it wasn't a particularly cold winter here.

As an aside, guess who I saw out today??  My little guy doesn't get sun at all til mid February due to the massive garage next door and the angle of the sun.  Now he's in the sun full time but my guess is he's going to be a few weeks later than your average Lady Banks.

I Think I Can, I Think I Can

The Lady Banks roses are blooming all over town.  White ones, yellow ones, why even the Food Lion has one (that's a grocery store).   Until I decided to get one I just never realized how many of them there are.  Everywhere.

My Lady Banks, who was planted a few weeks ago, and came home looking like a tiny bundle of straggly sticks, still is looking rather pathetic and small, but she knows what she is supposed to be doing.  She knows that she should be covered in blooms all over the place and be plotting world domination like the rest of her brethren.   So last night, with all of her might she willed herself to bloom. 

This is what we got.

Pretty cute right, in that Charlie Brown Christmas Tree sort of way!

Carjacking By A Lady Named Banks

Last year, while visiting dozens of houses, looking for the perfect one to buy, I happened upon so many lovely arbors, trellises and fences covered in white, pink or yellow blooms cascading all over the place.    They perched from atop thorny limbs woven into many a gate I tried to peer through, and they climbed up columns holding up centuries old double porches (piazzas in Charleston-speak).  They called softly to me from unseen gardens, their fragrance mixed with the humid air for hundreds of steps.   Ah, so rosey.

But I am a beginning gardener.  One with a love of many sun loving flowers and limited space in which to grow them.   A quick reading about basic rose care, and it was settled.  No thorny, mildewy, buggy, flower wilting, fertilizer sucking temperamental roses for me.  Nope, I don't love them that much. 

Then something happened today when I stopped by to get some potting soil to fill up my two monster patio pots.  This Lady Banks Rose ended up in my passenger side car seat.  I swear I didn't put her there.  She tried to hide herself under my jacket, and frankly I wouldn't have even noticed her there except in an effort to make it safely home she put her seatbelt on, and well, I was suspicious.  My jacket is one of those wild children - never uses his seatbelt.

So her cover blown, she pulled out a water pistol and said "Drive, or you'll have root rot where the sun don't shine." I'm sure you all can imagine my utter shock.  At the next light, I nervously glanced around elsewhere in the car to see if any other secret passengers were about.  Sure enough, an entire bag of caladium bulbs were hiding on the floorboard!   The outrageous audacity of some plants, right?

For all of you who are now a bit concerned for me, no worries, I made it home totally dry, albeit with a new found understanding of the southern magazine, "Garden & Gun."