Friday, June 21, 2013

Flowers on Friday ... Hollywood Cemetery This Week

Wednesday was a beautiful day!  The weather was cool and cloudy ... a perfect day to make a trip to Hollywood Cemetery to continue my photographing and assessment of the rose collection there.
 
We have had a very wet spring.  It has rained twice a week or more, everything at Hollywood shows the effects.  Earlier, spring flush of flowers was glorious.  Now, the damp conditions are taking a toll on some of the roses that are susceptible to it ... at least that's what I THINK is happening to some of them.
 
Let's take 'Archduke Charles' as an example.



There are two bushes of this rose that I know of in the cemetery.  One of them has lots of lush spring growth, and its taller outer branches are on the ground ... laid flat by hard rainstorms.



Look carefully and you can see that it is already putting out new canes in response to the increased sunlight in the center of the plant.  Those flattened canes can be pruned off and the bush will be as good as new.
 
The other 'Archduke Charles' looked like this in October 2011 ... it was nice and leafy in May of this year, too, but I don't have a photo of it from that day to show you.

October, 2011


Now, for some reason, it is almost completely leafless.  Dampness and saturated soil in its shady location perhaps?  Other than its lack of leaves, the plant itself looks great.  We will keep an eye on it to see how well it refoliates itself.

June, 2013


Other China Roses were leafless, too.  This is the one I call "Coulbourne China", since we don't yet know the real name of it.  There was one fairly nice cluster of flowers left on it, toward the bottom of the plant. .. but almost no leaves.





The "Gemmell Rose" is a pink China ... you guessed it, almost leafless.  It was putting out new growth and lots of buds, though.  This is another one that will have those flattened outer branches pruned off.

 



The cemetery has two very large 'Spray Cecile Brunner' bushes.  Storms flattened some of their branches, too.  The bushes themselves, though, look fantastic.  The first flush of flowers has finished, and both of them are covered in buds as they prepare to do it all over again.


 

 
 
I found a rose that we missed putting on our rose map earlier in the year.  I have no idea how this one got overlooked.  It is a lovely example of 'Alba Odorata', a plant that I have visited and photographed a number of times in the past.  Right now, it is just beginning to flower.  It would be good to get the invasive vines and the volunteer maple tree out of it.
 
 

 
 
Speaking of vines, there is a wild grape vine clambering over the rose on the Larus plot.  The rose itself looks great ... with one spray of flowers left on this once-bloomer.  Based on the way it grows, I'm wondering if this is a rambler.  There are a number of ramblers in the cemetery (Tausendschoen and Crimson Rambler and others) that grow as large, lax, free-standing plants.
 
 
 
 
 
I will finish up with one of my favorite plants in the cemetery, the Brandt rose.  I think this is a Noisette, but I'm not positive.  It grows as a huge, fat, gorgeous shrub ... planted outside the plot's granite curb, very close to the road.  You can see how gorgeous it is in this photo that I took a few weeks ago in early May.
 
May, 2013
 
 
 
 
This week, though, it looked quite different.  Someone has pruned off  many of the lower limbs, leaving the plant about one-quarter of its former size.  They did a good job of it, but it was still quite a shock to see it in this state.
 
June, 2013
 
 
I asked Donald, the grounds supervisor, and he told me that his crew did not do this.  Perhaps it was the contract lawn service, or maybe a member of the Brandt family (who are the actual owners of the rose, so they would have a right to do what they want to it).  I hope we can find out who did it.  It's okay, though, in this case.  This rose is healthy and vigorous, and you can see that it is already putting up new canes at the bottom of the plant, to replace those that were removed.
 
This is a fairly graphic example of the challenges of working with Hollywood Cemetery.  If I give instructions to the cemetery's crew, they are very good at following what I ask them to do.  The lawn crew are contract workers, though, and the ones manning the string trimmers can a lot of damage if they get too close to the roses ... I had some polite words with two of these young men this week, asking them to please leave a larger margin around the roses while they were trimming.  (They apologized and agreed ... we will see how long it lasts.)
 
Happy Friday, Everyone!!
 
 


10 comments:

  1. Such pretty roses! And I really like the birds tweeting when I visited!I can pretend I'm outside doing something a lot more useful than sitting here.♥♫

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  2. Oh, I confess, it wasn't your blog that had the birds chirping. I had another window open and it was on another blog! They just fit with your post! lol.♥♫

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  3. Interesting to see the condition of those roses ! What can cause the loss of leaves on some of the roses ?

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  4. Jane, you are coming up as a 'no reply' when your comment is sent to my email. If you disconnect from Google+, and enable your email if you haven't already done this, folks can send you direct replies.

    To answer your question, I don't know exactly why some of the China roses have lost their leaves. I think it is probably because our weather has been fairly wet so far this growing season. I'm going to have to wait and watch to see what happens with them next.

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  5. I enjoy the pictures you post. I love roses and I also appreciate the sentiment that people must surely have had, when making their choice of flowers, at their loved ones resting place. I also enjoy doing geneaolgy and trying to find, or discover the family stories. I think many times the flowers that have been placed, (or the lack thereof), are part of the story.

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  6. I meant to also ask you if you are familiar with a climbing rose named Indian Summer? I have tried to find one for probably close to 30 yrs now. The home I grew up in (1950's-Pacific NW), had a climber by that name just outside my upstairs bedroom window. It had delightful fragrance and amazing colors, 'similar' to Tropicana. My old grade school pricipal used to love getting bouquets of them but sadly, a hard unexpected freeze claimed it.

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  7. One thing I'm pretty sure of, with all the rain, I'll bet the grass is growing like gang busters!

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  8. I had to laugh when
    I got to the severely
    trimmed back rose
    at the end of this post.

    My dad is known for
    doing this to his roses,
    which drives my mom
    a bit crazy.

    And guess what? My
    maiden name is BRANDT.

    Maybe it's in the DNA : )

    Loved the romantic pics
    of roses in the cemetery....

    Happy Friday,
    xo Suzanne

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  9. The roses are beautiful! Are they yours, or do you just take a special interest in the cemetery?

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  10. In my fantasy garden I have space for many roses that can be pegged.

    THAT would be rich indeed.

    XO T

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