The Smallest of the Small, Part 2

New photos, taken this morning ... with a ruler, at the suggestion of our Dear Ms. Anthropy. 

Gold Coin

Sungold

Green Ice

... and two new ones that weren't blooming yesterday.

Saint Mary, 1986

Tom Thumb

(bred by Jan de Vink in the Netherlands in 1935.)

These photos not as clear as yesterday's, because this morning I had one hand on the tape measure and only one left to steady and operate the camera.  (Before you suggest that I use a tripod, you should know that I have three of them, and I'm just too impatient most days to use one.)

(written by Hartwood Roses.  Hartwood Roses blog.)

The Smallest of the Small

I have a totally out of control collection of miniature roses bred by Ralph Moore.  The collection is up to 130+ varieties, all of whom reside in pots in the driveway at the moment.  Despite the summer heat, some of these little babies are blooming like crazy.  Today, I'll show you a few of them.

Pink Poodle, 1991.

This flower has incredible detail, and it's only an inch and a half in diameter! 

Green Ice, 1971.

Green, pea-sized buds open into these perfect little white flowers.

Baby Cecile Brunner, 1982.

A perfect miniature replica of the famous Polyantha rose, Cecile Brunner.  This flower is only an inch across!

Gold Coin, 1967.

This lemon yellow flower is only the size of a nickel!

Fresh Pink, 1964.

This is one of the larger flowers I'm showing here ... a whopping 2 inches across.  At maturity, the bush may get to be two feet tall.

(edited, thanks to kstrong, to say that Fresh Pink is a CLIMBER that gets huge.  Cool!!!  You all know how much I LOVE climbers.  It hasn't done this for me yet, but I can't wait!)

 

Hoot Owl, 1990.

This tiny flower (1" in diameter) is the most brilliant shade of red!

Little Scotch, 1958.

This is a particularly early, very rare, and really lovely micro-miniature.

Sungold, 1983.

These sunny orange and yellow flowers are barely 3/4" across.

Sweet Chariot, 1984.

Because of its lax growth habit, this rose does really well in hanging containers.

Hope and Joy, 2006.

The yellow center, combined with the bright red petals with their white edges, makes this flower quite striking!

Honeycomb, 1974.

This perfect little flower is smaller than a quarter!

Simplex, 1961.

Isn't this the most perfect white flower?  It's only an inch across!

I have been busy with my tape measure and graph paper, designing a parterre garden on the south side of the barn to hold all of my miniature roses.  Once the weather cools a bit, so I don't get heat stroke working out there, I expect it to come together pretty quickly.  Stay tuned for more.

(written by Hartwood Roses.  Hartwood Roses blog.)

Hangin' With the Cool Kids

I graduated from Heidelberg American High School, in Heidelberg, Germany, in 1978.  When American kids graduate in a foreign country, it's a bit difficult to hold onto relationships or have reunions at the old school like stateside folks can.  We didn't really have a class alumni association, the Internet didn't exist until relatively recently, and keeping track of everyone was all but impossible.  With Internet search engines, sites like Classmates.com, and now Facebook, it has been possible to gather fellow Heidelberg graduates together from time to time.

Last night was one of those times.

A dozen or so of us gathered at the Zum Rheingarten restaurant about a half hour north of me, and we had a blast!!

There was plenty of beer, as you would expect of people who spent their high school years in a country where the legal drinking age was 16.  This was my glass ... I had to take a picture of it because I liked the way the sunlight lit the glass.  Then I drank it.

The restaurant used a dry-erase marker on a china plate to indicate our reserved table.  What a cool idea!

This is me, my friend Mike, and my sister in law.  It had already been a long, hot day, and I can see it all over my face.  I was SO ready for the rest of that beer, and a good German meal.

Another artsy shot, with a beer bottle and Mike's souvenir Heidelberg license plate.

The group photo, taken by our lovely server, as we closed down the restaurant.  (The guy in the red shirt next to me is my bratty little brother.)

Any time a group of Heidelbergers gets together, a party is sure to erupt.  It doesn't matter which class we were in, how young or old we are, or if we ever knew each other in school.  Once a Heidelberger, always a Heidelberger ... the bond is strong. 

(written by Hartwood Roses.  Hartwood Roses blog.)

Feeling Fragmented

This has been a very fractured week so far.  I have worked on a lot of things ... none of which was the blog. (sorry about that). 

Project #1 ... Weeds.

The weeds in the Rose Field are threatening to take over, and I had to resort to fairly drastic measures on Monday.  Poor White Pet is being held hostage by some huge yellow-flowered weed, and this isn't even the worst of it. 

The paths are paved with spurge,

and whatever this weed is,

It's almost pretty when you look at it up close.

I haven't been out weeding like I should have, because it's been horribly hot, and now the weeds have the upper hand.  But, I have chemicals!  Monday morning, I carefully sprayed herbicide on the weeds in the paths and between the roses.  Some of them have already started to wilt.  (insert evil laugh here)

This pokeweed isn't feeling too well right now.

Project #2 ... the Basement Bathroom.

When it gets too hot to work outside, I have been ducking inside to work in the basement.  The bathroom floor is all scrubbed and it looks fabulous!  I had hoped to be able to just clean up the cupboard that I bought in Lucketts, but it was a bit rougher than I wanted ... so I sanded it lightly, and put on a coat of paint and glaze.  The inside is now my favorite shade of turquoise!

This is just a tease ... I'll show you the rest of this when it's all finished.

Project #3 ... the Rambler Fence.

The ground underneath the Ramblers is covered with ground ivy, Bermuda grass, and some kind of wild sorrel.  All of this stuff spreads like mad, and the only way for me to get rid of it now is to use my trusty herbicide.  Before I can do that, I have to give the ramblers a pretty drastic trim to keep them away from the chemical.  

Here's Paul Transon after his haircut.  I like how I can now see the canes underneath the rose.

I was making really great progress, until I got to 'Francois Juranville'. 

As I was assessing the situation trying to decide how to proceed with this rose, I caught the attention of a pair of mockingbirds.  I assume there's a nest in here, because one of the birds squawked repeatedly, dive-bombed, and flapped me in the head.  This rose can wait until I locate that nest.

Add to all of this a fair amount of laundry, some grocery shopping, and a vet appointment for the itchy allergy cat ... and we have a week where I've done a lot of stuff, and I haven't finished a thing.

Raindrops on Roses ....

I woke up yesterday morning to the sound of RAIN!!  A good rain.  Nice, steady, gentle rain ... that continued until about mid-morning. 

Haven't seen this for a while.

Raindrops beading up on the new 'ride'.

The view outside, through the kitchen door.

A puddle!

Another puddle!!

A little stream running off the side of the driveway.

The rainy vista, as seen from the front porch.

Ditto ... view from the side driveway.

Didn't have to water the nursery pots yesterday.  Look how big the roses are now!!

I know the roses are happier now. 

... you suspected that I was going to end a post titled "Raindrops on Roses" with this, didn't you?

Happy Sunday, Everyone.

Flowers on Friday ... Despite the Heat

No matter where you live, if you follow any blogs that are based in the eastern United States, you have heard that we are experiencing temperatures this week that have approached, and some days exceeded, 100 degrees (that's 37+ for our friends who use the Celsius scale).  Despite the heat, and the fact that we have not had a drop of rain in over two weeks, some of the roses are blooming quite nicely.

Indigo

Odee Pink

In the interest of full disclosure, I have to tell you that I water my rose gardens using a drip irrigation system ... but not too much.  It's meant to be Mother Nature's emergency back-up plan.  I run the system once a week, letting it drip at the base of each rose for a few hours to gradually hydrate the soil directly underneath each rose.

Mrs. John Laing

Mutabilis

Flowers on roses in the heat of summer can be much smaller than those produced in cooler times of the year.   Others produce fewer petals and have a more open bloom form.

"Grandmother's Hat"

Druschki Rubra

As usual, the best blooming roses in the garden right now are the Chinas and Teas.  They love the hot weather, and they produce flowers continuously all summer.

"Carnation"

Comtesse Riza du Parc

The Polyanthas (a tough, work-horse class of roses) are also blooming full force.  These roses will be some of the last to finish the season in November.

Gartendirektor Otto Linne

White Pet

Though the Dog Days of summer aren't the best time to be in the rose garden, it's nice to know that there's still beauty to be found.

(written by Hartwood Roses.  Hartwood Roses blog.)