Membership Has Its Privileges

On Saturday, May 21, at 1:00 pm, we will host the members of the Stafford County Historical Society to tour our home and garden.  Most other Society events are open to the public, but this one is exclusively for current society members.  As the title of this post says, membership has its privileges.

Here is the blurb from the event invitation:  

Hartwood Manor, known as "The Old Foote Place" until the 1950s, was built in 1848 by Ariel and Julia Foote, on property that was originally 1150 acres.  The Footes built their home in Gothic Revival style, which was much more common in their native Connecticut and unusual for Virginia.  The Hilkers bought the property in 2002, and they have been restoring and renovating the house, barn, outbuildings, and grounds ... and creating gardens.  Gardens on the nine-acre property contain Connie's collection of over 500 roses, many of which are rare and endangered.  The roses are expected to be at or approaching full bloom on the day of our visit.

The cool, rainy weather that we have had for the past two weeks has set the timing of the roses back a bit ... which has turned out to be a good thing.  I expect that the roses will show very well for this tour, and for the annual public Open Garden Day on May 30.

I'm not stressing about this, believe it or not, but there's a lot to get done in the time between now and tour day.  Inside the house, I'm tidying and staging, and outside I'm doing what I can to whip the gardens into shape ... whenever the weather allows me time to do so.

I know that some of you are asking, "What can a person do if they aren't a Society member, but are local and want to come tour the house and garden on May 21?"  That's easy!  Click HERE  and to go to the membership page on the SCHS web site, scroll to the bottom of the page, download the membership form, and bring it and a check along with you on tour day,  We will gladly accept it when you arrive.  (If you have questions, email me:  connie@hartwoodroses.com)

Open Garden Day Reminder

This is a reminder, so you don't forget that this year's Open Garden Day is Saturday, June 7, from 10am to 4pm.

'American Pillar' is in full bloom across the fence and WAY up into that cedar tree.  A photo doesn't do it justice ... you have to stand there and see it in person to comprehend the size and spectacle of this rose.

For the past two days, I have been working in the front yard, weeding the roses in the final bed in the hybrid tea garden and filling holes where roses have died with replacements from the pot ghetto.  Making great progress!

Before

During ... it will be a while till I can get a true 'After' photo.

I feel really good about showing off the garden this year.  It's still a horrible embarrassment in some places, but it's better than it was last year.  The mess and weeds don't stop me from welcoming folks to the garden.  With all the roses to see and smell, who cares about the weeds.

Ruby and Roses

Every year, there is always a place in the garden that becomes the perfect photo spot.  It's not something I plan or stage ... it just happens.  This year, 'Pink Pillar' and 'Parade' fell forward and mingled their blossoms to create a great background for a garden photo session with Ruby.

 

 

Ruby is really unsure so far about being an only dog.  She came into our family last year and had Daniel here to show her the way and give her clues about strangers and new situations.  Now that Daniel is gone, it's my job to teach her that she can rely on me to lead her and keep both of us safe.   (Her half-herding-dog genetics will still probably cause her to be a bit wary at first, but I hope to overcome this as much as I can ... and bring out more of the Labrador in her.)

 

 

 

Yesterday's open garden was to have been a good way for her to get used to lots of different people, as visitors came and went and wandered around in HER yard.  There was one flaw in my plan ... very few people showed up.  Don't know why  ... doesn't really matter why, to tell the truth ... it was just a fact. 

 

 

 

Ruby greeted the first guests just as I knew she would, by barking.  She very quickly warmed up, though, and was following along and schmoozing as I showed them around the garden.  That was enough for her for one day, so I ended her training session on this positive note and she spent the rest of the day inside napping on the sofa.

 

 

 

At first, I was very disappointed to have so few visitors.  Looking on the bright side now, the folks who did come had a perfect day.  The roses are the best they have ever been, the weather was cool and sunny and breezy, I had the opportunity to chat with everyone, and Mr. and Mrs. Mockingbird behaved themselves.

 

The garden will be open again next Sunday, June 2.  If more people come, that will be great.  If not, that's okay, too.

 

Spring Open Garden Dates

The roses certainly took their sweet time this spring!  For the past two years, everything was way ahead of normal.  This year, the roses are lagging behind their normal time table by at least a week.  I walked through the garden yesterday, assessing things, and I am pleased to say that it is finally time to invite visitors to come share the roses with me!

My sign at the road is a bit of a lie now ... that phone is disconnected and I'm not selling roses anymore.

 

 

Spring Open Garden dates for 2013 are:

May 26 and June 2

noon to 5pm

rain or shine

(click HERE for address and directions)

 

 

I planted these two roses as a tribute to escaped rootstock suckers on grafted roses.  It's supposed to look like the red rose is the rootstock of the yellow one.

 

 

Please don't come expecting to find a comfortable Sunday stroll in a manicured display garden ... many parts of the garden are an overgrown mess.  Some parts are worse than others.  The Rose Field is almost completely choked with weeds, with roses sprawling over their neighbors and/or suckering into expansive colonies.  The Rambler Fence looks like a collection of haystacks.  The Hybrid Tea Garden in the front yard looks pretty good, and so does the Van Fleet Fence.

 

The yellow rose is 'Sunshine Sally' and the red one is 'Cadenza'.

 

 

There is a delightful silver lining to the neglected, out-of-control conditions this year ... the roses themselves have never looked better and there are going to be WAY more flowers than ever before.  (overgrown roses do that)  I stood at the edge of the Rose Field yesterday afternoon, and I marveled at how beautiful it is.  Couldn't get close to much of it, though, because it would take a machete to clear the way to walk down most of the paths.

 

 

Here are a few words of warning:  This is a country property with country conditions (tall grass, rocks, uneven footing, etc.).  Sensible shoes are a MUST ... and sun screen and bug repellant are recommended.  A tick check after you get home will probably be a good idea, though the ticks haven't been so numerous this year, thank goodness.  (Long pants, too, if you think you may want to brave the Rose Field.)

 

See the cicada?

 

 

Be sure to budget time to visit our next-door neighbors at Hartwood Winery.  (Their wines are excellent, and I have a few roses for you to see over there on the fence between our two properties.)

 

 

 

This is always my favorite time of year!  It's the big show after a long, cold winter, and it's going to be something special.  The whole point of creating a garden like this is to share it and to show people how wonderful these old roses can be.  I love visitors!!

 

Are you coming?

 

(If you live north of here and plan to visit, consider avoiding I-95.  The volume of weekend traffic has been absolutely intolerable ... with construction and the occasional accident to snarl things even more.  It's a little bit farther, but you will probably have a much easier trip if you take I-66 west, to the Rt. 234 Bypass south.  Exit onto Route 28 toward Route 17, then take Route 17 south to Hartwood Road.)

 

Open Garden Preview ... Flowers and Fog

Today is the day ... my first Open Garden day of the season!  It has taken a lot of preparation for me to get to this point, with more to do later for the garden to look like the image I have of it in my head.  Even with the weeds and mayhem around them, the roses rise above and put on a spectacular show.

Foggy mornings are magical times in the Rose Field. The mist mixes with the fragrance from the roses, and the scent is almost beyond description.

Shailer's Provence, The Bishop (two versions), Blairii #1, Geschwind's Nordlandrose in the background ... and many others.

Here is a group of photos, shot while standing on the bench beside the Rose Field, panning the camera from left to right to try to capture the panorama.  (There are too many roses in each frame to attempt to list them all.)

The large rose in the center of this photo is my beloved Banshee ... which will probably be in bloom in a week or two.

I used Photoshop to stitch the photos together ... you can click on this to make it full size.

In addition to the overwhelming spectacle of the rose garden as a whole, there are little bits of beauty tucked here and there ... we just have to look closely.

I am very excited to open my garden today!  I love sharing the roses with everyone, even though I am very, very tired ... visitors energize me and fuel my enthusiasm for what I do.

It's show time!

Preparing for September's Open Garden Days

Now that September is here, the thoughts of most gardeners turn toward fall planting ... which leads to fall plant sales ... like my Open Garden Days on Saturdays in September.

I was outside earlier this morning prepping and primping the pots of roses for sale, and I am amazed at how many of them are in bloom.  I ran inside to get my 'good' camera, so I can share them with you.

Enjoy!!

'Napoleon'

(China)

'Ivory Triumph' and 'Gartendirektor Otto Linne'

(Floribunda and Polyantha)

'Alba Meideland'

(climbing Shrub)

'Little Buckaroo'

(miniature China)

'Twins'

(shrub)

"Caldwell Pink", aka 'Pink Pet'

(Polyantha)

'Sharon's Delight'

(modern Shrub)

'Reve d'Or'

(Noisette)

'White Pet'

(Polyantha)

"Tutta's Pink Noisette"

(Noisette)

'Climbing Rouletii'

(climbing China)

Hartwood Roses will be open from 10am to 3pm on September 3, 10, and 24.  (Click HERE for a map and directions.)  All roses are $15.  A complete list of our current inventory is available on our web site  (Click HERE)  Remaining roses are going fast, so consider ordering ahead of time if you are planning to visit, and yo can pick up your roses while you are here.  If you live out of the area and cannot visit the garden in person, our online store is always open. 

Fall is a great time to plant roses!!

I hope to see LOTS of you on Saturdays this month!  (Please avert your eyes when you see the weeds ... we want you to enjoy the roses and soak up the country atmosphere.)

The Star of Saturday's Open Garden Event ... American Pillar

Visitors to my garden on Saturday were treated to one of my favorite roses in full, glorious bloom.  American Pillar, a rose introduced by Dr. Walter Van Fleet in 1902, is a rambler rose that I have planted as a feature at the end of the Rambler Fence with hopes that it will climb into the adjacent cedar tree. 

This plant has been in this location for four years.  A couple of times during the year, I take canes and guide them toward the tree ... tying them in place where I can, hoping that they will continue to grow into the tree.  Because the tree is green, and the canes are green, I cannot tell how successful I have been until the rose is blooming.

This year, I am overjoyed at the progress.

Do you see the pink flowers WAY up in the tree?  Those canes have snaked through the branches seeking the sun, exactly the way they were supposed to.  I had no idea that the rose had reached such heights already!  This is so exciting!!

See how beautiful American Pillar is against the rough structure of the cedar tree?

Saturday, Mother Nature treated us to beautiful weather ... warm temperatures with a slight overcast throughout the day provided a perfect atmosphere to view and smell and photograph the roses.  Many visitors brought their cameras with them, and I hope them left with photos they can be proud of.

Isn't American Pillar stunning???  These flowers are about 2 inches in diameter, and there are probably thousands of them on the plant.

Most of the visitors came with a shopping list, having visited the nursery web site ahead of time to weigh the pros and cons of the roses that I have in stock.  Even with this type of thorough advance preparation, more than a few folks were tempted by American Pillar, and quite a few American Pillars left here on their way to new homes with beaming new owners.

There's a new cane coming emerging from the top of the pile!  As soon as it gets a little longer, you can be assured that I will tie it to the tree so it can continue its journey to the top.

 

Whew! What a Weekend.

Open House on Saturday was amazing!  The weather was threatening all day, with clouds and occasional drizzle, but true rose lovers are not defeated by a few raindrops.  We had fewer visitors than I expected because of the weather, but this meant that each person who came here could have more of my attention.  Garden tours were longer and more detailed than I thought I would have time to do.  I had adequate time to answer everyone's questions and make suggestions regarding rose varieties.  I was afraid things would be crowded and hectic ... and I was pleased that it wasn't like that.

New Dawn, wearing raindrops.

The roses for sale on the nursery benches were lined up alphabetically, to make it easy for us to find the individual varieties.  Quite a few of these little beauties went to new homes before the day was over.

The Open House wouldn't have been as successful or relaxed without the help of some very special people.  Two of our daughters took turns writing up sales ... one worked in the morning, and the other took the afternoon shift.  My friend Robert spent the day helping me answer questions about rose care and selection of varieties while I was in the garden leading tours. 

My biggest help, and my strongest supporter, is my husband.  He works so hard for days like these ...helping with all the preparations, playing parking attendant, directing visitors around the gardens, writing sales, making lunch, and countless other things.  There is no way I could do this without him.

I would love to show you some more photos of the garden, but there is a hitch.  I have some really nice photos that I took with my new lens, but I discovered on Sunday that I have misplaced my memory card.  Armed with a new memory card that I bought this afternoon, tomorrow's weather promises to be favorable and I have a LOT of roses to photograph. 

I wonder if one of the cats made off with the memory card?

Two Superstar Roses in the Front Garden

There are two roses in front of the house that are putting on a spectacular show right now. 

Schoener's Nutkana is a little-known rose that is absolutely drop-dead gorgeous every spring.  These beautiful magenta flowers are 3 inches across, and the bush is covered with them!

 I got this rose as a lucky accident.  When I placed my final order with Sequoia Nursery before they closed in 2008, I was supposed to receive a hybrid tea rose called 'Schultheis American Beauty'.  Whoever gathered the roses in my order must have made an alphabetical mistake, and accidently grabbed the rose right next to the one I ordered. I didn't realize the mistake until the following year when my rose flowered ... by that time the nursery was closed and everything there was gone.  I'm thrilled beyond words with the bold statement that Schoener's Nutkana makes in the garden.  After it's finished flowering, I MUST move it to a better spot so it can grow and arch without flopping all over its neighboring roses ... remember, it was supposed to have been a mannerly hybrid tea.

The real star of the front yard right now is a rose that was given to me as Applejack, but I am having doubts about this ID.

Applejack is a rose that was introduced by Dr. Griffith Buck, and the photos of it online show flowers that have a different form than my rose.  Is anyone here familiar enough with Buck roses to know whether this is Applejack?  Perhaps it's another Buck rose?

Whatever it is, every square inch of this rose bush is covered with flowers right now.

There are lots of other roses throughout the property that are in full bloom, with many others just beginning their show.  There is a lot for garden visitors to see during my Open House on Saturday.

If you are available on Saturday and want to visit, the details are:

Hartwood Roses' Spring Open House

Saturday, May 14

10:00am to 3:00pm

335 Hartwood Road

Fredericksburg, Virginia

What a Beautiful Day ... and an Announcement

Yesterday, the sky was blue, the clouds were puffy, and temperatures were warm (but not too warm) ... a perfect day for working outside.

A huge oak tree on one side of our front yard ...

... and a large wild cherry tree on the other side.

Our cooler-than-average temperatures for the past week or so have preserved the blooming daffodils, so their spring show seems to be going on a bit longer than usual. 

These are an old fashioned variety that is called Butter and Eggs.  All of these were rescued from old house sites that no longer exist.

The daffodil bulbs that I planted by our front fence three years ago are growing really well.  It's easy to tell which part of the fence has the sunniest, best growing conditions.

I worked in the greenhouse for a few hours while the morning was cool, continuing to pot the roses into their larger pots.  It feels really good to slide a rose out of its little pot and see roots like this.

And now for the announcement ... Mark your calendar and plan to attend Hartwood Roses' Spring Open House.  I'm planning to open the garden on Saturday, May 14 (rain date, Sunday, May 15).  I have lots of details to attend to before then, so take this as a preliminary announcement.  I will announce a complete schedule of activities here soon, and email it to everyone on my mailing list, so stay tuned.

Spring is finally here, and I can't wait to share it with you!