tsubasahome

Anybody ever have this happen before with own root roses?

We got a bunch of David Austin roses from Chamblee's(the ones they actually remembered to send). I understand that Chamblee's often puts multiple cuttings of the same rose in one pot, but something very weird is going on here! Among others, we got Tamora, Ambridge Rose, and Heritage. The first to bloom was Tamora, then Heritage. All was well. Then Tamora bloomed again, producing a flower that looked an awful lot like Ambridge Rose! On close inspection, the middle cutting looked like the foliage was slightly larger...

Then Ambridge Rose, which I planted at the front of a border because of its size, popped its first flower and it looked just like Heritage! I was pissed! Why do we need two Heritages? Heritage is not small! One side of the rose grew strangely tall and leggy. Then it popped another flower that looked like Ambridge Rose. All was well. Then it bloomed again today on the leggy side and looked like Heritage!

Tamora has also bloomed again, producing two Tamoras and one Ambridge Rose. LOL...

I wonder what is going to happen to these roses...Chamblee's has a policy that they'll only replace roses after 30 days, which is tough if they take longer than that to bloom. I hope they don't have a fight to the death or something...

Also, I think my Griff's Red is really Don Juan, because it is now taller than I am.

At this point, I have seedpods forming from the following crosses:

Siloam Double Classic x Entrapment(2)
Daring Deception x Cedar Waxwing(1)
Ed Brown x Cedar Waxwing(2)

Today I pollinated Gentle Shepherd with both Siloam Virginia Henson(hey, didn't I do that cross before?) and Karen Sue, and pollinated Siloam Double Classic with Gentle Shepherd.

My attempts to cross Joylene Nichole(sp?) and Entrapment have both failed. I'm going to try crossing JN with a tetraploid tomorrow to confirm my suspicions that she is really Bridal Suite. She was supposed to be Judy Koltz, LOL.

Where in the world am I going to put all these seedlings?

Little Heavenly Angel x Karen Sue
Luxury Lace x Little Heavenly Angel
Ed Brown x Cedar Waxwing
Siloam Double Classic x Entrapment
Joylene Nichole x Entrapment

I wonder if I'm getting ahead of myself...most of these are diploid crosses but I feel like if I attempt to cross my tets I'm going to wind up with a lot of potential fug...lots of ruffled edges and weird colors and things that could go wrong...I guess I should just be brave, huh?

A baby was born!, a photo by tsubasa_ozora.rm on Flickr.

It took her two years to bloom, and she's the only one to bloom so far. Her parentage is Siloam Virginia Henson x Entrapment. When she grows up, I may cross her with Gentle Shepherd.

The seed pod that produced her contained at least six other seeds, and I'm growing them all out. Will they be clones of her, or fraternal twins? Anybody know?

One of my daylily babies, the ones I hybridized two years ago, finally has a scape. It'll probably bloom for the first time in a few days. I'm dying to know what it looks like! I can't remember which one it is, but I have a feeling it's one of the Entrapment crosses...the unopened bud looks an awful lot like Entrapment. So it's either Siloam Virginia Henson x Entrapment or Gentle Shepherd x Entrapment.

I didn't do any crosses last year because the daylilies that set seed the year before seemed like they were suffering a bit from having babies too young, and my tetraploid daylilies seemed like they were having a hard time getting established, so I didn't want to tax them too much. Since Siloam Double Classic x Rosey Returns did not seem like an appealing cross I decided to stay my hand for a year. This year I'm attempting Siloam Double Classic x Entrapment, Joylene Nichole x Entrapment and Luxury Lace x Entrapment. The more violet diploids the better, right? I know a lot of people ignore the diploids but I find the colors more pure and appealing, and there's nothing like waiting for a seed pod to mature and getting 8 seeds per pod as opposed to 2 1/2. Some of the tetraploids I have don't seem to be very fertile...while the only questionably attractive but valuable in hybridizing Daring Deception will cross with anything, including itself, Cedar Waxwing is not very fertile and Limoges Porcelain also produced aborted seed pods. I finally managed to get a white tetraploid and I'd like to use that...maybe cross with Ed Brown or Cedar Waxwing?

Lauren's been hosing down the daylilies with Liquid Fence, I hope the rabbits leave my little one alone so it can bloom for the first time...

Roses that get blackspot in my SNE garden:

1. Floribunda Rose "Moondance"--major blackspot, early season
2. Miniature Rose "Cupcake"--moderate blackspot, early season
3. Hybrid Musk Rose "Bouquet Parfait"--moderate blackspot, late season
4. Paul Barden Rose "Hettie"--minor blackspot, late season

Roses that get leafspot in my SNE garden:

1. Griffith Buck Rose "Silver Shadows"--minor leafspot, very sporadic
2. Polyantha Rose "Margo Koster"--minor leafspot, early season

Roses that get powdery mildew in my SNE garden:

EVERYTHING.

The chief culprits:

1. Paul Barden Hybrid Gallica "Marianne"--a little here and there.
2. Griffith Buck Rose "Prairie Harvest"--was almost completely defoliated last year, this year so far so good.
3. Gallica Rose "Charles de Mills"--Terrible PM, the plant actually died(granted, it was a tiny cutting, but...)
4. Moss Rose "Capitaine John Ingram"--a little less than Marianne.

Most of the Austins have had minor incidents with PM.

Disease-free so far:

1. Griffith Buck Roses "Polonaise", "Quietness", "Winter Sunset", "Prairie Star", "Folksinger"
2. Paul Barden Roses "Rook", "Allegra", "Gallicandy" and "Umbra". Of these, Gallicandy is the healthiest. Umbra is a good grower but gets the James Mason-esque ugly cruddy Gallica foliage, Allegra is tiny but still wants to bloom. Rook seems to be a slow grower but healthy.
3. Moss Rose/Centifolia "Crested Moss"
4. Hybrid Musk Rose "Aptos". But is it really Aptos?

I'm probably missing a lot here..of the new roses this year, Paloma Blanca is absolutely gorgeous when the flowers don't ball, Princess Alexandra of Kent has big glorious flowers but got a little PM, and Claire Austin is preparing a huge first flush...people keep griping about it, but so far so good.

Thank God for the rain! Lauren and I are getting really tired of running outside and watering all those newly transplanted roses!

I just sent two commissions on their way to Aruba, and am finishing up a CAM head I'm doing for a trade. Wonder of wonders...I realized I can drill through the hard plastic cap on the newer CAM heads with my mini drill. I'd like a smaller drill bit, though...it's hard to do delicate work with a 1.55 mm drill bit. It's fine for most of the head but if I had to do a part I'd like to get a smaller bit, and I sure hope they make them smaller than 1.55 mm!

I've been swimming in commissions lately, not that I can complain! I just feel a little bad that I have this beautiful custom Frankie(not painted by me, of course!) and I haven't even gotten around to showing her off because she's still naked...my Cleo stole her dress...and I feel like I need to sew her something but I can't find the time. I'm sure I will have the time soon enough.

Now that I think about it, I don't think I have any more snaps...oh, well, she's so beautiful that I might as well photograph her naked!

On the garden front, Evelyn popped its first perfect flower. Heirloom and Enchanted Autumn are growing like nuts. Distant Drums is preparing another(modest)flush. Silver Shadows is absolutely insane. Both of them. What is up with this rose? It's supposed to be a weak grower yet it won't stop blooming and shooting out tons of growth simultaneously. It's crazy! I wonder if maybe it got swapped with Blue Skies in commerce at some point, because I've heard of people buying own-root Blue Skies from Chamblee's and having it not do well, and even though Silver Shadows and Blue Skies are sister seedlings, Silver Shadows has an ARS rating of 7.2 and Blue Skies has a 6.5.

Maybe it's the climate. Maybe our acidic soil? I've heard a lot of West Coast rose growers extolling the virtues of grafted roses and talking of hybrid teas struggling in general, while a rose grower from PA said their hybrid teas grew like crazy and grew their own roots even with their graft union buried well below the soil. I only have one grafted rose...I don't like it. It has a lousy habit, and is covered with blackspot(I only attribute the former to the grafting). I think it's grafted onto Manetti? My own-root roses do much better, and my own-root Silver Shadows is an insanely vigorous grower. I heard the Austin roses do poorly on their own roots, but even my Evelyn is doing well...maybe because I was starting with a Chamblee's gallon? My Evelyn is seriously making me consider shopping for a trellis.

My last rose purchase of the year was Captaine John Ingram. I needed a consolation over not being able to get Duc de Guiche, sob! It was one expensive band!

...having all these imaginary daylily crosses in your head, and realizing you can't do them because they're not blooming at the same time, LOL.

I wanted to try crossing Siloam Double Classic and Luxury Lace for the lulz but Siloam Double Classic is much further along than Luxury Lace...I can't see Luxury Lace blooming for at least another two weeks.

So my only potential mates for Siloam Double Classic are Rosey Returns, Siloam Virginia Henson, and Little Heavenly Angel. Doing a cross with Rosey Returns sounds intriguing but might turn out ugly. Using Siloam Virginia Henson seems like incest. And Little Heavenly Angel already bears a resemblance to Siloam Double Classic, so there is probably no point to the cross.

Maybe I should try it with Rosey Returns after all. In the end, I'll have about two years before I find out whether or not the offspring is oogly.

I have a bazillion daylily babies all over the yard. Many of them are offspring of Gentle Shepherd or Entrapment. I hope they are pretty and not too plain. I guess plain is okay as long as they're pretty?

I wish I had fancier daylilies...

Another garden update, yay!

Silver Shadows is monstrous. Both of them. They've outpaced the more finicky Distant Drums, Golden Princess and Enchanted Autumn. One of them(the potted one) has five flower buds for the next flush, the one in the ground that died back halfway over the winter('cuz we thought it was Quietness and protected it as such) had a whopping 12 flower buds until I pinched it down to six. It retaliated by popping out two more. Both of them are also shooting out a lot of new growth. The ground one had a little BS but I removed the infected leaves and sprayed it once with Actinovate and it hasn't come back. Wish I could say the same for Moondance!

From perusing the internets, I've come to the conclusion that 1)Both Silver Shadows and Blue Skies do better on their own roots, as the people who had the same experiences as me were growing own-root plants 2)It possibly does not like climates where it doesn't get a winter chill, as the people who love it live in places like Chicago and Kansas and possibly 3)maybe it's an acid-lover? Maybe it's like the hybrid perpetual Reine de Violettes, that hates alkaline soil and is also purple. Our soil here is very rocky, varies in drainage from poor to excellent in various places around the yard(mostly excellent), and has a ph varying from 5.5 to 6.5.

I'll still winter-protect the hell out of it, but I'm getting the idea that Silver Shadows likes us. At this point it has better than average vigor, bloom count, and time between flushes, only has a minor susceptibility to disease and the only real weakness I can see is lack of cold-hardiness. I would say that Silver Shadows can be grown in Zone 5b with winter protection, as it suffered about as much dieback as the average buddleia in our climate.

I pinched the first bud on Distant Drums, as it appeared to be balling. It has a second one, so I can't be too heartbroken. Iobelle seems like it will be a good bloomer. Enchanted Autumn, at this point, does not appear to be a strong grower or bloomer, but I'll give it time before I judge it.

Jude the Obscure is going to bloom in the next few weeks, I think. Evelyn is actually growing. We planted Duchesse de Montebello yesterday. Polareis looks much better now, and appears to have taken offense at my harsh words. Heirloom is very large but doesn't seem to want to flower. Honeysweet continues to impress me with its vigor. Prairie Sunrise seems perfectly happy in a pot.

An update on how our roses are doing:

Margo Koster has problems with balling and has less-than-beautiful foliage.

Moondance is still blackspotty.

Evelyn is growing very, very slowly. No buds in sight.

Jude the Obscure is starting to pick up the pace with growing. It has one possible flower bud.

Scepter'd Isle is status quo.

Aptos is still growing like a nut, not blooming very much.

Julia Child is blooming like crazy and is growing just a little.

Prairie Harvest is...still alive. It looks like hell, but I think its bout with PM is over.

Prairie Sunrise got itself dug up and put in a pot. I think it's suicidal. It has healthy roots and only a couple inches of top growth. It keeps trying to bloom, but I can't let it. I wonder if it's really part clematis or something.

Prairie Star doesn't seem to want to grow.

Simon Estes has a weird growth habit, kind of like Crested Moss.

Silver Shadows is growing like crazy(both of them) and seems to want to spit out 8 flowers at once on one plant and five on the other. I guess I should pinch some of them.

Iobelle is short, bushy, disease-free, and has big clusters of buds like a floribunda.

Distant Drums is going to give us two flowers. It looks a lot like Iobelle now, but less floriferous.

Enchanted Autumn is quite large but doesn't seem to want to bloom.

Golden Princess is starting to pull itself together. It has one flower bud.

Crested Moss is tiny but tough.

Honey Sweet is a very strong grower. It has the cleanest leaves of all our Buck roses.

Heirloom seems to be snoozing...

Polonaise is finally starting to pull itself together.

James Mason is growing like crazy. Its new leaves look like romaine lettuce.

Polareis is growing, but it looks like hell, with brown spots all over the leaves. I thought rugosas were supposed to be tough? Maybe it's too hot.

Madame Hardy is growing but looks like something trampled it.

Marianne and Madame Plantier are both snoozing.

Felicite Parmentier and Rook both look okay. They're hanging in there but they're still small.

Duchesse de Montebello is getting snacked on and beaten up by practically everything but it's pretty tough. We'll probably be able to plant it soon.

Cupcake has little tufts of new growth. I hope it blooms again soon... I wish it were self-cleaning!

Konigin von Danemark is growing like mad and seems like it could withstand a nuclear blast.

Folk Singer seems to be growing sideways.

Winter Sunset is small and cute. I wish the flowers didn't explode in 24 hours.

Gallicandy is starting to leaf out on the broomhandle part. God knows how we are going to plant this thing without snapping it in two!

Griff's Red sets giant hips. I cut them both off. It wants to bloom in clusters.

Is that all?

I finally got my Cornelia in the mail today and planted it. It was a kind of puny band, but it had good roots and I had no potting mix. If it were anything other than a hybrid musk rose, I would've waited and potted it up...I'm sure it will be okay.

The thing is, I had originally ordered it from Northland Rosarium, and put in a Konigin von Danemark to meet the order minimum, and it turned out that Cornelia was actually out of stock. =_= They did send me an excellent Konigin von Danemark, though! Since I couldn't live without Cornelia, I wound up having to get it from Rogue Valley Roses, and it was quite a bit smaller than what I'm used to getting from Northland Rosarium. However, it definitely is Cornelia, since it had a flower attached.

Konigin von Danemark seems like a really great rose! It's already grown a ton and absolutely nothing will eat it, even when its neighbors are being devoured by insects! I'm also impressed by what a vigorous grower Honey Sweet is. I'm starting to get the idea that the bad reputation of Silver Shadows is largely undeserved...maybe it's the kind of rose that does better on its own roots, as our two plants are certainly not shy growers or bloomers!

I spent today planting my tuberoses in the bare spaces of the garden. I'm not sure if they're alive or not...they haven't bloomed in two years, so I divided them in the fall. If they come up, good. If not...well, they did take up quite a bit of fertilizer!

Lauren and I plotted out the rest of the flower bed at the bottom of the hill. You see, all the everbloomers are on the left side, with Madame Hardy...and the right side is partially shaded, so we decided to order a hybrid musk rose to put on the back of the right border. We're really impressed with the vigor of Aptos, our only hybrid musk rose, and we really wanted a pink one, so I ordered Cornelia from Northland Rosarium. I dunno why they have it listed in the polyantha section, but they have Aptos there as well and the plant tag said "Hybrid Musk", LOL.

I did manage to save a prime spot for my pet peony project Prairie Moon, which will be arriving in the fall. It's been called the most beautiful of the hybrid peonies, but some nursery said that it takes up to four years to get a decent-looking plant. And my response is...how is that different from any other peony? ^^;;; I mean, I can count on one hand the number of peonies(and I have 17) that looked good right after planting. The Duchesse is finally full size and about 6 years old!

Unfortunately, Lorelei got bud blast. The only new peony we planted last year that didn't lose buds was First Arrival. You can't really expect much the first year after planting, I know. Year Two Philomele is still puny with one flower bud, but if it's anything like the Duchesse...one year it had five flowers, the next year 40. I've been feeding them with Neptune's Harvest every 2-3 weeks, per Cricket Hill's instructions(as peonies are very heavy feeders) and it's done a deal of good on the ones that were doing poorly last year...the tree peonies must have loved it, because Blue Butterfly grew 2+ feet and quadrupled the amount of flowers it had this year!

Msr. Jules Elie has a little botrytis this year, as opposed to last year, when it got a LOT of botrytis. The tree peonies, which were pretty much devastated last year, don't have a spot on them. Maybe it's the Actinovate. Maybe it's luck. I know it's inevitable that all peonies will get botrytis by the time fall rolls around...it's just a matter of how soon and how much. But some peony expert once said that these plants have been around for hundreds of years, and a little fungus is not going to kill them. In the case of Coral Charm, it just sets it back so it doesn't bloom for 10 years...ha ha ha...but to be fair, in Year One and Year Two, the UPS man stepped on it. I dug it up to discard it and what do you know...still alive. With one frigging eye! I felt bad and planted it in an inconspicuous place. It'll probably bloom by the time I'm menopausal. =_=

I just can't believe the tree peonies pulled themselves together. I'm partly to blame--even though we had a very wet spring, I have to remind myself that fully established peonies are not like other garden plants--you can only water them every two weeks, or they will get The Funk. I have to make sure to only use the can and not the hose on them, or risk wrecking the foliage.

Speaking of which, I heard p.mlokosewitschii is resistant to The Funk. I'd like to try growing it, but I'll be damned if I'm shelling out $70+ for a plant that might not do well in my yard. Or it might. I'd like to try growing it from seed. Just my luck, I'll grow the plants out for 5 years and they'll bloom pink or something. ^^;;;;;;

It was too sunny to take pictures, but Coral Supreme and Buckeye Belle both popped today. Buckeye Belle is the most amazing color...dark blackish-red without a single hint of purple. I've never seen a red like that on a peony before. Maybe on some Chinese tree peonies, but on herbaceous peonies what they pass off as red is more like red-violet. I guess Paula Fay would be most aptly described as "cerise".

As far as the roses go, I planted Evelyn and Margo Koster today. I've heard Evelyn is finicky but at least I'm starting off with a good plant. I made sure to keep it out of the hot sun because I hear it doesn't like it. Funny...on the label it says Evelyn is not vigorous and prefers warmer climates, but from what I've heard from rose gardeners, it does better in colder climates! Maybe that's why it has a bad reputation? Northland Rosarium has it listed as cold hardy to Zone 2!

It makes me wonder if some of the harder to grow David Austin roses would do better in cooler than warmer climates. I've heard some are susceptible to rust but we don't get that here...we just get blackspot and powdery mildew. I'm very attracted to Glamis Castle but I've heard it's a horrible rose. I'd love a rose with white cuppy flowers...but I do NOT want a grafted David Austin rose. Especially not from the DA website. They've been sending people roses with RRD, for God's sake!

Heirloom, it seems, only has a fragrance in the morning.

Lauren and I unpacked the Chamblee's boxes that arrived today. We ordered an embarrassing number of roses. All are large and healthy. There were a few broken canes here and there, but nothing fatal.

Winter Sunset is beautiful.

Polonaise really is pink, not red. It's the same color as our peony Paula Fay.

Margo Koster is adorable.

Golden Princess is kind of puny, but I'm sure it looks fine underneath.

Cupcake is more salmon pink than candy pink. No fragrance, but it's very cute.

Whoever said that Enchanted Autumn had no thorns must have been looking at a different plant. Nice foliage, though!

Griff's Red is...tall.

Scepter'd Isle looks vigorous. It had very nice roots. I planted it under my window.

Honeysweet came with its very own exploded flower! It has a nice fragrance and the color is so pretty...like a nectarine.

Prairie Star looks strangely like Madame Plantier. That kind of color.

Folksinger has lots of flower buds, no flowers.

Heirloom has several flower buds, and nice foliage.

Jude the Obscure lost a flowering cane, boo hoo! So did Distant Drums! However, they did give us a very nice Evelyn!

I'm really impressed by the size and price of these plants! $11.95 for a David Austin rose! $8.95 for everything else! And they're gallons!

I spent the time before dinner digging a first class hole for Madame Hardy, potting up our bands of Felicite Parmentier, Rook, Duchesse de Montebello, and the bizarre stick that is Gallicandy, and now we just have to wait for the everbloomers to show up tomorrow.

I'm a little miffed that Felicite Parmentier was barely rooted, but Rook and Gallicandy were okay, and Duchesse de Montebello had a mighty root system when I removed it from its band pot. I can't get over how silly the Gallicandy band looks. It's like a two foot tall stick with a tiny tuft of leaves growing out of the top. I certainly hope RVR gave Lauren her money back on Gallicandy, as she paid for the gallon and got a band instead! She did give them permission to substitute, but she really ought to go over her invoice and credit card statements.

Polareis will likely be the only rugosa we get, as Topaz Jewel is the only other one we even remotely like and we have enough yellow flowers already. I found several of Polareis's thorns embedded in Madame Hardy when I was planting it. Scary...

Lauren already took(and posted) all the pictures...so I guess all that's left for me to do is talk.

I got up extra-early today to see if two of our bearded irises bloomed--Coral Sunset and Oh Jamaica. Oh Jamaica is an iris that I planted many years ago that only bloomed twice. It's monstrous(almost 4 feet tall) and an interesting blend of plum purple and beige pink. No picture online seems true to color--they're all a weird orange/brown mix. Last year, I dug it up and divided it, and one of the divisions bloomed today! You can see the picture in Lauren's blog...it's massive!

Coral Sunset is seriously beautiful--it's pale apricot(more yellow than pink) and smells like Tang. Seriously.

We also got some rose packages today. I was was a bit worried about the Rogue Valley Roses order, since some people said they got barely rooted cuttings, and I had ordered Rook, a 3-foot dark purple Paul Barden Gallica that nobody on the planet has ever grown. It's a cross between Charles de Mills and an old David Austin rose called Chianti. The band I got was very much alive and had leaves and everything, and some roots poking out of the bottom of the band pot. Very small thorns. Not as large as the Northland Rosarium bands but perfectly acceptable.

Gallicandy looks...weird. It's this reaaaaaally tall stick with leaves coming out of the very top only. Looks like a potted-up sucker to me. Well, it is a Gallica, after all.

I got a gallon Marianne. It has 3 big fat flower buds. I'll probably put that straight in the ground. I only had enough potting mix for Iobelle.

I'm entranced by the beauty of Madame Plantier(and the size of the Northland Rosarium bands) and terrified by the thorns on Polareis. Umm...I really don't like people cutting through my yard, so...

So, no half-dead sticks this time. I'm relieved. The Northland Rosarium bands were the nicer ones but the Rogue Valley Roses bands were fine.

Here are last year's numbers:

Green on White Jade Tower: 7
Blue Butterfly: 3
Moonstone(planted last year): 3
Philomele(planted last year: 0, but it looks fairly healthy.
Cheddar Charm(planted last year): 1
Louis van Houtte(planted 10 years ago): 39
Coral Charm(planted 3 years ago): 0, got the funk.
Duchess de Nemours(planted 3 years ago): 50
Paula Fay(planted 3 years ago): 1
Bowl of Beauty(planted 7 years ago): 19
Coral Supreme: (planted 7 years ago): 9
Msr. Jules Elie: (planted 8 years ago): 70
Bartzella(planted this year): 0, but it looks really jazzed.

And this year's:

Green on White Jade Tower: 13
Blue Butterfly: 12
Moonstone: 9
Philomele: 2
Cheddar Charm: 6
Louis van Houtte: 43
Coral Charm: 0, still alive.
Duchesse de Nemours: 67
Paula Fay: 4
Bowl of Beauty: 32
Coral Supreme: 11
Msr Jules Elie: 76
Bartzella: 0, but it got huge.

And the new peonies:

First Arrival: 2
Salmon Dream: 3
Lorelei: 1
Scarlett O'Hara: 0
Coral Sunset: 2
Buckeye Belle: 4
Minnie Shaylor: 1

Shocking!

I need Chinese tree peony "Red Lotus" right away. If I don't have it, I will perish. Why is life so rough for peony collectors? I'm sure that collectors of other plants don't have to deal with never being able to get the plant of their dreams because it costs close to 200-freaking dollars!

::perishes::

::revives:: I'm going to have a rerooted Frankie up for sale soon. She has the same hairstyle as my green-haired Frankie, except her hair is mostly blue. I just finished rerooting her yesterday. I'm planning on doing a Draculaura and a Nefera for sale eventually. But right now, I'm drilling holes in a Fashion Royalty doll's head, LOL.

I'm not freezing, but I'm getting pretty aggravated, having to do spring freeze protection every couple of days on my plants. -_-;;;; Everything's a month ahead of schedule, and I'm particularly concerned about my Chinese tree peonies. They got botrytis big time last year and I was afraid I'd have to cut them down to the ground and lose all the flowers until they recovered, but they're actually spotless this year. Blue Butterfly has 12 enormous flower buds, and Green on White Jade Tower(which just looks like Phoenix White to me) has 13. Flying Swallow in a Red Dress will likely not bloom. I have them all trussed up with garbage bags wrapped around their branches. ^^;;; I had a brief moment of panic when Blue Butterfly froze solid in spite of my protection, but it looked better after the stems thawed out. It's 6 years old and probably worth over $600 at this point, and I'd hate to see it suffer freeze damage, after it took so long to get to this size!

As far as my other peonies, I wonder if my 2nd year Bartzella will not bloom. =_= I'm pissed, I paid top dollar for it but I can't see any flower buds! On the other hand, I planted several peonies last year and a few have flower buds. Some are quite large. From what I can see, Buckeye Belle and Salmon Dream will likely give us flowers. First Arrival, Coral Sunset, and Lorelei might. As far as Minnie Shaylor goes...it hasn't come up yet. ^^;;;; I wonder what happened to it? I doubt it's dead!

I finished writing Chapter 18 of my story. Now on to the final chapter! Well...that and the epilogue... I also finished rerooting a rather fierce Ghoulia for my own collection. ^_^ In a few weeks, I will have a rerooted Dead Tired Cleo, Day at the Maul Frankie, and Dead Tired Draculaura for sale. Draculaura will have to have her lips repainted, just like the other one, due to factory damage. =_=;;; I'm doing Cleo's hair in Restoredoll Tempest Red, and Frankie's in Dollyhair Lagoon Blue. Not sure about Draculaura, as I don't have her hair yet, but probably Restoredoll Ruby Tuesday.

I'm starting to soak my daylily seeds. I wonder if I'm jumping the gun. I know the weather is going to cool down to near average, but since I'm going to pot-grow my daylilies, I can just stow them in the foyer overnight if it gets too cold. I want them to get a head start. I'm dying to see if I get flowers this year!

I suppose my daylily babies will bloom looking similar to daylilies you can already find on the market, but I'm not planning on registering them, anyway. ^^;;;; I just didn't have a wide gene pool to choose from. Almost all of my crosses are diploids, and I know that everybody and their dog has used Gentle Shepherd for hybridizing, but as long as it's pretty, I guess it doesn't matter, does it?

So basically, I have:

Siloam Virginia Henson X Entrapment from 3 different seedpods. One produced 17 seeds!

Siloam Virginia Henson X Gentle Shepherd from 2 different seedpods

Gentle Shepherd x Entrapment

Daring Deception x Cedar Waxwing

I had also done Siloam Virginia Henson x Little Heavenly Angel, but some villain ate all my seedpods before I could harvest them! I tried germinating some of the seeds in the fall, to see if they were viable...to my surprise, the only Daring Deception x Cedar Waxwing I tried(as I only had 5 seeds) germinated three months after I sowed it! I had given it up for lost!

I also have some rose seeds, collected in the early winter. I don't know who the father is. ^^;;;; I had ordered a band of the Griffith Buck rose Simon Estes from Northland Rosarium, and it arrived with one flower bud and a big fat hip on it! I was determined to leave it for the birds, but nobody wanted it, and when it got all red and crinkly I couldn't resist plucking it, cleaning up the seeds, and sticking them in the fridge. Even though I don't know who the father is, ha ha! I mean...Simon Estes is a good rose, right? It did really well last year, even though I planted it late. And Northland Rosarium doesn't sell roses that aren't hardy in their climate of Zone 5...so if I can get the seeds to germinate, I may wind up with something worthy, right?

Maybe!

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tsubasahome

1/6 Scale Doll Rerooting Service

July 2018

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Entries tagged with flowers

Chimera roses?

Success and Failure.

Other crosses I'm attempting.

A baby was born!

Soon...

For my reference.

Rainy Sunday.

Really hard is...

A rosey future?

Rosey update.

Cornelia at last.

Plans for the future.

Peony pop!

Chamblee's order in!

This is why I'm broke.

Flowers and more flowers...

Peony Count 2012

Things of doing.

Freezing.

Starting...things.