Organic Garden Dreams

Last Sunday I broadcasted another video on Periscope that I would like to share with you here as well. That day, when I taped the video, it was still boiling hot in San Diego, but Tuesday we finally got a good amount of rain and the temperatures came down a bit and instantly the whole atmosphere in the garden changed for a brief time and it felt really autumn-ish. But we are back to hot temperatures by now, again.

In this video I am focusing again on plants that do well in my garden despite the heat, but also on plants that really failed in my climate. Your will see a few roses: 'Our Lady of Guadalupe', 'Lavender Crystal', 'White Meidiland', 'Neptune' and a few others varieties as well. I also touch on some other plants like for example the white flowering dianthus 'Floral Lace White', the daylily 'Siloam Double Classic Pink', alstroemeria Princess Lilies 'Claire' and dichondra sericea 'Silver Ponyfoot', a favorite ground cover of mine, and some more.

I am also talking about fertilizing roses with fish fertilizer and recommend a brand that works well for me in my garden.

I hope you enjoyed the tour and, if you are gardening in a similar climate, got some tips with regards to which plants could do well for you in your own garden and which ones may not. Thanks for watching my video!

See you in the garden!

Christina

Since yesterday it is official: The summer is over and to be quiet honest with you, I am glad about it! This year summer was a torture for the garden with in general very high temperatures, a couple of heatwaves on top of that and the toughest water restrictions since I garden here in San Diego.

Because of the heat I hardly did any gardening since the end of June, except the most necessary maintenance chores. And when I did try to plant something in the last two months, it is very likely that I have lost it again by now. Lesson learned: Avoid planting new plants in the heat of summer.

I hope that temperatures slowly will come down from now on, even though in San Diego it is very likely that we will have some very hot, arid and windy days caused by Santa Ana Winds in September and/or October.

Besides my complains above there was of course a lot of beauty happening in the garden and I would like to share some photos with you that I have taken this summer.

On the first glance you could think that this is a rose, but no, it is an exquisite gardenia 'Veitchii' bloom.

This gardenia actually seemed to welcome the heat...

...and was blooming as profusely as never before.

And the fragrance of a gardenia, what can I say, it is simply out of this world.

'Neptune' has been doing well since transplanted into a big terracotta container on the backyard terrace.

The blooms of this rose have a beautiful lavender color and the fragrance is equally pleasant.

The agapanthus were also liking the summer or at least putting up with it...

...and some were blooming generously.

'Yolande d'Aragon' had a good second rebloom.

I somehow like this shot quite a bit of the same rose.

The beautiful blooms of 'Cymbaline', an older David Austin rose that you don't see too often, were another nice surprise to me this summer.

The plant with the tongue twister name Plectranthus ciliatus 'Mona Lavender' had wonderful blooms, but...

...couldn't withstand the heat and sadly I pulled it out about a week ago, since I have come to the conclusion that it is unsuited for my climate.

'Chandos Beauty' is one of the few roses that really likes the heat. The blooms are always gorgeous and the rose bush itself is very healthy.

'The Prince' fries easily in the heat,...

...but who can resist those flowers?

My bearded iris 'Platinum' also surprised me positively this summer and rebloomed not just once but twice for me.

And I almost had thrown it away because it wasn't doing anything for quite a while. Now I am so glad that I didn't!

Hardy geranium 'Rozanne' is unfazed by the heat as long as it gets some supplemental water and is fertilized.

I am on the fence, if I should keep the Mini-Flora rose 'Moonlight Scentsation' or not. I love the off-white blooms with lavender or even brown undertones, but the rose mildews on a regular base, which really bothers me.

It is kind of the same situation with 'Captain Christy': Beautiful blooms, but ugly powdery mildew. This rose is an heirloom rose that is hardly available in the nurseries anymore, so for that reason I might give it another year.

Here is a shot of 'Our Lady of Guadalupe' taken around 4th of July. This rose amazes me regularly with her profuse flushes of blooms.

How do you feel about the end of summer? What ever your feelings are, I am definitively wishing you a lovely autumn!

See you in the garden!

Christina

With temperatures having been consistently over 90 degrees Fahrenheit (30 degrees Celsius) again this weekend and similar temperatures being forecasted for the whole upcoming week, I wonder if Southern California is hit by yet another heatwave or if this is the new normal. It almost doesn't matter if the first or the latter is true, gardeners are forced to look for more drought and heat tolerant plants whether they like it or not, in case they still want to have a garden in the future.

So I bow to nature and try to find new drought and heat tolerant plants for my garden that I can love. I have to admit there are many drought tolerant plants that I don't like. But in the last weeks I was making a serious attempt to find drought tolerant plants that still go well with my idea of a dream garden. And as always when you truly search, you are very likely to find something.

I recorded another Periscope broadcast today where I show my new drought tolerant plant purchases. Are you curious what plants I got? Here they are: Verbena bonariensis, Stachys monieri 'Hummelo', Liriope muscari 'Super Blue', Bearded Irises 'Best Bet', 'Rio Vista' and 'Clarance'. Please, take a look at the video to see them in person.

Thanks for watching the video! Would you like to share what drought tolerant plants work well for you in your garden? If so, please leave a comment. It can never hurt to get more ideas...

See you in the garden!

Christina

Something great happened, it has rained in September! For the ones of you not familiar with the climate here let me say, that rain at this time of the year is really unusual for Southern California. The dust got washed off my roses, they took a deep sip of the refreshing rain water and burst open into blooms. So yes, the rain drops that you see on the roses in this post are not from man made artificial watering.

'Lavender Crystal' is with no doubt my favorite Miniature Rose. And the photo above, I believe, is my best shot from the ones that I took last month.

Here is 'Lavender Crystal' on a dry sunny day. No matter what the weather conditions are, the rose always produces an outstanding lavender color.

'Captain Christy' is a rose that I love, too, but it continues to be a very weak grower. It may need to be grafted on a more vigorous rootstock to be successful in my garden.

'Stephan's Big Purple' certainly enjoyed the hot weather that we were still having in September.

'Bewitched' is another Hybrid Tea rose that really seems to like the heat of Southern California.

The reliable 'Pope John Paul II', always good for stunning white blooms.

'Belinda's Dreams' is struggling a bit in the location where I planted it. I placed it very close to a Queen Palm and the rose doesn't seem to be quite vigorous enough to put up with the root competition of the palm. But when it blooms, it is certainly beautiful.

The Tea Rose 'Georgetown Tea' stopped flowering completely during the heat of summer, but started again to bloom in September. If I am lucky and we get a good El Nino this year the rose might be blooming throughout the winter.

'Auckland Metro' is another very reliable Hybrid Tea rose for me. I think her blooms are stunning, too. I particular like the warm light yellow glow that the rose has in the center of the blooms.

Another shot of 'Auckland Metro'.

'Pink Pet' is outdoing itself this year.

I love how it is growing into the obelisk and starts to flirt with the hummingbird.

'Pink Pet' grows in dappled shade from a nearby Pygmy Date Palm and seem to really like that.

'Pierre de Ronsard' was gearing up for its third flush of the year by the end of September.

Raindrops look always so romantic on roses, don't you think?

'Reine des Violettes' also produced its third flush of the year. It was just a mediocre one, but definitively better than none.

My favorite Tea Rose 'Rhodologue Jules Gravereaux'.

In parts the front yard almost looked like in spring last month. This photo shows 'Old Fashioned Girl' in the foreground, 'Pink Pet' in the middle and 'Climbing Iceberg' in the background.

The tireless 'Our Lady of Guadalupe' doing what she does best: Blooming!

I am starting to worry a little bit about this rose, though. Since about two years it hasn't produced any new basal canes, which means the rose is not renewing itself. Old basal canes die, but they are not replaced by new ones.

I hope that this lovely Lady is not blooming herself to death.

'The Prince', always good for a star photo.

'Marie Pavie' is getting a light pink hue, which indicates that autumn and with that cooler temperatures are close.

I led you go with this photo of 'White Meidiland'. This rose also grows predominately in dappled shade and seem to tolerate that. I love how the light plays with the rose in this image.

After having stopped the monthly rose posts over the summer, I hope that I am able to pick them up again and show you what roses are flowering in my garden each month even throughout autumn and winter. One of the great joys of rose growing here in Southern California is, that with a little bit of planning and choosing the right varieties, you can have roses blooming throughout the whole year.

Wishing everyone a fabulous week!

See you in the garden!

Christina

Last Sunday I did another Periscope broadcast about my garden. What was really unusual about that, was that the garden was dripping wet, since it was raining on and off that day.

In this video I tour my front yard and show you where I planted the other two new Verbena bonariensis that I bought. I am really in love with this airy plant and its little purple flowers and can't understand why I didn't recognize the value that it adds the autumn garden earlier.

Besides that, of course, I recorded some of my roses that where blooming at that time, like for example 'Old Fashioned Girl', 'Our Lady of Guadalupe' and 'Marie Pavie'. Then I go with you to the backyard to look at 'Pierre de Ronsard', which was just spectacular that day. This huge rose was at the peak of its third flush this year, loaded with its big and beautiful blooms. You really must see this!

Last but not least I take a look at the progress that my bearded Iris rhizomes have made. I planted those dry rhizomes in containers just a about a week ago, but there is already new life visible.

So if you have gotten curious and want to see what I just described in a three dimentional way, please click on the video and come with me on a tour through my garden between rain showers.

Thanks for watching the video, hope you enjoyed it!

After the temperatures had cooled down somewhat last weekend, they are now on the rise, again. Can you believe that we are expecting 100 F/38 Celsius on this Friday? No? Me neither...

Wishing everyone a nice rest of the week!

See you in the garden!

Christina

Sunday was again time to shoot a new Periscope broadcast of what has happened in the garden last week. Since a couple of months now I am scoping live weekly about my garden and have a lot of fun doing it. I would like to invite everyone of you to join me on these weekly garden tours and come see my garden through the lens of my iPhone.

In the video, that I am publishing today here on my blog, I am showing you a blue and white hand painted decorative jar, that I just placed in the garden. I also talk about Narcissus Paperwhite bulbs and present you my brand new green bulb forcing vases. On the garden tour I stop by my newly planted white daylilies 'Gentle Shepherd' and towards the end we will look together at rosa 'Mary Rose', which was blooming profusely that day. I finish the tour by checking on my bearded Iris rhizomes to see the progress that they have made.

As always, thanks for watching, I hope you enjoyed the tour. I appreciate if you would leave me a comment. Thanks!

See you in the garden!

Christina

Continuing my tour through Peter Janke's private garden in Germany, that I visited in September this year, I am featuring a garden area that was called The Formal Garden. I personally was very fascinated by that specific part of the garden, because the layout of the beds surrounded by evergreen hedges was indeed formal, but the plantings inside the beds were simply wild in the very best sense and quite unusual.

The image above is my favorite photo of The Formal Garden. This part of Peter Janke's garden was difficult to photograph, because there were either buildings in the background that weren't so pretty or people, who were touring the garden and disturbed the photos. But I feel this shot captured the magical and fascinating atmosphere that lingered in The Formal Garden the best.

This was the first glance that you got right before you entered The Formal Garden. The layout contains an island bed in the center, surrounded by four square beds. Each square bed had the edge facing the center island bed "cut off" and it was replaced by a visually softer half moon shape corner.

To the right and left side of the entrance to The Formal Garden there were two concrete containers placed with very healthy aloes. These guys could have been growing as well in Southern California, where I live.

The very nice lady, who runs the simple cafe at Hortvs, told me that The Formal Garden is planted each year with another theme. This year it had become a Mediteranean garden. I felt a little bit reminded of the Parie Garden Style, that is so very fashionable right now. Even though admittedly I am not a big fan of this garden style, I have to say that I loved the unusual plant compositions in this garden, so let's have a closer look at what plants Peter Janke used here.

There was a lot going on plant-wise in all of the beds.

One combination that I hadn't seen so far is the pairing of what I believe are Castor bean plants (Ricinus communis) with this intensive light blue flowering plant. I assume, that it is a type of salvia, but I am not sure. If anyone can identify this plant, could you please leave a comment and let me know? Thanks!

These little cheerful bloomers look like a plant that is called Santa Barbara Daisy (Erigeron karvinskianus) here in Southern California.

Another of the (almost) square beds in the garden. I love the use of the grasses, the Santa Barbara Daisy, the fennel and the palm in the middle of the bed.

Catmint, a favorite plant of mine, was also used in The Formal Garden.

Another photo of the striking combination between Castor Beans and the blue flowering plant that I love so much.

These plants also reminded me of my own climate.

Close-up of the Castor Bean flowers.

Light and airy blue loveliness.

Also a plant that I don't know the name of, but it was quite interesting.

A very natural planting style!

I really love the center island bed. The old bird bath planted with succulents and the underplanting goes so well together.

Close-up of the top of the bird bath.

I believe this is Chocolate Comos, Cosmos astrosangineus, which were used as underplantings in the island bed.

Here Peter Janke made use of a garden statue, which I believe is a new one, but done in the old style.

Grasses together with aloes and a silver leaved plant. Nice!

I want this blue flowering plant so badly for my own garden!

Shot of another of the square flower beds.

I really think that the plant combinations are quite inspiring!

I was quite smitten by this garden, but can imagine that it is not for everyone. I am curious to hear what you, my dear readers, think about it. I would be happy if you would leave a comment and share your opinion.

In case you are interested to see the first post, that I wrote about Peter Janke's garden, please click here:
HORTVS, the private Garden of Peter Janke, Germany I

Wishing all of you a great week with hopefully lots of good garden weather!

See you in the garden!

Christina

About two weeks ago, I recorded another video for Periscope but couldn't find the time earlier to put it up on my blog to share it with you here as well. But finally it is loaded up!

In this video I show you a newly planted hybrid tea rose named 'Bewitched' and talk about how I plant a new rose, what I have found out works well to give a rose the best possible start, so that it will grow into a beautiful specimen that will gift you with plenty of blooms.

Later on I present to you and talk about the rare tea rose 'Georgetown Tea', that I got as a gift from a dear friend many years ago and I have the pleasure to grow in my own garden ever since.

I continue to tour the garden and look at roses that are blooming right now. Your will see, besides others, flowers of 'Madame Caroline Testout, 'Neptune' and 'Heritage'. Did you get curious? Please click on the video below. I hope you enjoy the tour!

As always, thanks for stopping by and watching the video.

I am wishing everyone who celebrates it a lovely Halloween. Boo!

See you in the garden!

Christina

I am traveling again and hardly have any time to blog, but I wanted at least to put up a new Periscope video that I recorded about one and a half weeks ago, so that you can follow the developments in my garden.

The focus of the video is on roses that were blooming at that time, but I am also checking on other plants that I have recently planted in my garden. I will be talking about which of these plants have become successes, but also about a few that disappointingly failed in my garden.

In terms of the roses you will see the particular beautiful blooms of rosa 'Scepter'd Isle', rosa 'Grandmother's Hat', rosa 'Yolande d'Arragon' and others. I hope you got interested and come with me for a tour of my garden. To get started, please click the video below.

Thanks for watching! I am curious, what was your favorite rose featured in this video? If you can spare the time, please leave a comment and let me know.

See you in the garden!

Christina

Sorry for coming in a little late with the post about the roses that bloomed in October. My recent trip has delayed the writing and publishing of this post.

In general October is a good rose month here in San Diego. Because of the cooler autumn temperatures the roses are often able to produce very beautiful blooms. This year October was an unusual warm month though, but some roses still managed to flower generously.

In my eyes 'Pierre de Ronsard' beat all other roses by far with the extraordinary beauty of his blooms.

Each flower of this rose seems to be a masterpiece.

The blooms are huge, I would guess four inches (about 10 centimeter) in diameter.

Here is the rose in her full glory last month. I would estimate that the bush is twelve feet wide (about 3.5 meters) and eight feet high (about 2,5 meters). No wonder that is it able to produce these good size flowers. I can't image how big the rose would be, if it wouldn't be growing in severe root competition with my Queen Palms from the right and the Pygmy Date Palm from the left. I also think that in addition to that our very humble annual rain fall in the last four years and the drastic water restrictions limit the ultimate size of the rose.

The first set of close-up pictures of the blooms of 'Pierre de Ronsard' in this post was taken in the morning light and the colors of the rose blooms are much more muted at that time of the day, but when our intense sun hits them fully later the pink can take on a wonderful warm glowing hue like in the photo above.

I just love my 'Pierre de Ronsard'!

'The Prince' has been a very reliable rose for me in the last couple of months and was also not letting me down in October.

With the cooler temperatures the color of the rose becomes darker and the blooms take on this royal dark red, which can even turn into a very dark purple red.

My favorite Tea rose 'Rhodologue Jules Gravereaux' gave me some of its perfect Tea rose formed blooms. What is not to love?

'White Meidiland' becomes more and more comfortable in its dark spot in my front yard. I am still amazed that the rose is able to bloom in so much shade and also that it is completely healthy there. I can't imagine how well it would do in more sun. You really look for such good disease resistance in a rose like in this one.

'Belinda's Dream' pleases with picture perfect Hybrid Tea bloom form. Unfortunately the Queen Palm close by seems to stunt the growth of the rose bush.

'Marie Pavie' always makes me happy with her delicate small blooms.

A rose of which I can post photos every month because it is so floriferous: 'Our Lady of Guadalupe'.

'Pink Pet' seemed to especially like the October weather and bloomed extra opulent.

The delicate porcelain like beauty of 'Heritage'.

Last but not least a stunningly beautiful flower of 'Lavender Crystal'. This miniature seemed to have settled in into its new spot in the front yard and bloomed a little more. You can't call it profusely yet, but I hope it is getting there.

That was it from my roses from last month. I hope you found some that were appealing to you!

See you in the garden!

Christina

Work has gotten the better of me, again and for that reason the blog had to be somewhat abandoned. But here I am today with a new Periscope video for you.

It is another tour through my garden and I am looking predominately at roses that were still in bloom when the video was taken about three weeks ago, but also checked on other plants that were recently planted. At the time when I shot the Periscope video, my gardener was trying to open up a clogged drain in our front yard to get our property ready for a hopefully generous El Nino (Winter rains), so you see a little bit of that, too.

Hope you enjoy having a look!

As always, thanks for watching! I would love, if you could take the time and leave a comment!

See you in the garden!

Christina

Thanks for hosting Hakan

Two weeks ago my husband and I went with our rescue Doberman, Skylar, to the Del Mar Beach to get him more acquainted to beach life.

Skylar seems to like being at the beach, but so far he has not been very keen on water. We hope, that he can overcome his fears and really start to enjoying it, like many other dogs do. Here are some of his first attempts of becoming a great beach dog!

"Mom, is Dad serious, am I really suppose to go in there?"

"Okay, a little pet can go a long way, I feel so much braver now!"

"I can walk relaxed by the waves, but prefer to do it on the side facing away from them."

"Heh, mom, do you see me? I am so much closer to the waves now!"

"I am this close to the waves now, but I am not sure what to think about them! Dad really wants me to go in there, though. Mom, do you still think I should go, too?"

"Alright, I do it!"

"Well, it is not too bad."

"Especially if we go out very quickly after we have been in."

"Okay, I can do this again!"

"Hmm, can I drink this?"

"I am really deep into the water!"

"To splash a little bit around in the waves is fun, especially if Dad gets wet, too...

...but I still like jumping at the beach so much better. Do you see how high I can jump? Every dog can go into the water, but not every dog can jump this high. All humans are looking at me, when I do this."

"Yes, this performance deserves a treat!"

Oooh, there is another treat..."

"Look I am as tall as Dad is!"

"I love treats."

"Always."

"Do you have some more cookies?"

"Come on, give the treat to me!"

"Just give it to me."

"Give it to me, now!"

"Yes, I know, I am a good, boy."

Wishing everyone in the US a wonderful rest of the Thanksgiving weekend!

Next time I will see you in the garden, again.

Christina

Unfortunately my mom, who is living in Germany, has developed a serious health problem and I decided to fly to Germany on short notice to support her in these difficult times on the Thanksgiving weekend.

There is a lot to do and to organize to help my mom, who has been released from the hospital on Monday, and therefore so far I have found very little time to blog, but at least tonight I want to put up a Periscope video about my own garden that I recorded on the 19th of November.

As usual I had to show some roses ('Pope John Paul II', 'Moondance', 'Snowbird', Pretty Jessica') that were blooming at that time, I am talking a little bit about rose care and growing own root roses from bands into strong plants that can be transplanted into the garden. I also give you an update about my Paperwhites that I am forcing in Hyacinth glasses and tell you about a new garden project in the front yard that I am working on.

I hope you enjoyed watching the video. Forcing bulbs, like Paperwhites, Hyacinths and Amaryllis indoors has a long standing tradition. After I completely blew it last year, this year at least I could muster to try to get some Paperwhite bulbs to flower. I am curious: Are you forcing any bulbs indoors to overcome the winter blues or even for Christmas? Please, if you have a moment of time, let me know in your comments. Thanks!

See you in the garden!

Christina

I am linking to Rose Garden Malevik

First, I would like to thank all of you who left good wishes for the health of my mom in the comments to the last post. I am happy to say that my mom is recovering relatively well from her current health issue, even though that type of problem will take time to heal.

I am sure that most of you can imagine that taking care of someone who is ill can get stressful at times and blogging is a welcome distraction and fun activity for me that contributes to keep my own spirit up. I am glad that I can do it from Germany as well.

So here comes the long overdue post about the roses that have bloomed in my garden in November. Following the "new" weather pattern in California, November was a relatively warm month, which prompted a lot of roses to develop nice flowers, even though it was already relatively late in autumn.

The most beautiful rose bloom produced 'Auckland Metro' in my eyes. I am simply in love with the ivory shade of this Hybrid Tea rose. It is such an elegant hue.

Bud of 'Auckland Metro' in the morning sun.

Unfolding bloom of 'Auckland Metro'.

'Mister Lincoln' is the only pure red rose that I am growing in my garden. The tone of red of this rose changes quite a bit with the temperatures. When the days become cooler 'Mister Lincoln' takes on a more cool, dark, wine red color, whereas when it is hot, it is more a warm medium red.

Even though 'Mister Lincoln' was already bred in 1964 by Swim & Weeks I think it is still one of the best red roses for a warm climate. The bush is vigorous and the rose comes with an extraordinary strong classic rose fragrance.

'Pretty Jessica' back lit by the sun.

As usual at this time of the year 'Pope John Paul II' is one of my most floriferous roses.

I never get tired off the lovely white blooms of this variety.

'Pope John Paul II'

'Pope John Paul II' has a decent petal count and finishes up in a nice way, which can not be said of all Hybrid Tea roses.

'Belinda's Dream' at her best.

I am still getting excited at the sight of a flower of 'Lavender Crystal'. This rose has simply a killer lavender color and I am happy that, even though planted in a difficult spot, it is producing blooms on a regular base by now.

The petticoat blooms of 'Mary Rose'. Just delightful!

Above you see 'Moonlight Scentsation', a Mini-Flora, whose flowers make themselves a bit rare in my garden.

I like the yellow center of the flowers and 'Moonlight Scentsation' can produce quite unusual lavender undertones, but...

...it suffers from powdery mildew, if the conditions are right. Unfortunately that is quite often the case in my garden. So I don't know if I will keep this rose long term, but I will give it at least another year.

Unfolding bud of 'Georgetown Tea'. I love how the softer autumn light plays with this emerging rose bloom.

Last but not least one of my favorite roses 'Scepter'd Isle'. Sometimes the blooms look like powder puffs and I appreciate...

...how this rose shows its yellow stamens as the flowers are opening more.

All in all a healthy, floriferous, romantic rose. What is not to love?

One more thing: Recently my blog reached 300.000 pageviews. A big thank you to everyone who stops by and takes a look at my posts. It feels so good to know that the blog is being read, your visits truly make me happy!

See you in the garden!

Christina

Because of late autumn and also due to the fact that rose pruning has started yesterday, my garden looks quite bare and is deprived of its rose blooms. I miss them already and can't wait for the spring flush next year. But I thought I could help myself out and go through my photos of Mottisfont Abbey, one of the most beautiful rose gardens that I know of. A good reason to continue my series about this great garden on my blog and write up a new post.

In this entry I am featuring some rare roses that are growing at Mottisfont, that you are not very likely to have seen ever before. So I hope I have some surprises in store even for the most knowledgeable rose enthusiasts. I am so glad that Mottisfont Abbey is preserving these beauties for the future for all of us to enjoy.

One rose beauty that I couldn't find a label of. I like the careless, frilly and playful look of the flowers.

'Lady Waterlow', a climbing Hybrid Tea rose bred by Paul Nabonnand and/or Clement Nabonnand (France, 1902). This was a rose that simply blew my mind. We must have been lucky and visited Mottisfont when 'Lady Waterlow' was at her absolute peak. Once again you can see on the photo how perfect the climbing roses are trained at Mottisfont for maximum bloom production.

Each semi-double bloom of 'Lady Waterlow' is simply gorgeous! The pink blend coloration of the flowers is so subtle, you can't help but fall in love with them. The rose is suppose to have a strong fragrance, which I can't vouch for, since I couldn't get to it.

In Mottisfont many peonies are growing together with the roses and lots of them were in bloom when we visiting Unfortunately I don't know the name of this variety.

I found the planting of the flower beds so inspiring...

... and really liked that at Mottisfont, even though the roses play the lead role...

...they are displayed together with many different companion plants.

I feel that only enhances the beauty of the roses.

Loved this combination of dark burgundy and white colored peonies and white foxgloves.

A wide shot of another flower bed.

A rose that you don't see that often is 'Gloire des Mousseux', a Moss Rose, bred in 1852 by Jean Laffay and/or M. Robert in France.

The small flowers of 'Gloire des Mousseux' are quite charming and their form is a little unusual, but...

...the real attraction of this rose is the moss on the buds. It is quite pronounced.

And another lovely peony bloom.

And one more.

A China Rose that I saw the very first time in my life is 'Mme Laurette Messimy'. The rose is assumed to be bred by Jean Baptiste Andre Guillot and/or Pierre Guillot in France, 1887. The semi double flowers are pink, but have beautiful yellow undertones. One characteristic is that the buds are unusually long.

Here is a whole bush shot of 'Mme Laurette Messimy'. I think it is a rose with a very unique appearance and charm.

Another rose that I don't have an identity of, but it reminds me of the Tea Rose 'Le Vesuve'.

An enchanting combination in my eyes! Anybody knows the white, delicate, fluffy flowering plant? Could it be Valerian? But the leaves don't look right...

At this point, I still remember even though our visit was two years ago, we were totally saturated with impressions and couldn't take in anymore.

So we headed back to the exit, passing some this wonderful rose beds again...

...and took a break at the tea room. Of course, we didn't have only tea but cake as well. I recall having a ultra delicious walnut cake. Yum!

After we had rested for a while and restored our energy and our capacity to take in more rose beauty, we headed back to the rose gardens and started to explore the third walled rose garden of Mottisfont Abbey.

The combination of lavender and white colors spoke to me in this bed.

A charming white rose that unfortunately I have no Identity of.

Close-up of an Allium head. Does anyone know what the white delicate flowering plant is in the background?

The romantic planting style of Mottisfont is hard to top.

You can't help but being in awe of the giant Allium heads. They have such a dramatic impact in this bed.

I hope you enjoyed my continuation of the tour through Mottisfont Abbey and you will be back for the next installment. I have plenty more beautiful pictures to share with you. If you don't want to wait until my next post about Mottisfont Abbey is up, here are the links to the previous ones that I already published:

Mottisfont Abbey - a Rose Lover's Paradise I
Mottisfont Abbey - a Rose Lover's Paradise II
Mottisfont Abbey - a Rose Lover's Paradise III
Mottisfont Abbey - a Rose Lover's Paradise IV

Winter is the time to buy or order new bare root roses in the US and Europe. Maybe my post has tempted you to get some new roses for your own garden? Wouldn't that be the perfect Christmas present? I am certainly thinking about it...

See you in the garden!

Christina

I am linking to

Rose Garden Malevik

Here is the latest of my garden videos. It is done a little while ago, but not much has changed in the garden and it looks right now almost like you see it in the video. So I thought I will publish it.

It is a narrated tour through my backyard and I am featuring roses that were blooming at that time. You will meet besides others 'Stephen's Big Purple', 'Snowbird', 'Rhodologue Jules Gravereaux', 'Scepter'd Isle' and 'Mister Lincoln'. I am also visiting other plants like for example coleus 'Wasabi', iris 'Platinum', my camellias and alstroemeria Princess Lilies 'Claire'.

Thanks for watching! I really appreciate that you took the time to have a look.

Before I leave you, I have to tell you that it is raining right now in San Diego and the weather forecasts predicts that it will continue to do so all day long with short interruptions. That is certainly an early Christmas present and it makes my hope grow that I will have some lovely roses blooming next year, too.

If you celebrate Christmas, I hope you enjoy your Christmas preparations and that it didn't get too hectic for you! And just in case I don't get to blog anymore: I am wishing you and your loved ones a very Merry Christmas!

See you in the garden!

Christina

A little while ago we decided that it was time for our beloved rescue Doberman Skylar to have his first off leash run. He has been running free in fenced in dog parks, but never in an open space area. We have Skylar a year this month and we hoped we can trust him by now to stay around and not take off once his leash is unhocked. Skylar is still easily distracted and very flighty in case something scares him and he is not good on recall, so my husband and I were a little concerned about the whole thing. Admittedly especially I was very nervous, but on the other hand we didn't want to deny him to run free any longer.

To ease the situation we called on our trusted dog trainer, Alexandra Gant, and scheduled a session with her to help us at least do the right things from our side and decrease our nervousness just by her calm presence. We decided to go to Fiesta Island here in San Diego, which is a huge recreational area right by a bay at the sea. There is also a big dog park on the island, which is kind of semi fenced in. The dog park is so vast that the dog can get completely out of sight and if it absolutely wants to can go around the fences. So the dog will have the feeling it is truly free, but there is at least some protection given.

Alexandra brought her own rescue dog with her, Arya, her Coydog as she calls her. Arya is a mix between a Coyote and a Husky. Skylar and Arya know each other and get along well and we believed that they will give each other some confidence and hang out with each other and hopefully us, too, and not take off alone or with another dog. So the plan was made and off we went.

If you are holding your breath by now, I can already tell you that things went well. Yes, the dogs went out of sight one or two times but they came back. Altogether Skylar stayed much closer to us than we expected and didn't take advantage of the situation that he could take off.

When we reached the sea level something amazing happened: Our water shy dog went into the water the very first time! It was so lovely to observe these two dogs enjoying their freedom to run and play in the water.

Skylar: "What, are you really going in there?"

Arya: "Yes, not a big deal, it is actually fun!"

Skylar: "Alright, you lead, I will follow."

Arya: "Let's catch the waves!" Skylar: "I do what you do!"

Skylar: "This stuff smells wired".

Skylar: "But all in all the water is not too bad."

Skylar: "Catch me if you can!"

Skylar: "If you don't chase me...

...I will chase you!"

Skylar: "Playing in the water is fun indeed!"

Arya: "I am done with this!"

Skylar: "What, are you tired already?"

Skylar: "Mom, Dad, she doesn't want to play with my anymore. Do you want to play?"

Skylar: "If I really try hard,...

...maybe I get to chase her one more time."

Skylar: "Nope she won't play anymore...

...OK then I play catching the waves by myself."

Two tired happy dogs ready to be leashed up, again.

Two happy dog owners and one of them in addition to being happy also very relieved, that's obviously being me, ready to go home. Phew, for the first time the off leash run went rather great! We will certainly do it again and this time alone.

A big thank you to Alexandra for helping us one more time to make the next step forward in our journey with Skylar and to support him to be a happy, confident and well-behaved dog.

Wishing everyone lovely, calm last days of in the old year!

Christina

With the forecast of a strong El Nino (our winter rains) on the horizon at the end of last year, I felt hope, that despite our four year drought, I will be able to continue to grow beautiful roses in 2016 as well and decided to order four precious new ones.

The new rose babies arrived yesterday and their arrival coincided with the fourth day of consecutive torrential rains here in San Diego. I consider that a good omen!

I ordered the own-root roses from Chamblee's Rose Nursery, which is located in Tyler, Texas. I did buy roses from this nursery before and got exceptional nice and healthy roses, so I was curious about the quality of the roses they would sent this time.

As you can see they were very well packed...

...and each of the two gallon containers were wrapped in its own plastic bag, which kept them moist.

All four roses survived the shipping well and are in excellent condition. They are a little smaller than my first delivery from this nursery, but that is OK.

In case you are curious, which varieties I have ordered, here are the names:

'Love Song', a lavender Floribunda.

'Koko Loko', a milk chocolate, lavender Floribunda.

'Gruss an Aachen', a peach/yellow older Floribunda, bred in Germany,1909.

'Souvenir de la Malmaison', the famous light pink Bourbon rose.

I can't wait to see these babies grow and flower for the first time. I am especially anxious about 'Love Song' and 'Gruss an Aachen', since I have never seen these roses bloom in person. Aaah.., the joyful excitement of growing new rose varities is hard to beat.

Did you get/are you getting any new roses for 2016? And if so, which varieties did/will you choose?

Wishing everyone a nice weekend!

See you in the garden!

Christina

I am linking to

Rose Garden Malevik

Somehow last month the pale pink, pink, off-white or white roses have captivated my attention. I think I will never get tired of these soft muted colors.

The most beautiful rose that was blooming last month, with no doubt, was 'Belinda's Dream'.

I bought this slightly pink Hyacinth forcing glass last autumn and I love to us it as a vase for pink roses. There is something about how the tinted glass picks up the pink hues of the roses.

To me the pale pink very full flowers of 'Belinda's Dream' are irresistible.

'Mary Rose' with her easy going, unpretentious, happy blooms.

'Mary Rose'

My 'Climbing Iceberg' was also blooming profusely last month.

A rose that didn't bloom much, but managed to churn out a few of her gorgeous blooms, after generously being fertilized a few weeks ago, is 'Georgetown Tea'.

'Georgetown Tea', again. Here is the flower a little bit more open.

I love how the out petals fold backwards in the mature rose flowers of 'Georgetown Tea'. So graceful!

'Moonstone' bud.

Only can admire the elegance of the buds of this rose!

A rare sight in my garden: A bloom of 'Captain Christy'. Unfortunately the rose is still a very weak grower and mildews. But the old fashioned charm of the blooms is quite enchanting.

'Our Lady of Guadalupe' in the winter morning sun.

Same rose photographed under different light conditions.

'Our Lady of Guadalupe', once again in the morning sun. This rose is one of my most profuse bloomers and has one the quickest repeat. But it mildews since I have it (probably five years or longer) under certain conditions regularly. I know I can have completely or almost completely disease resistant roses in my garden and even though it is a pretty rose I am considering to take it out and try another variety instead.

But when 'Our Lady of Guadalupe' is good, it is really good.

'Marie Pavie' a rose that never fails to mesmerize me with her delicate charm.

'Pierre de Ronsard' looking down on me against the clear blue California winter sky.

'Pretty Jessica' is not a generous bloomer in my garden, but I love her color, form of the blooms and her delicious fragrance. On top of that this rose is completely healthy year round.

Hope you enjoyed to see some roses, that were blooming last December in my garden. I know that most of my readers are facing a very different garden reality at this time of the year. Wishing you that winter is not too hard on you or your plants.

See you in the garden!

Christina

I am linking to

Rose Garden Malevik

For most gardeners in the Northern Hemisphere January is a very slow month. For me it is exactly the opposite. The main chore is to deleave, prune and fertilize all the roses, but as wasn't that already enough for this amateur gardener, it is also a great month for planting new stuff. Planting new plants now gives them the advantage of settling into the ground during cooler temperatures and theoretically of being watered more sufficiently by our winter rains (if we would have any) than at any other time of the year.

Knowing that my gardening time is very limited I usually try to restrict myself and not buy too many new plants in January, but I couldn't resist this daylily even though I tried hard. I accidentally saw it at Home Depot and from far away I thought it was an amaryllis. Getting closer I realized that it was a daylily offered for a very good price, but I left it there.

A few days later I still couldn't get it out of my head and I started to do some research on it. I must have loved it already because I even could remember its name. My search revealed that 'Frosted Vintage Ruffles' is supposed to be a very good vigorous daylily, which reblooms and is fragrant. On the photos that I have found on the internet its color is also not as bright as the sale photo indicates, which is absolutely fine with me, since in general I prefer more muted colors. Daylilies are also supposed to be reasonably drought tolerant, which is another plus. So I thought paying $ 7.98 for three daylilies, usually you pay that for one plant here, what is there to loose and I went back a week later. They still had them so I thought it is meant to be and got it.

I haven't bought any bare root daylilies up to now and I was a little skeptical what I would find, when I opened the bag. But after carefully removing the plastic bag this it how the content looked. Gosh, the poor daylilies were already sprouting leaves! Really time to get them out!

Separating the roots from each other, there were really three very different sized plants in there.

I potted them up and fertilized them with two table spoons of organic rose fertilizer and watered them in with fish emulsion to give them a head start. I put them in a shady place to protect the pale leaves from our harsh sun (yes, even our winter sun can be quite strong) until they are acclimated.

Unfortunately I broke a lot of the new emerging leaves, even though I tried to be careful. But I hope the daylilies will survive that. I am very curious how my bare root daylilies will do. Have you ever grown bare root daylilies? How did they fare for you? Is anyone growing this particular daylily 'Frosted Vintage Ruffles' and is willing to share your experience with it? I would love to hear from you!

One morning a few weeks ago I woke up to this sight. A tumbleweed in our spa?! Yes, we had a storm, but still, how can that thing make it over our six feet fence? That was definitively a first and I felt reminded of a Western movie...

In the spa it looked relatively small, but when I got it out I was surprised how big the tumbleweed actually was. When you see it in relation to the stairs you might get a better idea of the proportion of it.

Looking at it closely you can see how thorny that thing is. I needed gloves to carry it into the trash bin. Quite fascinating how it defends itself against being eaten by any hungry critters. Even more fascinating is how tumbleweeds propagate themselves. The dead bushy part of the plant detaches itself from the roots and gets tumbled around by the wind. The seeds of the plant are still alive and they are distributed far away from the original location of the plant as the wind swirls the tumbleweed around.

A confused iris 'Platinum' is blooming in the winter time. Of course, I am not complaining!

In the center of the photo you see the Hybrid Tea rose 'Chandos Beauty' before pruning. The rose made a lot of blind octopus canes, which means they weren't blooming at the tip of the cane. You can imagine that I wasn't very thrilled by that phenomenon, but as far as I know there is nothing that you can do about it.

It was pruning time anyway, so I first cut back the octopus canes, deleaved the rose bush completely and started to prune. When I was at the point where the photo was taken, I stepped back and looked at the bush from a little further away and decided to prune it a little bit more down.

Here you see the final result. This year I pruned my Hybrid Tea roses harder than last and hope that will result in bigger blooms.

This rose named 'Bewitched', another Hybrid Tea rose, will not be deleaved nor pruned because the leaves are already its new ones. I planted in October last year and shaped it lightly at that point. After being transplanted into the ground from a five gallon container it dropped all its leaves and a few weeks later it started to leave out again. So it has kind of a head start in comparison to my other roses planted into the ground.

When I looked a little closer I was very surprised to see a bud already. I guess, this will be my first new bloom in 2016 from the roses planted into the ground in case the hungry bunnies don't eat it and my careless Doberman Skylar doesn't break it. The leaves of the rose look a little spindly though. I better hurry up and give it some fertilizer...

See you in the garden!

Christina

Late Summer Garden Tour

End of Summer

Facing the Climate Change Reality - New, Mostly Drought Tolerant Plant Purchases

September Roses

A Garden Tour Between Rain Showers

A New Decorative Jar for the Garden, Narcissus Paperwhite, Daylilies and Roses

HORTVS, Peter Janke: The Formal Garden II

Garden Tour: Planting a New Rose and Looking at Roses that are Blooming Now!

Garden Tour: Roses, Verbena Bonariensis, Bearded Irises and more...

October Roses

Garden Tour: Roses and other Happenings...

Skylars, the rescue Doberman at the Beach!

Roses, forcing Paperwhites and a new Project

November Roses

Mottisfont Abbey - a Rose Lover's Paradise V

Garden Tour through the Backyard: There are still some Roses blooming!

Skylar's, the rescue Doberman's, first off leash Run

New Year - New Roses!

December Roses

Bits and Pieces from the Garden