leene_chan | Entries tagged with angry

I miss my Old Garden Roses big time. They bloomed their hearts out before the beetles and blackspot reared their ugly heads in my garden. Poor Evelyn has almost completely defoliated from BS in spite of my spraying. Rose de Rescht has it too. I think they caught it from Cupcake. Damn you, Cupcake!

I can't believe that Enchanted Autumn hasn't produced a single flower so far this year. What the hell, man? It was such a good rose last year.

Quietness, Simon Estes, Margo Koster and Julia Child are all good kids this year, though. Prairie Star was doing fine until the beetles got to her, LOL...Honeysweet has also been a reliable bloomer. Darcey Bussell has turned out to be a great grower and bloomer, but Lady Emma Hamilton needs to go to beauty school. Her flowers have not been pretty at all in our extreme heat.

Heritage #2 turned out to be Ambridge Rose after all. Both Mariannes 1 and 2 have grown like beasts and are now the same size in spite of one being one year older than the other. I guess she wins the apricot rose death match, after all! Our little six-inch Alchymist has also shot up a huge vertical cane and will need to go in the ground this year, after all. So it hasn't all been bad. It's just been mostly ugly. Damn beetles are ruining everything. They trashed Prairie Sunrise's latest flush, boo hoo!

Reine des Violettes is looking much better, but her canes are so delicate that I fear planting her this year.

Miniature Rose "Cupcake.", a photo by Leenechan on Flickr.

And I do spray...=_=....

Some lumping idiot knocked the flowerbud off Crown Princess Margareta. If that rose weren't an ever-bloomer I'd be kicking ass right now!

For something I really just tossed in my cart at the last minute, Tamora probably has the most amazing scent I've ever detected in a rose. It smells like freshly squeezed orange juice! I'm a sucker for the fruity-scented roses. I'm in despair over the fact that the strongest berry-scented rose we have is effing BS-riddled Moondance.

Bear with me now. I'm at war with Mother Nature!

I feel a little uneasy because I caged Chapeau de Napoleon in favor of Madame Hardy. CdN isn't even in the same bed or even in the same part of the yard, but when I saw a little broomstick hole in the ground near him I just saw red!

It makes me worry because the Permatill stuff won't be here for a week. What is going to happen until then? If there are voles partying in the bed with CdN, I also have to worry about Rook. I'm all out of hardware cloth...

Mousetraps! Mousetraps! I bought all these mousetraps last year to deal with the creature that was stealing Lucas' food and never caught a single rodent. Part of me is saying, "Oh, they won't be a waste of money after all!" but the thought of snapping meadow/pine voles in the yard grosses me out. Because they are so adorable. But they could cost me my entire garden. I've lost plants to these bastards before: a beautiful flowering quince "Toyo-Nishiki," several oriental poppies, sea holly, and they almost killed clematis "Haku Ookan" in its first year.

Caging CdN was an ordeal. We planted that rose in September of 2011, and he has built up some massive roots! Jude the Obscure has also become a beast over the past few months. We were originally going to pot him up but his tallest cane is 41 inches tall. Our smallest Austin rose is still Scepter'd Isle.

This whole experience has rattled me to the bones. I have a vision that years from now the only roses we'll have left will be Duchesse de Montebello, Evelyn, Quietness, Rose de Rescht and Darlow's Enigma. Maybe Griff's Red will still be around. Hopefully Simon Estes as well. Why does life gotta be so hard?

EDIT: Maybe I shouldn't be tooting DdM's horn considering that I've never even seen her bloom, but she is one great looking plant. Gorgeous, pristine foliage. She started as a band but she's bigger than our Chamblee's gallons now. If anything happens to her heads will roll!

So far we've managed to collar Madame Plantier, Jude the Obscure, Paul Ricault, Siren's Keep, Polareis and Chapeau de Napoleon. Six inches above and six inches below...not an easy task at all. I've ordered some of the Permafill/Soil Perfector stuff to protect some more roses. Madame Hardy, Rook, Allegra, Konigin von Danemark and Gallicandy are the priorities. I really have no idea how far that stuff goes...

The voles keep reopening that hole near Marianne's old place. The tunnel seems to be running from under our neighbor's fence into our yard. I baited two snap traps with peanut butter, placed them by the hole and covered it with a bucket and then weighted the bucket with stones. Maybe I won't catch anything, but those bastards killed Lavender Lassie! They may have killed Marianne. I'm out for blood!

Marianne...I don't know if she's going to make it in the long run. If she were a Buck rose I wouldn't doubt her survival. I am going to replace her no matter what. Marianne is one of the most beautiful roses I've ever seen, and if I don't get a new plant I'm going to feel resentful whenever anyone mentions her name.

It's funny that I originally ordered Marianne as a "back-up" apricot rose in case the oft-maligned Evelyn didn't do well. Now I might lose Marianne but Evelyn has turned out to be a monster. I'm going to have fun pegging her next year--her canes are really flexible and floppy!

The problem is that Evelyn and Marianne actually look nothing alike...The only rose I've seen that resembles Marianne is Alchymist. A once-flowering 12 ft climber. Ho ho...

We've sunk a hardware cloth barrier around Siren's Keep. It ought to be 6 inches below ground but I think we only managed 5 inches below and five inches above...I hope it's good enough. Our soil is very rocky so it was quite an ordeal to install that barrier.

We'll try to put similar barriers around Madame Hardy, Paul Ricault, Madame Plantier and Konigin von Danemark. We'll probably evacuate Capitaine John Ingram, Polonaise and Jude the Obscure for the time being and replant them in the spring with protection. This is so aggravating! I have to protect Prairie Star! I see these stupid tracks in our lawn every year. I love that most websites say that the best defense against voles in the garden is...get this...an outdoor cat. No thanks. Maybe I'm crazy, but I can't sleep at night because I worry about waking up to dead roses.

I wonder if that Permafill Volbloc stuff is worth getting?

On a more positive note, Julia Child is loving her life as a pot rose. She looks better than ever.

My perfect little sun., a photo by Leenechan on Flickr.

"Julia Child" is perhaps the only budded rose in my garden that isn't sticking up the middle finger at me right now. In addition to "Moondance" having thrips, the wet weather has really taken its toll on the flowers of "Simon Estes" and "Chapeau de Napoleon." Better next time!

To be fair, the roses that aren't trying to bloom look pretty good, especially the Buck roses and Ausjo (guess which rose that is!). Also, in spite of being masticated by aphids "Duchesse de Montebello" is a fast-growing beast. "Felicite Parmentier" is growing a little bit from the base.

It's too bad that "Chapeau de Napoleon's" pretty flower has taken such a beating from the elements. It's still a cute thing in person, but in photos the bloom looks like hell.

By the way, that white crap on the foliage of most of my roses isn't mildew, it's residue from Liquid Fence. ::sobs::

It looks like "Moondance" has thrips again after all. Not so much to deform the flowers terribly, but I'm disappointed.

I had been talking to Kristen about digging up the bush and moving it. There seems to be something about that spot; it's a damp corner up against the house, and I wonder if it's not a great place to have a rosebush, anyway. It seems to be the kind of place that would harbor insects.

I'm thinking that it'd be better to keep "Moondance" in a large pot until we're sure that the thrips are gone, then transplant it someplace sunnier. I certainly don't want to bring those nasty insects into our new bed. My idea is to dig it up, shake off all the old dirt, pinch the current buds and start anew. I really have a hard time believing that a potted rose is going to be able to maintain a thrips infestation. The problem is in the soil, after all. Damn white roses...

Kristen ended up digging up our poor little "Prairie Sunrise" and potting it up. We've had it since August of last year and it's about three inches tall. She said that in spite of its lack of top growth, it has a pretty impressive root system. I guess it's just not very vigorous!

"Gallicandy" is starting to sprout little red growth nodes all over that ridiculously long single cane. Maybe it'll stop looking like a broom in a few months? The top filled out nicely already.

I'm starting to think that the only rose we have from last year that isn't a little bitch is "Julia Child." In spite of my complaints about its blackspot, it's a good grower that shrugs off insect damage and is currently covered with many perfect flowerbuds.

I just noticed that one of our divided After the Storm tall bearded iris has had the top bitten off it. I'm not sure what kind of animal would do such a thing, because I heard that rabbits and deer don't really like them. Or do they?

It might have been a chipmunk. Those f--ing things are running rampart throughout the yard. I can't even set foot outside without sending one scampering away, making hideous squeaking noises.

It might have still been a rabbit. I haven't seen any other evidence that the bunny is back, though. It usually goes for the asters first.

Well, whatever it was, I hope it likes hot pepper spray! I hope the hot pepper spray works. The irises are within days of blooming and it would kill me if something got to them before they popped their glorious flowers.

And then there's aphids, aphids and more aphids. They are really getting out of hand. I blast them off with the hose and two hours later, they're back. Chipmunks, aphids, rabbits...multiflora rose in big clumps on the border of our yard. I gashed my right thumb open taking some of it out last night.

Kristen says she got bit by thrips when she was out pruning the forsythia bush. Things are lookin' good for our garden!

Well, clematis Gillian Blades bloomed today. I'll take a picture tomorrow.