We visited the Merian Gardens in Basel today which is home to one of the largest collections of bearded iris in Europe. It was an overwhelming experience seeing so many iris in bloom! We spent 4 hours in the iris garden and I took hundreds of photographs but there were just too many to get all of them.
The last three weeks have been extremely busy at work and I didn’t get that much done in the garden but I did take pictures nearly every day while I did my rounds.
The iris started blooming on 12 May this year - in spite of the heavy frost. However, the damage caused by the frost is evident on many of the buds which have managed to open.
Edit May 27 - not Blue Suede Shoes but Sapphire Hills (received from cliftoncat - Mika in 2016)
No aphids on the iris (yet) but I have had snail damage and, new in our garden this year, the iris weevil.
I managed to start planting out my iris seedlings from my first hybridizing attempts last year.
The roses in the garden are slowly recovering from the frost damage at the end of April. I had to re-prune most of them. Double the effort this year and hopefully double the reward – just a little later than usual.
The first rose to bloom in the garden this year is Rosa Canina on 16 May.
The rose seedlings have been moved outside now and continue to bloom.
‘Black Baccara X Little Artist’ – a cross which has produced all sorts – this picture shows what can come from the same cross. The red in the comparison is far too red! I have great difficulty getting the balance right.
Here I got the colour right!
The last two pics above are from the same cross ‘Indian Summer X Huddersfield’ and couldn’t be more different. The first is still in a 2dl cup and only about 8cm high. The second had to be transplanted to a pot in is now about 50cm high.
Never a dull moment when hybridizing roses – you never know what you are going to get.
I believe the same goes for hybridizing iris only you have to wait a little longer for them to bloom – hopefully next season.
Patience is a virtue they say .........
Sometimes, it is really quite heart breaking but we gardeners just have to deal with whatever nature throws at us – good and bad!
The heavy frost predicted last week took its toll on the plants. Photos take 21 April 2017.
The extent of the frost damage only becomes really noticeable after a couple of days ....
Example: Hosta ‘Big Daddy’
Some roses are more susceptible than others ....
And then, early evening on 27 April 2017, it started snowing and it did not stop until late the next afternoon!
Statistics show that this is the most snow ever recorded so late in the year for our area! It was relatively warm so the snow was wet and heavy, sticking to all the new foliage, weighing down the branches and causing extensive damage mainly to my roses.
Damage control late afternoon on 29 April 2017
And then this morning, frost AGAIN! Hopefully the last of the season!!!
With all this going on, I almost completely forgot:
Two iris that bloomed just before the snow. They were a bit damaged by the frost but at least I got to see their first blooms in our garden.
I also had two interesting rose seedlings bloom from the cross ‘Black Baccara X Huddersfield’
And I got to plant some sempervivum in the pots I made two weeks ago..
Now I am just hoping that the dahlia tubers weren’t damaged but they should be ok because I mounded them quite well. I had a look at the weather forecast for the next two weeks and it seems it won’t be getting cold again so I can start thinking about planting out my marigold, begonia and petunia seedlings. I also plan to sow some alyssum and nasturtium seeds and of course clean up and cut back.
But it seems to happen every year!
Yesterday this ....
And today this – and it is still snowing!!!!
The bucket on the rose is not for protection against the snow but rather a precautionary measure as the weather man has predicted temperatures below zero with heavy morning frost through till Saturday. I moved some potted roses under roof and coved some others with winter fleece again. Mainly the roses I grafted last year which have just started showing new growth. The rest will have to cope on their own! It is just such a pity seeing new growth destroyed by frost – hopefully it won’t be as bad as last year.
It is such a contrast to the weather we had last week – temperatures in the low 20C which really helped push new growth.
Blooms the last two weeks:
And with all that great weather, we did get a couple of things done in the garden. All the conifers and the ivy hedge have been trimmed and we removed another two Thuja. Even though we don’t trim the tall Thuja every year it is an enormous job especially now that they have gotten so tall. Removing a couple of them it is not only going to make our lives a little easier but the plants around them are going to be much happier. In hindsight, I should never have planted them where they were in the first place but in my ignorance.................
The warm and unusually dry spring weather not only encouraged a lot of new growth but was also an invitation for unwanted garden guests. The first to arrive was the boxwood caterpillar! This is our forth year dealing with this imported pest which is becoming a real problem and if left unchecked can defoliate a box shrub in no time. I just wish our neighbours would pay a little more attention because as with most pest, these do not respect residential boundaries!.
I think I have to visit the optometrist again because I had to take a photo of the second visitor and enlarge it to see what it was...
Turned out to be rose leafhopper nymphs and they are all over the place!!!
So I had to spray – insecticidal soap with alcohol for the leafhoppers but I had to get something special for the boxwood caterpillar and will have to repeat spray for both again as soon as the weather allows in order to avoid any further damage!
On the bright side – I have some new rose seedlings which look like they are worth keeping
And in between all of the above, DH found time to cast some new stepping stones for me and I used the left over concrete to make some small planters which will become home to a few of the countless sempervivum babies in the garden.
And everything is starting to grow
We only had two days with light frost during the last two weeks and temperature highs between 15 and 20C so everything is pushing out growth at an amazing rate. I finished fertilizing my roses and iris, mulched the roof beds and finally got around to transplanting some lupins that had been in a big planter the last three years.
Slowly but surely, I am freeing up bed space. We removed a third Thuja – the bigger they get the more their roots encroach on the other plants which is obvious but they were all planted 10 years ago when there was nothing else in the garden.
This one isn’t completely out yet and there is another one on the other side of the garden which will be removed as well. Less trimming for DH in future – he has trimmed three of the remaining tall conifers and has three more to go. I trimmed all the smaller conifers last week.
My last outstanding rose order finally arrived on 25 March, three weeks after the vendor had promised to deliver. For now they are in pots because they are destined for spots in the garden which are currently still occupied by, can you guess? Thuja!
All the grafts on the standard rose canes rooted last year have taken and are pushing out a lot of new growth.
A big project which I managed to finish last week was emptying and amending the soil in the two big pots on the terrace. The soil had become too compact and was affecting the drainage and the plants just weren’t growing well any more. This time I added 20% hydro balls as well as compost in the hope that I won’t have the problem again. Naturally, after adding so much extra amendments I had quite a bit of soil left over which had to be wheel-barrowed through the sunroom to spread elsewhere in the garden.
My propagating set-up in the cellar was packed away for the season and I moved all the seedlings up to the sunroom to slowly start hardening them off. I also finally got around to planting my lily bulbs – a bit late because some were a little soft so I hope they are going to be all right.
Here are two, IMO, interesting rose seedlings which I will be keeping to see how they develop. Both are from the cross ‘Black Baccara’ and ‘Little Artist’, which has proven to be a very good cross with lots of germinations but most of the seedling are very similar to ‘Little Artist’.
The first is a larger dark velvety red single bloom with large glossy foliage – the photo came out much lighter. The second is a smaller double solid cherry red bloom with white reverse and medium sized semi-glossy foliage. The proportion leaf–bloom size is not ideal but .....
Well, that’s what I have been up to the last two weeks. In between watering, because we haven’t had decent rain for a while now and with the warmer temps the pots need it, I have been taking pictures ....
Has spring arrived?
The week before last was miserable with quite a bit of rain and howling winds so nothing doing in the garden but then this week, up until yesterday, the weather was wonderful! Cool in the mornings but with highs above 10C every day.
And the garden has noticed!!!! Daffodils, primula, aubrieta, periwinkle and forsythia are all flowering.
And what does a rose lover do when the forsythia starts flowering?
Well pruning of coarse and that is exactly what I did every afternoon this last week.
This is what my raised beds looked like before and after pruning!
Some of the other beds after pruning ....
I unpacked all the standard roses and pruned them as well and when everything was done this is what I have to get rid of - the pile of prunings
All my potted roses are also out of winter storage. I removed the tops of the root stock which I grafted last season and it looks like each and every one has taken. The new rootstock looks a little twiggy now but will be ready for grafting come May. I have chosen Rosa Canina Inermis this year as opposed to Pfänders and am quite curious to see if I notice a difference in growth of the grafted roses. The cuttings that I stuck last year also all survived the winter outside. So all in all I am a happy chappy!
I started fertilizing the roses on Friday evening hoping to finish before the predicted rain but only got half done so now I’ll just have to water when I get around to doing the rest. I was actually quite happy that it rained yesterday because I spread some nematodes against the black vine weevil today and it saved me having to water first. This is the fourth time I have spread the nematodes and there really has been a vast improvement on the amount of foliage damage over the last three years. I’ll see how it goes this year and might skip next year because it is quite a time consuming job.
Down in the cellar things are looking good. I have two shelves of lights which are home to my seedlings right now. Two trays of marigolds, and some iris and rose seedlings – a couple of the early roses have nice buds so soon I will see the results of the crosses – suspense is mounting!!!!
BTW way, it’s Sunday and as is every Sunday before I do anything else .... today’s baking resulted in
The weather prediction for the next two weeks is good so its full steam ahead - have to get a move on with my transplanting now!
With good intentions of posting on a bi-weekly basis ........
