St. Swithun's Day

My favorite rose is St. Swithun, an English Rose introduced in 1993.  Its flowers are of the lightest pink, larger than most English Roses, hold 100+ petals, intricately quartered, and are heavily fragranced with a heady musk scent similar to Myrrh only sweeter.  A cluster of its flowers will fill a room with its fragrance and can be quite heavy.  Its flowers are held up on stems that are perfectly matched to not be too stiff as to lack grace or so limp that the flowers drag.

The bush is vigorous and somewhat spreading.  Below is a plant in its second year.  You can get a sense of its habit but know that in Oklahoma it will grow to be 5-6 feet tall and 6 feet wide.  This is by far one of the most healthy English Roses and is said to be very winter hardy (zone 4). Its one drawback is that Thrips love it and they are a bit hard on its Spring blooms. 

I didn't know anything about the person St. Swithun before growing the roses but he was born in 852 A.D. and is the patron saint of the Winchester Cathedral.  St. Swithun's Day is July 15 and it is said that whatever the weather on St. Swithun's Day it will continue for the next 40 days.  On a side note, anytime you come across the number 40 in the Bible it probably is not meant to be taken literally.  It really mean "a long time."  Think - Its been raining for a month of Sundays or its raining cats and dogs.  If I seem a bit focused on rain its because we really need it. 

The British folksinger Billy Bragg, has written a song full of nostalgic longing for a former love titled St. Swithun Day's.  Billy has often been compared to Woody Guthrie, a comparison I understand but their sounds are so different you have to listen deeper to get it.  Even so, I thoroughly enjoy both. You can hear a sample of the song on emusic at Billy Bragg St. Swithun's Day .  Several years ago Billy Bragg performed at the Woody Guthrie Festival in nearby Okemah, Oklahoma (the birthplace and childhood home of Woody Guthrie).  While at the festival he took several of Woody poems and lyrics that were not set to music and wrote tunes for them.  This has now become a project of many artist who come the the festivial.  This year's WoodyFest is July 13-17, 2011 and always takes place on his birthday.

Braveheart for Sherman

In June of last year we said goodbye to Sherman Pruett.  Sherman grew up in Prague, Oklahoma and was one of the full Czech members of the community.  Though we were separated by many years in age I took an immediate liking to Sherman and I think he to me.  In his last months he would tell me stories about growing up in this community, his service in WWII, and life as a farmer/rancher.  After his funeral Eileen (one of his children who shares a common love of roses) gave me an envelope and told me to be sure to get a rose to plant at the parsonage in memory of her Dad. 

  I thought I was finished putting in new roses that Spring but I had a spot which was already prepared and I had always been interested in John Clements rose Braveheart so I ordered one up from Heirloom Roses.  As you might know John and Louise Clements started Heirloom Roses with a very extensive catalogue of Old Garden Roses (OGR) and was the primary source of own-root English Roses in the United States.  I think John was something of a haphazard  breeder using what he liked, which often included miniature and English roses and not necessarily together.  Having long been drawn to the red English Roses and having ordered roses from Heirloom since the early 1990's I had always been interested in Braveheart but had never ordered it.  Set free from any plans and with this gift I decided to step out and try something new. 

Braveheart is a cross of the floribunda Tamango with the English Rose The Dark Lady.  It produces a very full, true red rose in the English style on a plant that is very floribunda-like.  Stems on Braveheart are stiffer than most English Roses and currently my plant is a little over two feet tall producing many blooms in rather large clusters.  I planted this bush from a small band just one year ago later this month, and it has made a nice home for itself.  It has been very healthy and regularly produces flowers.  So far it has been very much like Sherman - small in stature but with a big, good, kind, and generous heart. 

 Here you see Braveheart planted near Rhapsody in Blue and an unknown daylilly.  You might notice how much lighter the color of Rhapsody in Blue is in our 95+ degrees days.

Here is a picture of me, Sherman, and his bride of 60 years, Lena when I was honored to present a declaration from the Oklahoma State Legislature on their 60th anniversary. 

With a full heart,        Rev. Scott

DayDreaming

I decided it was unfair of me to post my picture of one bloom on my tiny plant of DayDream and you to have that as your primary impression of the rose.  I think of DayDream being more like Ballerina but much healthier.  So while in OKC, I took my camera to the Oklahoma City Rose Garden to get a better picture of the plant's growth habit for you.  It looks like I was a week or two too late for the show but it will be putting on its second flush before too long.  Still, I think this will give you an idea just how dense growing this rose is.

In the planting above I simple could not tell for certain but it appears to be a single row of four or five plants but the growth is so dense and spreading that you just can not tell.  

DayDream blooms in large clusters of small 1 1/2 inch blooms with maybe 50-100 blooms in a cluster.  Each bloom is single with 5-10 petals in the magenta range of colors.  Each flower is open for about 5 or 6 days.  In this picture I was able to find a nice cluster still in bloom.

I hope this gives you a better picture of what the mature rose is like.  Can you imagine if I had been able to get a picture a week or two earlier?

DayDream's First Bloom

I love very double roses such as St. Swithun but I do enjoy the occasional single rose.  When this  enjoyment of a single rose is combined with something in the lavender tone I will be hooked.  Add to these features a vigorous healthy shrub rose and you have something that I find irresistible - the 2004 introduction rose DayDream by Ping Lim.

DayDream is a cross of Lavender Dream x Henry Kelsey and grows as a dense healthy plant spreading wider that tall and a good four fet tall.  I fell in love with this rose at the Oklahoma City Rose Garden at Will Rogers park were it is planted and grown into a dense hedge and has always been in bloom.  A healthy dense hedged rose in a public garden is a rare thing.  I suspect it will be very winter hardy from the presence of Henry Kelsey but I don't know this for sure. 

Now to the hard part of the post after seeing DayDream a couple of times at the OKC Rose Garden last year I tried to obtain this rose for my garden.  I tried all the nurseries I know of to find it, the HelpMeFind list of those who sold it, and put out a plea on the Old Garden Rose Forum on GardenWeb and could not find a nursery who had it available.  Finding it irresistible (and it is), I took a couple of cuttings to start one for my own garden and it was the easiest start I have every made from a rose. It grew roots immediately. It took a long time to bloom this Spring (almost to June) but here is its first flower.  I would gladly send a few dollars in Ping Lim's direction, but I am so glad to have this rose in my garden.  If you would like to obtain one legally I saw that Roses Unlimited is now carrying it.  I feel better now that I have that off my chest.

Just Let It Grow!

Last year when weeding my blackberry bed, I decided to let a couple of fast growing seedlings grow.  They turned out to be Sunflowers probably delivered by visiting birds who had been feeding at a neighbor's birdfeeder.  Sometimes it's fun to just let it grow and see what it turns out to be.  I should say that there were a few other plants which got yanked out a couple of weeks later but after a few tries you learn what might turn into something interesting and what will not.  Some think grace is a heavy religious word while others are able to see it every day.

Here is one of this year's seedlings and I decided to Just Let It Grow!

Beauty and the Beast

This morning I was drawn in by the contrast of a Beauty and a Beast not far from each other in the garden.  Let's start with the beast or monster rose showing up on the usually beautiful Tradescant.  I don't know what it is called or what causes it, but sometimes roses will produce what I have often called "Frenzied Growth."  This out of control growth sends out very large rapidly growing canes which are covered with thorns and produce malformed blooms that look like something from Little Shop of Horrors.  Other parts of the bush seem normal but this growth is just bizarre.  If any of you can tell me what this is called or what causes it I would appreciate your help.  I'm not too troubled by it because it seems to settles down after a while but is just weird.  Right now Lavender Lassie and Buff Beauty are affected along with Tradescant.

EDIT: After reading much of http://www.rosegeek.com/  a website suggested by HolleyGarden, I decided that Rose Rosette Disease is the likely culprit and early this morning went out and removed all canes which appeared to affected.  In fact, the site scared me a bit and I'm sure I might have even removed some health growth in over vigilance.  The description as "Witches' Broom" fit for an area of growth not pictured.  RRD appears to be spread through a mite.  The product used for this particular mite is no longer on the market.  More research ahead.  I will keep an eye on these roses and will remove them if I was unable to remove the disease from the rose.

Now for the beauty.  I really like Treasure Trail, the Moss Rose released in 2009 by Paul Barden.  It is a compact grower with very healthy, glossy, dark green foliage.  Flowers on Treasure Trail are 2 1/2-3" in size, quartered, cupped, and usually has a button eye in the center.  The color of the salmon pink flowers is quite unique having a yellow center and often a hint of lavender.  Treasure Trail's flowers last a long time on the bush or when cut and brought into the house.  The mossy growth on the the buds, sepals, and stems always draws the attention of garden visitors.  Someday I will have to do a blog on Treasure Trail by itself.  Those unfamiliar with Moss Roses might confuse its mossing with the previously mentioned "frenzied growth" but it is totally different and entirely desirable.

Vineyard Song

It's been a busy couple of weeks in the garden, church and life.  In life, both of our kids graduating, Anna from Oxford College of Emory University and Thomas from Prague High School.  In church, we had four services on Easter beginning with a Sunrise service and finishing by hosting the Prague Ministerial Alliance Community Easter Service with nine congregations participating together and rushing to complete the re-carpeting project just in time to welcome our guests.  And in the garden, everything has moved through its first flush of flowers, creating the opportunity for many pictures and now the follow up care of deadheading and taking new cuttings. 

Here are a few pictures of Vineyard Song, one of Ralph Moore's shrub roses with miniature sized flowers.  Kim Rupert told me Ralph Moore nicknamed it "Bunch O' Grapes."  When he said that I kind of remembered that name from a Sequoia Nursery Newsletter or maybe even a catalogue. We can all be thankful that the name Vinyard Song was selected because it beautifully fits this rose. The rose has much to offer but its growth habit tops the list for me. So far it is a spreading plant about 2' x 3' in my garden (I think it will probably get 3' x 4'), with many clusters of small purple old fashion cupped flowers.  I don't care for the class "Shrub Roses" because it covers far too wide a range of roses, but we will live with it until (with time) we are better able to sort this group out.  Vineyard Song's habit reminds me of the better Polyantha roses.  Now to the pictures.