This post has certainly been a long time coming! As regular readers will be aware, I was expecting my second child in December- and she has arrived, albeit a little earlier than planned. My beautiful daughter was born on November 16th, and we have named her Rose.
The very first rose to bloom in my garden this Spring- rosa “Iceberg”
The name choice will come as no surprise to those who have visited my garden. I have long been a lover of roses- not just for their scent and beauty (which they have in spades) but for their tenacity, toughness and longevity. Growers of some of the more delicate rose cultivars may be surprised to hear me say this, as they fight the annual battle against pests, diseases and climate. But roses have been grown for thousands of years, and very old specimens are found capably growing and blooming amidst total neglect. Of course, they do even better with a little love and care (we all do). The rootstock of many of the modern cultivars are the tough-as-nails species roses. I once allowed the rosa canina (dog rose) rootstock to shoot and take over a sickly rose at my old house. It grew into a huge, arched shrub with hundreds of beautiful single blooms in Spring (and it had the most vicious tiny thorns too). But that’s a story for another day.
I took an enormous number of photos of the 21 roses in my garden as they came into bloom this Spring. The surprise early arrival of our daughter prevented me from posting on them individually sooner, but here are a selection of the photos now (click them to enlarge). I very much enjoyed looking over them all again.
The standard “Peach Profusion” roses
Planted as bare-rooted sticks in Winter (see here and here), these ladies put on a gorgeous display this Spring. When they finished, they were pruned back by a third in the last week of November, and they are now blooming again in time for Christmas and the New Year. They have been very low-maintenance and a real joy to grow, and so far the claims of excellent pest and disease resistance have held up.
The first flower bud begins to open on the new ‘Peach Profusion’ roses
The peach and cream colourings of the first flower
A hint of green at the base of the outer petals
The flowers appear in clusters, and fade to cream with age
Row of ‘Peach Profusion’ roses
The first Spring flush
Up close
More gorgeous blooms
A cluster showing the spectrum of colours
The groundcover “Flower Carpet Appleblossom” roses
These have really grown in leaps and bounds since being planted 12 months ago (see here). They started their main flush in mid-Spring, but have been spot-flowering all throughout Winter. They repeat-bloom again quickly, and are the ultimate no-maintenance rose (aside from one hard annual late-Winter prune and feed). At their peak, the garden bed looked like it was covered with pink fairy floss (cotton candy). Just gorgeous!
The first blooms make an appearance mid-Spring, a nice follow-on from the Peach Profusions
The blooms begin
An explosion of pink blooms
Lets take a closer look…
Dark pink buds amongst the foliage
Colour progression from bud to bloom
The lolly pink flowers are borne in clusters
The clusters are perfect for cutting for the vase
There’s an Indian Summer ‘Sioux’ Crepe Myrtle in the centre of the bed
The standard “Iceberg” roses
Always reliable and hardy, these never stopped blooming in 2014, and I ended up sacrificing some blooms with a hard Winter pruning to encourage the gorgeous new Spring display. They were the first roses in the garden to bloom in Spring. Mid-summer, they are still flowering away happily and despite the intense humidity of this Summer, have no signs of blackspot.
Hardy ‘Iceberg’ roses beside the pool during their Summer display
The cheerful white blooms
More of the plentiful white blooms
The standard “Queen Elizabeth” rose
My indulgence rose (link), the Queen is completely unsuitable for the humid Sydney climate, but I grow her anyway for nostalgic reasons amongst a bed of Avonview lavender. She has flowered beautifully this year, and is well-into her second flowering now after a very hard pruning in late-Spring. So far she has held up well to the humidity without any spraying, but I cannot expect that to last. As always, she is pest-free though. Despite being a standard (tree rose) and the late-Spring prune, the warm and rainy weather has seen her reach an ungainly height with flowers above my head. She will be getting another hard prune when the current flush of blooms is over!
The ‘Queen Elizabeth’ rose is a focal point in the bed
She is edged by lavendula “Avonview”
Too tall to enjoy as a standard, but the flowers are lovely in a vase
She is probably my most photographed rose
The gorgeous rosa “Queen Elizabeth”
The “Mr Lincoln” shrub rose
Another new addition to the garden this past Winter (see here), the beauty of the blooms have really caught me by surprise. The dark crimson flowers are huge, a full handspan across, and are strongly scented with a rich, velvety rose fragrance. I’m sure it would be a stunning shrub if only I could stop myself cutting the flowers and taking them inside for the vase.
Mr Lincoln coming into flower
The first flower beginning to open
The impressive crimson bloom of rosa “Mr Lincoln”
I can’t resist bringing the flowers inside to enjoy their fragrance
The “Eyes For You” shrub rose
Last but not least is my smallest but toughest rose. Reliably hardy as always, she was blanketed in blooms throughout Spring after spot-flowering throughout Winter (see here). She has a rich and slightly spicy fruit fragrance, and excellent pest and disease resistance, being cultivated in Queensland as a “Blackspot Buster” rose. I don’t think people believe me when I say I never spray her, but it’s true!
Rosa “Eyes for You” coming into bloom
The flowers quickly blanket the bush
The lovely peach buds and pink blooms. Note the cheeky caterpillar I discovered just to the left of the watermark!
The care of baby Rose has largely kept me out of the garden these past two months, which I hope to remedy soon. I have been out there already picking tomatoes and pruning the lavender back while she sleeps. I can’t wait to get my hands back into the soil, and have lots more work planned for 2015- I hope you’ll join me.
I wish all of you a wonderful New Year- I hope your 2014 gardening year was as much fun as mine was, and that your garden brings even more joy in 2015!
The Quarter Acre Blog 
Congratulations, both on your beautiful new daughter, and on your enviable rose collection!
Thank you Kate. Happy New Year! I’m looking forward to seeing what you get up to in the garden (and house renos) in 2015.