To do

[msmemory_archive]

And who's this going to interest, besides me?


Unpack and stow luggage
Swap polos and turtlenecks out/into storage
Frugal Fannie's if they have any more Miraclesuits in stock
Patri's memorial
Prune forsythia
Trim box hedge and that green bush out front
Buy a rosebush. Never had one before. (damascene, jdulac, that's a hint for advice!)
Get tomato plants if not already too late
Hunt up mail from last two+ weeks and deal, esp. bills
Lochleven guest meeting
Laundry, ironing, laundry, ironing
Do we know anybody who wants to do garden work for pay?
Organize receipts for expense report
Change bed linens, wash sheets & towels
Clean downstairs shower
Amazon order
Compile (or find!) list of electrician tasks; call electrician.
Hair appointment?
Freecyle list entry for old couch
15 minutes of sorting old paperwork in office (baby steps)

Comments

requirements gathering...

[jdulac.livejournal.com]

rose bushes: what do you want in a rose? any particular effect you are looking for, or characteristics that you like? climbing? bushy? fragrance? color? long-stemmed? clustered? where do you want to put it? have you decided you have a spot where you want to put a rose, or do you want a rose and then you'll figure out where to put it?

Re: requirements gathering...

[msmemory.livejournal.com]

I like roses with scent. I'm leaning toward either a blood red, or a yellow with orange-red tips (sunset colors). I'm planning on putting it against a 3' open picket fence, not far from the tomatoes, but could also be convinced into something that didn't need a support, out in the middle of a bed. I have limited places with that level of sunshine (AFAIK it would need approximately full sun) that aren't grass, you see. No educated opinion on long stemmed, clustered, etc. Not really high maintenance either.

Re: requirements gathering...

[cvirtue.livejournal.com]

I am only a dillatante gardener, but: roses generally take a fair amount of fussing, even the relatively low-fuss varieties. Water, bugs, powdery mildew, etc.

I *think* that if you get heirloom types you'll have less trouble-- but check with those in the know. I decided I wanted complete abscence of trouble, and went with rosa rugosas, which take abuse of all kinds.

Here's a list of easy things to plant that will flower in succession -- from gardening junkmail which I got earlier this year:

"List of flowers that will have something blooming successively throughout the growing season:
crocuses*, daffodils*, tulips*, lilacs, peonies, roses, tall garden phlox, daylilies, asiatic and oriental lilies, coreopsis, black-eyed susan, tall sedum, asters, and mums."

(*Clearly for northern areas that get below freezing in the winter.)

They didn't mention daylilies, especially reblooming ones, but they should have. Oodles of colors.

Re: requirements gathering...

[jdulac.livejournal.com]

roses theoretically need full sun, but in actually they can be more flexible than that. 6 hrs is generally plenty.

A lot of modern roses are lower maintenance that the traditional hybrid tea rose. The really low maintenance roses (like the various "Knockout" roses) generally don't have a lot of scent.

The classic deep red, fragrant rose is "Mr. Lincoln," a hybrid tea. This is a long-stemmed rose. Generally I don't recommend people looking for "low-maintenance" use HT's, but it might be worth it to you. It is widely available.

I've had good luck w/the David Austen English Roses -- "William Shakespeare" is a deep red variety that tends to be pretty available. These are technically shrub roses, and have a lax habit. They also are generally fragrant, have big old-fashioned blooms. Don't require a lot of fussing

If you want an easy yellow rose w/red edges, you might consider "Joseph's Coat", also widely available. It is a climber, pretty vigorous. Not a heavy fragrance, but it has the interesting property that the roses begin more yellow and gradually the edges get darker and spread.

more later, I must leave now.

Re: requirements gathering...

[msmemory.livejournal.com]

The "William Shakespeare" at Mahoney's was a very pretty shade of purple, but not the glorious deep velvety shade of the other one you mentioned in another comment.

So I ended up with a "Mr Lincoln" even though it's a hybrid tea and may not survive my benign neglect, and a "Rabelais" which I was much taken with.

Re: requirements gathering...

[jdulac.livejournal.com]

good for you! that is the way to choose roses -- by what strikes you personally. I hope you enjoy them!

Re: requirements gathering...

[jdulac.livejournal.com]

so more thoughts... given where you live, you should go to Mahoney's in Winchester (the "real" Mahoney's) to look for your roses. They have the best selection of anyone in the area. The other place I recommend is Russell's in Wayland.

moving on...

Old Garden Roses... aka "antique roses"... these are generally quite vigorous and sometimes make nice shrubs out of bloom. You have to treat them as once-bloomers, even if they are supposedly "perpetual." Still, their period of bloom is longer than the average peony and they can be spectacular. They tend to be big and need a lot of room. They also aren't usually easily available at the average garden center. "Rose de Rescht" is a small one although mine has gotten rather columnar over the years due to its situation and is about 5' tall. The flowers a very double and fragrant, but they are actually quite small. Don't know if you care for that fuschia tone in your red flowers, but it is one that you can find at garden centers. It does rebloom pretty well.

There aren't yellow OGRs, because that color comes from China tea roses, not bred in until later in the 19th c. Most of them tend to be shades of pink. If you want deep, deep red you should look at Gallicas. You can sometimes find them -- I just picked up "Belle de Crecy" in the Home Depot for $6.99! "Charles de Mills" is one that you sometimes see around. And if you see "Tuscany" for sale, buy it! They are only June blooming.

On the opposite end chronologically, there are a number of modern shrub roses that bloom well and are very disease resistant. I see that Mahoney's is featuring "Easy Elegance" roses -- some of these are amazingly nice. As mentioned before, the "Knockout" roses are extremely disease resistant and constantly blooming. "Bonica", a pink rose, is hard to screw up -- they plant this one on highways. I also recommend anything from Dr Buck, who breeds very hardy roses in Iowa.

Another modern rose that might suit you is Rouge Royale. It was at Russell's last year, and late in the summer when everything else was looking pretty poorly, it was lovely. And it's fragrant -- the price you pay for many of the tough-as-nails modern roses is that they aren't always that great at fragrance.

well, I've driveled enough for now. I think my favorite suggestion is the new William Shakespeare (I had to put that link in , the pic is so luscious).

Re: requirements gathering...

[msmemory.livejournal.com]

Mahoney's is where I head for any plants. Bought the herbs there earlier this year, will be there Sat-Sun or some such for the tomatoes. I'll check out the roses while I'm there.

Tell me more about once-bloomers vs. perennials?

Re: requirements gathering...

[msmemory.livejournal.com]

that is, once-bloomers vs perpetual?

Re: requirements gathering...

[jdulac.livejournal.com]

Wild European roses are normally bloom once per year -- their season is early summer. They produce hips from the roses and that's it for the year. Remontancy (re-blooming) was introduced into rose breeding stock from southern Chinese roses, which are normally not hardy in our climate. The first re-blooming European roses were produced in the 19th c. "Rebloom" can mean several things -- if they rebloom, Old Garden Roses typically bloom in flushes, a wave of roses, then a rest, then another wave. There may be only 2 waves, early summer and autumn. Usually the early bloom is the most abundant and subsequent bloom is sporadic.

Some modern roses have been bred to be almost constantly blooming. That takes a lot of energy from a plant. They typically don't make a lot of hips, and they like a lot of plant food (but who doesn't?) People generally expect roses to be reblooming nowadays. But many antique roses are not. I just mention this because Cynthia had suggested antique roses as being hardier (generally true), but one reason they aren't easily found in garden centers is that they are very different from what people expect.

Re: requirements gathering...

[jdulac.livejournal.com]

I should clarify: it is not once-blooming vs perennial, it is once-blooming vs. re-blooming. Roses are perennial, although some are not reliably hardy in our climate (although you won't generally find those on sale here).

One reason the David Austen English roses are so popular is that they have the look of old-fashioned roses, but the re-bloom of modern roses. Right now my Abraham Darby and Othello and Graham Thomas are to die for.

Re: requirements gathering...

[cvirtue.livejournal.com]

(drools over roses, off in a corner by herself)

Re: requirements gathering...

[msmemory.livejournal.com]

An incidental fact - part of the point of the rosebush is to use the ashes from our late cats as some of its fertilizer. Plus my yard could use some thing(s) that flower later in the year, since much of what I have now is spring stuff like lilacs, lily of the valley, and clematis.

Re: requirements gathering...

[jdulac.livejournal.com]

ah, so you want a "specimen", not a "landscape" rose. That helps...