This week will be kind of heavy emotionally, so I’m starting off with a happy flower post! :)
Thanks to my article-clipping mom, I found out about a “rose open house” going on in my neighborhood yesterday. So before the Grizzlies game, I drove around to a few houses to look at beautiful roses! (Based on the discussions I overheard, I’m guessing everyone unofficially closed up at tipoff. :))
One of the rose gardens was as big as my entire backyard. It was amazing! I meant to get a wide shot of the whole thing, but the owner seemed annoyed by my picture-taking, and I left sort of hurriedly.
I learned some helpful things from one of the rosarians. He said the only way to get rid of black spot is to spray with fungicide every three days. I’m going to try that! I have three rose bushes – a Tropicana, a Don Juan, and a Knock Out. The first two get black spot every year, but Knock Outs are impervious to pretty much everything.
It’s true that most plants bloom better and look better every year, as they get more established. 90% of the plants in my yard were planted by me, so they’re fairly young, but I’m noticing a difference this year!
My newest addition is this peony! Several peony enthusiasts convinced me to give it a try. :) It’s a Karl Lagerfeld Rosenfeld. It hasn’t bloomed yet, but I know that they often don’t the first year, so I won’t be too disappointed.
Wow, so many roses! They haven’t started blooming here. I wonder why that lady was annoyed at the photos when it’s meant to be an open house.
It was a man, and he was mostly annoyed with me because while trying to get a picture of an unusual rose, I accidentally stepped in the rose bed. Not anywhere near a plant, mind you. Just in the bed! And it wasn’t really clear where the path ended and the bed began. Also, no one else was taking pictures, so I got the impression that it was frowned upon. But like you said, it doesn’t make sense at an open house! :P
these are so beautiful!! and peonies are quickly rising up the list of my favorite flowers.