Sunday, May 16, 2010

New Rose Bushes

one thing i learned about roses: they hate to be in waterlogged soil. My thick, clay soil is just not the best thing for roses...at all. i learned this little tidbit with the first batch of roses i ever tried to plant. i planted a purple "frost" rose, a red "chamberlain" rose and a pink "aromatherapy" rose - all from Jackson Perkins, bought at my houston gardening center. put them in the ground and within a month they looked horrible. i pulled them back out and into containers with good soil and the only one that made it is the red one, which is now safely and happily growing with the others.

i completely loved those aromatherapy roses. they were very fragrant when they just bloomed. i told myself i had to get some more, so when i saw that HGC was selling them half off for 3 days only i took my lunch break and looked for them. I looked and looked and looked for more than half an hour with the help of a worker there and finally I found not one but 2 of them. I was so happy i was clapping, no joke. So i snatched up the 2 of them and one white one that is called "moondance" that is supposed to have a raspberry like scent.


< moondance




from jackson perkins






they are all planted happily in the garden now. I plan on either getting some other miniature roses to go in front or maybe throw some shallow rooted perennials in there that will accent the roses. the pink ones are on either side and the white is in the middle. i wasn't too happy with the condition of the pink ones, as some of the main stems coming from the union were dying but they were the only 2 i could find so i suppose beggars can't be choosers. i dug out the bed again and replaced the soil with 3 one cu. ft. bags of miracle grow garden soil and did a topdressing of mulch about 2" thick. used the garden weasel and loosened up the dirt i didn't replace as well. i'll probably work in some fertilizer too but i wasn't sure which to use. all the ones that said "rose fertilizer" on them had drastically different N-P-K values. they all have fresh buds on them and should bloom anytime. yea!
I put the original ones that were planted there that i didn't like in a large container but i have no clue what to do with them yet...

2 comments:

  1. This probably the best picture of your garden. All of your photos are too close to the flower to actually get a glimpse of the type of garden and how you are laying things out.

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  2. b/c things really are not laid out that well... this season is such a trial run i don't think i would ever put up pictures of the whole thing. Thank you though : )

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