Sunday, March 2, 2008

some notes on moving stuff around

Before I get to the plant-moving chronicles, I wanted to post this picture of some weird dieback a few of my roses are getting, and see if anyone knows what's going on. Take Duchess de Brabante for example-- everything seemed fine, lots of red new growth, some with little flower buds, and then on March 1, this:











So far the dieback seems limited to this extent, but I have no idea what to make of it. Rather than brittle dieback, it's mushy when I cut through it. And the dieback took all of the spring flower buds with it. This is the largest and healthiest rose in my garden, so I'm worried.



In happier rose news, the first rose of the year, Madame Alfred Carriere. My friend who recommended it to me raved about the scent, but I have to say "eh." It reminds me of Souvenir de la Malmaison, which is all right to my nose, but not spectacular. I'm beginning to conclude that I prefer citrus and tea scents from my roses. It's good-looking flower, though.
















For Diana, a picture of the new Japanese Aralia, which replaced the Acanthus Mollis:






















Why replace the Acanthus? An illustration:


Ah, shade, the happy place...





























The sun, eet burns!
*swoon*






















I put the Acanthus against the other side of the fence, where the same thing is bound to happen, but I don't have anywhere with full shade to put it. Maybe when the bamboo muhly next to it grows taller it'll shade it enough to avoid the sunny day dramatics. Or maybe I'll just pretend that the Acanthus is the heroine of a bodice ripper, and narrate accordingly.

3 comments:

Diana said...

I love the acanthus - and the potato vine. I don't have any and I REALLY want one now that I've seen how delicate and beautiful yours is. And on your current post - I like the blue pots scattered around. I always want those lovely glazed pots but can't seem to settle on a color and inevitably, the next year, I wish I had a different color! I know, I'm fickle! And I still love that bed with the head in it -- is that phlox in the front?

Lori said...

Diana - I think I would love the acanthus more if it didn't pretend to die every sunny day. I feel like a bad gardener when I see it sprawled limp on the ground. As for the pink flower, I think it's verbena, but I could be wrong. It does look like a phlox. I know I still have the plant tag for it...somewhere. I need to be more well-organized!

Diana said...

I know - I am religiously keeping tags and trying to record things now that I am blogging, but anything I planted before is hit or miss as to knowing the exact botanical name or variety. This is sort of like work!