Monday, January 21, 2013
Harvest in January
Tuesday, January 8, 2013
Springtime
The Christmas wreath from the Camarillo Garden Club is still hanging by the front door, but the Hyacinths say it's spring.
Thursday, January 3, 2013
Happy New Year!
It's time for new beginnings. In my yard, it's time to prune back
the rose bushes.
When we had gardeners, I was home on Christmas break when I saw them getting ready to cut back the roses. I begged them to wait until after Christmas. How lucky we are here in southern California to have roses. I mean, we even have a parade all about flowers, especially roses, on New Year's Day. The Rose Parade is viewed from all over and people marvel at the floats covered in plant material and billions of blossoms. After our 8 years in Anchorage, Alaska, I understand how precious that is.
So I have roses for Christmas.
But after Christmas, it is time to cut them back. The plants really benefit from a winter break.
Rose bushes are actually composed of 2 plants; root stalk and the specially grown flowering plant. The root stalk is from a hardy plant. The tops are grown for their various special attributes. Some roses are grown more for their coloring, others for their shape, and still others for their scent. I recently learned that the flowers grown for florists are grown to be long lasting, but rarely have much of a scent.
But those root stalks are, by definition, hardy. They will do their best to grow. They send out branches usually called "suckers." These suckers may grow flowers, but they won't be the glorious blossoms you bought the plant for.
When we lived in Alaska I saw wild roses for the first time. They only have about 5 petals and you might not even recognize them as a rose. After they bloom, a rose hip is left. Roses and rose hips are edible. In fact, rose hips are sold as a vitamin C supplement.
But I digress. Back to the top part of the plant. Rose hips are the seed portion of the plant, but the roses we buy are not grown from seed. They are more like cloned. If one plant grows different looking flowers that the grower likes, branches are cut off and stuck to a cut branch on the root stalk to make a new plant. The cut portions are held together until the desired branch can get its nourishment and grow from the root stalk. This is called grafting. That new type of flower is patented and it works like a copyright. It's illegal for you to copy this process to make more roses from someone's plant.
You can see the tag still attached to this bush. It gives the name of this variety, Memorial Day and then in (WEXBLUNEZ) I'm not sure what that is. It may be the grower. But after that, the print might be small, but the meaning is quite clear. Asexual reproduction of this patented plant without license is prohibited. In other words, do not make a copy of this plant by doing your own graft.
If you really want those fancy flowers you spent good money for, you will cut off those suckers! You can see a lot of suckers coming off the base of this plant. I took my pruning saw to these branches to cut them as close to the base as I could.
You can probably see the brown older branches on this bush as well as the green branches. The older branches are that part of the plant that was grafted onto the base. The green branches are last year's growth. So I cut back the green. You could leave a little of the green on. It will be easier if you cut back the top branches to get them out of the way. Then you can see what you're doing easier and there will be fewer thorns reaching out to snag you.
This bush is done.
This rose bed is done. With the rose bushes cut back, it was easy to clean up the dead branches from the Mexican Evening Primrose.
This is our bedroom window. I cut that center Nandina so it doesn't block my view quite as much.
The bed looks kind of bare now. I would have paid good money for anything green and growing in Anchorage at this time of year! I am very happy to have a garden with something green and even colorful all year round. The tall Nandina with its red berries and the shorter Nana Nandina with its red tinged leaves are filling the bill for this area of my garden right now.
Our bird feeder had been chewed so that the seeds just poured out of one of the holes. when I filled it. So this is my new bird feeder. Hopefully the birds won't be too unhappy with all of the changes! I appreciate their yellow and red feathers and their happy songs. Maybe they'll be back outside my window tomorrow morning.
Spring comes early here, so it won't be long before the roses are growing with refreshed vigor.
When we had gardeners, I was home on Christmas break when I saw them getting ready to cut back the roses. I begged them to wait until after Christmas. How lucky we are here in southern California to have roses. I mean, we even have a parade all about flowers, especially roses, on New Year's Day. The Rose Parade is viewed from all over and people marvel at the floats covered in plant material and billions of blossoms. After our 8 years in Anchorage, Alaska, I understand how precious that is.
So I have roses for Christmas.
But after Christmas, it is time to cut them back. The plants really benefit from a winter break.
Rose bushes are actually composed of 2 plants; root stalk and the specially grown flowering plant. The root stalk is from a hardy plant. The tops are grown for their various special attributes. Some roses are grown more for their coloring, others for their shape, and still others for their scent. I recently learned that the flowers grown for florists are grown to be long lasting, but rarely have much of a scent.
But those root stalks are, by definition, hardy. They will do their best to grow. They send out branches usually called "suckers." These suckers may grow flowers, but they won't be the glorious blossoms you bought the plant for.
When we lived in Alaska I saw wild roses for the first time. They only have about 5 petals and you might not even recognize them as a rose. After they bloom, a rose hip is left. Roses and rose hips are edible. In fact, rose hips are sold as a vitamin C supplement.
But I digress. Back to the top part of the plant. Rose hips are the seed portion of the plant, but the roses we buy are not grown from seed. They are more like cloned. If one plant grows different looking flowers that the grower likes, branches are cut off and stuck to a cut branch on the root stalk to make a new plant. The cut portions are held together until the desired branch can get its nourishment and grow from the root stalk. This is called grafting. That new type of flower is patented and it works like a copyright. It's illegal for you to copy this process to make more roses from someone's plant.
If you really want those fancy flowers you spent good money for, you will cut off those suckers! You can see a lot of suckers coming off the base of this plant. I took my pruning saw to these branches to cut them as close to the base as I could.
This bush is done. This rose bed is done. With the rose bushes cut back, it was easy to clean up the dead branches from the Mexican Evening Primrose.
This is our bedroom window. I cut that center Nandina so it doesn't block my view quite as much.
The bed looks kind of bare now. I would have paid good money for anything green and growing in Anchorage at this time of year! I am very happy to have a garden with something green and even colorful all year round. The tall Nandina with its red berries and the shorter Nana Nandina with its red tinged leaves are filling the bill for this area of my garden right now.
Our bird feeder had been chewed so that the seeds just poured out of one of the holes. when I filled it. So this is my new bird feeder. Hopefully the birds won't be too unhappy with all of the changes! I appreciate their yellow and red feathers and their happy songs. Maybe they'll be back outside my window tomorrow morning.
Spring comes early here, so it won't be long before the roses are growing with refreshed vigor.
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