June 27

Greetings, lovely people! I’m writing to you from the swamplands of central Pennsylvania. I haven’t seen storms and rain like this since we lived in North Carolina. In fact, as I type this, we just had a passing storm that snapped our mature redbud tree in two so there’s that to deal with. And the HEAT! I’m not cut out for this; I much prefer cooler weather. But enough about that, I’m here to talk more about the roses we’ve begun growing in our new garden. I’m hoping this lighthearted discussion about pretty flowers will be just the kind of nervous system reset from the horrors of the world we all need right now.

Here’s where we left off with some lovely roses just beginning to flower. This is a good time to mention that we are currently growing, oh gosh, maybe a little over 100 roses? I’ve lost count. But I don’t have photos of many of them partly because I’ve been too busy and partly because they’re still so teeny-tiny. I’m also still working out where to put most of them as both our allotment garden and our home garden each present their own unique set of challenges. Should I make a list of what we have? Would that be helpful to any of you? Anyways, some are already establishing beautifully like ‘Leonardo da Vinci’ seen here. This rose was *this close* to being dug up and given away because I just didn’t love that shade of pink. In the end, I decided to keep it because not many roses do well in our woodland garden but this one does. Definitely a keeper for that reason alone even if it does get a bit of blackspot in summer. PS: the scent is light to almost nonexistent but it repeats well and doesn’t need any winter protection (zone 6.)

Here’s another which flowers in spite of being in part shade and dappled sunlight: ‘Quietness’. This rose has such a graceful appearance with it’s shell-pink flowers but it belies it’s rugged character. It doesn’t need much from me besides a bit of dead-heading and mulching in spring with composted manure. I think it would flower even better if it had more sun but the best I can give it is a few hours of direct morning sunlight.

I almost skipped over ‘Princesse Charlène de Monaco’ who doesn’t look nearly as happy and healthy as she did in our previous garden. Here’s what I’ve learned about this rose: it wants a lot of sunshine. Our wooded garden is not bringing Charlène joy and I will probably move her to the allotment.

I’m so in love with ‘Sweet Mademoiselle’ that I have two: one for our wooded home garden to enjoy in situ and one for the sunny allotment garden specifically for cutting and I’m here to tell you she’s fine with either scenario. Unsurprisingly, she gives more flowers at the sunnier allotment position but the blooms in the home garden version open bigger and better because they are more sheltered so it’s a tradeoff. That being said, this rose gets quite diseased in both locations during the humid months and I do have to cut her back pretty hard. Please note the browning on the outside petals is from all the rain we’ve been getting. In normal weather the flowers are basically perfect!

The last of the OGR’s have finished flowering recently. Truth to be told, I didn’t get very many photos of the ones growing in a hedge in our backyard, like Léda, Charles de Mills, a mystery damask that a certain nursery is convinced is ‘Celsiana’ (it’s not) but I planted anyways and Tuscany Superb because this was not their best year. First, they were nibbled by the rabbits–I didn’t hoopty them so it’s my bad–and then the nonstop rain and recent heat haven’t been kind to what flowers were left. The plants themselves are also looking a bit chlorotic. This is entirely my fault for planting them where they are competing too much for sunlight and nutrients. Sometimes I really drop the ball completely and this is one of those times! I will need to move them this autumn or they will continue to diminish. Additionally, most of the blooms on ‘Comtesse de Rocquigny‘ balled up completely from the rain so that spring flush was a loss. She’ll flower again in autumn, though. There’s always autumn!

Happily, back at the allotment, I had lots of roses still coming on like this Kordes rose I mentioned in a previous post. It was purchased with an incorrect label so I’m not entirely sure which one it is. Sometimes it looks just like “Moonlight Romantica’ and sometimes it looks a heck of a lot like ‘Mme Anisette’. Whatever the name, it pumped out dozens of flowers which I cut for home and we had vases of fresh cut roses in every room–a true luxury. However, many still are getting established and didn’t have an amazing spring flush. This is just one of those things that takes patience, I guess. I also didn’t get any photos of one of my favorite roses, ‘Dark Desire’ because nearly all of the flowers fried in the recent heatwave. It was such a loss because there were over a dozen perfect-looking buds on the plant until they shriveled up. I will undoubtedly get another flush on this rose and I can’t wait because she is a looker!

There was a morning not too long ago where the rain had stopped for a whole day (!) and we took the opportunity to walk over to the Arboretum to see the roses. I always feel a bit better when I visit there with regard to the troubles we have in our own gardens at home. Insect damage, rabbit damage, winter damage…it’s all there, too, and they have an entire team of volunteers so if they can have the same issues, then I’m not doing so bad!

Finally here are a few stragglers with honorable mention to ‘Bliss Parfuma’ which is a simply stunning rose with a gorgeous scent, as the name suggests. Speaking of scent, the silly-named ‘Dee-Lish’ will knock your socks off if you’re looking for a really fragrant rose. So far, the roses in our front garden are tolerating the partly sunny conditions. It’s worth noting that I am pressing the pause button on adding or moving any roses from the front garden until we sort out what’s going on with a very mature white oak that’s growing nearby. Sadly, it’s dying from the base and our arborist thinks it may need to come down this winter. This is truly heartbreaking because we love that tree (and have spent a fair bit of money trying to preserve it) but it will open up the sky to more sunlight so that’s nice, I suppose!

Well, I’d like to wish you all a fabulous weekend but I know that’s a tall order when everything feels so heavy right now. So instead my hope is that you get a chance to get out in nature or into your gardens and have a few moments of calm.

PS: We don’t just grow roses at our allotment but also have veggies and more flowers for cutting. The poppies and the lavender have been beautiful this year. You can see more photos of the rest of our garden on my personal Instagram @HedgerowHome