Rosie

Meet Rosie. I was introduced to her at the local garden center. She was in the Weekly Special aisle and I got a crush.

 

I think meeting her was fate. See I have this empty spot where the fence between us and our neighbor ends and I’ve been unsure of what to place there since both Mini and Bonus like to cross over there. I wanted another white rose (I have a climbing one at the front and was able to transplant a really pretty one from one of the flower beds that I dug out last year) somewhere in the back yard but I didn’t want something low and prickly in that very spot.

 

So good thing Rosie’s a leggy lady!

 

Now Mini and Bonus can just walk past her slenderness.

 

Rosie’s also known as Kailani. I love how she’s the perfect ending to the fence. Now I just have to make sure to read up on how to properly prepare her for winter. I remember my mom bending down and burying her tree roses over winter as I grew up. It always spooked me out because it looked like we we had freshly dug graves in our front yard, those long rectangular mounds of soil. This was back in the 70’s, not sure that method’s in use any more. Will need to investigate.

Comments

[Monica]

Beautiful rose! My Mom says that is what she use to see her Mom and Grandfather do. I bought a tree rose last year and the location I planted it didn't really have spot for me to bend it over. Plus, I would have been extremely apprehensive about it. I bought some rabbit hay wrapped the graft with it and then covered it with a rose sack. Our Winters are not quite as extreme as yours, but maybe this would work for you.

[Amycapdet/May]

Lovely Rosie! I've got a cousin of your Rosie living in my yard, a Pau Casals rose http://bit.ly/14MQ7GA and I'm really happy with the roses it produces, both the amount and its beauty. They're very similar to yours. Since winter is quite mild over here I've never done such winter preparation, and I've got it against a wall facing East, so it stays warm and cozy there all year long, but yes, I've read about the burying method and also the one Monica mentions.

[MelD]

Here in Switzerland it also seems to be the norm to wrap the top of the rose well with hay and/or bubble wrap and cover it in sacking (some are even decorative...!) and keep the graft protected by pine branches - the stem seems less sensitive. It looks like sacking lollipops in the garden!! Anyway, this method is popular and our climate isn't much different, I think (usually warmer in the summer than this year, I guess!!).
Lower roses and other sensitive plants are just usually covered in scattered pine branches, either from our own prunings or you can buy them cheapy in bags or bunches as Advent approaches.

[Lena]

@MelD: unless you live high up in the mountains, the winters in Switzerland are way shorter and not as cold as Sweden!

[Carlos]

Monica - That sounds like a plan. I have most of the materials, just ned some of that hay and I'm all set!

[Sandy (USA)]

That is so pretty and delicate looking. Is it high fragranced? BTW, your soil looks really nice and rich so I gather you have no problems at all with planting anything? We unfortunately have clay soil in our area. It's horrible! We had to do raised beds in order to grow anything. Do you have "Knock-Out Rose" bushes in Sweden? They're great and low maintenance. I have a white one that once the sun hits it, it turns a pale yellow, sun goes in, it goes back to white. They do get somewhat tall and wide. It's good for privacy. The roses are not as big as the one you just planted though. They're small roses. They came out with a "Double Knock-Out" rose bush too.

[Carlos]

Sandy - They are fragranced but not heavily. We actually also have clay soil in this area. Roses love that though so in this case I just dug the hole a bit larger than the pot Rosie came in and filled out the void around the pot soil with new soil just to get the roots a head start but normally I try and add as much garden compost as possible to make it less clay-y.
I haven't heard of the Knock-out roses but I googled and I think I know the type, they produce hips don' they?

[Sandy (USA)]

Benita - Yes they do produce hips. Although I love flowers and plants, I'm not a gardner at all so I had to google what you meant by hips. Is it not good that they produce this? One reason I went with the knock-outs is cause they're easy to maintain BUT definitely not as pretty the fragranced roses.

[jja]

Rosie is beautiful!

[Carlos]

Sandy - Those roses are beautiful too. The hips just helped me determine the type of rose it is :). My ex mother in law had/has(?) "hippy" roses around her property and they were originally planted for privacy reasons I believe. I think there were some in the original garden plans to our back garden too and some neighbors still have them as far as I can see :).

[the spectator]

Benita is that a clematis up on the fence?
I would like to grow a clematis over a small dairy in my back garden. However, I am concerned that the tendrils will damage the old mortar.

[Carlos]

The spectator - It is. Clematis need something to swing their tendrils around though, they don't have suckers like Ivy so they don't actually use the fence at all. I have some vertical wire that they can climb on, otherwise they'd just be flat on the ground.

[the spectator]

Thank you.

[Connie]

Did your potted bay laurel on the front porch survive your winter? I haven't seen any in local nurseries this summer, but if yours survived, I should try again.

[Carlos]

Connie - It didn't :(. It looked fine all through February but in March the leaves started turning brown. ICome April it looked really sad but I noticed new leaves forming so I picked off the brown ones but then it all shriveled down. I think I should just have left the brown leaves on longer and waited to remove them until the new ones where bigger. Impatience...

[Connie]

How sad to lose the laurel at the end of winter (although it wasn't the end here—we had more snow in May than any other month). It's such a pretty plant that I still want one if I can only figure out where it wants to live.