Shop Products
Houzz Logo Print
roselee_gw

Jumping the gun ...

At the risk of boring you I'm jumping the gun on posting garden pictures. But what's a person to do on a rainy day other than take pictures?

Old Blush is reliably the first to burst into full bloom. It's shown here with a back drop of Mountain Laurel ...

{{gwi:208174}}

Other roses have followed close behind. This is a found rose with a mouthful of a name, 'St. Helena Cemetery Very Double Hybrid Tea'. It's very fragrant ...

{{gwi:208176}}

Other very fragrant roses are Abraham Darby ...

And Ambridge Rose ....

Coral Honeysuckle started blooming weeks ago ...

As well as pretty flowers I appreciate what some might call "ugly' and/or 'weird' plants (hush Kathy! ;-) which might include the succulent hanging basket that put on a lot more foliage in the green house this winter ...

As well as the Mucho macho manfreda sheltering a diminutive friend, Flea bane daisy ....

I went a little crazy planting 13 Color guard yuccas all over the yard in pots and in the ground. It's colorful, drought and sun tolerant, hardy to -30 degrees and on Lowes sale rack. Who could ask for more? :-)

We'll see how it does in these pots between yellow roses and yellow Four nerve daisies ...

The Larkspurs and Columbines are just getting started so that's it for now folks. I would dearly love to see what's going on in the rest of y'alls yards. (It's okay to talk 'Texas' on the Texas Forum, right? :-)

Comments (19)

  • Vulture61
    12 years ago

    Your pictures are never boring, Roselee. Keep them coming!!

    Omar

  • carrie751
    12 years ago

    That first pic is drop dead gorgeous, roselee......and I am suffering zone envy as well as garden envy. Your garden is so beautiful .... thanks for sharing.

  • roselee z8b S.W. Texas
    Original Author
    12 years ago

    Thank you Omar and Carrie. The first picture is of my next door neighbors' yard, but I planted both the rose and the Mountain laurel so I kinda' of consider it part of my yard. My neighbors are soooo good to give me free reign in letting me plant over the fence.

    Omar, I haven't forgotten about the Velvet pod mimosa seeds I said I'd send.

  • carrie751
    12 years ago

    How old is the mountain laurel tree, roselee??

  • bossjim1
    12 years ago

    Mother Nature may have 'Jumped the Gun' this year but it's never too early to see pictures of your garden. That St. Helena C.V.D.H.T. is a real beauty! Please post some more.
    Jim

  • Vulture61
    12 years ago

    Carrie, mountain laurels grow slowly. That one should be at least 10-15 yr old, uh, Roselee?

    Omar

  • carrie751
    12 years ago

    I know they do, Omar, that was why I wondered how old that one is so I would know whether to try to grow one again. That is one of the few things I have had trouble growing.......perhaps because my property is low, and they get too much water.........just a theory.

  • Vulture61
    12 years ago

    We have one growing in our school garden. It's about 12' but is not as compact as the one on Roselee's picture. It's 10 yr old. That's why I think Roselee's is even older.

    You are probably right on your theory. They do not like too much water.

    Omar

  • rcnaylor
    12 years ago

    Those are wonderful, roselee. Thanks!

  • roselee z8b S.W. Texas
    Original Author
    12 years ago

    That Texas Mountain laurel was planted about 12 years ago from a gallon pot. They do well in this alkaline soil, but it seems they are tolerant of other soils as well.

    The one in my front yard behind the hanging basket is growing in pure caliche. When the hole was dug and I saw nothing but that white stuff come out I despaired of it ever growing, but when the Mountain laurel was taken out of the pot to plant I saw that its root ball was growing in nothing but caliche too showing it had been dug in the wild. I don't know how it makes it, but it does. I guess it manages by being a legume and making its own nitrogen.

    You're right Jim -- this year spring jumped the gun for sure.

    By the way, the variety name of the manfreda above is 'Macho Mocha'. Since it is so large for a manfreda I think of it as being 'Mucho Macho' ... LOL! Maybe someday I might get the name down right :-)

  • chickadee_42us
    12 years ago

    Those are spectacular photo's filled with color. I really like the Mountain Laurel =

  • piksi_hk
    12 years ago

    the Mt. Laurel and Old Blush together, so striking!

  • Bryan Scott
    12 years ago

    Oh my gosh- what beautiful roses and Mountain Laurel! I just purchased two 1gal mountain laurels last weekend and will be putting them into the ground soon. I inherited rose bushes (not sure which kind) that came with the purchase of our house, but they are not in bloom yet. Do you mind sharing what you do to your roses (feeding, pruning timing, ect.)?

  • roselee z8b S.W. Texas
    Original Author
    12 years ago

    Hi Beacivil! Nice name :-) I'd be glad to share a few notes about rose care. Basically roses like a lot of food and water if they are to bloom well. Privately owned nurseries carry organic fertilizers such as 'Roseglo' which will have directions on the package.

    Roses don't care whether they are pruned or not, but we prune them to keep the size in bounds and in the case of hybrid tea roses so they'll have larger blooms. In this part of the country we prune around mid Feb.. If your roses are huge you can still prune them back a third or so just to shape them and keep them from hanging over sidewalks and such, but it may delay blooming a few weeks.

    If your roses are hybrid teas they may get a foliage disease called black spot. There isn't much you can do about it except spray anti fungal chemicals which many of us don't want to do we we've switched to growing shrub and old tea and China roses which are generally more resistant to leaf problems. So that's the basics.

    If you want some more info you can email me from 'My Page' and/or check out the Antique Rose Forum. Lots of information is there.

    Thanks for looking at the pictures and for your comments. Welcome to the Texas Forums and good luck with your garden!

  • rock_oak_deer
    12 years ago

    Beautiful garden pics, your roses are looking amazing now.

  • PKponder TX Z7B
    12 years ago

    The roses and mountain laurel are so pretty together! I love those color guard yuccas. Nice golden color! They do look lovely with the 4 nerve and flea bane daisies.

  • roselee z8b S.W. Texas
    Original Author
    12 years ago

    Thanks for looking Pam and Shirley, and for your comments. The roses, although not in full flush yet, have NEVER looked better. Due to the cool moist atmosphere and rain the individual roses are larger than I've ever seen them here. They are almost as large as the roses I saw when we visited rose gardens in Oregon several years ago.

  • ruthz
    12 years ago

    roselee, I love looking at all your pictures especially the roses.
    What is the unusual looking plant in the photo with the single Color guard yucca?

  • roselee z8b S.W. Texas
    Original Author
    12 years ago

    Hi Ruthz! Thanks for looking. The plant is a trifoliate orange tree 'Flying Dragon'. It is very cold hardy variety that is used at a root stock for commercial orange groves. This drarf form is grown as an ornamental. It produces lots of pretty little very sour, seedy oranges in the fall.