Daylilies & Roses

July is a colorless month in our roses-only garden. The roses have finished their June bloom and the spent flowers have been deadheaded. However, we have daylilies and other companion plants in our other, sustainable rose garden and found that July in this garden can be as colorful, if not more colorful, as it was in June.

Although our roses are a few weeks away from the flush of their second bloom cycle in August, many repeat blooming roses continue to produce flowers, although not in great numbers. As I documented the progress of our sustainable rose garden, I was struck by how colorful the garden was with the daylilies taking center stage and our roses providing an interesting palette of texture, shape and colors in the background.

After the daylilies have gone by, we will have to make some changes. Because this garden receives over 8 hours of daily sunlight, the daylilies have become giants and are crowding out the “stars” of the garden – our roses. The same daylilies growing in our shady, backyard garden are half the size.

Some daylilies will have to go so we can provide a healthy environment for the disease resistant roses we’ve chosen with such care. In a rose garden that receives no chemical spray, it’s important to provide a lot of air circulation around and within each rose bush. Our roses are placed far enough apart to allow for good circulation, but the problem is that the daylilies have invaded their space!

We will remove some varieties and split others, passing them on to friends. I think we’ll add other companion plants to replace the daylilies we remove. I loved the blue alliums we saw in the Montreal Botanical Rose Garden and also the delphiniums and clematis at the rose garden at Blithewold. These will make less intrusive companions to the roses, lavender, sedum, and Mike’s tomato plant that already reside in the garden.

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Rideau Garden

Rideau Hall Guide

 On our second day in Ottawa, Angie and I headed out to the Canadian Heritage Garden at Rideau Hall, an easy drive from our hotel and located not far from Parliament Hill. Rideau Hall is the Canadian governor-general’s official residence and is surrounded by bucolic grounds – trees, meandering paths, rolling lawns and the Canadian Heritage Rose Garden – all open to the public.

This rose garden was inaugurated in June, 2000 and implemented Alvin Regehr’s bold design “that uses roses to symbolize Canadian ancestral groups and historical events.” Claire Laberge, our friend from the Montréal Botanical Garden,  due to her growing national reputation, had been invited to select the rose varieties for this national garden. Her challenge was to select as many native Canadian varieties as possible as well as roses that illustrated the many immigrant contributions that flavor Canadian society.

The morning was cool and cloudy and we found a free parking space on the street in front of the entrance gate and considered ourselves lucky. As we walked toward the gate, it started to rain. Lucky us.

We were warmly greeted at the entrance by a cheerful guide undaunted by the weather dressed in a bright red blazer and standing her post under a large blue umbrella. The rose garden was just down the path, can’t miss it, she said, and off we went with our cameras tucked under our jackets to keep them dry.

The garden, mostly shrub and old garden roses, had peaked two weeks prior to our visit, around June 15, and clearly had gone-by when we arrived. This is the same time our rose gardens had peaked over 450 miles south and east in much warmer USDA zone 6b. I saw no obvious micro-climate reason to justify this. I will ponder this seeming anomaly.

Wrought Iron Arbors & Obilisks

Regardless, the footprint and hardscape were impressive. Wrought iron arbors and obelisks gave the garden the vertical element necessary to every successful rose garden. The paths were pea stone gravel which I liked very much – the soft crunch of each step adding pleasing audio to the visual.

Sunken Bed of Nearly Wild

Interestingly, the beds were sunken, not raised, and were lined with granite blocks. In lieu of traditional plant markers, the names of every variety were engraved in the granite blocks, literally carved in stone. I wondered how they will change anything. Three young gardeners were busy primping and grooming the garden presumably for the visit of William and Kate two days hence.

Engraved Granite

Angie in the Rain

By now the rain was pouring and we hustled back to the main gate and gift shop. The steadfast guide was helping a bus-load of visitors, slipping easily from English to French and back again. (We see this fluent bi-lingualism everywhere we’ve gone in eastern Canada both in French Quebec and English Ontario. I envy this.)  I chatted with the guide, quizzing her on Canadian history and found myself out-gunned. She was ready for any questions I had … a capable and delightful young woman.

We decided that a rainy day was a lousy time to walk through gardens but a great time to walk through a museum.  We headed over to the National Gallery of Canada, a short distance away, to catch the Caravaggio exhibit.

Caravaggio, Rembrandt, Rubens, Monet, Cezanne, Van Gogh, O’Keefe and Pollock – a very decent way to spend a rainy afternoon.

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Roses Take Us to New Places

Parliament Hill

While all our trips are generally rose-related, we also enjoy the historical and cultural aspects of new destinations. Driving into Ottawa, we were greeted by the impressive Parliament Hill – the historic and architectural Mecca of Canada’s seat of government.

Parliament Hill, only two blocks from our hotel, is comprised of a building called The Centre Block, a massive building where the Senate and House of Commons conduct the business of Canada. Flanked on the east and west of The Centre Block (aptly named The East Block and West Block) are similarly designed buildings that house government offices.

Center Block

We happened to be in Ottawa a few days before Prince William and his new bride Kate were to arrive, so the activity around Parliament Hill was busier than usual. We watched as workmen prepared for the Royals’ arrival and even got to preview the singing of the Canadian National Anthem.

After spending the morning at the Canadian Heritage Rose Garden, (pictures and blog to come later) next on our list was the National Gallery of Canada where a Caravaggio Exhibit was on display. This exhibit was a real treat for us as well the rest of the museum which included works by Cezanne, Degas, Monet, Picasso and Rembrandt. We also admired a Georgia O’Keefe and I was happy to find several Jackson Pollock works of art. The museum was an ultra modern building – a great contrast to the architecture of the buildings we so admired on Parliament Hill. It also boasted a modern “spider” sculpture.

Spider Outside National Gallery

If you visit Ottawa, don’t miss the Byward Market, a shopping area dating back to the 1830’s with shops and restaurants too numerous to count. After dinner on our last night in Ottawa we were even lucky enough to see part of a performance by a street entertainer who, while balancing on a rolling platform perched on a table, managed to squeeze his body through the opening of a tennis racquet frame! The crowd loved him and so did we. Wish I had my camera with me.

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River of Roses

La Roseraie at the Montreal Botanical Garden

Angie and I visited La Roseraie, the rose garden in the Montreal Botanical Garden, while in Montreal in late June on the second leg of our 8-day trip to Canada.   We met once again with our friend, rose garden director Claire Laberge, who took us around the garden pointing out the changes since our last visit in 2007.

The roseraie, one of the largest public rose gardens in North America, occupies almost 15 acres with over 10,000 roses representing 900 varieties of modern, old garden, and species roses. It has a distinct European garden feel that starts with the crouching lion guarding the entrance. This 4000 lb. bronze sculpture, a gift from the city of Lyon, makes a strong visual impression as you enter the garden and sets the tone for the rest of the visit.

Winding Path through the Garden

Beyond the lion is the first of several large wrought iron arbors. This arbor signals the entrance into the ornamental section, the first of two major areas. This first section, inspired by the nearby St. Lawrence River, is laid out as a “river of roses” with mass plantings of modern roses flowing around islands of trees and shrubs, a symbolic interpretation of Canadian scenery. Popular modern roses – hybrid teas, grandifloras, floribundas, and climbers – are planted in elegant beds along a series of winding paths.

Kordes Test Roses

The second section is where the historical collections of shrub roses, old garden roses and species roses are planted. A very comprehensive collection of modern shrub roses include the work of Canadian and American hybridizers as well as David Austin, Meilland, and Poulsen. Claire showed us a new test bed of very attractive Kordes shrub roses that were planted last year and tolerated the Montreal winter with no casualties.

All gardens change with time; some changes are subtle. Since the MBG decided to discontinue the use of chemical pesticides 10 years ago, we noticed nice but disease-prone varieties have been gradually replaced with more sustainable roses.

Companion Plants

Other changes are more apparent. Claire told us that they had started to under-plant most of the beds in the old garden rose section with lavender, hyssop, and alliums several years ago. These companion plants serve as a living mulch, controlling weeds, attracting beneficial insects, and bringing the color blue into each bed. The lavender looked especially good and in the mid-day sun reminded us of impressionist paintings. We noted the plants and plan on using the same idea at home.

Claire left us at noon and we took a lunch break before retuning to the garden to take photos. It was the warmest day yet we had on the trip and the sun felt good. But the bright afternoon sun made for harsh lighting for garden photography – a fact we would remember next time.

Bonsai

On a side note, we walked over to the Japanese gardens and saw some outstanding Bonsais, some over 250 years old. The walls in this garden had unique moon gates that I really liked.

I’ve lost count of the number of times we have been to this superb rose garden and each time we enjoy it all over again. As we ate ice cream before we left, we were planning on the next leg of our trip. Off to Ottawa the next morning to Parliament Hill, Rideau Hall, Byward Market and the excellent National Gallery of Canada.

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Trip to Montreal

 

 

We had planned on traveling to Canada at the end of June to visit several rose gardens in Montreal and Ottawa. When my sister-in-law told us she’d be getting married the last Saturday in June, the timing was perfect. We would spend the weekend in Burlington, Vermont and then travel the few hours to Montreal, arriving mid-afternoon.

Rugosa Roses at Mont-Royal

After checking into our Montreal hotel, we made the 10 minute ride to Mont-Royal Park. From the top of Mont-Royal you can look down on the entire city of Montreal. On other trips we visited Mont-Royal at night and saw the lights of the city. During the day the view was just as impressive. While standing at the lookout area, the first thing we noticed was the rugosa roses. Of course I took pictures of them.

Olympic Tower

The outlook at the top of Mont-Royal gave us an unobstructed view of the city and in the distance was the distinctive structure of the Montreal Tower at Olympic Park, the site of the 1976 Olympics. Now a part of the city skyline, the Montreal Tower is a popular tourist attraction. It is also across the street from the Montreal Botanical Garden, home to the Rose Garden. We were looking forward to meeting our friend Claire Laberge, the Director of La Roseraie, at the garden on Monday and having her give us a tour or the garden and bringing us up to date on changes she made.

After we returned to our hotel, we spent the rest of the evening walking along rue Ste.-Catherine, the heart of the downtown shopping district. It was incredibly busy and the sidewalks were crowded with shoppers and tourists going to the many stores and restaurants in the area. We joined them, found the restaurant suggested by our hotel’s concierge, and enjoyed our first night in Montreal.

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Wedding Roses

My sister Jean got married last week. The wedding took place on a big cruise boat on Lake Champlain in Vermont. The whole family was there…my brother and my four other sisters along with their families, it was a good time.

Jean’s wedding dress was pale peach and she had asked us if we could bring roses from our garden for her bridal bouquet. Could we match roses to the wedding dress? Hmmm, I thought, a tall order, but maybe. We told her that the last weekend in June is the very end of our June bloom cycle and we didn’t know what would be left in the garden. Ok, said she, I’ll work with whatever you bring.

Since the wedding was the first leg of an eight day motor trip through Canada, I planned on cutting Thursday evening and again early Friday morning before we left on the 6-hour drive to Burlington. However, the rains arrived on Thursday afternoon and it poured all night. Murphy’s Law.

No matter…neither rain nor snow nor sleet, nor dark of night kept this noble rosarian from cutting all the stems he could. What I thought would be very slim pickins turned out to be three vases full of a very eclectic mix of colors, sizes, and shapes…all fresh and very well hydrated.

Jean's Bridal Bouquet

There were sprays of Hot Cocoa, White Cap, New Dawn, Julia Child, Centennial, Easy Does It, Golden Arctic, Rhode Island Red, Tuscan Sun, Pearl, Teneke, and Passionate Kisses. I shook the water out of the blooms like I’d shake a can of ready-whip and packed them snuggly in vases of fresh water then tucked them into a nest that Angie created out of towels on the floor of the back seat. Off we went.

Jean delivered the roses to the florist the next morning and we didn’t see them again until the bride walked down the aisle that night. I have to admit that even I, who knew of the perils that the roses went through, was impressed with the bouquet.

Beautiful bride, beautiful roses.

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Blithewold Roses

Moon Gate

Blithewold Mansion in Bristol, RI invited Angie and me to present an evening program on roses a few weeks ago. Julie Murphy, the program coordinator, met us at the gate leading into the rose garden where our Roses for New England program began with a walk through the garden.

We found the Blithewold Rose Garden in tiptop shape with the June bloom well underway. The roses were lush due to boat-loads of rain and the recently installed irrigation system. The foliage was immaculate, not a speck of disease, and that’s always a sign of good rose garden management. The choice of companion plants made sense, too, with tall spikes of blooming delphiniums and lavender dramatically bringing the color blue into the garden (The genus rosa has just about every color except blue.)

However, we missed the Chestnut Rose in bloom as it had already gone by and won’t bloom again until next year. This enormous rosa roxburghii, dating back to the early 1900s, dominates an entire corner of this intimate and elegant garden room.

Mike in Blithewold Rose Garden

The stroll through the garden led to an impromptu discussion and demonstration on pruning next to the beautiful and stylish moon gate built into the ancient stone wall. The entire group was curious about pruning and most felt it was a puzzling ritual until I explained how simple it could be. It was the “Eureka” moment of the evening, setting the tone for the rest of the program which had moved to a parlour room inside the mansion.

My programs are generally Power Point, but during the summer months when our gardens are in bloom, I prefer to use fresh cut roses to support my lectures instead of slides. I pass them around during the program so everyone can see, feel and smell each flower. The audience really enjoys this, especially at the end of the program when each rose goes home with someone.

The event ended with a book signing and additional questions. Since our primary goal with each program is to convince home gardeners that growing roses is easy and fun once they learn a few basic steps, we had a good night.

Delphiniums & Roses

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