GardenDesignOnline

4th of July Rose

I think this rose is supposed to look like 4th of July fireworks.  Red and white striped is certainly appropriate, and it's a vigorous climber with canes of 12 to 14 feet that would stand out in any garden.  A 1999 All-America Rose Selection, 'Fourth of July' was the first climber to make the AARS award in more than 20 years.  Judge John Mattia called 'Fourth of July' "the best garden rose introduced in the last decade," and he said it's "an eye-catcher" in all parts of the country.  Fragrant as well, and it re-blooms after the first flush.  This firecracker was developed by Weeks Roses.

(photo: Gene Sasse (c) courtesy of Weeks Roses)

Winning 2010 Rose

Easy Does It Rose

Weeks Roses has just announced that it's new Easy does It Rose (cv. HARpageant), has just been selected by All America Rose Selections (AARS) as the winning rose for 2010.

It's a floribunda, medium height and bushy, with colors that range from mango to peach to apricot.  It has a mild fruity fragrance and its blossoms, with a petal count of 25 to 30, are medium-large, double and ruffled.

Weeks sent me one of these roses earlier this year, and so far, I can report that it lives up to its disease-resistant promise, too.  No sign of black spot in our hot and humid DC climate, at least not yet, and the dark green foliage contrasts beautifully with the blooms.

And the flower color is simply gorgeous.  The parentage of this rose is (Queen Charlotte x Della Balfour) x Baby Love.  Hybridizer is Harkness New Roses, 2010.

It's the only AARS winner for next year, and definitely a winner in my own garden.

(photos: click to enlarge; top ©Gene Sasse, Weeks Roses; bottom ©Jane Berger)

Memorial Day Rose

HAPPY MEMORIAL DAY

And what better way to celebrate than with a Memorial Day  Rose? This orchid pink hybrid tea was an All-America Rose Selections  winner in 2004. One bloom is said to be enough to fill an entire room with its strong damask scent.  It's a medium-tall, upright shrub, about five feet tall and four feet wide. Long stems, low thorns, and clear green leaves make it a good candidate for the cutting garden.  The blooms are about five inches in diameter, with a petal count of 50-plus.

In addition, it's said to have very good disease resistance and it's also quite heat-tolerant.

This rose was developed by Tom Carruth of Weeks Roses of Upland, CA. Memorial Day is a cross between Blueberry Hill and New Zealand, and it was Carruth's fifth AARS winner.

You should be able to buy the rose at most garden centers or from mail-order sources.  If not, you can check Weeks website by clicking on the link above to find a nursery that carries it. 

(photo: Gene Sasse (c) 2007 courtesy Weeks Roses)

Seeding Around & Other Garden Miracles

Many years ago, I read a garden column in the Financial Times by classical scholar and garden writer Robin Lane Fox, and I never forgot it. He wrote that there's nothing that beats a mass planting of white Dame's Rocket (Hesperis matronalis) in the evening, because the white is so pure it lights up the entire border.

I searched and searched for the white version of Dame's Rocket, and finally found seed at Thompson & Morgan, a British company that has a branch in the US.   It's now happily ensconced in one of my borders next to the peonies, and I love the fact that it seeds around -- popping up here and there around the deutzia, the lilacs, the witch hazel and other plantings. 
I've often read that it can be invasive, but in my garden it stays put in that one border, and it's easy to pull out if too many appear in the spring.  I'd hesitate to plant it if I lived in an un-fenced garden near an open area or a park, but in my urban-suburban garden, it's one of my favorite plants.

NYPD 9-11 Rose

A new rose from Bailey Nurseries, named 'The Finest'™ (Rosa 'BAlnest') is the latest selection for the "Remember Me" rose gardens that are to be created in memory of those lost in the 9-11 terrorist attacks in 2001. 

This hybrid tea honors the NYPD's 23 members who died in New York City while trying to save others on 9-11.

The new rose is ever-blooming, with full, pure white flowers and a spicy fragrance.  It's grown on its own roots (a very desirable trait), reaches a height of about 3-4 feet, and is hardy to zone 5.  It's also said to have disease-resistant foliage. It was hybridized by Bailey's Ping Lim.

The rose is available this spring at retail garden centers, and a donation from the sale of each one goes to the "Remember Me" rose gardens in New York City, Washington DC and Shanksville, Pennsylvania. So far, roses selected for the gardens have been tested, but final sites for the gardens have not yet been chosen.

National Arboretum III - Early Spring

Unless you're into crowds and cherry trees, there's no better place to get a first look at spring than DC's US National Arboretum. And you have to be there just at the right time.  The Cornus mas (Cornelian Cherry), shown here, is one of the lovliest harbingers of warmer months to come, but the blooms are quite fleeting. It's not particularly ornamental in summer, but the small tree has a nice, rounded shape, and it's attractive, peeling bark is showy in winter. In July, it even has small, cherry-red drupes that some gardners prize for syrups and preserves.  Plant this 25 x 20 foot tree against a dark green hedge or a dark fence where the yellow flowers will stand out in spring.  As a garden focal point, it's one of the best.

I don't know why so many early flowering trees and shrubs have yellow flowers (Mahonia bealei, Jasminum nudiflorum, Hamamelis x intermedia 'Arnold Promise' & other cultivars), but another of my favorites is Corylopsis (Winterhazel), which is not used in gardens nearly often enough.  This one is Corylopsis 'Winterthur,' a cross between C. spicata and C. pauciflora, which was found in the gardens at Winterthur in Delaware, where it had hybridized naturally. It gets about six feet high and twice as wide, and the flowers are fragrant. Hardy to about zone 5. Again, it looks simply great against a dark background.

The Arboretum's magnolia collection is a wondrous sight in spring, and it is well worth studying.  Aside from all the Little Girl cultivars, there are huge specimens that you are unlikely to see in many other gardens. 'Galaxy' has lovely pink flowers and ascending branches, and there are huge specimens that resulted from scientists' attempts to cross the Southern Magnolia with the Sweetbay ... something you won't see anywhere else.  The magnolias are housed with the holly collection, so in summer there are great spires of green and in winter through early spring, bright splashes composed of thousands of red berries.

Click on images to enlarge

(images ©Jane Berger)

Roses: Beyond Knockout

A grand rose experiment started a couple of years ago at the US Botanic Garden ... and although it's still going on, some of the positive results are now in.  The rule at this garden is no chemicals ... and if the rose doesn't perform well, it's simply tossed.  The norm in Washington DC summers is hot and humid .. and more hot and humid -- probably the very worst climate for roses.

When 'Knockout' roses came along, they were definitely an answer because they survive the climate, bloom from spring until frost, and are not disfigured by black spot.  The problem with 'Knockout' is that it's almost all you see in a lot of mid Atlantic gardens these days, and with no fragrance to mention, it, well, just doesn't stand up in the beauty department.

I went to a heartening lecture a couple of weeks ago by USBG Executive Director Holly Shimizu, and the news is that there are dozens of roses that are doing perfectly well in the summer weather.  One of them is 'Pretty Lady,' shown above.  Also doing well are a lot of the David Austin Roses, including 'Graham Thomas' and 'Heritage.' 

According to Shimizu, several miniatures are doing just fine, and one of the most floriferous is 'Gourmet Popcorn," at left. Some of the other staff favorites include the rugosa 'Purple Pavement' and the polyantha 'Marie Pavie.'

Unfortunately, the official flower of the District of Columbia -- 'American Beauty' -- has been removed from the garden because it simply didn't stand up. (And you can read the history of 'American Beauty' in the New York Times, here.) The floribunda 'Gold Magic' suffered total defoliation, although it kept its flowers, and the much-touted 'Just Joey' was also removed because of disease problems.

The next time you're in DC, it's well worth a visit to the Rose Garden (located in the National Garden adjacent to the USBG conservatory). You'll be able to write down the names of the roses that are doing well ... and if they are doing well in DC, they'll surely do fine anywhere in the country.  And FYI, USBG does use all-organic products on their roses, which they get from the Organica Company  in Norristown, PA:  PGA Plus, Agroroots, Plant booster, and K+ Neem Insecticide, which is made from potassium salts and fatty acids from cold, pressed Neem Oil.

(images: top two © Gene Sasse courtesy Weeks Roses; bottom: © Jane Berger)

click on images to enlarge 

Trees for President's Day

Happy President's Day

Well, the credit goes to President Andrew Jackson... he planted this southern magnolia on the White House grounds back in 1828, and every other president since then has followed his lead, planting a tree of their own choice.

And you can own a piece of White House or presidential history and support the historic trees program of American Forests, too.

The non-profit organization has a historic tree nursery, and all trees they offer for sale are direct descendants of trees associated with presidents, other famous people or famous events in American history.

So, for this president's day, you could order the Jackson White House magnolia, or other trees associated with George Washington, Franklin D. Roosevelt, Jimmy Carter, Dwight D. Eisenhower, Ulysses S. Grant, Abraham Lincoln or James Madison.  There's a tree to fit almost anyone's political persuasion.  Historic Tree Nursery here, and it's for a good cause, too.

Happy Valentine's Day

                                         O, my luve's like a red, red rose,
That's newly sprung in June.
O, my Luve's like a melodie,
That's sweetly played in tune...
               Robert Burns

And this rose is surely what the poet had in mind.

"Valentine's Day," new from Weeks Roses in 2006,
is a climbing mini-flora with canes 6-10 feet high, medium-size, deep red velvet blooms,  and very dark green leaves.

It's a repeat bloomer which flowers the first year on new and old wood.  Said to be ideal for fences, balconies (think Juliet) or trellises, and of course, valentines.

(Photo by Gene Sasse © courtesy of Weeks Roses)

Hinkley Plants Redux

OK, I admit it ... I still re-read some of my old Heronswood catalogues because well, there was simply nothing else like them.  Things have never been the same since Dan Hinkley, who started Heronswood, sold the nursery in Kingston, WA back in 2000.  The buyer, Burpee, eventually closed it and moved the catalogue operations to Pennsylvania.(Read that sad story here).

But now, Hinkley -- horticulturist, author, and one of this era's great plant explorers -- is sort of back in business in a new partnership with Monrovia. This summer, Monrovia releases the first seven plants in its new Dan Hinkley collection, including this spectacular fuchsia -- Fuchsia genii 'Aurea' -- which is not only frost-hardy (Zone 7-9), but has chartreuse-colored foliage on red stems!  and deep reddish-purple flowers.

Monrovia is working with Hinkley to bring his new discoveries into production and get them out to the public.  The director of the nursery's New Plants Team, Nicholas Staddon said Monrovia's nursery in Oregon is "teeming with row upon row of the 250 new cultivars we are trialing ... each a Dan Hinkley discovery."

So ... we all have something to look forward to, as Hinkley continues his travels abroad in search of exciting new cultivars.

In the new collection, there are four fuschias, an Abutilon that will tolerate frost, as well as Sichuan Jade Solomon's Seal (Disporopsis pernyi 'Sichuan Jade') that is winter-hardy with dark green leaves and white flowers on 15-inch arching shoots. (zone 7-9)

I LOVE the ground-cover Red-leafed Mukdenia (Mukdenia rosii 'Crimson Fans'), at left.  Zones 4-9, it has fan-shaped leaves that emerge bright green and fade to crimson and white bell-shaped flowers in summer. It's a slow-growing clumper that will reach a height of around 12 inches.  I planted another mukdenia in my own garden a couple of years ago, and it's definitely a winner.

Look for the following other plants in your local nursery this summer, or check the Monrovia website to find out where you can get them.

Fuchsia 'Hawkshead'
Fuchsia magellanica 'Windcliff Flurry'
Fuchsia excorticata 'Kiwi Sheen'
Abutilon x hybridum 'Cascade Dawn'

More on Monrovia-Hinkley partnership here.

Hinkley's own website here.