lms wrote:
In article ,
says...
So how are your larkspur?
season befo last they practically vanished, don't have a clue why.
Yeah, strangest thing is that mine all but vanished at the same time.
last
year there were a few that came up late and I've seen a handful in the
pots with the pecan trees I dug up for the vet. of all places.
I've got a few here and there and am seeing to it that they spread
around again. I once thought that they were going to colonize the whole
yard, but I'll leave that to the yellow columbine and that despicable
Mexican primrose. I can't believe that J&P used to SELL that stuff.
something must have hosed the winter germination process,
I agree with this theory, especially since mine did the same.
either that or there's some
kinda bug. but I don't much go for that one. in any case I'm ragged about
it.
Spread the stalks around, and stomp on them.
I think they'll come back.
[Cass wrote}
which taught me a thing or two about pruning this year. I BR'd mine to
redecorate, and I'll be damned if it doesn't look soooo much better
after the vicious attack of cutting all the canes back to about a foot.
have a new neighbor in the north house that's been vacant and neglected for
a couple years-- Twyla. she be out there hackin and slashin and rototillin,
which is good, but one morning a couple weeks ago I drive by and she's
hacked all the remaining pink roses of her road-lining hedge to a foot or less,
almost fell outa the truck.
I know she meant well.
Well hang on, you might be surprised at the result. Cass has this urban
renewal thing happening and I'm playing with the idea. You know how
some people live where it's reeely cold and their plants die back every
year? The strength is in the roots.
pink rose hedge, pink rose hedge, wtf kinda pink
rose hedge is it???? it's the most common damn name, it's patetic I can't
remember it.
patetic is the word for it alright.
anyways, those remaining roses have survived every conceivable
type of abuse over the past dozen years, with no supplemental water whatsoever,
and I'd always marvelled at their ability to keep inching up to about 4', some
of them. I'm telling you it was a shock I'm still not over.
I'm betting the hedge will be a blooming wonder this year, and nearly as
tall as it was.
Simplicity, there you go.
Thanks, I'll go order some rightaway.
Mount Hood, Saint Patrick, Sheila's Perfume - all planted in a fairly
shady spot so gangly as all get out. I felt that the taller, the better
to reach the sun, but it had to be done. Now I wait. Grow, GROW
dammit.
yesterday I was spacing on the evolution of things, the pre-pecan glory of this
one area? Have a few of those taller, the better to reach the sun units
there. If I hacked em back, it would be sayonara, I know it.
With the one or two cane wonders, yeah I figure that it would be the
last step toward their demise. My first Queen Elizabeth is still alive;
I seriously don't know why. JFK and Lady X already lost their battles
with the trees and croaked. First Prize got eaten by a juniper.
If anybody has anything to say about the reverse gravity they suffer from,
I can tell them plenty, or maybe even shut UP. I'm content enough with their
continued but measured output and am at peace with their inevitable fate.
Harry, Shreveport, Calico, Caramel Creme, Eclipse, Royal William, and two most
amazing minis, Scarlet Moss and Jean Kenneally
Oooh, you're not going to let Scarlet Moss die are ya?
--gosh I could tell anyone they
could have been so lucky as to have watched these roses for fifteen years.
I know the word 'cuttings' but have never been so inclined.
And you with the greenhouse. I'm shocked. I need a mist bed if I'm
ever going to get cuttings to survive in this desert.
So, what will I hack today?
ok now Dainty Bess seems to really want to build size. And the Betty
Prior next to it is a monster. I never can get to pruning it all - 5 to
6 feet tall and wider. I just couldn't hack Bessie, looked so healthy.
I got another Remington electric, the biggest I can hold in one hand,
how about a climbing harness?
You keeping your chipper busy? I got everything sharpened this spring,
and boy what a difference.
haven't fired it up lately, burned the last bunch. heheh.
it too much rattles the peace of the valley, rings in my ear for a week.
Uh, you do have hearing protection, right? I'll stick my arm in the
chute, but I will no longer run the chipper without stuff over my ears.
I even sent away for the higher decibel jobbies.
another Paul McCartney, Barbara Streisand, Amalia, some kinda
'Autumn' gd climber, and Fire Meidelland. That oughta do me.
no way. There are so many more roses you need, I am positive.
I still have 7 holes to dig. yesterday it was my chevy, today it's the ford.
yeah, sure. I need mo roses gouging me every place I walk.
heh Doesn't White Dog do mouth pruning?
Huey as I come
in, Wedded Bliss Weeded Bliss as I cross the ditch and Mme. Caroline on further
out,
What kind of bloom period do you get with the Mme?
that just about covers it. I can't hack their best canes,
Yeah, I hear that. Graham Thomas had a stout main cane split down the
middle by the extreme winds in December. Part of the growth was held
tightly, laced into other branches, with the wind taking the rest in the
opposite direction. Right clean down the middle, a twelve inch split.
I couldn't bring myself to remove the half that still looks perfectly
healthy, so I'm leaving it til after the spring bloom. I got GT really
cleaned out for the first time in years. Started on number two today.
so I just let
them have their way with me-- I just don't need much more of the same.
It's at times like these that I appreciate the HTs. They are so simple
to prune.
Whack, whack, whack, get outta here.
If
some rose decides to check out--which will happen--then I'll make some
determination. 
But ordering season is almost OVER.
Regina
Slow Ride. Take it Ea sy.
m ]\]
Regina