@Marlorena I remember your photos of Zepirine Dourhin and had them in mind when I read Harkness’ description.
I live in hope with dark/purple roses, so far I can tentatively conclude that they can do hot if the soil is rich and I water really deeply and frequently, e.g Munstead Wood - I water this rose more than any other. But they do fade rapidly/go magenta in heat. Stormy Weather, as a semi-double, is much more drought tolerant, so that chimes with your experience Marlorena. Two new purples, Ebb Tide and Purple Lodge, I got in the expectation they will only be purple at the start of the season. If I’m lucky. If cosset and chuck water at them. This is assuming they survive my conditions at all, of course.
Mountainous Northern Catalunya, Spain. Hot summers, cold winters.
This date last year I photographed the first fully open rose but I am a few weeks behind now.
Here's one I'm looking forward to, starting its second summer, Gallica officinalis, hanging out with some alliums, possibly aflatunense (poor record keeping). It has such joyful cerise flowers.
The sun came out so I went round and took pics of the roses. Good job I did - I found some greenfly on the leaves of a couple of them. Some have buds, all v. tiny at the moment but the roses look happy enough. This first one is the Banksaie which is starting to flower. It will be smothered soon!
Young Lycidas
Grace Valentine Heart The Princess Alexandria of Kent, below, has a geum with it, the flowers of which echo the emerging leaves of the rose. These three, and the following three (apart from Gertrude Jekyll), were chosen because this area of the garden has more shade. I tried to put them all into collages but only managed to save a couple from the website I used. GJ will hopefully start wanting to climb this year. Lady of Shalott - another geum whose flowers echo the rose's leaves.
@Nollie .. aah, but you water them.. your purple roses are doing well for you especially those Munsteads, but I know you water, or get lots of rain in Spring?... the point though of having a specific Dry Garden, which is sometimes called Mediterranean or Gravel Garden is that it's not watered... so it has to wait for whatever arrives from above..
This is where purple and multi petalled roses in particular, need attention in such conditions...yes they can be done individually but there's something about it that spoils the point of it..
I've just had to put the hose on my Rose Garden border, at the back - no rain here... wilting perennials etc... but I don't water that Dry Garden unless it's exceptionally dry for weeks on end, like in 2018..
I started doing it after reading Beth Chatto's Dry Garden book some years ago, and used a lot of plants she recommended.. these days I use my own preferences though as I have different tastes..
Lovely photo, @Victoria Sponge! I'm a little further north than you and everything is late to bloom here too, but the recent rain seems to have brought out all my buds!
I think this bud (one of 11) on Golden Showers will be first in my garden to open.
Cornelia has several clusters of little buds.
The Ancient Mariner has developed lots of lovely new red foliage and a few buds are showing through. I can't wait!
@Marlorena, I shall definitely be adding some berberis to my front roadside border, and the sedum is a beautiful colour. Is your buckeye belle a young plant, I know they can take a couple of years to settle, also planting too deeply can affect flowering. The crown only needs to be about an inch below the soil, you will know all this so please ignore!😂
Life's tragedy is that we get old too soon and wise too late.
..that Banksia on the wall. wow .. can't wait to see that..
@SeahorseFriend .. do you have a space in the ground for The A M? it'll be so much better, it's not a rose to keep in that pot for too long really.. Cornelia is an early bloomer, so watch out for that..
@Bright star yeah.. I planted it about level.. but I'll be honest, I got a poor specimen from a nursery - I won't say the name.. it was a measly plant barely alive... I got a Thalictrum from them too which took 2 years of careful nurture to stay alive.. I complained but didn't get a refund.. I'm fairly confident the Peony will flower next year, it's growing well now.. I should have got 'Bartzella' that one's a whopper for everybody it seems..
Nothing would survive without water here @Marlorena, even the rosemary won’t flower unless it gets some. We can get a fair bit of rain in Spring and sometimes summer, but very unpredictable. Dry winters usually. But the dark roses do seem to need more than most. I couldn’t imagine having a Mediterranean-type dry border like yours, the summer sun would just fry everything! It’s not a Med climate or soil tho.
Mountainous Northern Catalunya, Spain. Hot summers, cold winters.
Posts
Interesting.
I live in hope with dark/purple roses, so far I can tentatively conclude that they can do hot if the soil is rich and I water really deeply and frequently, e.g Munstead Wood - I water this rose more than any other. But they do fade rapidly/go magenta in heat. Stormy Weather, as a semi-double, is much more drought tolerant, so that chimes with your experience Marlorena. Two new purples, Ebb Tide and Purple Lodge, I got in the expectation they will only be purple at the start of the season. If I’m lucky. If cosset and chuck water at them. This is assuming they survive my conditions at all, of course.
Here's one I'm looking forward to, starting its second summer, Gallica officinalis, hanging out with some alliums, possibly aflatunense (poor record keeping). It has such joyful cerise flowers.
Young Lycidas
Grace
Valentine Heart
The Princess Alexandria of Kent, below, has a geum with it, the flowers of which echo the emerging leaves of the rose. These three, and the following three (apart from Gertrude Jekyll), were chosen because this area of the garden has more shade. I tried to put them all into collages but only managed to save a couple from the website I used. GJ will hopefully start wanting to climb this year.
Lady of Shalott - another geum whose flowers echo the rose's leaves.
.. aah, but you water them.. your purple roses are doing well for you especially those Munsteads, but I know you water, or get lots of rain in Spring?... the point though of having a specific Dry Garden, which is sometimes called Mediterranean or Gravel Garden is that it's not watered... so it has to wait for whatever arrives from above..
This is where purple and multi petalled roses in particular, need attention in such conditions...yes they can be done individually but there's something about it that spoils the point of it..
I've just had to put the hose on my Rose Garden border, at the back - no rain here... wilting perennials etc... but I don't water that Dry Garden unless it's exceptionally dry for weeks on end, like in 2018..
I started doing it after reading Beth Chatto's Dry Garden book some years ago, and used a lot of plants she recommended.. these days I use my own preferences though as I have different tastes..
Cornelia has several clusters of little buds.
The Ancient Mariner has developed lots of lovely new red foliage and a few buds are showing through. I can't wait!
@SeahorseFriend
.. do you have a space in the ground for The A M? it'll be so much better, it's not a rose to keep in that pot for too long really.. Cornelia is an early bloomer, so watch out for that..
@Bright star
yeah.. I planted it about level.. but I'll be honest, I got a poor specimen from a nursery - I won't say the name.. it was a measly plant barely alive... I got a Thalictrum from them too which took 2 years of careful nurture to stay alive.. I complained but didn't get a refund..
I'm fairly confident the Peony will flower next year, it's growing well now.. I should have got 'Bartzella' that one's a whopper for everybody it seems..