Francois Juranville’s new do

There was no cutting involved, just re-styling with a grabber from an 8-foot ladder. And though I scared myself a few times, this time I didn't fall off. I think the same people who shouldn't handle sharp knives also shouldn't climb tall ladders.

Francois’ old 'do' was definitely dreamy, and all the ladies loved it.

But I really think his canes need to be horizontal in order to add side-shoots for lots of blooming.

There was also the matter of all the shade he made for all the sun-loving plants in this bed.

Look what I found!!

Clematis 'Ville de Lyon' is twelve feet up in the tree!! She was only planted this spring! Never figured she'd go up there.

Francois was laying around everywhere.

Peek-a-boo! 'Mary Rose' would rather not play hide and seek. So now that you've seen the before, I know you're wondering about the after.

Voila! The upswept look.

All of those long, long canes now go to the left and to the right and as far up as I could reach.

His canes must have been fifteen feet long or more.

Fortunately for me he doesn't have a lot of prickles - just enough to catch in the tree.

Some canes were laid across the arbor. A few of the more strategic canes were tied in place - insurance against the wind.

Now you can see the baby clematis, and hopefully, the daylilies and the rose will start doing a little better.

Ah, there's Mary.

The bench now has a view, and the chimes can be seen.

In some not too distant spring these trees will be decorated with fat, pink 'Francois Juranville' blooms. Stay tuned.

Gravel down

Remodeling has its stages if not quite its finales.  No, mine’s not done – yet, but it will be.  I have hopes for April arriving here, too, but more than anything I’ll just be glad when February is gone.  Quite surprisingly (at least to me) the two nights in the 20’s that we had a week ago did hardly any damage – except to brand new canes. They’re toast, but all the early-spring foliage is fine. That’s a relief.  In fact, looking in the rearview mirror, it was almost much ado about nothing, but then panic and worry is part of the human condition, isn’t it?


The gravel isn’t two colors.  It’s just dry and wet.  I hosed it down to settle the granite dust and compact the gravel, locking the cut stones together and making it less squishy under foot.  ‘Louis Philippe’ at the top left finally got his trimming today. He had gotten wide, and with so many side-shoots coming off thin canes he was hanging so low that you couldn’t see the daylily on his right.  He was also invading the path.  So I trimmed off bottom canes where they came off the older cane, lightening the load and allowing the canes to return to vertical.  Trimming continued, taking off dead stuff and whatever would run head on into the fence.  I did not shorten or thin him, my reasoning being that everywhere you cut Louie three or four new sprouts happen, clogging up his structure bigtime.  So right or wrong I kept the cuts to a minimum.  We’ll see how he does.
  

‘White Pet’ (center bottom)  is leafless still, never having acted like he thought it was spring.  Very smart of him, eh?  To his left is ‘Borderer’, fully leaved out and oblivious to those mid-20’s temperatures.


‘Leonie Lamesch’ at the bottom center is now leafing out, and I’m waiting to see if any basal breaks utilize the camouflage offered by the snapdragons and dianthus planted at her feet which, of course, have to start growing real quick.  The ‘Souvenir de la Malmaison’ on the left in the island isn’t as well leafed-out as her sisters in the front garden, but she’s pretty large at six feet across (but oblong).  My new shady sitting area by the tree swing came about as a result of dumping rejected crappy soil from the new ‘Mary Rose’ bed and the ‘Mme Abel Chatenay’ renovation.


Here’s the view from the swing area.


And here’s the swing area waiting for another half yard of gravel to complete it.  This is at the top of sloping ground and piling the dirt raised the area, requiring a bulkhead of sorts and a wavy one at that.  I’m really happy with it since it neatens up the garden nicely.  Going to have to invest in a string trimmer though.  That St. Augustine will be a bear to mow up to the edging.


I have visions of a bistro table and chairs over to the left… someday.  The poor, beautiful white camellia was relegated to the pot for lack of suitable camellia-soil in my garden.  It hasn’t grown a millimeter, but at least it’s alive.


The medallion of broken paver blocks is buried. I was going to remove them because the area puddles and then raise the level of the crossroad with extra gravel, but after seeing how un-far a ton of gravel goes, I decided to leave the blocks where they were as filler.  Can you foresee the bed on the left ever being widened?  I sure hope not!

That’s Louie on the left.  The daylilies had become so green and strong in the false spring. Now they’re all  pale and limp like frozen lettuce. I was thinking tomorrow might be the day they all get cut back.

I like this view.  One might get the impression that I live on a huge country estate instead of the postage-stamp sized lot hemmed in with fences.  I’ll have to somehow incorporate this view into the garden more.  I wonder how.  Did you notice that the tree previously designated for removal (extreme right) is still there?  I’m saving my pennies.


This is ‘Arcadia Louisiana Tea’.  She hasn’t really done much since being moved to this spot more than two years ago.  Believe it or not, her first year there leaf-cutter bees deleted so much leaf area that she started to decline, and I thought I would lose her.  Since she was the only one attacked, I attributed the attraction to the wax begonias I had planted all around her.  I have no proof, but I haven’t used them in the garden since and there have not been anymore leaf-cutter bee attacks.  Maybe this year she’ll impress me.  To her right on the arbor is ‘Jaune Desprez’, supposedly a huge Noisette climber but a snail-paced grower.  It’s all of five feet tall after two and a half years.  Again, maybe this year it will begin to do something… and maybe not.


On the inside of the left leg of that arbor is the pink hollyhock that came in a bag from Walmart.  I hope you are duly impressed.  I’m hoping it’s baby pink.


Here’s Louie again in all his slenderness.  I was amazed at the thinness of his canes since he’s been there since February, 2007 – one of my first five roses.  He’s more than six feet tall.


Daylily Point planted with ‘Inherited Wealth’ and ‘Marietta Dancer’.  Across the path is a baby ‘Mary Rose’, a David Austin rose that I am incredibly excited about.  Interestingly, a neighbor gave me a couple of old magazines recently because they had roses in them.  Imagine my glee when there before me was a cluster of luscious blooms of ‘Mary Rose’.  Oh, my goodness!  I can’t wait.


Of course, that’s exactly what I’ll have to do since here is all twelve inches of ‘Mary Rose’.


A postscript:  Recently moved 'Mystic Beauty' is looking really bad - like almost dead. I can't understand what the problem could have been.  'Baronne Prevost' on the other hand is a definite dead.  At the time I moved her into the big pot she had five canes.  Almost immediately they started dying.  Today she had one and a half good canes.  It took almost no strength to pull her from the pot, and she went to the pile of Louie's trimmings.  And now I'm wondering which roses will go into their places.  I've been dreaming of 'Maggie', but she's a big rose bush. (Groan) ... more digging and rose-moving in my future, I guess.

A volunteer and more

The violas that I grew from seed last winter did not impress me much due to their petite size. (Oh, I know I sound like Goldilocks. The companion plants are either too big or too small…never just right.) Well, the dear things have reseeded, so now I’m impressed.



Did I show you my baby ‘Mary Rose’? She is one of the four David Austin roses I ordered in July from Heirloom Roses in Oregon. She is greener than when she was in the pot a week and a half ago, but she’s not much bigger.



Here’s a closer look at ‘Mary Rose’. Not even a foot tall now, I expect her to be good sized by this time next year. I would think four times bigger for sure.



Azalea ‘Duc de Rohan’ is blooming and will continue until next March. It’s still a small plant, too – less than 2x2, but I only got him last February.



The most cheerful plant in my garden is Dianthus chinensis. It blooms all year in pinks and reds and magentas. On top of that it stays green all winter. Freezes don’t effect it at all.



Here’s the view from under ‘Maman Cochet, Climbing’. Careful now. You could get snagged!



Impatiens looking rather serene and being a fine example for the rest of us.