Blooming And Pruning


 Many roses still blooming, but its time to be pruning, while the sun is still gentle.  If I could just get everything cleaned up and mulched before the sun gets too strong...it would be a first, and worth celebrating.    

Aside:  interesting LA Times story on rose growing here.

Plenty of other plants flowering, like Echeveria coccinea.
 We finally got a decent rain last week, about 1.2" (30 mm) here.  Its looking like it will be a fairly dry winter, unfortunately. 
 Garden and gardener refreshed, nonetheless.  
 Aloe cameronii
 Hymnolepis
 The white-frosted blue berries of Myrtus communis
 'Peter Mayle' was loaded with buds, but I wanted to get it pruned.  Some of the buds may open.  It's difficult to work around the ones that are blooming--it slows down the process a lot.  I feel the need to get the pruning done--there's a lot to do at this time of year. 
 Peter is ready for spring. 
 'The Prince' which malingered for more than a decade at a height of 12" (30 cm), has hit 5' (150 cm) this year.  It decided it was time.  Roses make their own mysterious decisions. 
Leucospermum 'Tango' planted last year has a few dozen flowers this year.  Looking forward to them.  The foliage looks a little yellow, which is worrisome.  Time for some soil sulfur?  
 The white Aloe ferox is opening flowers;  bees mobbing it. 
Blooming and pruning.  It's good.  How do you spend January in the garden--or out of it? 

Comments

  1. Yes, agreed. There's a lot of work to do this January, mostly pruning, but also planting now that the soil is moist and the adobe clay doesn't need a jackhammer. Your roses are beautiful.

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    1. And we continue hoping for more rain, as usual. Enjoy The Time Of Softer Soil!

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  2. The rose pruning moves forward here between rains. There is less of it though this winter;in fall I dug up Rose de Rescht (in decline-sparse blooms) Claudia Cardinale (love-hate for years) and most regretted , Prospero. I gave The Prince the heave-ho a few years ago-it just fried to a crisp in our summers. But I keep the Squire with its' 10 roses a year. The weeds -especially the damnable shotweed-are springing up.

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    1. No more Prospero? Awww. Sorry to hear that. You need 'Munstead Wood', then. 'The Prince' flowers are at their best in the winter--they summer-toast here also, in not-as-warm-as-Napa summers. Good luck with the shotweed, here the bane is oxalis, but we've not gotten enough rain yet to get it going.

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  3. So you got your white ferox in January! *Sigh* I haven't even thought about pruning my roses yet but at least I don't have nearly the chore there that you do. Best wishes with the task!

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    1. I'm enjoying that white Ferox more than expected; the bright orange stamens make a sharp contrast with the white sepals--dramatic! Enjoy the winter weather!

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  4. This winter is a doozey. I haven't done much due to snow and cold. The past couple of years I was out pruning and doing all sorts of outdoor tasks. This year I am staying inside and just dreaming about the garden. It is fun to see all your plants blooming. Isn't it amazing that when we get a good rain for the garden it makes us feel as good as you know the plants feel.

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    1. It's great that we and plants have something in common! ;^)

      Snow and cold? Yikes--stay warm! Time indoors to think and plan may be better than constant gardening--my garden is definitely under-thought.

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  5. I have fallen in love with The Prince. What a fantastic colour!

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  6. Thanks for the reminder that I should prune my roses... That will probably help with painting also! That will be my gardening tasks for the next month - clean up & get prepped for exterior painters...

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    1. Tell those painters to be careful with your plants!

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  7. Making up plant orders! I'm at the fun stage where the lists can be as long as whim dictates; in a few weeks the drastic trimming will happen to reflect actual priorities and budget. To give an idea of how expansive version 1 is, it includes Echeveria coccinea... ;>

    Too cold to do more than zip out to the mailbox, but this weekend it's supposed to stay above freezing for several days in a row. If so, the winter honeysuckle will start to waft its wonderful citrusy scent, making it a lot more pleasant to prune the 'Silver Moon' rose.

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    1. Above freezing for several days in a row? You mean it gets below freezing more than once? Oh, boy. Can't imagine.

      Better off making up plant orders that get refined--here we just go shopping. Hence the randomness of the plant selection.

      I've read 'Silver Moon' is scary to prune. Good luck!

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  8. HB, I prune my roses twice a year, in february when the summer heat peaks because they will resurrect with the cooler days of march then I prune them again in July, midwinter.

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  9. HB, I prune my roses twice a year, in february when the summer heat peaks because they will resurrect with the cooler days of march then I prune them again in July, midwinter.

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    1. You get considerable rainfall, I think? 1040mm or similar? Sure makes the roses grow! Your flower photos are so pretty, I think you know what you are doing. :^)

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    2. HB. there is ample rain here (1400 mm on an average year) and evenly distributed throughout the year but in summer with high temperatures and blazing sun the evaporation rates excedes rain and soil dries out very fast. Roses are indeed thirsty plants but the combination of humidity and heat is ideal for fungi and diseases.

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    3. 1400 mm/year!!!!!!!!!!! Wow! No wonder your Hibiscus are so gorgeous!

      Yes of course, humidity+heat = defoliated roses. Sigh. It's always something, isn't it?

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  10. That white Aloe blossom is amazing - and gorgeous! No pruning of roses here for another month, but I did prune my Pyracantha ‘Mohave’ this past weekend. Other than the last few days it has been too wet to work in the garden much. This is our downtime.

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    1. Pyracantha is a project to prune also. There are some feral ones in the neighborhood, beloved by birds for the fruit. Downtime is good also! Here summer is our downtime.

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  11. Beautiful photos and plants, but I'll withhold my January gardening comments. It's a completely different world here in the white north :)

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    1. But don't Cold North people curl up by the fire with a cup of hot cocoa and all the new plant catalogs? That sounds fun, too. :^)

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  12. Same here: I am deleafing and pruning the roses as well. I am very late this year and I wish the day had more hours, I had more time to garden and also more energy. Anyway, my goal is to get the garden all ready for spring by the end of January.
    Wow, 'The Prince' reached a height of 5 feet?! Go figure, I have yet to see this in mine! ;-)

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    1. I hope to do the same--all ready by the end of January. We're dreaming, of course. ;^) Today it felt like Spring was already here.

      My copy of 'The Prince' was about 12" tall for the first 15 years of its life. I moved it (3rd time the charm!) and it shot up to 5'. Boy was I surprised! What did I do right?

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  13. Pruning over here too. My goal is to do 2-3 rose bushes a day while I’m out waiting for the school bus to drop my daughter off.
    I always feel like Morticia Addams from The Addams Family when I’m standing out there pruning off blooms and buds. Lol I never realized, until I got older, that she was actually snipping off the blooms when she was working with her roses and keeping just the thorns. I take a bunch of blooms inside to enjoy but most are in the bin. I just try to keep in mind that they’ll be happier in the spring if they aren’t 8-10’ tall and devoid of leaves.

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  14. 30 millimetres sounds wonderful.
    Today we got one. Millimetre.

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