Reworking Time, Day Two

Obligatory eye candy: Rosa 'Marilyn Monroe':
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Day Two of the project amounted to moving some flagstones to the area. Not enough flagstones.

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I realized quickly what I needed was A Trip To The Flagstone Store, but by then it was the time of day when school lets out, which means serious traffic. Scary traffic: Mom in her Expedition or Escalade is texting one-handed on her phone with a latte in the other hand and the steering wheel between her forearms while the kids are fighting in the back seat. Since there are about 18 schools between our house and the flagstone store, I decided to wait for tomorrow.

Beloved commented that a smallish tree limbed up to about seven or eight feet would allow viewing of the roses currently hidden by the 'Rene' rose standard, as well as screen out the neighbor's house beyond. Excellent thought. I agree...but I still want to give 'Rene' a chance to recover. Did she decline just because of insufficient water? I really want to know. If she recovers perhaps she'd be worth moving...then a tree in her place. Citrus? Olive? Agonis flexuosa? Another Oak attempt?

View from the front of the house:
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Originally a Coast Live Oak was in the spot 'Renae' now occupies. Planted in fall 1999 from a 48" box, it slowly died. I keep a piece of the dead trunk on the patio as a reminder. I should have complained and gotten a replacement, but by that time there were roses everywhere.

Flagstones are good. I figure out where I'm always stepping or kneeling to take care of plants, and where ever my foot or knee goes, I put a flagstone. Petite groundcovers like Thyme and Dymondia around the stones, with the odd small sub shrub plant added so the area doesn't look too flat--and because there's always an odd small plant that needs a spot in the ground.

I am thinking some Dymondia around the steppers, a baby Santolina or two dug out of other parts of the garden, and perhaps a dwarf lavender, Calocephalus brownii or Morocco Daisy playing the role of Small Odd Plant. And there's a white shrub rose in back languishing and wasted in too much shade--there must be room out here, perhaps next to 'Eureka' or in front of 'Gene Boerner'.

Noodling around in the garden because it was too late to get more flagstones, I pulled weeds and noticed a most amazing thing: rose seedlings. I am sure.
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There was never a rose planted in this area before, and one of the tiny plants has a flower bud--a sure sign of a seedling rose. 'Dr. Huey' never blooms at that size. Now I must go up there and check it daily to see what the flower is like. Normally rose-like seedlings in this garden turn out to be Schinus terebinthifolius seedlings, a dreadful reseeder in this neighborhood (there are volunteer trees everywhere) but Schinus terebinthifolius don't sprout rosebuds at the height of one inch. Rose seedlings do.

Rose seed pod ("hip"):
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I've been tossing rose hips into my beds for 11 years, hoping to get a seedling out of it just once.  Hasn't happened.  Can this be the one that finally sprouted?

'Jude The Obscure'.  Whatever the seedling looks like, it won't look this good!
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Comments

  1. JTO has the most amazing smell. I wonder if it's a good cut flower. I'm thinking of dymondia too for the parkway. Must be so exciting to have the grass gone!

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  2. I've started at the beginning and am up to this post and just have to tell you how beautiful your landscaping is. I am so envious of all the roses and other beautiful flowering plants you are able to grow. I buy plants based on color (green is not a color, unless there's something interesting about the shape [succulents, etc.]), but in Austin we're really limited in what we can grow. Antique roses are nice, but nothing like all of your amazing specimens. Sigh.

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    Replies
    1. It will happen Devon, it just takes time. We started with zero: dirt.

      I highly, highly recommend 'Belinda's Dream', which does really well in TX. Also look at the TX "Earth Kind" roses which should thrive for you even in your difficult climate and are available at Chamblee's in Tyler (they mail order too).

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