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Farmers Branch Earth-kind Trial Gardens

10 years ago

Here are photos from my trip on Friday. I apologize they will be one at a time, I took the photos with my phone.

Started off at the historical park. This arbor is covered by a Lamarque noisette. It leads to an alcove where one is surrounded by a collection of Earth-kind roses.

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Comments (24)

joshtx
Original Author
10 years ago
Found myself surrounded on all sides by 10 foot tall EK roses. Duchesse de Brabant was by far the best of them, laden with blooms and smelling like a hot summer day. DdB was accompanied by Ducher, Perle d'Or, Antoine Marie, Louise Phillipe, and Souv. De St. Anne.
joshtx
Original Author
10 years ago
One of the Duchesse's beautiful flowers.
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I think being frugal with earth's resources is something we try to do in many areas of our lives, not only the garden. -we compost (of course) whatever we can altho we try not to waste food -we buy many plants at yard sales and charity sales - not only are they much cheaper but they are proven in our cold zone 3 climate -DH spreads the wood ashes from our stove in the coniferous forest to reduce the acid soil so the grass will grow better -we yard sale for whatever items we can use, I love finding garden decor, but also a lot of household items which are cheaper and may be saved from a landfill -we use CFL bulbs in most fixtures - I know they are controversial because of the lead but they do take a lot less power -I know many are concerned with the depletion of the peat bogs but I have read that the peat in Canada is being replenished faster than it is removed so not sure if that is a concern -we are making fewer trips to the city since the increase in gas prices I think we need to question some of the common gardening "facts" as many of these have been devised by the companies which sell products, for instance, how often does one really need to fertilize their lawn? We try to be organic so have done so only seldom and the lawn is nice and green. I may feed it some alfalfa pellets this year but wonder if that is even necessary. We use no fertilizers other than compost, mulch, and alfalfa pellets. We use no chemical insect sprays but do feed the birds year round so have few insects. I saw a few aphids late in the year last year but ignored them and I think they went away with the first frost! :) I thnk it's important to believe that every little bit helps so whatever we all do lessens the burden on Mother Earth even tho it may seem insignificant sometimes.
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You know what - I feel completely stupid now. For years I thought that EarthKind meant you didn't do a lot of spraying pesticides and fungicides and I suppose I never bothered to read the lit particularly closely. Connie - I was about to ask you what you were talking about but I checked first and you are entirely correct, the web site says: "only to those roses demonstrating superior pest tolerance, combined with outstanding landscape performance" Nothing at all about fungicides or disease resistance. Just pest resistance. Until now it never occurred to me that you could have an EarthKind rose that required spraying for blackspot. Duh. I should learn to read English. And as a matter of fact, that makes me wonder exactly what the use of the Earth Kind designation is. Japanese Beetles eat everything. So here's what I can say about the EarthKind roses out here in NYC - Belinda's Dream, Caldwell Pink, Knockout, LaMarne, Mutabilis, Mary Daly - outstanding disease resistance. Close seconds are Pearle d'Or and New Dawn. Ducher is OK, not an outstanding rose in any way though. I don't grow the others. And as I mentioned, Crepuscule is brilliant and very resistant to blackspot, at least in my back yard.
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Here in Western Washington we do not have a humidity problem but in the spring and fall rain and rain and rain...well you get it. Many Ht's and Floribunda's get oodles of BS especially in the fall. I have ordered many EarthKind roses from Chamblee in Tyler Texas. They have performed magnificently. Amongst the OGR's most dont get BS. Those that do have not had significant leaf drop. There are exceptions however. So if anyonbe is looking for excellent roses that do well in this area the Chamblee list of Earthkind roses is a great starting point for an easy to care for garden. Jeannie
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joshtx
Original Author
10 years ago
Louis Phillipe.
joshtx
Original Author
10 years ago
Perle d'Or looking rather pink due to the heat.
joshtx
Original Author
10 years ago
Headed now towards the EK Trial Gardens. The walking path is enjoyable.
lou_texas
10 years ago
Beautiful, Josh. I wonder why my Duchesse de Brabant isn't blooming like this one - I'm just about 45 minutes away. My Louis Philippe too. I'm disappointed. There seem to be a lot of blooms in all these pictures for late August weather (I know we're in September, but the hot, dry weather still feels like August to me). And I've been irrigating. Bummer! But at least I heard that we might get some rain toward the end of this week. Lou
joshtx
Original Author
10 years ago
The gardens
joshtx
Original Author
10 years ago
Duchesse de Brabant showing off, again.
joshtx
Original Author
10 years ago
Crepuscule's dainty blooms
joshtx
Original Author
10 years ago
Looking down a row of roses planted in a hedge.
sidos_house
10 years ago
Thanks posting these, Josh. The pictures are beautiful, of course, but it's also nice to see what it is bloom this time of year.
joshtx
Original Author
10 years ago
The Generous Gardener reaching an impressive 10-12 feet.
joshtx
Original Author
10 years ago
The Dark Lady in full, smelly flush.
joshtx
Original Author
10 years ago
Disheartening to see RRD in the gardens. Luckily it was on a DdB so the trials are not affected.
joshtx
Original Author
10 years ago
Heading out of the gardens
joshtx
Original Author
10 years ago
The walk back to my car.
joshtx
Original Author
10 years ago
Lou,

I'm not sure why yours are not blooming the same as those in the FB gardens. It may be that perhaps they are older than yours?
ogrose_tx
10 years ago
I'm very surprised they haven't done something about the RRD as they have a large, knowledgeable group of volunteers out there.

Josh, your pictures are gorgeous thank you for showing us; they've done a remarkable job out there, haven't they?
ogrose
mendocino_rose
10 years ago
Thanks Josh. I enjoyed the photo visit. I like seeing gardens at different times of the year and not just perfect spring.
jardineratx
10 years ago
Thanks for the photo tour, Josh. I have never visited the Farmer's Branch trial gardens, although the Texas Rose Rustlers have participated in many events there. Now, I wish I had joined them on those visits!
Molly
luxrosa
10 years ago
I love the Lamarque bower.

thanks for posting,
Lux
alameda/zone 8/East Texas
10 years ago
Cant seem to spare the time to get up there to see those lovely gardens - thanks for the photo tour - they are lovely and so well kept!
Judith
joshtx
Original Author
10 years ago
Alameda,

You should definitely try to make it on the 19th of October. Ogrose and myself will be there for the Celebration of Roses.

Josh
gnabonnand
10 years ago
Thanks for sharing these photos, Josh.
Luckily, I don't live far from Farmers Branch.
I definitely need to visit there. I put a reminder on my iPhone calendar just now for October 19.

Thanks!

Randy

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