A Few Pictures of Dr. Rouges
Now is the time of year to enjoy the beautiful new growth of teas, as the delicate red leaves and buds unfurl. Dr. Rouges is not one of those teas. It has a strange growth habit for a tea, with long, lanky, spiked canes covered with short, vaguely menacing bat-like stubs. I wouldn't call it beautiful, but I think it is impressive:
Comments (11)
ingrid_vc zone 10 San Diego County
last yearFormerly RBEHS Z10A/S17 thanked ingrid_vc zone 10 San Diego CountyRelated Discussions
A few more fabric choices for DR (part 2)
Comments (10)Thanks for the vote of confidence, holly-kay. mtn - I'm going to inquire about the next sale at Calico to see how much I might be able to save on the fabric, should I go with that one. voila - I like your suggestions and I agree with you, now that I take a closer look at the fabric, that it does read more "plaid". I have a much darker, much busier plaid in the LR right now that I would love to change, so I must be very careful to not add in another plaid that I will want to change too soon. ***** I think I should be considering possible fabrics for a chair or chairs in the LR along with fabric for the dining room, so it all works together. Yikes, what have I started??...See MoreWhy does the Azalea Autumn Rouge have few leafs?
Comments (1)good here we are dealing fresh flower from garden 24*7 Here is a link that might be useful: Floworldonline...See Morea few pictures from today....
Comments (8)Annette - if you were walking by and asked to see the rest of the garden, we'd certainly invite you in for a tour :-) Bummer re the theft of your plant! Generally, this is a very nice neighbourhood with no problems - but back in 2006 the top of the concrete bench in the front garden was lifted off and dropped and broken at the roadside. We reported it to the police just so they'd be aware of it in case there were other incidents - it turned out that there were a number of small vandalisms that had happened during the previous night - there's a high school up the street and a couple of rowdy, drunken teens went on a spree... We replaced the bench top and cemented it to the base so it's much harder to lift it now. We worried at first about the bronze sundial - especially when it was still shiny! That one we cemented to a large, flat stone, covered the stone with soil, and planted creeping thyme (which has since died out....) Anybody that tried to lift the sundial out of place would not likely be aware that they were standing on the base! The iron arbour and iron tuteur are very heavy and are set in cement footings so would be very difficult to move! i have some suspicion that a Midnight Rose heuchera may have 'walked' out of the garden last fall - it went missing and there was a round hole where it was. But it had only been planted a few weeks before so would have been easy to remove - at the rate the local squirrel population moves things around, it's entirely possible that a squirrel could have removed it while searching for bulbs that were dormant in the same area! So I haven't yet had any incidents that would seriously discourage me from gardening in the front....See Morea few pictures from the backyard this morning
Comments (13)mnwgal - the backyard here is well shaded! Fortunately, I like shade/woodland gardens :-) t2d - the astilboides definitely likes lots of moisture! The ones I've tried elsewhere in the garden where there is less moisture are pathetic in comparison. In fact, I didn't notice them when I walked around yesterday so they may have disappeared altogether.... I'll keep an eye out for them when I'm out there later today. The ones in the north alley grow where a downspout from the gutters runs under the path and then emerges by the fence. The neighbour next door also directs water to then from one of their downspouts. That makes a nice damp spot for them in a fairly confined space so I think that helps keep them from spreading too far if they were inclined to. The leaves get huge and I love big-leafed plants. I've posted lots of pictures of them over the years but here's one from June 2 last year showing how big those leaves get: (As you can see, there is also a rodgersia growing with the astilboides. And you can also see that the snails like to eat the leaves!) We planted the Wolf Eyes dogwood in 2011. Most of the soil here is heavy clay. But where it is planted turned out to be an unexpected pocket of sand! So it has struggled, I think, with too dry soil as well as a number of bad winters. It was also a balled-and-burlapped tree and I find they don't establish as well as a smaller tree in a pot. So I will be looking for a smaller pot-grown tree to replace it, and plant it in a different spot. sandyslopes; cearbhaill - the logs along the fence in the north alley are in effect the edging that makes a narrow raised bed along the fence. The soil there is largely formed from the sod that was removed from the alley when I made the garden areas there - we just piled the sod upside down along the fence in the fall, covered it with newspapers and fallen leaves,put the logs down to hold it all in place, and let it all rot down for the winter and planted it the following spring (2006). Elsewhere in the garden I use logs as 'nurse logs' to hold moisture and provide nutrients for plants in dry conditions. I think it might help the red trilliums if I put a log or two in the area where they aren't doing so well. Ken - the black dog is our miniature poodle. His color is called 'blue' - described as 'faded black denim' :-) He's a 'failed' service dog - he failed out at the end of the puppy foster period due to 'resource-guarding issues' (he will snap at other dogs who get too close to 'his' cookies!). He's large for a mini so he may have a bit of standard poodle in his breeding. They breed their own dogs and they need a range of sizes to suit client needs. As you can see from his tail, they do not dock the tails on their poodles! Poodles often have the most amazing spiral tails! It's a shame that it is common to dock poodle's tails. Sometimes breeders donate dogs to the facility and those ones usually have docked tails....See More
Formerly RBEHS Z10A/S17
last yearThank you. Sheila and Ingrid. Your comments inspired me to do an assessment of a few other roses--and where they stand right now. I am hoping that March is going to be spectacular this year as the roses give thanks for the more than bountiful winter rains this year:
This is Bengal Crimson, with pink sepals and green leaves, more red on the reverse:
Maréchal Niel struggled last year, but is now waking up with folded red leaves opening to tints of soft pink and green:
Bon Silene had a big flush during December and is not putting out new growth, less red than other teas:
Général Schablikine has more typical tea-like growth:
And to stay on topic, here is one last picture of Dr. Rouges, with Roller Coaster hips in the background:
Formerly RBEHS Z10A/S17
last yearHere are a few updates. Dr. Rouges has valiantly been trying bloom in spite of the nonstop rain. I'm hoping for better days ahead:
Formerly RBEHS Z10A/S17
last yearThanks, Seesiderooftop. It definitely behaves like a climber--I think it's gotten to the top of my garage, so around 15 feet. Here's a picture of what the whole plant looks like today--I'm terrible at pruning climbers and it was getting to be a hopeless tangle with a grape vine, so I cut it back a little haphazardly last autumn.
Formerly RBEHS Z10A/S17
last yearAs an experiment, I decided to do a color comparison of the three pinkish/reddish teas that are blooming in my yard right now. From left to right: Dr. Rouges, General Schablikine, Bon Silene:
Formerly RBEHS Z10A/S17
last yearHere are some more pictures from today:
Dr. Rouges, continuing to bloom:
General Schablikine:
Marachel Niel:
I always seem to miss photographing Irish FIreflame until it's too late:
Contrast, living up to the name, with shades of pink, purple, yellow, red and white:
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