async defer src="//assets.pinterest.com/js/pinit.js" My Enchanting Cottage Garden: 2019

Tuesday, May 14, 2019

Climbing Roses for the Desert Cottage Garden

Jasmina is a prolific bloomer and resembles old English roses although it is a modern rose.


This spring the roses and flower blooms were spectacular due to an abundance of rain in the winter. Roses do amazingly well in the Desert garden with no bugs or funguses or viruses to speak of. In the above picture is the once-flowering Alchemyst in the background is a Bourbon rose Zepherine Droughin.



This is a rose that I always had trouble with in Ohio because of the rain and humidity the blooms would ball up and not open.  In the Desert garden, Aloha comes to life.

I really do love once blooming ramblers because they put on a mighty show and then exit to a back corner and get ready for the following year. Baltimore Belle.


Butterscotch rose was a new rose added to my garden about 2 years ago. I was intrigued by its color and wanted to find out how it would perform in a Desert garden. It did not disappoint.


Species roses have always interested me in that they originated from the beginning of time. This one is called Dog Rose and in the Spring has delightful little clusters of pink blossoms.

The very first climbing rose I planted when we moved into our home 
7 years ago it is named Goldilocks. My husbands favorite rose.



Who can resist Lady Banks rose. It is the first to bloom almost as
 if it is heralding in Spring.



Lady Hillingdon is a climbing Tea rose that is beautiful and fragrant.


Hybrid Musk Lavender Lassie is an almost indestructible rose, believe me, I have tried to kill it several times.  The blooms are big and an unusual color.


Leonardo da Vinci is a constant bloomer yet it does not get
the recognition it deserves. 



Another old climbing tea rose is Mme Caroline Testout. what can I say, the blooms are outstanding!


Mme Caroline Testout blooms remind me of old English Cottage roses.


Mme Isaac Periere a Bourbon rose with a scale of 10 on the perfume scale of roses. The color is a dark pinkish purple and the blooms are huge and the fragrance is out of this world!


A David Autin rose . Tess of d'Urberville is a large fragrant red climber exceptionally hardy in the Desert garden.


Variegata de Bologna is an old Bourbon rose very hard to find but so worth the purchase. It is variegated as the name implies next this year some of my blooms were solid, as a sport, maybe?  A very fragrant rose and needs to be3 planted near the front or back porch for the full floral fragrance.

Veilchenblau gets all the attention when it is in bloom and you can see why!


Looking down from the pool deck is another Veilchenblau blooming over my She Shed on the opposite side is Jasmina blooming.


By far the fastest grower in the garden is Zepherine Droughin a bourbon rose.


Awakening is a fast grower and very thorny but the blooms and the fragrance makes it all worth having in the Desert cottage garden



Probably not supposed to be a climber Bourbon Queen is an old bourbon rose that climbs on my trellis without a care in the world and the fragrance will just knock you over.



Last but certainly not least is Fourth Of July. A single blossom striped rose.  It doesn't have a fragrance, at least no fragrance that I can smell, but the 24/7 blooming of this rose makes up for the lack of fragrance. Very hardy and resistant to pest and diseases.

Wednesday, April 24, 2019

Hanging Baskets for the Spring Garden



Hanging Baskets are a must for small gardens such as mine.  It adds quick visual interest and color to the garden.  I start all my baskets in the fall-winter in my Garden Shed/mini greenhouse. I nurture them along until Spring which is about March 1 barring any late cold fronts for Las Vegas. They are big and bushy by the time I set them out and flourish in the cooler climate before the unmerciful sun reaches 120 degrees!  I usually start with small fushia I order from www.fushia.com and they are sent about 3 inches tall and also order my exotic geraniums from www.geraniaceae.com and they are sent somewhat larger but still small enough to grow over winter.  Petunias and such can be purchased at local nurseries.  I add granular feed such as osmocote when I put the basket together and water daily with a weak mixture of water with a bloom booster. The baskets will generally last until the end of June and by July 4th they are struggling with the heat.  


 When I lived in Ohio there were so many varieties of double petunias to choose from it made your head swim, but not so in Las Vegas.  The only ones sold are single, the above basket is made with the rare double petunia I found one day at Star Nursery and never to be found again!


A basket mixture of red Petunias, red verbena, and yellow-red mission bells.


The basket above is a mixture of purple Petunias and Convolvulus sabatius "Moroccan Beauty


I started this basket from a cutting of another geranium I have owned for a long time.  One of my favorite pastimes is starting new plants and geraniums are by far the easiest to start.


Waiting for the explosion to begin.


 Just opening their beautiful little heads!



and still waiting!


This huge basket I bought at Kingsgate.com and it has 15 different plants in it. I can't wait for the basket to totally fill-in!


A simple basket of red petunias.


A mixture of bacopa, Guara and hanging geranium.


A little mini fushia.


Petunia gigantic!!!


By far one of the easiest basket to start and live year after year is the hanging geraniums




A white basket is a must to give balance and dimension to the other more colorful baskets.


The hot pink petunia, this welcomes visitors into the garden gate!

Wednesday, March 13, 2019

Spring is in the Air! Blooming Trees

Nothing can be more beautiful than trees blooming in the Spring. I especially love fruit trees blossoms they are so generous.