Monday Bloom Day

Happily for me my Monday Report coincides with Bloom Day hosted by Carol at May Dreams Gardens Be sure and visit there.  This is an exciting time because the roses are just starting to bloom in my garden. They loved all the rain last week.

Rosa glauca
Rosa glauca

Even though the roses on Rosa glauca (formerly known as Rosa rubrifolia) are tiny and inconsequential, this is the rose that gets the WOWs at the Annual Rose Viewing.  The bush is a graceful vase shape, at least 9 feet tall and the foliage, bluish-reddish, is a stunning show stopper. It is one of the first roses I planted in 1984 and never fails to survive, thrive and delight.

Belle Poitvine
Belle Poitvine
The rugosas are the first roses to bloom. Belle Poitvine is not only double she is sweetly fragrant.  I visited a garden yesterday with two Belle Poitvines, much larger than mine, and not as old.  My usual excuse is that I live in Heath where it is cold!  But it probably doesn’t help that this rose is growing in a fair amount of shade of a linden tree.
Apart rugosa
Apart rugosa
Apart is probably my favorite rugosa. It is so double and so fragrant. The bush took a real beating this winter. Lots of winter kill, but new shoots are coming.
Leda
Leda
Leda is another rugosa with a surprising flower. The tiny buds seem to promise a brilliant red flower, but the small tightly furled blossoms are white, edged with red.  I was assured in one of my early Bloom Day posts (when not much was happening) that Buds Count. Hence this photo.  Very few blossoms will be around to celebrate July’s Bloom Day.
Other rugosas in my collection that have open flowers today are: Dash’s Dart, Mrs. Doreen Pike, Mount Blanc, Blanc Double de Coubert, Scabrosa, and the low Corylus. By the time we have our Annual Rose Viewing on the last Sunday in June I’ll have a special page up for a virtual tour.
The Fairy
The Fairy
The polyantha The Fairy is a dependable rose. She begins blooming early and is one of the few roses in my garden who will be in bloom all summer.
Harrison's Yellow
Harrison
The first Harrison’s Yellow I planted died. So did the second, I thought.  By the time I planted the third, the second sent up new shoots. I now have two of these spiny yellow bloomers that I hope will become lush clumps.
Other roses starting to bloom are the ancient Apothecary Rose, and the new Double Red Knockout.
The last of my lilacs is the pink Miss Canada, blooming behind a large clump of the blue flags that every garden in Heath enjoys.  Once I was thinning a clump and threw the extras onto the side of the road, where they  continue to bloom.  I must have done the same with another thinned clump because they are blooming in the field near our brush pile.
A white iris was also blooming here at the End of the Road when we  bought our house. This clump lives around an amazing 30 foot deep stone lined dug well behind our house, sharing blooming space with large clumps of comfrey, and the weedy bladder campion and galium.  All here before we were.
The early peonies start to bloom at the same time as the rugosas. Many of the peonies will still be in full bloom at the Annual Rose Viewing.
I love this old pink heuchera which I am encouraging as a ground cover.  I also have a dark foliaged heuchera with white flowers, but it is not a favorite. It will bloom later.
Other bloomers this June 15: a viburnam, highbush cranberry; Joan Elliot campanula; geraniums; cheddar pinks; an undistinguished salvia;  purple columbine; anemone canadensis; and alchemilla, lady’s mantle.  My pots are filled with pelargoniums, verbena and Million Bells. Nothing exotic, but appropriate for an old farmhouse I think.
Of course, at this time of year the surrounding fields, and even the lawn are filled with wild flowers: daisies, buttercups, red and yellow hawkweeds, clover, summer asters, bladder campion and wild sweet william. The whole world seems in bloom.

This Post Has 12 Comments

  1. Hey CW, Seeing your blooms was like a flashback to our spring! Love the peony and lilac, especially. I just added you to my blog roll; not sure why were weren’t always there! H.

  2. Rose

    The foliage on the Rosa Glauca is definitely stunning! In a few weeks, it sounds like, your garden is going to be gorgeous with all the blooming roses. I have become a big fan of heucheras and can’t seem to resist adding a few new ones each year to my garden, but I agree the blooms of the old-fashioned coral bells are the best!

  3. admin

    Helen, A flashback to spring? Already? Thanks for adding me to your blogroll. I love visiting you and gaining more confidence.
    Rose – You ain’t seen nothin’ yet! I am amazed at the number of heucheras now available.
    Pat

  4. Jen

    Well the blooms are just gorgeous but when they’re gone you’ll have some nice foliage to look at. Love the glauca and also the dark green rugosa leaves.

  5. Kim

    I never thought I was a fan of white, but those white irises are amazing. Thank you for the stroll through your garden.

  6. admin

    Jen – It’s true, the glauca foliage is the appeal of this rose and it goes from early spring into late fall. The nearly black small hips are also very handsome.
    Kim -We’ve had so much mist lately and the shimmer of white iris has been gorgeous. What a way to start the day.
    Pat

  7. tina

    Your roses are lovely. Rugosas are one type I really love. My mother who lives in Maine, has great luck with rugosas. Me, not so, though I’ve tried. They are wonderful. I really like your white iris too. And the ‘Black Prince’ below. Very nice!

  8. admin

    Tina – Rugosas are great plants, so carefree. Fortunately there are many other roses to try.
    Pat

  9. Sylvana

    Heuchera as a ground cover, I like that idea.

    The Fairy is perfect! I want one now.

  10. admin

    Sylvana – The Fairy is perfect and you should hve one. Now!
    Pat

  11. Peter

    Having been to rose viewings at End ‘o the Road farm in years past, I was pleased to again behold Pat’s charming roses. As beguiling as the pictures are today, I confess to missing the equally charming crowd of people who’d visit the garden for this annual affair (one always met precisely the people one had wanted to meet and to whom one should be introduced) and to enjoy Pat’s comments and answers to questions (Pat has a wonderful laugh that accompanies her accounts – you may sense it sometimes in her writing). My favorite part of the annual tour is the absolutely smashing lemonade and to-die-for lemon and ginger shortbread cookies. There are as many happy rose viewers as there are happy roses at Pat’s farm. Plus dapper husband Henry in his trademark bow tie! Heath and my own town (Hawley, across the Deerfield river) mark summer’s beginning by this event.

  12. admin

    I only wish I could serve those cookies and lemonade at the Virtual Rose View.
    Pat

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