Parents and Offspring

Niche Gardens in Chapel Hill sells roses that perform well with no spray in our area. One of these is the rugosa hybrid 'Sir Thomas Lipton'. We bought this rose for my MIL for Mother's Day a few years ago and I rooted a cutting last year. Unlike many rugosas, this one is easy to root. It's quite a big rose and presumably got its size from R. rugosa alba. Helpmefind lists alba as getting to 5-7' in height. However, I have alba and mine barely tops 3 1/2 feet.

As it turns out, I have both parents of 'Sir Thomas Lipton' in my garden: rugosa alba and the polyantha 'Clotilde Soupert'.

I grew a half a dozen rugosa alba from seed 6 years ago. Alba doesn't seem to mind the hot sticky Southeast a bit. No disease, no problems at all except for Japanese beetles chomping the flowers in June and July. The flowers of rugosa alba smell just like cloves.

'Clotilde Soupert' is about the most sumptuous and romantic-looking rose possible. It has many many petals (over 100 per flower), and a very strong sweet "old rose" perfume. I've heard people complain about the flowers balling in wet conditions, but no such problems here so far. It's quite a small rose too, hard-pressed to reach 3 feet, and thornless. One of my all-time favorites.

'Sir Thomas Lipton' is a fountain-like shrub with long weeping branches. Like 'Clotilde Soupert' it has a wonderful fragrance, and like alba it has a lot of thorns. The family resemblance is rather apparent when you see them all together. Still, STL and its parents reminds of one of those families with two small parents and a son over 6' tall.

It seems to me that in the summer the flowers have more of that rumpled quality that many rugosa
hybrids have, but in the spring and fall, the flowers have the beautiful form of Clotilde Soupert.

Blue Monday

It's raining today, but we had an absolutely gorgeous weekend.

This is an amsonia that I found growing in the sloughs and floodway fields of our farm. I think it's Amsonia tabernaemontana. The foliage is a beautiful blue-green in spring and is as appealing as the blue flowers.

Bluestar with Eastern columbine. I have also planted this part of the garden
with blue and white baptisia, which should bloom in the next couple of years.

A pair of bluebirds are nesting in the martin house this year. Purple martins have never used the house, in spite of the fact that there are purple martins flying around all of the time. We figure that the house isn't quite high enough for them.

Eventually I will get shots of the blue grosbeaks and indigo buntings. But there's a world of difference between saying "Oh look, there's an Indigo Bunting" and actually getting a good photo!

Blooming Friday

Lots of iris, roses and Baptisia for Blooming Friday this week. We got a good bit of rain the last couple of days, which haven't knocked over the Foxglove (yet, anyway), so the plants and I are all exuberantly happy.

'Hansa' in the foreground.

'Climbing Old Blush' with Baptisia alba

Baptisia 'Purple Smoke' and B. alba

The seed which produced this plant came from Baptisia alba, but clearly there's some B. australis genes in there too.

My first impulse when I say this iris was "Yuck!". Now it's really grown on me. It sets off the purples of the other iris beautifully.

'Hansa', perfection in a rose

'Theodolinda', a lovely fragrant historic iris introduced in 1932.

Eva's White

Mystery iris

This Dianthus has the most wonderful fragrance; it reminds me a lot of American Snowbell. Not the Dianthus fragrance I'm used to, which is a mix of clove and cotton candy.

Iris virginica

Marsh Phlox

Japanese Roof Iris

Blue Geranium

Bud of 'Clotilde Soupert'

'Foxi Pavement'

Rugosa alba

Hodgepodge between the house and driveway: Gulf Coast penstemon, foxglove, mockorange, and an unknown China/ Gallica hybrid.

Looking the other way, up the hill.

Thank you to Katarina at roses and stuff for hosting Blooming Friday.