snippets

[jinian]

So far, I've woken up before 7 and not been able to go back to sleep, and the cat has thrown up on the couch. But Shonen Knife is helping.

More garden catalogs: White Flower Farm (cool plants, mixed reviews) and Park Seed. gwyneira, do you know anything about the "Zephirine Drouhin" rose? Park Seed makes it sound divine.

hattifattener is slowly becoming less sick, yay.

Comments

[oyceter]

That is such a cute happy song! I love the dirty socks.

[jinian.livejournal.com]

They also have cute angry songs!

[sculpin.livejournal.com]

I've grown Zephirine Drouhin, and it is in fact divine. Only had it for one year before I moved away, but it had no mildew, and it did well in part sun. The scent is a knockout. I remember it as suffering somewhat from black spot, though.

[sculpin.livejournal.com]

Well, I should clarify: I remember it having black spot. But the bush was so vigorous that it didn't much seem to matter.

[jinian.livejournal.com]

Thanks. It sounds amazing. Now I have to decide what to do with this additional temptation.

[gwyneira.livejournal.com]

I haven't got Zephirine Drouhin, but it's fairly high on my list of roses I'd like to have. It's got an ARS rating of 8.1, which is quite good. In 100 Old Roses for the American Garden, Clair Martin says it's more of a climber (to 7 or 8 feet) than a bush, is a little prone to blackspot and mildew (which I'd believe; all my Bourbon roses are prone to blackspot), and smells fantastic.

[gwyneira.livejournal.com]

Oh yeah, and as sculpin says, it's somewhat shade-tolerant. I want to try growing it up a tree.

[jinian.livejournal.com]

Wow, that sounds beautiful. Any idea what kind of tree?

Possibly I should look for more information on rose pathogens if I'm going to be growing any more of them. I know how to smush aphids, but that's it. No, wait, I also know not to bother the little mummified ones because more parasitoid wasps will come out of them later. But I basically just hope mildew and blackspot won't show up, and there might well be a more helpful strategy.

[gwyneira.livejournal.com]

Right now I'm growing Clair Matin (http://www.helpmefind.com/rose/pl.php?n=1207) into my Japanese snowbell tree, which works really well because the snowbell tree has a very open structure; the branches grow horizontally, and there's room between them for the rose to insinuate itself. So I'd probably try something similar for Zephirine Drouhin, though not in this yard, since we're pretty much out of space for new roses. (Good thing we're probably moving next year.)

[gwyneira.livejournal.com]

Oh, and I still haven't really settled on an anti-blackspot strategy, in spite of having rose gardened for several years now. (I have almost no mildew and so don't worry about it as much.)

Mostly I settle for a dormant spray in the early spring, picking off the affected leaves, and removing the roses which are really prone to it; this year I tried an organic spray (can't recall the name, but a local company) which seems to be helping quite a bit.