Rose Order

I am home sick today with a nasty sore throat, so really all I am up to is ordering roses :)

The problem is:

I was going for this look:

which I still love, but it conflicts with this color:

As you can see in the following photo if you were psychic and had a miscroscope handy:

I could just take out the Red Drift, which I am not loving anyway, and put something else in that spot. The knockouts in Kit Island are getting rather subsumed by the vigorous catmints anyway-- if I need to take out that red one I can.  I just can't bear to sacrifice those lovely peachy colors, they're so meltingly yummy, especially cut and brought inside.

I will have putative room in front of the putative Dragon Lady Hollies (one is real, two projected) for maybe another David Austen-- so I could put The Alnwick Rose (above) there with my Mayflower Rose.

In the site left of the patio, I am planning Sweet Drift to go with the deutzia, even though the deutzia seem totally daunted and eventually the Green Vase Zelkova will put them in shade.  But that could be years, right? Right.

So I think today's order will be :Alnick rose because who could resist, Quietness ditto, also to go in West bed facing down the hollies, and three Sweet Drift for next to the patio. Done.

Quietness, a highly rated Griffith Buck rose

Do I need a Climbing Pinkie for the back fence there next to Magnolia, not crowding the Golden Celebration I planted last year? Or would an Abe Darby induced to climb be more luscious?

Snow Day

Well, technically an ice day.  I have joined the ranks of full-time wage earners, but I work for the school system and I get snow days and summer off-- woot!  It is irresistable to steal an hour to think about gardens, like this:

1. Think about and look at plants and get all swoony contemplating the joys of baptisia, sedum, foxglove, geranium, iris, lavender, veronica, rose.

2. Remember that much of my ground is bare-ass unmulched, think of the three bags and small pile of unused mulch-- experience shame.

3. Remember I can't recall a lot of what I planted where.

4. Comfort myself that's okay.

5. Experience confidence that this spring, I will manage to execute an ORDERLY and CORRECTLY SPACED garden plan, which I have managed to pull off at least once.

6. Acknowledge it is difficult to do this when I won't know what I have in the appointed spot until spring.

7. Comfort myself that's ok (seeing a cycle here.)

8. Identify areas needing improvement, namely--

The west bed area, hot and dry, where I plan to pull out the struggling Bennett's Compacta Holly (don't think they like the heat) and put in two more infinitely more expensive Dragon Lady Hollies (order hollies), making, we hope, a nice wall of green for the David Austen rose, peony, abelia, and liatris already there.  Add rows of bearded iris on either side of the projected flagstone steps (order iris, buy flagstone). Add more abelia and fill in with some teucrium and some nice sun-tolerant annuals like angelonia or lantana. Use plenty of repetition.

The other area screamingly in need of improvement are the areas near the new flagstone patio (did I not report on the new flagstone patio?) The right side is leaching soil and needs some groundcovers to hold it.  I planted a hydrangea behind the butterfly bush-- O lord what was it called-- not Blue Chiffon, because the Blue Chiffon in person did not thrill me as expected-- I'll think of it.  Eventually.  And the left side under the Green Vase Zelkova, where the ground is nikkid.  I planted a few small probably root bound deutzia, thinking this was the ideal thing, but they have not thrived.  Will reevaluate in spring.

So I have my work nicely cut out for me :)