These yellow roses (‘Graham Thomas’ in the foreground, with ‘Malvern Hills’ behind) that were in profuse bloom during late spring, are now blooming more infrequently and even somewhat semi-dormant now that it’s late summer, due to intentionally cutting back on the hand-watering during our state’s drought this year. In wetter years, I’ve felt freer to water generously once a week in order to get the best possible repeat bloom out of these rose plants; but this garden has been trained a long time ago to be able to take some dry spells, so now is a good time to practice even stricter water conservation. It’s all good, though, as I still have plenty of blooms to do the indoor flower arrangements!
Here at the Fern Lodge front desk are the ‘Graham Thomas’ rose (left) and another yellow rose, “Teasing Georgia’ (right); plus the star-shaped dark purple blooms of Clematis viticella “Polish Spirit”, the thin-stemmed mauve flowers of Verbena bonariensis, and some Wisteria whips…
As the hotter weather arrived later in June, I picked the last of these beautiful mauve & blue Sweet Peas — and what a wonderful fragrance, to boot!
