Smell-a-vision

I wish you could smell this Butterfly Ginger (Hedychium coronarium) as it truly gets even more heavenly as the heat rises in the garden. Plant this tropical perennial and a cousin of culinary ginger in the summer shade. USDA zones 7-11.

A little hard to see due to the glare of the 100 degree sun but the walkway is lined with bountiful blooms of Blush Noisette. A really great fragrance as you walk along.

The grass is going very brown as the nursery stock and the landscape beds are the only areas being watered these days. The nursery has missed all the rains that have been in the area recently. I help these beds with organic fertilizer a bit more often as this is the walkway some brides use on their wedding day. It has been remulched recently. A little bit of attention goes a long way.

Gazebo Roses

6-9-09 View of Gazebo

The Antique Rose Emporium in San Antonio sits on the rocky side of IH-35. All of our plantings have done well as we have brought in tons of soil, compost and mulch from Garden-Ville. As I remind those shopping for a climbing rose... their roots are a mirror image of the plant. So if you want a climber that is 20 feet tall make certain the roots will be able to grow 20 feet in the soil. If 2 feet down is rock.... you will be really unhappy with the look of the rose in a few years. As soon as the roots realize they can go no further the plant will decline. This is the story of the Crepescule on our gazebo. Planted in 2001 it reached its glory in 2005:

April 2005. Nice.

6-22-09 - Blush Noisette blooming despite the 90-100 degree temps!

So if you want a climber, do you have deep soil and how tall do you want the rose to ultimately grow? Climbers start at about 8' and some will not stop until the canes are almost 30' long.

YaYa - How tall and large blooms or small blooms?