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Showy first bloom – Climbing Westerland Rose

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I’m nuts about roses. I certainly have enough of them growing in my garden to support that statement! I have 60+ rose bushes!

Other than caring for roses and looking at their lovely blooms the next best thing for me is taking pictures of them. Especially ones like the photo above. Isn’t that rose just delicious?

This is one of my new roses. Remember I lost several roses last winter (2006/2007)? It was a cold winter here, but we had very little snow cover that year so the roses and some of my other plants took a beating and some of them had far too much winter damage to survive.

So ….

I replaced the dead roses with five new ones. The rose above is called Climbing Westerland. I planted it around the end of June last year and to the best of my knowledge it didn’t bloom last year at all. Surely I couldn’t have missed huge tangerine blooms like that?

I’m certain I couldn’t have … so lets say these are it’s first blooms for me. What a show!

The blooms are quite large, semi double, fragrant and simply gorgeous.

I certainly like my new rose friend. Do you?

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Rhododendron is just starting to bloom

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Wordless Wednesday

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My rhododendron has just started to flower. Only a few buds are showing the first few red petals, but soon all of the petals will emerge and those buds will open. Each bud will have multiple flowers all bunched together.

My Nova Zembla Rhododendron is just gorgeous when it’s bloom. I wish it bloomed just a little earlier than it does, because unfortunately, it usually blooms around the end of May just as it’s really starting to warm up around here. I’m afraid the heat doesn’t make the blooms very long lasting.

More pictures to come when the Rhododendron is in full bloom.

Are you excited about any of your plants that are blooming or that are just about to bloom? Which ones?

Chinodoxa or Glory of the Snow

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It’s been a beautiful week here in Toronto. The plants in my garden have shown their appreciation of the warm weather by growing and growing and growing some more!

Chionodoxa

The Chionodoxa, Glory of the Snow, is blooming. One day the plants were just short little green leaves, the next a few tiny buds had appears and then the following day the Chionodoxa had grown several inches and were blooming. I’ve got white ones, bluish ones and pink ones blooming in several clumps throughout the back garden.

The Chionodoxa in the front garden beds aren’t blooming yet. That area only gets late afternoon sun so it will probably be another week before they begin to bloom. The tulips in the front beds have really grown in the last day or so though.

I don’t see many people talking about Chionodoxa or Glory of the Snow as they are more commonly called. I wonder if they aren’t a very popular spring flower in many areas? If they aren’t it’s a shame because they are very easy to grow and as you can see from the photo I’ve included above they produce lovely clumps of flowers in the spring garden.

Here’s a little more information about this lovely spring flower:

Latin Name: Chionodoxa luciliae, C. gigantea
Common Name: Glory of the Snow

The species originated in Asia Minor and propagates by offset bulblets. These spring flowering bulbs requires a warm (60 to 70F) – cool (20 to 30F) – warm (35 to 55F) annual thermoperiodic cycle.

Depending upon the area, these bulbs will bloom anywhere from February to April.

If you purchase bulbs for planting they should be 4/5 to 5 cm and up in circumference. Plant in the fall, one inch apart, at five inches in depth.

These flowers are hardy to USDA zone 3 with mulch, and zones 4 to 7 without mulch.

Requires – full sunlight AM or PM sunlight, 25% shade.

Tolerates – summer drought, but requires adequate moisture throughout the growing season.

Look for these bulbs in your local garden center or nursery when Fall bulbs are being sold.

I planted most of mine in 2002 and they’re still going strong so I’d say this is a long lived and or self- propagating plant for most gardens. Mine are growing at the edge of my flower beds as they are relatively short plants that only grow to at most 6 inches in height.

Glory of the Snow are perfect for rock gardens, beds, ground covers, lawns, and woodland gardens. Some companion that Chionodoxa goes well with are Chaenomeles japonica, Forsythia, Jasminum nudiflorum, Helleborus orientalis, Vinca minor, Hammamelis.

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