Well if you'd like to see that pic of my Denver home and roses do as I did...go to Google and type in:
1684 Willow Street Denver CO 80220
That was my first home (not counting my mobile home I owned in Tampa in the 1980s) and nice that I paid $53,000 for that little 829 square foot house in 1987, its equity (I made countless extra principal payments over the years) bought THIS home for $60,000 cash November of 1998, and I sold it for $153,500 JUST before the bottom fell out. Oh those were some hard yet heady years out there, trapped in that horrid climate by a VERY upside down mortgage for many years until things turned around. But how that home made my current ease, and love of Old Roses possible, is sweet poetic justice. John
Friday, July 22, 2011
Own Root Roses Still Thriving At My Old Denver Home!
Thanks to a heads up from my long time customer and friend Donna Bevis, I learned of this photo taken some June (which year I'd love to know) of my home in Denver where I fell in love with own root Old Roses in 1989. I moved out November of 2002, it was a poorly maintained rental for two years, but just look at all those roses! This picture evokes a whole ocean of memories. John
http://www.homes.com/Home-Prices/ID-500012432738/1684-WILLOW-ST/
http://www.homes.com/Home-Prices/ID-500012432738/1684-WILLOW-ST/
Saturday, July 16, 2011
'Conrad Ferdinand Meyer' in Tampa
Despite humid heat hitting the upper 90s, my three year old plant in a 15 gallon Water Wise Container Garden has sent out a wave of new growth and this first bloom. That smell!!! In Denver my plant was utterly cold hardy and HUGE, You can buy it from the good folks at The Antique Rose Emporium 1-800-441-0002. John
Tuesday, July 5, 2011
New Roses for Former 'Mermaid' Bed
Today I plan on choosing from my inventory out back likely candidates to be planted in 5 gallon Water Wise Container Gardens then buried in that bed that currently is home to "Pink Cracker Rose", "Walnut Street Yellow" (a Wichuraina Rambler found in Boulder by Mikl and Eve Brawner of Harlequins Gardens nursery there) and a recently purchased own root Mystery Rose that I suspect is 'Belinda'. I am leaning towards 'General Jacqueminot', 'Mrs. B. R. Cant', 'Nastarana' and a few other shrubs, plus will choose two climbers for the two naked rebars in that bed. I am planting annuals and perennials in between the roses, with daylilies and Louisiana Iris in buried 4 gallon Water Wise Container Gardens due to their thirsty natures. I recently had a big pile of beautiful mulch delivered by Independent Tree Service here in Tampa and am swathing the front beds with it, then redoing the pathways with nice fresh red pine needles I rake from my neighbor Theresa's yard.
One new problem is troubling...the heat and the rain we HAVE gotten has made a weed I LOATHE re-emerge in the bed nearest my front doorn and the adjoinng path...nut sedge! Once again I can pull and pull and it persists, coming up right THROUGH the carpet in the pathways....arrgghhh! I will likely resort to my home made answer to Round Up that is based on pure glyphosate but with NO scary adjuvants.....I have for years called it "Weedz-B-Fucked" and I feel okay using it after spending 18 months in Denver investigating Glyphosate vs. Round Up. I'd LOVE to eliminate that damn sedge once and for all.
I am likely cutting down then digging up 'Newport Fairy' as not only did it not bloom at all this spring despite a cold winter, it is HUGE and has die-back. I can just imagine 'Crepuscule' in a buried 5 gallon Water Wise Container Garden in its place.
Now off to tackle weeds and progagate Moringa Tree and my own hybrid roses plus pot up edible passion fruit vines and more.
John
One new problem is troubling...the heat and the rain we HAVE gotten has made a weed I LOATHE re-emerge in the bed nearest my front doorn and the adjoinng path...nut sedge! Once again I can pull and pull and it persists, coming up right THROUGH the carpet in the pathways....arrgghhh! I will likely resort to my home made answer to Round Up that is based on pure glyphosate but with NO scary adjuvants.....I have for years called it "Weedz-B-Fucked" and I feel okay using it after spending 18 months in Denver investigating Glyphosate vs. Round Up. I'd LOVE to eliminate that damn sedge once and for all.
I am likely cutting down then digging up 'Newport Fairy' as not only did it not bloom at all this spring despite a cold winter, it is HUGE and has die-back. I can just imagine 'Crepuscule' in a buried 5 gallon Water Wise Container Garden in its place.
Now off to tackle weeds and progagate Moringa Tree and my own hybrid roses plus pot up edible passion fruit vines and more.
John
Sunday, June 26, 2011
Mystery Rose from a Tampa nursery
TNS Nursery on West Hillsborough Avenue, right next to the airport runway in Tampa, is selling this virtually scentless rose, own root, in 3 gallon pots, for $7 as I recall. My initial reaction upon seeing them,. then checking http://www.helpmefind.com/. is that they are the Hybrid Musk 'Belinda'. It is now planted in my former 'Mermaid' bed in a 5 gallon Water Wise Container Garden where I hope it prospers.....I'd love to use it in my breeding worker as I am a slut for big clusters of blooms.....I can just imagine boinking 'Duchesse de Brabant' or "York Street Yellow" with it and getting stellar seedlings.
John
John
Friday, June 10, 2011
Roses in the drought
"Jo An's Pink Perpetual"
"Fairmount Red"
The original plant of "Fairmount Proserpine" in Denver
As I luxuriate in the good energy of having healed in less than 24 hours from my first stomach flu in 20-25 years, I was further bolstered this morning to enjoy, despite this crushing drought, new blooms on 'Safrano' and "Fairmount Proserpine" and "Jo An's Pink Perpetual" and Rosa bracteata, plus my first ripe OP hip this year on 'Louise Odier' as those on "Fairmount Red" ripen. Folks can order "Fairmount Proserpine" and "Jo An's Pink Perpetual" from Heather Campbell at High Country Roses in Utah. John
"Fairmount Red"
The original plant of "Fairmount Proserpine" in Denver
"Fairmount Proserpine" bloom in Tampa
Monday, June 6, 2011
'Reve d'Or'
I love this rose and lost a couple here in the long term drought when they were very young, but this one is thriving in a 4 gallon Water Wise Container Garden made from a hard boiled eggs bucket and is buried next to my mail box. The ancestry of this stunning climber is alluring, so I look forward to seeing in 2013 or so the seedlings resulting from the open pollinated seeds in this very nice crop of OP hips now ripening on it. Plus I have fat hips resulting from my pollinating this lovely Tea-Noisette with 'Rose Eduoard' and "York Street Yellow" from Denver.
I love the sensuous, tawny petals plus the vigor of the plant if given ample moisture. When I lived in Denver I knew someone growing one in Ft. Collins! I intend to do a lot of breeding with this gem of a climbing rose.
John
I love the sensuous, tawny petals plus the vigor of the plant if given ample moisture. When I lived in Denver I knew someone growing one in Ft. Collins! I intend to do a lot of breeding with this gem of a climbing rose.
John
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