Tuesday 16 June 2015

Blooming Marvellous!

Isn't it great when you start to see some of your hard work paying off!  The roses I inherited from the last owners have started to bloom, and they're a delight :) When I first took over the garden the three rose bushes were rather sad specimens, disease ridden and covered in aphids, I wasn't confident that I would get much out of them.

So as soon as winter started to recede I got busy with the pruning, cut all the wiry branches back, and essentially leaving the bare bones of the roses. I'd never pruned before so watched a few youtube tutorials and firmly crossed my fingers...

Pre pruning...






Post haircut, fingers crossed







A few months on and they're thriving!


 I'm sure the soil improvement we did for the new plants helped out no end, but a little TLC had made all the difference. I'm still not sure what type the roses are, but the centre bush appears to have roses that bloom yellow, tranisition to pink, then finally turning deep scarlet, which I believe makes it a harlequin.

With the other plants so new in the garden the roses are providing a wonderful splash of colour. I really cannot stop looking at them :) 

Friday 5 June 2015

Wee beasties

So its been a few days, but my Phlox and Penstemon are still under attack from these strange black insects. I've googled aphids, thrips, and several other well known garden beasties, but none of them seem to match the guilty critters!

Last night I managed to scrape one out alive and intact (they're so small I usually end up squashing them) to photograph. This will help my detective work no end!


Anyway enough of sickly plants, I have many more that are fit and well, and growing furiously in the sun, and my garden on a roll bed is starting to look positively jungly in places. Not too many flowers yet but plenty of green and very excited. Will take another round of photos and post this weekend :)