Well it is a bit late, but I’ve started the task of rampant pruning and other Winter tasks in the garden. This is mostly hedges, various shrubs, a large bougainvillea bush, a couple of fig trees and roses. Then endless organic trash -leaves, berries, citrus detritus, stuff from palm trees blown off in the recent storms, more leaves- needs to be swept up. Over the time I was on Walkabout, it seems that the skunks have battered two huge holes in the back fence, and there are signs of digging everywhere. I will have to rejoin the battle with them, starting first with repairing these holes…. This whole series of things will run over at least two days.
A certain wonderful yellow rose bush has been faithfully giving me roses, even long after the others have begun to just look tall and stringy and barren. I’ve got to prune everything back, so I harvested the last of the roses to put into a vase. Several of them are still full and perfect. And the scent is unbelievable, and indescribable!
So it all started with a bunch of clippings, and then minutes later, gave me a nice indoor display for the living room. Notice that I’ve clipped the leaves away from hanging into the water… I’ve also added a tiny amount of bleach to the water…. all this will lengthen the life of the cut flowers. (Apparently the bleach -which is to control bacteria- is not universally agreed upon, but it seems to work for me.)
-cvj
January 21st, 2006 at 9:03 pm
Lovely roses!
January 21st, 2006 at 9:45 pm
Thanks! A pleasant surprise when I went outside today…….
-cvj
January 22nd, 2006 at 12:32 am
Is there still a tag on those roses? Do you know what they are? I’m always on the lookout for fragrant ones, and those are a lovely color. I’ve heard that you should add a teaspoon full of sugar, as well as the bleach. Supposed to feed them. Don’t know if it’s true.
Aaaggghhh… are those ANVIL clippers? They crunch the stems. Please, for the sake of your roses (which, by the way, in Southern California need pruning only for shape – I hope you didn’t whack them down to a foot high) go invest in a pair of bypass pruners.
Hope you’re not too damaged from pruning the bougainvillea – I finally got rid of mine because pruning it was so brutal.
January 22nd, 2006 at 1:15 am
Hi,
No, I’ve no idea what type those are. I inherited them from the previous owner and have since trnasplanted them…. I’ll look. These are so fragrrant that I’m tempted to turn some of the clippingsi into new plants, alhough I really don’t want to have more high-water use plants in a Southern California garden….. but they are so nice…. The anvil clippers are fine if the blade is razor sharp, which is how I keep it. I know what you mean, though. Yes, I did whack them quite a bit down…. They seem to like it a lot, they grow a huge amount in the year and so I’ve cut them way back to restart….and it gives me a lot of room to work on some other things in their vicinity…. rebuilding the ground around them (skunk attacks) and turning an adjoining bit into a gravel garden. I’ve yet to do the fight with the Bougainvillea….thick gloves for that. I might pop a bit of sugar in after 24 hours.
Thanks for the thoughts and advice,
-cvj
January 22nd, 2006 at 11:47 am
What in the world do the skunks do? We actually don’t have them here in the middle of the valley.
January 22nd, 2006 at 4:43 pm
January 22nd, 2006 at 5:16 pm
hullo!
i have given up on 2 things-
A) telling folks back east how lovely the roses are in december
B) pruning the roses as if we lived back east
and we seem to be happier for it-the roses don’t need to put so much energy in regaining their height requirement for bloom production and hence give forth ridiculous amounts of flowers(to keep secret!)
i do a moderate pruning-the thin stickly branches-the brown leaves-the branches growing at odds w the rest of the bush-bringing the bush to about 2/3rds its height-
all the while remembering they are thorn bushes w/ flowers!
and how lucky we are for it!!!
as for the bouganvilla-they seem to love to get, what they dish out- don’t they!
and for me, they work as a security fence.
and PS-yellow is the color that says hello-the first color we see-the color of the sun that says good morning etc…..
and if your looking for a wonderful yellow that smells great, try the graham thomas from david austin-it takes a couple of years to settle in, but then- watch out!
January 22nd, 2006 at 5:57 pm
“What in the world do the skunks do? We actually don’t have them here in the middle of the valley.”
You used to, back in the day. Lots of wildlife actually, and i suspect more than you imagine now even.
A great identification website i have used (there is a huge summer rose garden in the local park near me) is:
http://www.justourpictures.com/roses/yellowroses.html
January 22nd, 2006 at 5:58 pm
Hello Alisa! Welcome to the blogosphere (assuming you’re the Alisa I think you are). Yeah… I’m about to tackle the bougainvillea now…. where are my thick gloves. I wonder?
-cvj