New Roses

When Harry and I built out lovely retirement home here in Michigan three years ago, we spent a lot of time and money planning and laying out the landscaping of the property.  Most of what we planted has done very well, surviving the winters and coming back in the spring.  Except my Knockout Roses.  They have not done well at all.  Out of the 10 bushes we planted three years ago, two have come back fairly well; four have sort of come back, but look pretty anemic; and we completely lost four.

I decided it was time to replace the ones that had died and hopefully rehab the ones that had not.  So that was my project yesterday.   It was an absolutely gorgeous, but chilly, spring afternoon.  A great day to be outside!

Last week I made a trip to one of the nicest greenhouses here in Portage and bought four beautiful "Scentimental" Floribunda Rose bushes, Rosa Wekplapep.  And they smell divinie!  Like roses should smell :-)

First thing I did was remove the dead bushes.  This was pretty dicey because as you know, roses are covered with thorns!

But I was able to remove the dead bushes relatively easily, although with two of them I had to dig pretty deep to remove all the roots.  Then for each new rose bush, I dug a hole twice the size of the container and a little deeper.  I then put about an inch of composted cow manure in each hole to provide nutrients for the new roses.

Since most roses are grafted, I planted the graft about an inch below the soil.  Digging a larger hole will give the roots space to grow and help establish the plant.

Of course, Miss Laci was very interested in what I was doing!

 Next I turned my attention to pruning and cleaning up the Knockout rose bushes that had survived.  This was an exercise in patience and careful pruning.  Dead, thorny rose branches are not to be taken lightly.

Once I was done, the Knockout bushes looked great!  Or at least I think that maybe they'll have a chance to grow this summer and maybe survive the winter.  Hopefully. . .  :-)

It was a fun day for me.  I love our home here in Michigan but I really miss my garden.  Today I got to play in the dirt and that always makes me happy!  I even had an Eastern Kingbird visit me while I was working.  And that was icing on the cake of this wonderful day.

Time to Replant

Like most Northern gardens, mine took a huge hit this past winter!  It was so brutally cold for so long with so much snow that even plants that normally survive a cold winter died.  Now that spring is here, I took a long walk around the property to assess the damage.  It was not pretty.

I lost three rhododendrons

My dogwood didn't bloom

 My hydrangea got fried

 I lost four of my nine knockout roses

 and the ones I did not lose are going to need some MAJOR pruning!

 My azaleas didn't fare so well either.  I only lost one of four, but the three surviving ones look a bit peaked

 But all in all the landscaping looked pretty good.  My coral bells all did well, 

My peonies are getting ready to bloom

The evergreens all did well and are thriving!

The phlox is blooming away...pretty in pink!

 And I even spied a nest of baby robins in the alcove near my front entrance!

And I did all this surveillance under the ever watchful eye of Gretchen and Laci :-)

So my first act was to replace the dead rhododendrons.   I found these beautiful white ones at the local nursery and in the ground they went.  The blooms on them are just gorgeous.  I love white flowers. . . any kind of white flowers.

 While I was working I had this plump bumble bee visit me and these beautiful blooms.

Since I don't have a vegetable garden here in my Northern home,  I will get my gardening fix playing in the dirt in my landscape beds.  With a view like this every day, I think I can live with that :-)