Monday, June 29, 2009

Wild Roses


This year is the first time this wild rose has bloomed in our yard. They are growing along the edge of the woods mixed into brush.

The Pasture Rose, (Carolina Rose ) is a native plant to the eastern and central parts of North America, from zones 4 to 9. It is a deciduous shrub type plant and a member of the rose family, Rosaceae. Growing from a height of 3 to 6 feet and a spread of 5 to 10 feet, this plant produces a beautiful pink flower.

Conditions that it likes to grow in is an area of full sun and a moist, loamy soil that is well drained. Allowing this plant to grow in full sun will give it the environment needed to provide the best flowering and to prevent disease. It is more resistant to diseases of it's foliage than most hybrid roses. Good air circulation is very important in growing a healthy plant. Pruning should be done in late winter to early spring.

The flowers of the pasture rose is about 2 1/2 to 3 inches in diameter, each flower consists of 5 pedals, 5 green pointed sepals, a numerous amount of bright yellow stamens and a flat wide pistil structure in the center of the flower. This plant blooms early summer. lasting for about a month. After the blooms have finished, a bright red hips will appear, usually flattened if compared to most wild roses.

The root system of this plant consists of a central taproot that penetrates deeply into the soil and occasionally branching. Shallow rhizomes allow this plant to spread it's vegetation and form small colonies.

The pasture rose is an excellent choice to be planted in mass borders, rose gardens and to naturalize an area of your yard, along with being included in a nature garden to attract wildlife to your backyard.

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Sunday, June 28, 2009

Just a Few Pictures

While sitting outside on the back porch I had a few visitors that I would like to share.

This deer was enjoying her afternoon strolling through the yard on the backside of the garden. There are usually three of then that come through here everyday. They haven't been a problem after I fenced the garden in. They were before that.

Here is one of the four hummingbirds that are around all day at the feeders e have setup for them.


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Lily and Daffodil Garden

Creating a new garden with daffodils and lilies that you already have growing in your yard is easy to do. They are both plants that are easy to divide and replant. I have these plants growing in several location around my yard and they are starting to get to crowded. Time to dig them up and start a new garden.

I picked a location that is on a slope, not an easy place to mow and keep maintained. A good location to plant flowers. It gets sun a good part of the day and the soil in that area stays moist. This picture as taken early morning before the sun was fully up. I am going to plant a combination of lilies and daffodils there to start.



First I have to remove all the weeds and sod that is growing in the area. Then I mixed in a generous amount of compost to improve the soils structure. Once I finished mixing the compost in I raked it level and laid out the lilies I dug from one of my other gardens.



Once I got the lilies planted, I took handfuls of daffodil bulbs that I also dug from another garden and through them between the lilies and planted them where they landed. It adds a more natural look than spacing them in a line of pattern.


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