Garden Bloggers’ Bloom Day – November 2011
The weather has been so weird lately but not only in Venice though, I think almost everybody noticed that, somehow.
It has been hot, dry, then wet and misty, then windy… I haven’t had frost yet. Plants are so confused they don’t know if it’s spring or late summer: only few of them realized we are in autumn! Roses are generating new shoots and buds, that worries me a bit but I feel honored to have a final smell on them. The scent is stronger than in summer and colours are slightly different.
Rosa 'Adam Messerich' a single flowered pearl pink Bourbon rose with a strong scent
Rosa Cècile Brunner
I only planted Adam Messerich last july and it has flowered 3-4 times in flushes through the season. Cècile Brunner has been planted last year, after a few years in a big pot in my previous garden, started from cuttings. It is very reliable and always in bloom until frost. Another rose I really appreciate is Rosalita, a hybrid musk. Flowers are whitish when seen from a certain distance but looking closer you can see salmon, apricot and yellow tones. The scent is delicate and sweet.
Rosa Rosalita
All the salvia microphylla type I have have been in flower since last may and counting. I’d rather say they’ve produced more flowers from september on than in summer. Normally I’m not very lucky with salvias because they like a perfectly drained soil when you have wet winters and frost like me but the microphylla type is tougher than other kinds.
How many pics did I put of salvia 'Navajo' already? Well I just love it.
Unlabelled salvia microphylla. A pure magenta like this is pretty fussy in pictures...
I have a red one, aging pale pink, it’s another unlabelled salvia but I like it because it’s very easy from cuttings and the foliage is strongly aromatic. That one is nearly impossible to photograph though.
Then I have plants that really are messed up with seasons they don’t have a clue…
Schizostylis in bloom for the second time since august...
Salvia nemorosa (I'm not sure this is Ostfriesenland)
Oenothera. Well this is in flower whenever she wants...
A pink annual larkspur. This is odd.
Other plants simply never stopped flowering since they start, sometimes this kind of plant bores me after a while, they blend with the background somehow but then you realize they’re always there and you can’t help but love them.
Helenium Waldtraut, planted this year, it has been flowering since late july, the first one of all my heleniums and apparently the last one too! Flowers are paler and paler though.
Persicaria microcephala Red Dragon has beautiful new leaves, that then age into a dark green. Stems are ruby red though and the small white flowers are always present.
Penstemons are very reliable plants and they are easy from cuttings too. This is Black Bird.
This white aster has broad leaves with a nice lace on the rims, it's pretty bushy and has a long long flowering period. Its only lack is I forgot its name...
Other plants they know very well we are in autumn though, this is because they have been waiting so long for this season they just can’t miss it, whatever the weather decides to do… It’s grasses and trees I’m talking about.
The Grass garden
Panicum Warrior bending and shining after morning mist.
Muhlenbergia capillaris after the same morning mist
...and when it dried out
The strong miscanthus sinensis Ferne Osten and the tall yellow stems of molinia Transparent
First fruits on one of the 3 crab apple I've planted last spring. This is Red Sentinel
Hydrangea paniculata's dried flowers are holding up for all winter. This is Vanilla&Fraise
Translucent leaves of the birch
Thank you for passing by and eventually dropping a line.
Do you really want to end up biting your lips with envy?? Follow the link and see what is blooming in gardens around the World thanks to Carol from May Dreams Gardens and Garden Bloggers’ Bloom Day.
BREAKING NEWS!!!
I’m nearly sure Mina is pregnant now. I guess she’s due for the end of this month, even if it’s likely for her to wait the full moon at the beginning of december. I’m not very happy this time because I’m very busy with the house these days, it will be hard for me to take care of the puppies too. I hope I’m going to find some good persons to give them away. For sure one baby will be sent over to Oregon to a friend of mine as promised…
Mina is definitely carrying babies but she does not loose her temper hunting lizards...
Rudy seems totally unaware of what is round the corner... Play Rudy, play...
AltroVerde 
Your roses are delightful – this has certainly been a good year for them all. Must try some of your Salvia microphylla and see if they survive with me – like you I have not had much success with Salvias so far. Your garden certainly has lots of lovely flowers and grasses still creating pleasing pictures everywhere.
Congratulations to Mina, hope everything goes to plan for her.
Thank you Pauline. Give a try to this salvia group, you could have some success!
Mina says thank you too. Unfortunately nothing went to plan since the beginning with this pregnancy. I’m excited and very worried for a lot of things at the same time. I’ll keep you posted, this for sure!
Great to see what’s still going on in your garden Alberto. Still Roses and other stuff blooming amongst the decay of our garden. We Just planted the Rose Adam Messerich in February of this year, it flowered well the blooms at first a deep shade of pink and becoming paler as they aged. alistair
You are right, they bloom deep magenta and fade much paler. I didn’t know a bourbon rose could flourish so many times in a year, it probably has some Portland rose blood in its DNA. Nice rose by the way, I’m waiting to see how it grows and behave. Thanks for passing by!
Love your roses and the blooms, but your dogs stole the show for me!
Happy GBBD 🙂
LOL! I know they steal the show… The thing you don’t know is that they even steal your slippers sometimes! Thanks Christine
Oh my your gardens look like late summer and not winter at all! Especially the roses–still glorious. That Cècile Brunner must be a shrub not a climber–It is one of my very favorites. But really we must focus on the puppies. I see you are already feeling the pressure of finding them homes– But so exciting. Now you have your readers’ attention about this and we will be needing updates and all the adorable photos and a full report on the excitement of the births. You might need a lab coat too, and a stethoscope… Dr. Alberto!
That Cècile Brunner has a history, because it came a few years ago as a gift, it was a rooted cutting from a friend (the gift, not the cutting). We didn’t Know if it was Cècile Brunner or Bloomfield Abundance (which is practically the same rose but bigger and wider, the american form, I guess) so I kept it on a pretty big terracotta pot for years. Finally I planted it in this garden and it turned out to be a Cècile. Good for me. I love this rose too, I have the white form and I’m waiting for its yellow form too (Perle d’Or). I think there is a Cècile Brunner clg. too which is probably the one you were talking about.
I want to start playing in advance with the puppies, they’re going to stay at mine for their first 2 months, after that I have to find them a new place to stay and a job and they have bills to pay and stuff, you know… Do you remember you have been kidding me about puppies? Well here they are. Watch out when they ring your door in a couple of months or so… you never know you can find an untended basket.
And don’t worry I will post loads of pictures, maybe this could help finding them a new home.
I actually have a lab coat but I use it for other thing I can’t tell here, actually. I think I don’t need any stethoscope, I was watching Mina’s belly last night, she was asleep on the sofa and I noticed something moving under the skin. Moving strongly, as if she was possessed. It scared me out! I dreamt we gave born to three puppies that night.
Pretty photos!
Nice haircut! 😀
Everything is looking really beautiful, I’m surprised the weather has been so good for you too. As always the grasses are just the BEST! I love them. Don’t give up on David Austin roses, some are excellent. Molineaux, Queen of Sweden and Sceptr’d Isle flowered and flowered and all od them have good perfume. I really love dark seductive roses like Tradescant and William Shapespeare their perfume is even better than the others. Old roses are of course special and it’s lovely to have them too if space allows. Christina
There are actually 2 things I can’t stand in D. Austin’s roses: the way they shoot branches out of the plant, utterly unaware of where they’re going to, I mean without a project of life… The second thing is the flowers are sooo huge and heavy, they should be american roses, rather than english! As you can see I like small flowered roses and simple blooms. Anyway I decided to give them a try. I’ll let you know.
aloha,
love the late fall blooms and the beautiful grasses, congrats on the pregnancy 🙂
Aloha! Thanks for the congrats but I’m not the father huh! Just to be clear… 🙂
I need more time to look at your stunning exotic beauties and write something clever… (well not stupid at least)
I’m enjoying freeze dried roses too while we look toward winter. Puppies!
Last night I saw frost for the first time in the season. During daytime is still pretty warm though.
I love Rosalito Alberto, I often prefer the simpler roses, great for the pollinators too. Great grass garden too, so many interesting textures.
I prefer simpler roses too, or species. I am trying to pay more attention to birds, insects, and life beyond the plants in the garden. This is because of all the other blogs I follow: people feeding birds, butterflies, choosing plants for bees… I like it and I want to care more about it. I have some bird house project in my mind for the winter but I must finish my house before…
You have a beautiful garden with great variety. I enjoyed seeing it very much. Happy Bloom day, and congratulations to Mina and Rudy!
Thanks hoover! (hoover?)
I enjoyed your blog too, a little too much exotic for my climate but very interesting to follow!
Hi Alberto,
Wonderful photos; it sounds like everyone is having very strange November weather – although thankfully we’ve missed all the storms here!
I noticed yesterday that all my scabious have new blooms on them after I had assumed they’ve finished a month or two ago! I also spotted some Crocus noses peeking through the soil yesterday as well as what I believe to be tulips!
Oh I want a crocus nose too! We missed the storms as well, but our friends in Toscana and Liguria had been seriously damaged. Crazy crazy weather!
Beautiful post, as always, Alberto! I just love Persicaria ‘Red Dragon’, it somehow manages to look amazing from spring until frost…quite a feat! Of course, the grasses are my fave…that Muhly is so great…I really need to try to find a spot for mine with more sun. Oh…and congrats on the puppies 😉
Mina has been acting like a little star since I told her the enthusiasm she aroused.
I became a fan of all persicarias lately, they’re pretty and pretty tough, which is what I need in the garden.
And about your verbene rigida I remembered the name: I think it’s polaris, isn’t it? Must find it because the colour is wonderful.
Oh, the muhlenbergia – very beautiful. That is on my list. Very lovely photos!
Thanks Erica, I like it a lot too. The bad part of muhly grass is from spring till mid-summer, when it is rather dull.
Thanks for the comment Alberto. In regards to the Little Bluestem growing requirements. Well, I’m not an expert but there are a few things I’ve learned. High fertility it does not like. I’ve seen them grow in sand and clay, but I haven’t seen them in bottomlands or moist areas, mainly on slopes and highlands. Supposedly their roots can reach 7-20 feet through rock and boulders. I planted mine in a compost added clay and they flop(or lodge as agricultural agents say). I have transplanted some from the wild and have purchased many from nurseries. I think if you live with wet winters I would plant them in an elevated area and use gravel mulch to keep the crown from rotting in the winter. I would place them in the middle of the border. They are very slow to arrive in the spring, so plant a companion plant that creates interest in the spring while the grass matures.
Thanks for the tips, Greggo. I suspected it is one of those plants you have to make them suffer to make them good, like some kind of people!!! 🙂 I think I’ll try it out next spring, maybe in the gravel stream I’m now keeping stipas.