weekly bloom: roses

I had this whole (long) post going, about what I've added to the front garden and my future plans for it, but Mother Nature interrupted and insisted that I write about something better. And prettier. And then I thought, why not make this a weekly thing? It will, at least, give me the chance to keep up with the garden note-taking, as things go in and out of season. I won't be able to cover everything that's in bloom from week to week (that would be too much). But I can cover large swaths, and this week I even have the best topic: roses!

These are the 'Amber Sun' roses, two landscape shrubs (meaning: low to the ground) I put in next to the main walkway to the house. Both are blooming, with at least four flowers and more buds on the way. I had given up on seeing any of the new roses bloom this year — they are all very verdant and healthy, with multitudes of glossy green leaves, but hadn't budded while all of the neighbourhood roses are in glorious flower — so I had assumed. But, here they are!




Their colour is described as "copper yellow." I was expecting slightly more copper (like the bud below), but the first few roses were very pale, very yellow with a tinge of pink. I took these photographs yesterday. This morning there were more blooms, and they were much more orange, more like the half-open bud above.




I love them. These were the roses I chose even though the nursery was already out of full-sized plants for the season; I just couldn't let them go. Obviously, that doesn't seem to have hurt their chances any. Even better: they are supposed to be "continuous blooming," so I may even be able to enjoy them a few weeks more!




I also found some mystery roses in the back garden. I swear they weren't there last year! I noticed the shrub when I was pruning the others this year, but had assumed that they were more scabrosa roses (we have at least two, big towering ones). But no! These are double, maybe even full, and a pale pink. The shrub doesn't have that many flowers on it — maybe a half dozen. I've found that the roses in the back need reasonably heavy pruning in order to bud properly, so next year I will make sure to cut it back more. (I barely touched it this year.)



And the scabrosa roses, of course. These have been in bloom for a good two weeks, along with the rugosas (which I neglected to take a picture of). They are about the same as last year, except even bigger; these ones are taking over the rhubarb patch. We used to have the Rhubarb Patch That Ate Toronto, until — sometime last summer — the scabrosa made a leap for the shed roof; now it forms an arbour and is using the neighbour's hedge to (literally) climb to new heights. Meanwhile, the small patch that used to be full sun is now deep shade, and the rhubarb are fighting a rearguard action.




I don't know who I'm rooting for in this fight. I don't necessarily want the scabrosa to take over the entire north wall of the back garden — which it threatens to do — on the other hand, I don't even like rhubarb.