A collage to end the season

We bid farewell to another rose growing season.  Photos of some of the garden visits of this past year are presented in the collage shown below.  Just keep reading this blog for the specifics of each garden  and even more photos.  A special thanks to the smart people at BeFunky, whose website befunky.com allows anyone to use their free online collage making tools.

Resplendent roses at St. Timothy's Church

Congratulations to Mike G for his careful tending of the roses at St. Timothy's.  Quite a few folks were on hand for this late afternoon's tour of the garden, led by Mike.  That's him to the right in the first photo below, and that's one of the resident roses in the second photo.   The 5 o'clock light of a mildly overcast afternoon brought out the color of this 'Chicago Peace' rose, and it was absolutely glowing.

John, Harriet, Larie, Laveryne, Maryann, Mike G

The 'Chicago Peace' rose

The photo below captures the wide length of the rose bed.  Mike lets the roses grow to a good size, as you can see when you compare the rose bushes to the height of the onlookers.

But the garden has some depth, too.  At both ends, the bed wraps around with many more rose bushes.  The photos below show the extensions on either side.

Left flank and front

Right flank and front

Redemption

Laveryne was the gracious host of yesterday evening's open garden.  It had been two years since we last visited her garden, so I finally got a chance to redeem myself for the "issues" that I had with my camera when photographing that event.  Also, it was not long after that visit that I started using the photo "stitching"  computer software that came on a CD when I bought the camera.  You'll see the results below.

First let me say that Laveryne is affiliated with the Marion County Master Gardener Association and also the Salem Hardy Plant Society.  Her Master Gardener skills show throughout the garden, and her roses are complemented by an outstanding collection of perennials, shrubs, and trees.

As you see in the two photos below, quite a few rose bushes greet visitors as they approach the front yard.  Laveryne is seen identifying the roses for a group of SRS members and friends. 

Front yard

Maryann, Laveryne, Mike G, Harriet, Brad, Arlene

Hopefully, the next two stitched photos do justice to a spectacular  back yard.

Annual open garden at Mike C's

A small group of us enjoyed the many and varied roses at Mike C's garden this evening.  The discussions were dynamic, and Bill walked away with some highly coveted cuttings -- his reward for having hosted our previous open garden.  The stitched photo below captures the spirit of the evening.  You may want to look back one year to the post of July 25, 2014 (titled Tall roses, and some short ones too), where a "guest photographer" caught a couple images of the elusive Mike C.  And wouldn't you know it, Mike has a rose blog with lots of photos that you are welcome to read, and here's the link: mikesroses-salem.blogspot.com

Bill,      Candy,      Maryann                                                                      

Bill's garden is looking very nice

The tour of Bill's garden was of a self-guided nature this year due to family commitments.  However, Bill was able to spare a brief period with Maryann and her photographer/blogger comrade today, the last day of May.  As seen in the photo below, the garden is a masterpiece.  The neighborhood is very lucky to have this in its midst.

Below are a couple more photos, taken at closer range.  If Bill looks familiar, maybe you have seen him over at the Bush Pasture Park Rose Garden, where he volunteers as the caretaker of the large group of "Miss Sally's Roses".    Also, for a look back in time, click on the tab at the top of the blog, the one that says GARDEN TOURS & PHOTOS.   Once there, browse down to the area of Vintage photos from Summer of 2011.   You'll see a photo of Bill's garden (and people) from 4 years ago.

Happy New Rose Year !

With the benign weather that we had this late Winter and early Spring, you bet we would take advantage of it.  We were at Maryann's "rose ranch" today for some rose pruning tips, the candidate rose being a healthy medium-sized shrub along the back fence.  It was a bit overgrown and needed some thinning out, but at the same time needed to retain a semblance of its original height and shape.

All things considered, it was a masterful pruning job, as you will see in the before and after photos below:

Virginia, Martha, Maryann, Anne, Craig
(BEFORE)

Martha and Maryann
(AFTER)

With a mound of clippings lying about, and with some showing some healthy new leaf buds, Maryann demonstrated how to score the bottom of a selected cutting (left photo), while three prepared cuttings (right photo) await some rooting hormone powder or planting as-is.