Watering the roses...
I've had two wonderful watering days. The new pump is behaving, and I've been busy hosing water onto many of the roses. They deserve this, since they are just starting to flower. Love those beautiful roses...
And the nicest watering of all, late this afternoon, just as I was packing up my tools. Thunder started booming, followed almost immediately by heavy rain (and no wind to do too much bloom or stem damage). And it's still raining. Well done! So all the seedlings behind the glass-house will have been watered by nature.
As will have my newly planted Hostas. Went to check on them this morning - shock, horror! They were covered in little black holes. On closer inspection I saw lots of black blowflies snoozing on the beautiful unblemished leaves. Gross...
Some of the New Hostas
Yesterday I'd worked my way further down the Allotment Garden, removing Alkanet and Campion, and pointing the hoses onto the bases of the big fence-line roses. Today I've been weeding and watering in the Hump Garden, and trimming more of the lawn edges. I planted the final new standard rose, watered it and all the other new ones, did a bit of helpful pruning, and threw old forget-me-nots around as mulch. I do hope these rehomed roses survive their rather late-season uprooting and relocation. If not, too bad!
Fifty shades of pink...
Am always surprised by the subtle shades of pink roses in my garden, from cool blueish tones to the warmer salmons, and all tones in between. What I call 'lolly pink' (like pink Grootendoorst) is probably in the middle.
If I was a flower I would like to be pink - any pink would do. Aha! Instand research : bees like to visit pink colored flowers because pink falls within their ultraviolet vision. But apparently they cannot perceive red. To prevent bees from visiting my garden, I should plant red roses, red tulips, and red daylilies. Oh really? Small footnote : can't speak for the red roses, but my bees adore the single red dahlias.