'Buy meeeee! Buy meeeee!
Oh dear. I go to buy peonies and discover a yard full of old fashioned roses, all shouting out 'Buy meeeee! Buy meeeee! Buy me tooooo!' I haven't revisited the romance of the old-fashioned rose for a while now...
Phormium
Saturday 28th November
I've just won the plant auction for eleven pink single and double peonies, which I plan to present to Daughter of Moosey as her Christmas present. She doesn't seem impressed, and has indicated that she doesn't want any more peonies in 'her' garden.
Pink Peony :- This is one of the prettiest, fluffiest, and pinkest peonies in the Birthday Rose Garden - it's Sarah Bernhardt.
She doesn't even like pink - it's me that likes pink, and anyway she reckons there's no room, and I need to stop using her as an excuse for buying plants for me...
Technically she's right - 'her' garden is pretty much full, and I might have to plant them across the grass path in the Stables Garden. But as the Head Gardener I reserve the right to extend, remodel, and relabel any or all parts of the Moosey garden. The Head Gardener's decision is final... And as her mother I get to choose appropriate Christmas presents? You bet I do!
Right. We (Head Gardener, Non-Gardening Partner, and Daughter of Moosey) are off to the mountains for a big day hike. A saddle, a ridgeline, a super-scree slope, and dripping New Zealand bush. Yippee - Son of Moosey is coming too.
'We are family...
I've got my mother and my sister and my brother with me...'
Cloud Cover on the Ridge-Line
Sunday 29th November
Well, we had an amazing day. I'm not sure if the thrills of gardening (and picking up the new pink peonies) come anywhere close to our hike in the big mountains. Bloggers Rule - When something defies description, don't even try!
All Black Flag :- Go the All Blacks!
Anyway, I'm off to watch the rugby. New Zealand is playing France, but - shock, horror! We are in white, we are not the usual all black All Blacks...
Last night the big irrigation was on for hours, watering the gardens over the water race. Phew! Relief for all my pretty little garden treasures (and my manly trees and shrubs) struggling in the dry nor-west winds. Right. I'm going to have breakfast on the new patio table and listen to us being screwed in the scrums... Aargh! France is our nemesis, rugbywise.
Apricot Iris
Later, Mid-Afternoon...
Oh dear. Oh dear... I'm back from picking up the pink peonies. And... The gardener selling them has many wonderful old-fashioned roses which I can also purchase. So I've been in a total mental tizz on the drive home, plotting and planning, and doing money multiplication in my head.
The roses I particularly like are the honest, shrubby ones - some I already have, like Canary Bird and Fruhlingsmorgen, others include Rosa moyesii Geranium (I love this rose), ramblers Seagull and Kiftsgate, a beauty called Omar Khayyam - the list goes on. And on!
Gardener Downsizing
The gardener is downsizing, and taking just a few of her treasures with her. All the surplus roses look nursery-newish to me, but they're in larger-than-nursery pots, healthy, and some are flowering. Wow. I'm just speechless with the varieties I've seen. I'm thinking BIG - the hay-barn, the orchard paddock, the area behind the pond, the ram paddock...
Non-Gardening Partner might need a bit of encouragement with that last one. Oops. He's busy shredding the last remains of the hedge trimmings - I'd better go and help him. No hidden agenda, of course...
A Bit Later...
Blast. It started drizzling, so NGP decided to tractor-mow the orchard instead of shredding. I came down to earth (literally) weeding the side of the driveway where lots of my Agapanthus are planted. But the drizzle became just too unpleasant. I watered a couple of sulking Pittosporums and thought more about these new old-fashioned roses which are coming to live in my garden. Hee hee...
Corylus Roses
And guess what? New Zealand won the cricket test against Pakistan yesterday. And this morning we won the rugby against France. National pride is restored.
Monday 30th November - Aargh! The Very Last Day of November! Eek!
I have lots of plans for the new old fashioned roses. The Shrubbery needs some - definitely. And I'll definitely get the rugosas (mainly Roseriae de l'Hay). And there's another Corylus - I already have this shrubby rose, and I love it. I think I can make a lovely, natural old-roses-in-big-spaces area behind the pond. Watering? I will have to talk to Non-Gardening Partner. He's not at all happy about me getting another slice of the ram paddock...
Climbing Roses and a Golden Conifer
Right. It's drizzling madly. So I'm off swimming and then I'll do my glass-house work. The basil seedlings are ready to be potted (big pot, for the house patio) and hopefully my pelargonium cuttings will have taken root and be ready for pots. I need them to be proper plants!
Later, Lunchtime...
Look - it's supposed to be summer, but it's cold and wet. So I'm staying inside by the log-burner to plan my new old-fashioned rose garden. And the much reduced Christmas food budget... Hmm...
Later, Early Evening...
Let it be on record that the very last thing I did in the gardening month of November was to spend a chilly, grubby hour in my glass-house, where I sowed my Salvia Horminum seeds, potted up cuttings, shifted seedlings outside to harden off, and generally pottered about. Ha! And the very last thing I noticed in the gardening month of November is that all of a sudden - pouff! The aquilegia flowers are finished. Hmm... When did that happen? They all need trimming down, so they'll build fresh foliage for autumn.