More Roses and Other Blooms

The Cinco de Mayo rose made its debut with several blooms at once. I was expecting a dusky lavender rose but it is more red than the rose on the tag appeared. Maybe the blooms will turn darker as they age. Still for a first year rose is has nice blooms with promises of more to come.

This small rose, Happy Chappy, has also begun to bloom and I look forward to its ground hugging blooms all summer. The tea roses and climbers are still being shy, but the Queen Elizabeth is teasing me with a couple of blooms, each on a cluster of multiple buds. I can hardly wait for the clusters to open.

Meanwhile, the bees are keeping busy buzzing around the blooms at the front of the house, where the lilies, spirea and cosmos and providing plenty of nectar while they wait to harvest the roses. You can see one on the center bloom of the close-up photo. There were a dozen or so buzzing around, but they don't sit still long enough to get a shot of them at work:)

First Rose of Summer

Yesterday's warm summer sun finally opened the first rose in my garden. This Spellbound tea went from a tight bud on Sunday to a fully opened rose this afternoon. Guess it wanted to take advantage of the sun while it could. The rest of the tea roses are taking their time. Most have only tiny buds and only one other is showing any color on the bud. That's what this cool spring has brought. That and black spot--the curse of rose gardeners in the Pacific Northwest:)

The Betty Boop has several buds that are also ready to open any day. This one is the closest. I love the bi-color of this rose and the fact that it is almost always blooming. It is usually the first to bloom. I only have one other floribunda, the Cinco de Mayo, which I am looking forward to blooming as it is the newest rose in my garden. I will post pictures when it begins to bloom.

This rose was quite a surprise. It opened yesterday too. It is growing on the side of my arbor where a pale pink climber is supposed to be blooming, but isn't yet. On closer inspection, this is a shoot off the root and not the Pearly Gates rose that is grafted on to this root. The other side of the arbor has a Joseph's Coat climber which is also not doing so hot. Both these roses went gangbusters at our last house--may be they need more sun than they are getting here. I think I'll let this "wild rose" hang on and let it give a little inspiration to its showier cousins:)