| July 1, 2007 Bought a clematis at Lowe's to climb the new "trellis wall" on the back deck. Started alfalfa tea. Fed all potted annuals. |
| July 2, 2007 Got the Jackson and Perkins roses potted up. Put 'Teasing Georgia' to grow on the fence. Treated ponds. |
| July 3, 2007 Watered and washed roses. |
| July 4, 2007 Applied alfalfa tea/Miracle Gro/chelated iron to all roses. Tea and MG to hostas. Dumped the tomato and cucumber and moved 'Christopher Marlowe' to that area. |
| July 5, 2007 Rain late afternoon totally 1 1/4". Killed about 75 Japanese beetles. Pruned the 'Climbing Pinkie' a bit. I like how it's growing on the mailbox fence, but not on the other side of the driveway-too much in that bed. Will have to re-evaluate this. 'Madame Isaac Periere' is growing well and has a bud--tied up some of her canes. Same with 'Gertrude Jekyll'. |
| July 6, 2007 'Pretty Jessica' arrived (had been back-ordered) and was potted up. There are lots of buds on the roses. I'd like to see them open, so I sprayed the buds with Bayer Insect Control. I'm hoping this will hinder the Japanese beetles a bit. Pruned azaleas. |
| July 7, 2007 Watered roses early so I could spray tonight. Got a new metal arbor to go over the steps on the left side of the porch. 'Sombreuil' has such nice long canes I hate to cut them off so they will now also climb on this arbor. Replaced 4 dead/sick roses: 'Bouquet Parfait' replaced 'Erfurt', 'Lilac Charm' replaced 'Bill Warriner', 'Salet' replaced 'Radox Bouquet', and 'Cafe' replaced 'Irene Watts' ('Pink Gruss an Aachen'). Planted 'Borderer' in the pentagon bed where the creeping thyme was dying. Mowed the lawn. Sprayed roses with Bayer Advanced Disease Control and killed some Japanese beetles. |
| July 8, 2007 Applied Messenger to roses and hostas. John installed the new metal arbor--looks great! Watered ferns and newly-planted roses. Killed more beetles. Hot!!! |
| July 9, 2007 Hotter!!! Fed pond plants, spred Deer Scram, did some deadheading and hosed off some spider mites. Just can't get rid of them this year. |
| July 10, 2007 Light rain in the afternoon cooled things off but just made things more humid. Watered new roses, killed beetles and investigated why all the iris in the tiny bed have died. Found iris borers. Cleaned that bed out. Since it's a small bed, I think I'll replace the soil and plant a few of the potted irises I have. Sent soil samples to Tech for analysis. |
| July 11, 2007 Had a rain of about 1/4". Got the soil replaced in that small bed. Deadheaded in the pond bed and the front porch bed. 'Aloha' is beginning to bloom again and so far they are all vegetative centers. Much more of this and they're history. Quite a few roses blooming now. |
| July 12, 2007 Moved the miniatures out into more sun. Tied up some climbers and deadheaded. Planted 3 iris in the tiny bed. Still washing roses. Watered containers. Still killing Japanese beetles but fewer and fewer as the Bayer works. |
| July 13, 2007 Washed and watered in preparation for spraying with Bayer tomorrow. Gave 'Smith's Parish' and 'Blanc Double de Courbert' to my neighbor. Got rid of 'Cl. Souvenir de la Malmaison'. Two years and not sign of a bud--enough! Planted 'Francesca' in that pot. Got plant dollys for about half of the potted roses--will get more. Moved the surplus potted hostas from the front porch to the back deck. Now that the minis are not there there's room. Took the minis to the driveway in preparation for renovating the daylily bed tomorrow. |
| July 14, 2007 Sprayed with Bayer Advanced Disease Control. Renovated the long daylily bed. One section had to have all new timbers--they were all rotten. Planted miniature roses in those beds--climbers in the center of each on an obelisk. The soil was bone dry--not sure how the daylilies were thriving. Took a while to moisten it enough for the roses. Soaker hose in place. |
| July 15, 2007 Watered and mulched the new mini rose beds. Dug up all geranium 'Tiny Monster' and gave them to my neighbor. Planted daylilies in their place. All other daylilies were given to my neighbor. Killed at least 200 Japanese beetles. Got enough plant trollys for almost all the rest of the container roses. Will look for a few more. |
| July 16, 2007 Rose society annual picnic held here today. We had a severe thunderstorm in the afternoon with 1/2" of rain, so everything was wet, but there were still some roses to see. Henry brought his new toy: a lighted microscope and looked for spider mites on several of my worst affected roses. They were all clean, so my watering must've worked--for now. He shared a little Floramite with me to try next time they show up. He also took some soil samples to test for pH with his kit. It will be interesting to see how it compares with the results from my El Cheapo kit and meter and the samples I sent to Tech. He also confirmed my suspicions about a couple of minis. One is just declining for no apparent reason and one has some witches broom type growth. Neither of us think it's RRD, but it should come out. |
| July 17, 2007 Got a large pot for 'Renae'. Decided to move the second 'Renae' on the railing and put her on the other side of the new arbor so there will be a 'Renae' on both sides. That should be a show once she matures. Called High Country Roses about the fact that my 'Dick Kostor' looks like 'Margo Koster'. They want me to wait a while longer and see what they do since they tend to sport back and forth. Dug up 'Picotee' and replaced it with 'Scentsational', and dug up 'Dancing Flame' and replaced it with 'Leading Lady' number two. Something had eaten most of 'Child's Play' in the new mini beds so I dug what was left of it up and potted it to see if I can save it. Put 'Joan Austin' in it's place. Very hot and humid, with a light rain in the late afternoon that made it more humid. |
| July 18, 2007 'Renae' looks BAD!!! Hoping she'll recover. Got the pH report from Henry. Every sample was very low. He's going to help me get it straightenen out--I'm very grateful for his interest and help. I need to get more samples together for him to test. Still hot and humid--of course. All I did this evening was deadhead roses and kill beetles. |
| July 19, 2007 'Renae' still looks BAD so I pruned her back and removed all the leaves. Watering her several times a day. Put MiracleGro Bloombuster on the roses, That "something" had also nearly destroyed 'Behold' in the new mini bed so I put Deer Scram on all of those plants. Still killing lots of Japanese beetles. |
| July 22, 2007 Away for the weekend. Picked up a 'Graham Thomas' for $5.00 at Home Depot in Newport News. Not the best, but I think I can save him. Also got a package of SedgeHammer at Anderson's. Killed about 200 beetles when I got home. Henry picked up a 2.5 gallon jug of liguid lime for me and dropped it off. I gave him more soil samples to test. |
| July 23, 2007 Watered all roses--planning to spray tomorrow night. Additional soil samples all have low pH. |
| July 25, 2007 Rained all day yesterday and last night with a total of 1.25". Sprayed roses with Bayer Advanced Disease Control and mowed lawn. Got the soil test results. Confirmed low pH in pots and beds and very high soluble salts in both. |
| July 26, 2007 Collected more soil samples for Henry to test. Still killing lots of Japanese beetles. |
| July 27, 2007 Found out our water pH is 7.5-8.0 and it's treated with small amount of sodium flouride, hydrated lime to adjust pH, and chlorine. Started watering pots deeply to leach out salts. |
| July 29, 2007 'Renee' lives!!! Yep, new growth showing up. I'm happy. Watered more tonight. |
| July 30, 2007 Put the SedgeHammer on the lawn, killed beetles--no let up on them. Started putting liquid lime on the rose beds: mixed 1 quart of lime to 5 gallons of water, put 2.5 gallons on mini bed #1, 5 gallons on mini bed #2, and 7.5 gallons on mini bed #3, then washed off the roses and watered the lime in a bit. |
| July 31, 2007 Ordered from Heirloom: 'A Shropshire Lad' x 2, 'St. Swithun', 'Eglantyne', 'Compassion', 'Eden', 'Polka', 'Portlandia', 'Ginger Syllabub', 'Peach Silk', 'Fisherman's Friend', 'Mortimer Sackler' and 'The Generous Gardener'. Killed more beetles. Put liquid lime on all potted roses except the very newest. Mixed 1 quart to 5 gallons of water, put about 1 quart on each rose, and watered it in well. |
