Critters are the Best Garden Ornaments II

Lord of the whirligigs. Some tree makes these annoying seeds in little helicopters. But the Nutkinses eat some of them, with great ornamental style, for which I thank them.

Sometimes I forget that the squirrels and birds aren’t just winter’s great showfolks. They hold their own against spring verdure and the impending fruit and flowers. A few days ago I noticed a cardinal had built her nursery at the top of a New Dawn rose attached to a wall, and with the windows cracked the bird songs feel a little like a bit of classical music (particularly a segment of the 2nd movement of Tchaikovsky’s 4th symphony).

The First Rose to Bloom is…

Ok, if you grow old roses you might know the answer to this.  (cross out Lady Banks and Father Hugo, because unfortunately they haven’t made it into the collection).

No flowers here. New leaves on the romantica, “Traviata.” I generally prefer the leaf traits of the old european roses, but I love the rich burgundy red leaves of many hybrid teas. The color reminds me of japanese maples.

First Figs, Breba Crop Peduncles Emerging

April 2013, LSU Purple fig peduncles.

I was not optimistic about figs this year, after all we just had snow a week and a half ago. It turns out I was wrong to doubt.

The Well Tempered Rose Garden

Christopher Lloyd’s The Well Tempered Garden has achieved a similar status among garden books as its namesake, JS Bach’s The Well Tempered Clavier, has among classical keyboard works. Surprisingly, considering Lloyd’s reactionary reputation (boldly colored hybrid teas are not the triumph of breeding, they are “the triumph of bad taste”), his writing seems more modern than a modern garden text because of its equal opportunity offensiveness and free wheeling blog-like writing style.

Garden Finally Waking Up

Periwinkle, vinca minor, perhaps looking a bit like a Chopin nocturne. April 2013

A year ago, the cherry trees were in bloom, the noisette rose “Jaune Desprez” was flowering, plumcot fruits were forming and the figs were putting on a rare breba crop. This year, the plumcots are just flowering, about a month and a half later than last year, and not only are there no roses, but there are no rosebuds even beginning to form.

Best Roses for Central Virginia

Munstead Wood, English Rose. Bleached by 100 degree temps, 2012. Fragrance reminiscent of Chanel “Egoiste.”

I haven’t grown a rose I don’t like, but some are more suited than others for Central Virginia.

As a general rule,  teas and the usually once or sparsely reblooming wichuriana hybrids develop fast and live long. Wichuriana’s have  the added benefit of making good rootstock or tree rose trunks for those interested in grafting. Most chinas, like the mixed pink Old Blush, the rich china-red Cramoisi Supereiur, and the white Ducher are also fool proof, deliciously fragrant and generous with repeat blooms. But when you start to consider other catagories, even gallicas and rugosas, results are variable.

Eine Kleine Gartenmusik

Musicians from Palestrina to Bryan Ferry have taken a stab at evoking the atmosphere, and, less satisfactorily, the philosophical meaning of a garden.

Berlioz and Mahler scored  romantic era poems about roses. Tchiakovsky used the natural call and response of birds in his 4th symphony. But the more I grow roses, the less I’m inclined to think their overburdened and overly precious musical gardens have anything to do with the act of gardening or enjoying a garden.

Deer

A deer in its proper setting

They’re majestic. They’re fun to watch. And just like Thumper and Bambi in the Disney film, those fuzzy, fuzzy bunnies will follow them and feed under their legs to ward off predators.

But deer are the &$%^$# of any rose and most vegetable gardens.

007, Fig Eater

I’ve wondered for some time about James Bond’s acute mental and physical faculties. Now I know how he does it: green figs for breakfast with yogurt and black (very black) coffee. 

Well, maybe Roger Moore’s James Bond didn’t have the benefit of figs, but Sean Connery is more set on them in “From Russia with Love” than on martini’s. 

A Floral Image In Honor Of the Oscars

In the spirit of what I thought was a pretty good Oscar ceremony, I’m working an image from Alfred Hitchcock’s “Vertigo” into this blog’s discussion of roses, figs, and gardens. I selected “Vertigo” because Bernard Hermann’s score was featured in the Oscar telecast.