Some people like the sound of roosters but they are usually early risers 
It looks a bit like a Therese Bugnet, but the colours aren’t right. Could you give us a close-up of the leaves and flowers? Have you trimmed the bottom, or is that its natural habit? The roses sticking up from the bush of the plant seems odd to me - I don’t think I know of any hardy rose that blooms like that. We had a rose at our last house that we tried for five years to identify - there is an old heritage rose that is being re-released that we think is the same as our rose (that I can’t remember the name of now). It can be very hard to identify an old rose that might not even be available any longer.
My veggies aren’t growing so well this year. I think we’ve had too much rain so maybe they’ll shoot up now that spring rains have settled down. I have two tomato plants that were supposed to be “early girl” but they are not. They are clearly some sort of cherry and we already have about two dozen still green but healthy fruits. We had the same thing happen last year. I wonder if someone doesn’t find it amusing to switch those tags at Home Depot.
Here are some pictures of my garden.
also anyone in Calgary want some Joe Pye? I need to split mine.
I’ve been engaged in an epic battle against bindweed lately. Sheet mulching, two doses of Roundup and an afternoon of manual pulling have left us at something of a draw, due to the fact that it appears to be indestructible and evil.
If anyone has any clever strategies beyond my current one of “Round-up it and then pull it out while it looks mildly annoyed every two weeks until you die”, you’d be my hero.
Giraffe, one method I’ve heard of for bindweed is filling a little vial or bottle with weed killer, clipping the end of a the vine, and inserting the vine into the vial so that it takes the weed killer to the roots. Takes a few days, and you’ll have to direct all the bindweed vines into the bottle or do several bottles, but this method kills it good and dead.
Gundy, that is a brilliant idea. I’m definitely going to try that, thanks.
Ah, bindweed. I’ve seen that stuff before, but never battled it myself. My battles are usually against the boring old dandelions and thistle. This probably isn’t what you want to hear, Giraffe, but I always have a grudging respect for weeds that just shrug off Round-Up, freezing cold, no dirt to grow in, etc.
You know, we just used Round-Up on the dandelions in our back alley, and they just shrugged it off, too - I wonder if Round-Up loses potency when it’s been open for a while? Ours is from last summer, and it killed 'em just fine last year.
You’ve already got that in Calgary? Nice. Love the patio heater.
Could it be… a Gundy sighting? Wow, like a vase of familiar flowers!
I started up my gardens again this weekend, but since I was lazy, I had to buy plants, as I never got around to starting my seeds this year
Veggie garden has;
Sungold cherry tomatoes (these things are hyper-sweet, they taste like candy)
Beefsteak tomatoes
Cucumbers
Watermelon
Borage
Canteloupe
Brussels Sprouts
Broccoli
Bush beans
This garden was planted in an area that previously held a greenhouse, a greenhouse that got flattened by a freak windstorm a few months back, the soil needed to be reconditioned, so I’ve been depositing grass clippings in it, tilling them under, I also added some organic fertilizer granules, and tilled them under, then I made a mistake, before getting ready to plant this garden, I watered in some Neptune’s Harvest hydrolized fish/seaweed organic fertilizer, and then planted the veggies…
That evening, the garden was torn up by, most likely, skunks, searching for the non-existent fish, they ended up eating my watermelon seedlings and a couple potatoes I tossed in, over 50% of the plants were damaged…
When I found the damage after coming home from work a couple days ago, I was able to save a few of the uprooted plants, but lost almost all the watermelons, only one seedling remained
So, I set out the large Havahart trap, baited with potatoes, but thankfully, the trap, and the garden has remained undisturbed so far, good thing, as I don’t particularly dislike skunks, as long as they leave the garden alone, they can come and go as they please, they’re especially welcome as they eat ground wasp nests and the like, and our cats are smart enough to give them a wide berth…
Woodchucks, though, are NOT welcome at either garden, I’m thinking of putting up some chickenwire fencing if I have any further losses
The second garden was sort of my overflow/wildflower/self-reseeding/ignorable garden, I wanted to put a batch of flowers that would regrow, or at least re-seed themselves each year, if they were useful, that’s an added bonus, next year I want to be able to ignore this garden and let it become a wildflower patch
In this garden I have planted (visualize a rectangular garden gridded off into nine grid openings);
Grid 1; Pumpkin plant, dwarf sunflowers, and Russian Mammoth sunflowers
Grid 2; Quinona, an edible multicolour grain
Grid 3; Pumpkin plant
Grid 4; Compass plant, an endangered American species, grows up to 9’ tall, leaves point North and South, member of the Aster family, edible leaves, resin/sap can be used as a disenfectant
Grid 5; mix of Pyrethrum, Marigold (insect repellent qualities) and Snapdragon (edible flowers)
Grid 6; Four O’Clocks, Morning Glory-style flowers bloom around 4 PM and stay open all night, leaves and flowers are highly appealing to Japanese Beetles, AND they are POISONOUS to those accursed beetles, they snack on the 'Clocks and then die 
Grid 7; Pumpkin plant
Grid 8; California Poppy
Grid 9; Pumpkin plant, Nasturtium, edible leaves and flowers
Aside from the pumpkins, which will not survive our winters, everything else should either self-seed or overwinter, next year, I should be able to simply ignore this garden
I have to keep coming back to this thread to remind myself to get a few tomato plants - other than that, I think my garden’s all in. Zucchinis are coming up today!
I think I just won the war. It was not easy but since my weed grew underground the tarp didn’t work or the round up.I still don’t know what it’s called but it’s nasty. What I had to do was dig with a shovel and turn over every bit of the soil down about two feet. I did it in stages because it’s back braking. I bagged up 10 heavy bags of the weed and most of the topsoil that was attached to the roots. This weed of mine had a whole underground network going on. I pulled them all up after the topsoil was bagged and brought to the dump. I still see a shoot about once a week and dig it out with the shovel to get to the root. Under ground the roots are red and look like Medusa’s hair! There are also white pieces that go in the bag to as they are some other kind of weed. A frind told me you have to get every bit of it bagged and out including any roots. :mad:
Good Luck. It takes time but I think I won the war.
http://s1031.photobucket.com/albums/y379/Perciful/?action=view¤t=Video18.flv
Thanks Cat Whisperer. I have scoured the internet and left a message with a rosarian. This is a toughy!
Here is a short video of the mystery rose. The bright pink roses are starting to turn a lighter shade as they age. Sorry about my unsteady hands. It was raining lightly raining so I was trying to keep my Flip from getting wet. This definitely grows on last years wood and blooms only once in late spring. It has a faint tea rose scent but tea roses don’t winter over well here? I love Therese Bugnet but this is a different rose. It might be a cross as you say. It is a tough rose and when it blooms it could light up the whole street. It is at least 6 feet tall with no support except a light post.
http://s1031.photobucket.com/albums/y379/Perciful/?action=view¤t=Video18.flv
Well, it’s a gorgeous rose, but I have no idea, either. I’m not much of a rose expert, though.
Well, third day of winter but my first nerine has flowered. That is not a picture of mine (which I am sure will surpass it in beauty of course), but as it is the first time I have tried to grow one I am quite chuffed.
Sadly, the pay TV man said I had to chop down a heap of palms that were interfering with my signal so I now have a heap of palm fronds to get rid of.
Boy you guys are in for a hammering- I have a new camera as well.
Pictures.
The first is of my jonquils which have just started to flower.
The second is a pink bush with tubular shaped flowers which attract lots of honey eaters (ignore the Blue Persian- the birds do).
The third is the zygo cactus.
That is beautiful and I have never seen one before. When you say palms are you in the desert or the tropics?
Perth has a “Mediterranean Climate” with hot dry summers and cool wet winters. It is built largely on sand, and coastal, so growing a garden can be a challenge. (it’s actually one of the most isolated metropolitan cities on earth).
The palms are nothing flash- I never liked them. They drop fronds everywhere grow a sort of date which if you aren’t careful will attract rats.
Oh, How beautiful! Which plant in the picture is the Joe Pye? You have an eye for beauty and the arrangement is warm and I could just sit and look at your garden all day. Where is Calgary? Is it above Upstate Washington? My Dad immigrated from Ottawa at 4. I have been there and to Toronto once.
I garden most days for my client and drive Miss Daisy and only have one day off so it’s hard to find enough time. I miss my old garden at my last house. I had the most beautiful roses. The whole front of my house was a perennial garden and I had a swing under an apple tree. It was heaven on earth. I would lay on the swing and in spring and the white apple blossoms smelled so sweet and they would just fall gently on me. it was like being in a White Cloud commercial… 
Life is sweet!
I don’t like rats. They are beady eyed dirty critters. Perth sounds like a nice place. I’ll have to visit it via my puter/ portal to the world. Sand is hard to work with unless your growing cactus. The lady I garden for has sand from her lot being backfilled with it to build her house. I have to remove it before I can plant anything and dump it over the wall. Lots of trips with a wheel barrel involved…