Rose Festival at the Park of Roses

It was a full weekend for us. My husband drove home with one and a half cubic yards of mulch on Thursday after work. Our intentions were to get this spread in one large bed and a few smaller ones. My husband took Friday off and we mulched, and mulched, and mulched. It was taking a lot longer due to the somewhat wet soil from the previous rains we had last week. I kept weeding and he kept mulching. Then the rains came again on Friday. We dodged one storm earlier, but around five in the afternoon, we saw lightening and decided, in our best interest, that we better stop. That was shortly after we moved a rather large Early Amethyst Beautyberry (Callicarpa dichotoma) from one bed to a new bed. We laughed as both of us tried to get the large root ball onto a plastic mulch bag to no avail. Then we tried moving it onto a large tarp. We were successful, but laughed silly as my husband pulled and tugged as the stubborn Early Amethyst Beautyberry resisted being dug out of its home and then pulled with all our might to its new home. We have one more Beautyberry to move to this new bed, then we will have a group of three. We also planted three Sedum spectabile 'Pink Chablis' Stonecrop . I fell in love with this sedum. It has beautiful cream and green leaves and pink flowers in the fall. We also had on our agenda a full weekend of garden activities that we put on our schedule and really wanted to attend. One of these was the Rose festival in Columbus and the other was a private garden that was open to the public for only the fourth time. It is known as the Schnormeier Gardens and located in Gambier, Ohio. We did manage to get to these great events, but after two days of checking out these gardens, we still had mulch in the truck bed and needed to clear it before the Monday morning work alarm went off, so we worked on getting it unloaded quickly during Sunday evening. We still have the one more Beautyberry to dig and replant in the new bed, but we made progress and had fun during the weekend too.

The Park of Roses is located in Whetstone Park in Columbus, Ohio. This past weekend was the annual Rose Festival. My husband and I are always amazed at the beauty found in this wonderful park and during the festival, it it magnified. The thousands of rose bushes are breath- taking. We always enjoy the herb garden, perennial garden and the many trees throughout the park, but the weekend of the festival, the roses are the star. I always enjoy the many vendors selling a variety of garden art, flowers, rose bushes, and more. It was fun watching people of all ages bending down and sniffing the various roses. Everyone was taking time to "smell the roses.

Wild Blue Yonder (Grandiflora)

Red Lion (HT)

Gitte (HT)

Orange Sensation (F)

Impatient (FL)

Strike it Rich (GR)

Love and Peact (HT)

Proud Mary (HT)

Prairie Harvest

Chrysler Imperial (HT)

Blueberry Hill (FL)

Some wonderful views of the festival

Black Lace Sambucus

Wow! Do I love this plant. It is everything that I heard about it. Last fall, I bought three of these plants for a small island bed in our yard. I heard about its beautiful burgundy lace like foliage and was told that the flowers were insignificant. It was the foliage that resembled a cut leaf variety of Japanese Maple that sold me. What stopped me from buying it was that I read it was a deer magnet. Yet, I still dreamed of having it. It is the gardener, or really plant lover, in me.

We planted them in the new bed last fall and sprayed the plants with LiquidFence, hoping they would survive the hungry winter deer. Deer are a real probem in our yard. They will pass up a field of wheat, soybeans, and corn to feast on a buffet in our yard. We have also used Deer Scram and had success with it as well. We did find that we really do need to switch, from time to time, what we use. The deer have proven to outsmart us at times. I have a beautiful Blue Muffin Viburnum that I planted four years ago in another bed. This year, it is finally twice the size it was when I purchased it. Every year, the deer have chowed down on it, so I have never had any of the beautiful blue berries. Well, this year, my husband sprayed Liquid Fence on it. Well, there was one area the deer missed and they got to it again, but did not do a great deal of damage. Most of the spent flower stalks are still there, so we are hoping for the blue berries this fall.

My Favorite Dianthus

I received a gift certificate for Bluestone Perennials for the last few years from my sister, the cat lover. This has been my favorite mail order source for nice healthy perennials. I really look forward to receiving their catalogue during the cold, snowy days of December. Last year, I ordered a Dianthus named Greystone. I received three of them and promptly planted them. The description read "white, fringed, extra-fragrant flowers." I was sold. This year, the plants have formed a wonderful fragrant clump of beautiful white scented flowers. This plant has lived up to its description. I know that I will look forward to seeing it pop up in my garden again next year. It has been in bloom for the last three weeks and is still looking good.

Favorite Early Long Bloomers

I have really enjoyed some of my spring long bloomers this year. I have noticed how long these perennials have stayed in bloom and wanted to share them with you. The first plant is know as Sea Thrift (Armeria). It is like having a little clump of grass with round flowers that look like lollipops swaying from the top. I have both the pink and white flower varieties.

Contrasts in the Garden

As I was taking pictures of the lilac shrubs in bloom, I started to think about what this area of the backyard looked like just a few short months ago. I needed to be reminded of the wonderful transformation that has taken place.

During the early March winter storm that hit this area pretty hard. We refer to it as the "blizzard of 08."

This is a spring view as the Dwarf Korean Lilacs were in bloom in May.