The Gardeners Anonymous Blog

Symbolic Rose Colors

These are roses from my garden that were still on the plants when I pruned them in late January. This was after the terrible frost we had. Aren’t roses great?

In Better Homes and Gardens, I came across this guide to what each color of rose symbolizes, and I thought it was interesting.

RED: Love, passion, respect, courage

YELLOW: Joy, friendship, freedom

PINK: Happiness, gratitude, appreciation, admiration

CREAM: Thoughtfulness, charm, graciousness

ORANGE: Admiration, fascination, enthusiasm, desire

WHITE: Innocence, purity, secrecy, reverence

So I guess this means that my roses symbolize love, passion, respect, courage, joy, friendship, freedom, happiness, gratitude, appreciation, and admiration.

If you’re going to give roses, these are definitely a safe choice.

What is This Plant?

Today, I took my longest run in 11 years.

I ran 13 miles—much of it up a fairly steep hill.

During my run, I noticed a wildflower that I’ve seen many times before. It blooms this time of year. I wanted to take a picture of it, and hopefully, identify it.

So after my run, I got in my car and drove to where I saw the best specimen got out, camera in hand. I limped over to it with my swollen knees and screaming sacrum, snapped this picture, eased myself back into my car, and drove home.

I thought it was an Indian Paintbrush, but after sitting on an icepack, scouring the web and looking through many books, I couldn’t find a picture or information on it.

Do you know what it is?

Do you know anyone who might?

Pruning Climbing Roses

These are Kim's climbing roses.

My friend Kim is afraid to trim her climbing rose. She is afraid it will keep it from growing over her arbor.

Pshaw, I say.

Roses love abuse.

Being afraid to trim roses is like being afraid to trim your hair for fear it won’t grow back. You know it’ll grow back healthier and longer, but you’re still afraid to hear that first “snip”. (Maybe I shouldn’t use this analogy since Kim just got her hair cut and she thought it was too short.)

Before you go hacking away at your roses here are some things you should know. First let climbing roses alone for a while: You really don’t need to prune them for the first 2-3 years.

When you do prune them, remember there are fundamental pruning rules that apply to all roses.

• Remove all suckers

• Remove any canes that have been broken or damaged by insects, disease, or frost.

• Remove one of the canes if two are rubbing together.

• Remove spindly canes of those smaller in diameter than the size of a pencil.

• Remove older, gray-looking canes. (Kim won’t have to do this because her roses are only two years old.)
• Make clean cuts just above a bud or shoot that points toward the outside of the plant, to encourage outward growth.
• Retain 4-5 of the most vigorous canes.

All climbers should be pruned to fit the space that they’re in. Remember this when you are shaping them. Stand back and look at them from a distance every few minutes.

TIP

Don’t forget to smear little dab of Vaseline on the surface of the fresh cuts—especially the larger ones—you make when trimming. The petroleum jelly acts as a barrier against insects that burrow into the middle of the area that has been freshly cut. The insects are apropriately called “Pithborers” You might have seen those little holes at the end of a cane that has been pruned. The insect will eventually kill a part of those canes.

A little dab will keep them out.

Pithborers include: small carpenter bees, rose stem sawflies and rose stem girdlers.

Kim was also worried about black spot and some yellow looking leaves on her climbers. Once again a reminder of how spoiled we are, living here in California. IT’S FEBRUARY! Most people living in this country have bare sticks for roses, under feet of snow right now.

Black spot is caused by a fungus that is spread by rain and moisture.

All the dodgy, unhealthy looking leaves should be removed from the plant. Then all the old leaves that have fallen underneath the plants should be raked up and disposed of. This helps keep the disease under control.

Kim, I hope that answers all your question about trimming climbing roses.

Don’t worry. Both your hair and your roses will grow back longer and stronger.

And even more beautiful.

Let’s go surfing soon.

Flying Pig

Happy Chinese New Year from Gardeners Anonymous!

What's in Bloom

Here is what's in bloom in my garden Feburary 15, 2007:

Inside:

My Phalaenopsis is budding

Outside:

Abutilon
Azalea
Bacopa
Calendula (many kinds)
Camellia
Cyclamen
Grape Hyacinth
Hyacinth
Narcissus (many kinds)
Primrose

Mountain Lion

He was infamous. He was our neighborhood legend.

We thought about him a lot.

I had never seen our neighbor the mountain lion. I had seen traces of him but never him—in the flesh.

Several of my neighbors had, though. He mostly inhabited the nearly two hundred vacant acres we called the forbidden ranch next to my girlfriend’s horse ranch. Every few days, her horses would get agitated. They would run in circles, nostrils flaring, whinnying, and kicking up dust. Always looking in the direction of the acreage next door.

He had been seen sauntering across the open field followed by his unmistakably long tale. He was huge—maybe 200 lbs or more. A big healthy male.

He transformed my little mountain neighborhood into something not so ordinary. Maybe a little more wild and dangerous.

I was never really scared of him. I thought about him when I ran. I never ran alone at dusk but I know enough about lions not to be too worried. The last fatal attack on a human by a mountain lion in this area was in 1909. And there is more than enough deer around here to keep 10 mountain lions happy. My kids even played at the forbidden ranch every now and then. I was always there with them and there are always at least four kids and a couple of adults—but never a sighting when we were there. Only clues.

It was really quite wonderful and mysterious this lion. He was ours. We had a mountain lion of our very own.

Needless to say we were all very saddened by the passing of our neighbor.
A couple weeks ago we hear the news. He had tried to cross the highway near our house.

The disheartening part of his death came when a motorist stopped to look at his body. He was big, all right. He was over two hundred pounds. Instead of calling Fish and Game, or even the sheriff, this man somehow managed to load this formidable beast into the back of his truck then took him home and skinned him.

Maybe it’s me. I live in the mountains. And I’ve always lived in or around the mountains, so I guess I should understand this mentality. Maybe this guy thought that it would be a waste just to hand this beautiful cat over to the authorities. Maybe he had a perfect place just in front of his fireplace. I don’t know what he was thinking.

My husband asked me, “Would you rather see him picked over by vultures or coyotes?"

“Yes,” I said. “That seems right to me. The circle of life and all that.”

My husband said, “If the Fish and Game got him they probably would have skinned him too.” If they had, the lion would have probably become a learning tool for children in the wildlife center at a park nearby. That would have made more sense.

As for me, I’ll just try to keep the image in my mind of a large golden lion followed by a long tail, sauntering across an empty field near my house.

Happy Valentine's Day from Gardeners Anonymous.

Women’s Garden Gloves

Gloves are the gardening tools that I use most often. And I go through a lot of them. (See my article, Nail Tips.) I just bought 5 pair of garden gloves at Costco for $15.99. This is not an advertisement for Costco. Well, not on purpose anyway.

The gloves come in a one-size-fits-most, five-pair pack:
One pair of full leather goatskin gloves
One pair of synthetic leather gloves
One pair of dotted nitrile-coated, nylon-shell gloves
Two latex-coated, jersey-shell gloves

I have large hands, so they fit my hands almost perfectly.
If you have small hands they may be a bit roomy.

Except for the goatskin gloves, all the other gloves smell kind of funky when you first take them out of the package. I assume this will dissipate with air and time.

My seven-year-old son says the dotted nitrile gloves look like frogs.

The company that makes these gloves is Wells Lamont.
They’re made in China.

And they’re a great deal.

My ten year old makes a good model.

Calendulas, my problem-solving plant.

I have a motto: If you can see dirt, you don’t have enough plants.

I don’t normally “do” formal gardens. I go more for the cottage garden style because I like seeing a bunch of plant materials with different textures and different size leaves, different color flowers, and different heights.

I’m sort of a plant slut. That’s just my style.

My friend Madeleine and I are polar opposites in the garden design and plant department. She believes in less. I believe in more. She can’t decide on anything at the nursery.

Instead, if I can’t decide on something, then I take it all, and often none of it is what I came for.

Our shopping excursion to a nursery might go something like this:

Madeleine: “What do you think about this one?”

Me “That one’s beautiful. Get it. It’ll grow great in the spot you want it for.”

Madeleine: “I’m not sure about the color.”

Me: “What about this one?”

Madeleine: “I think that one is too big for that spot.”

Me: “How about this one?”

Madeleine: “I don’t like the leaves.”

Me: “What’s wrong with the leaves? The leaves are pretty. What about this one?”

Madeleine: “It’s too purple.”

Me: “Too purple? Well if you’re not going to get it, then I am.” I place this plant into the already crowded cart.

Madeleine: “I kind of like this one, if only it were bigger”

Me: “That one’s the perfect size. I’m taking that one too. And if you’re not going to get those other three plants, I will. Hey, Mad, do you mind if I put these in your cart?”

Needless to say, my garden looks like a nursery threw up in it, and Madeleine’s yard looks a bit sparse.

Come to think of it, Mad’s garden had been looking sparse for a few years.

One fine day while visiting me in my garden, she noticed my calendulas. They were getting rangy and going to seed, and I was ripping them out.

Mad said, “I like those yellow flowers. They look so perky and happy.”

So, I gathered a bunch of seeds and walked to her house, two doors down, and sprinkled my handful of seeds in an empty space, one of many empty spaces in her yard.

I think Madeleine expected maybe one or two plants to grow.

I knew better.

Soon Frankenflower had filled all the empty space and was threatening other empty spaces. I felt so much better. I could now relax. I was no longer fixating on bare dirt every time I went into her backyard.

I could now carry on a conversation about something really important, like how big my thighs were getting, or if there would ever be another television segment of “The Bachelor.”or how many times in the same day you could walk into Sees candy and get a free piece before they said anything to you.

Calendulas are also called pot marigolds because they were used for cooking. They come in many shades of yellow. Calendulas are so easy. They require so little. They produce lots of bright blooms. In mild climates they practically grow all year round. They reseed like crazy. If calendulas get too invasive I just rip them out. If I want more, I just pull the dried flower heads off and sprinkle them around. I yank them out the moment they start looking rangy. Yank. Then I just sprinkle some calendula seeds where the old plant was. They grow fast. Calendulas are my problem-solving plant. If I have a spot that needs something or a spot that I have had no luck with anything else, I just throw some Caledula seed in it.

Throw some Calendula seeds around and enjoy!

Oh, and Madeleine, please finish planting the rest of your yard.