Hello there!

First Camellia of the year

it's been a long time since I made my last post on this blog, I've been going through tough times since summer, I've been struggling not to relapse into depression, the same depression that followed the death of my mother and my garden didn't help me at all: roses fared worse than usual and cats are invading my garden to use it as a giant litter box and break planters and kill my fish in the pond .. I don't know what to do to stop them! I love cats, I have cats and will never hurt one but don't know how to stop this invasion... on top of all that my backpain has increased as it usually does when I feel depressed. Today I made an effort and went out to the garden to evaluate what I could do to save it from the neglect of months. I decided I won't prune the roses this winter, I've been pruning them for 25 years and they always fared poorly.. I will let them grow, they look tall right now , they always look taller in winter than in the rest of the year ¿why should I prune them when they look at their best? I will try the experiment, I will lose nothing since in an outburst of frustration I had decided to dig out most of them if not all of them...so I will see what happens.. pruning in winter is probably good for climates with actual winters...I don't know how to come to terms with the fact that I'll never have the garden I want unless I move to Denmark.. something equally impossible. Don't know what I will do with my garden this year, none of the possible options enthral me, I still have all winter to think about it.

Probably the last water lily blooms till spring

A shy pink Rose, Bonica 82

See you next time!

Hello Autumn!

The rose: my gardening frustration made flower

Today is the first day of fall, and it always brings a jolt of excitement!  It is after all, my favourite season of the year. But I am feeling bittersweet about this moment since springtime and summer were as disappointing as always with my Roses, they fared as poorly as they have been doing for the last 25 years. I should get over the fact that Roses don't like this climate, they simply don't like it and no amount of care can make them grow well  here: I haven't seen one garden here - not even one - with Roses looking half as good as I've seen them in the colder southern provinces let alone in rose lovers blogs from North Europe. I'm feeling tired of this uphill battle, tired of year after year of frustration and lots of time, effort and money wasted on plants that perform so poorly. This is easy to say but when it comes to make the decision about forgetting roses and move on I feel paralyzed, full of sadness even some anger because if I ever give up on Roses I will give up on gardening altogether, Sorry for this bitter post today when many of my dear readers are welcoming spring today, I hope it brings happy times in their gardens, I'm sure it will!

See you next time!

February blooms and pruning roses in summer

Summer in my area is brutal: months of triple-digit heat, suffocating humidity and blazing sun... It's no wonder that my roses wither in the long slog from december to march, for roses in hot areas summer is their winter. My roses respond well to a good summer clean-up, I reduce their height by at least a third, and clear out any dead, diseased and spindly growth, fertilise and water well, then I wait for their autumn flush of beautiful blooms!

Last roses before pruning 

later.. lots of rose drebriss

Water lilies keep blooming, they love heat

Lotus are blooming too

Agapanthus

This is unusual..

Amaryllis Belladonna decided to bloom this year... they are a mystery 

Crinium in bloom 

Hibiscus

See you next time!