Sanhedrin Nursery – Garden Blog

• Cabbage, broccoli, lettuce and other cool season vegetables can be started now from seed. There are many wonderful varieties available on seed racks.

• Roses should be pruned if you haven’t done so already. Remove all old leaves on and around the bushes and spray with a combination of lime-sulfur and dormant oil to prevent early pest and disease problems.

• Clematis that bloomed last summer can be pruned now. Cut them back to about waist height, to encourage bushiness, more flowers and a nicer looking vine. Wait on spring-blooming varieties until after they bloom.

• Rose of Sharon is a summer-blooming shrub with large, hibiscus-like flowers. They are available now as bare root plants in patio tree form.

• Pansies, with their bright faces, are impervious to cold weather. They even bloom under the snow. So plant some now for spring color.

Enjoying the Color and Fragrance of Roses

Roses have long been revered for both their stunning colors and their memorable fragrances. It is usually the color of a rose that first catches one’s attention but as soon as you get close to one, you want to smell it.

The palette of roses now includes an amazing array of colors. Flowers may be solid-colored, striped, bi-colored (different colors on the insides and the outsides of the petals), or blends (two or more colors intermingled on each petal).

To create a warm color scheme, choose a combination of red, orange, gold and yellow roses. These will draw the eye into the garden and make it look smaller than it is. A cooler color scheme, composed of violet, mauve, purple, pink and white, is soothing and refreshing. It is the best choice for a quiet garden meant for relaxing. It also makes a small garden look larger.

When it comes to fragrance, there are many fragrant modern roses as well as old garden roses.

Many red roses have a strong fragrance. ‘Mister Lincoln’ is an standard among red roses, and a new dusky red rose named ‘Lasting Love’ has a rich pure rose fragrance.

‘Double Delight’ has creamy-white flowers brushed with crimson that carry a spicy perfume. ‘Scentimental’ has red blossoms splashed with white and a strong sweet spicy fragrance. ‘Rock & Roll™’ is also variegated red, pink and white with a strong rose and fruit fragrance.

‘Perfume Delight’ has rich pink flowers with a strong rose fragrance and the deep, velvety ‘Don Juan’ is the best of the fragrant dark red climbers.

Purple roses tend to be very fragrant. ‘Fragrant Plum’ has a delicious scent and
‘Outta the Blue’ carries a strong clove and rose fragrance.

‘Sunsprite’ is one of the best yellow roses and it has a strong, sweet licorice aroma. And ‘Strike It Rich®’ is a soft gold rose with a spicy perfume.

Remember that one fragrant rose in a mixed bouquet will perfume the room and give you the colors you want at the same time.

Color and fragrance are related and have to do with a rose’s heritage. The classic “rose” fragrance comes from the damask rose and is found mainly in the red and pink roses. It is a heavy fragrance that needs heat before the rich odor is released. White and yellow roses have a lighter fragrance that is best sniffed on a warm summer morning.

Few flowers bloom for as long and abundantly in this climate as do roses. The best selection is available now.

This entry was posted on Friday, February 13th, 2009 at 6:41 pm and is filed under Garden Article, Willits. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.