Port Potager

Still lots of flowers to enjoy during these beautiful September days. This really is the very best time of year here in Newburyport, for flowers and people alike. Roses, snapdragons, strawflower, and foxglove

Glad I made it outside to cut flowers yesterday before today's downpours came and crushed a bunch of our cutting bed plants. Here's what I'm enjoying in the vase this week: hosta, snapdragons, and zinnia black-eyed Susans rose, Chinese forget-me-not, lavender, and yarrow

Today's Flower Friday is a tale of two cutting gardens. On one hand, we see the happy mayhem of just cutting whatever happens to be blooming and throwing it into a mason jar: Baby's breath, phlox, black-eyed Susans, zinnia, bachelor's buttons, penstemon, hosta, and snapdragon.  On the other hand, we see the result of some carefully controlled color selections. When I first started planting the cutting garden , I chose perennials in a range of sunset colors: orange, peachy-salmons, golden yellows, plus deep purples and blues for contrast. I also tried to choose seeds for annuals that fit that scheme this past spring as well (though looking back, I can see that some things didn't bloom). Anyway, the idea was that anything in bloom at any given time would look good together. I guess that's true of the first bouquet, but below is a primo case study of what I was going for with that sunset color scheme: Echinacea, yarrow, roses, foxglove, and Chin...

While soaking up the sunshine and giving the perennial border a once-over (weeding, deadheading, general inspecting) this weekend, I noticed a pretty serious problem with the White-Out roses there: Not certain you see see the problem? Compare to this photo taken just two weeks ago: So where there used to be two big, full, green  rose bushes, we now have two crispy brown ones. (Although if I'm being honest, that photo above isn't without some warning signs that I failed to notice. The brown you can see easily are actually pretty harmless dried rose hips from the previous season, but when I zoomed in on my the file in iPhoto, I could see the beginnings of spotting on the good leaves.) Anyway, here's a closer look at the damage, which is extensive: The leaves look lacy and brown, crispy and dry. But with all the rain and cool temps we've had this spring, that didn't make much sense.  Some internet research brought me to the Missouri Bot...

I'll admit to being a smidge lazy with the flower arranging this week. Not only is it crazy hot here, but we are also tearing up the house to move our downstairs bathroom and laundry area around. It's not like a few vases of flowers are going to mask the dust and dirt that is settling everywhere . But I did go for some easy pickin's with the lilies that are in bloom this week. I love how one stem makes a whole bouquet, so their bloom was well-timed with our latest house project.  Roses (David Austin "Heritage") and lilies. Lilies. Echinacea. Lilies.

Ok, so all of our actual roses are bare now as winter closes in. It's snowing and sleeting tonight, but spring will be back. And when it comes, I'll be adding roses to the cutting beds. After some tea and cookie-fueled research, I decided on these three from Heirloom Roses : Photo courtesy of Wikipedia Commons Golden Celebration Photo courtesy of Wikipedia Commons Tamora Photo courtesy of Wikipedia Commons Heritage The cutting garden is shaping up to be full of sunset colors: gold, apricot, salmony pinks, and a few blues for contrast. These are always my favorites, and the reds and whites already have a home in the perennial border, so they won't be missed here. I'm not a huge fan of icy pinks and magenta-purples, so they are not invited. All of the roses I ended up choosing are David Austin roses . He is a breeder who works to create old-fashioned looking English roses. I looked at lots of actual old gar...