Week 26, Year 3: The Younger Sister

With roses on the brain, it was hard to resist focusing this next post on a close cousin - portulaca, better known as moss rose.

Channeling a rose, these annuals have soft stems with need shaped (think rosemary) succulent leaves and flowers that bloom into multi-petaled beauties. While a rose is the older sister - the serious and classic beauty, portulaca is the younger sister - the fun loving cutie.

 

I've grown them before, but not with the success I've experienced this year. I think it has something to do with the high temperatures and dry conditions. Portulaca love desert like conditions, which makes sense -- they look the offspring of a bad boy succulent and an adventurous rose bush that took a walk on the wild side. Hence the name, moss rose.

Apparently, moss rose has been popular since the late 1800s. It's hard to resist with its bright colors -- its flowers range from happy orange, neon pink, bright yellow and hot red. They seem to lighten up a little bit before or after first blooming (I haven't figured out which yet) so you have a rainbow of salmons, neons and fire living in perfect harmony.  They absolutely adore the sun and the flowers actually only open when the sun shines upon them. I like to think of them as California girls - fun loving, bright and always ready for a good time. Not unlike my real life sister.

Week 25, Year 3: A Prickly Disposition

I've never been a rose girl. Too prickly, too high maintenance and too short of a blooming season. But, my mom loves them. And, when I planted her garden, she begged for beautiful climbing roses like we had when I was a kid at our old house. The only problem with that is I've never grown them and I had no idea if it would work in a pot. So, we struck a deal. She would get basic roses in a container and I would use this summer to experiment on growing a climbing rose in a container.

My Mom's White Roses

This year's lucky winner is called a "Jacob's Ladder" climbing rose. I planted in a large plastic container by itself and gave it a little bit of support with a metal frame. Planting it was indeed prickly, but we managed to fit in the frame and pot without bruising its fragile stems too badly. It's the only plant I actually wear my gardening gloves to prune. I didn't use any special fertilizer nor did I look up any amazing tips on how to garden climbing roses in a container. So, I pretty much just got lucky when the first blooms appeared.

 

  

 

 

And even luckier, when the tiny buds opened up into these stunners ....

Unfortunately, the blooms only lasted a couple of weeks. We had plenty of new growth, but no buds. I thought perhaps it was just a short bloomer, but my mom's rose still had buds and I've seen plenty of roses blooming around town. So, now, I may be forced to do my research. However, this morning I was excited to spot this little guy. I also bought some special rose fertilizer and will have to give it a shot to see if it speeds things along. Only time will tell if this experiment was a success (and I have no idea how we are going to winterize this baby), but so far it's been a lot less painless than I feared and I have to say roses were not nearly as scary I as I thought.

The Flora and Fauna of Greece

A brief segue from the usual gardening entries (and also an explanation for the lack of posts), this post offers a glimpse of the beautiful flowers and vegetation of Greece.  We spent the last two weeks of May traveling between Santorini, Crete and Athens. We were amazed by the beauty and variety of plants -- from tropical palm trees to expansive bougainvillea to thriving household geraniums to succulent hybrids -- Greece had it all. Rather than try to name each species, I've posted photos of my favorites at each location.  We'll be back to regular posts this week, but enjoy the beautiful flora and fauna of Greece in the meantime!

Santorini - once devastated by a volcano, the island's vegetation certainly thrived from the resulting terra.

 
                   

Crete - The land of King Minos. Characterized by rolling dry hills with vegetation exploding with color. 

Athens - birth place of ancient civilization and a true mix of the Grecian vegetation has to offer.

A true mix of evergreens, palms and every other kind of tree you can imagine