Two Buck Roses

'Spanish Rhapsody'

It's been some time since I blogged about the roses, but I'm happy to report that most of my Rugosa's are surviving and show no signs of rose rosette at present.  And, I noted this week that a couple of my remaining Griffith Buck roses are in their second or third bloom stage and I believe it's high time to share them with you. 

I give you first, the delicate shadings of 'Spanish Rhapsody'.  I've blogged about her before, but she's too beautiful to ignore.   This year, I first noticed her blooming from the window of the kitchen, clear down yonder in the garden, where I could see this diminutive rose blooming its fool head off, defying an attack from last few remaining Japanese Beetles.   

Described as pink and yellow and stippled at helpmefind/rose, she appears only pink to me this year, although I believe I've seen more yellow from her in the past, such as my blog from 2016.   The pictures at the helpmefind linked site show this is one of the more variable roses, with lots of different appearances across the US.  'Spanish Rhapsody' was bred by Dr. Buck in 1984.   

'Spanish Rhapsody' has survived since 2015 in my garden, but she is always much smaller for me than her advertised 4 foot height.   I don't know that I've ever seen her more than a couple of feet foot tall and wide.  Blooms are of moderate size, about 3 inches around, and start out nicely tight like a Hybrid Tea and then the semi-double blooms open quickly to some golden stamens.   I pray every season that she remains resistant to Rose Rosette Disease.   Certainly, she seems immune to blackspot and powdery mildew.  'Spanish Rhapsody' has a little dieback in my winters.

'Prairie Princess'

The other rose I'd like to introduce today was a "take a chance" rose that I acquired sometime in 2021, another Griffith Buck rose that was a surprise find at a big box store.  When you find a rose with "Prairie" in its name, it's either a Buck rose or a Canadian, generally, and so I took a chance on 'Prairie Princess', and she has lived up to my expectations.    

'Prairie Princess' is another short-statured rose,  but with a little more "junk in the trunk" compared to 'Spanish Rhapsody, meaning that she is a little broader in the middle  She starts out light pink, really just a blush pink, and fades over time to white.   Helpmefind/rose says that she should be salmon pink and 5-8 feet tall, so I'm wondering if I've got a mis-named rose here.  One commenter at that site suggested she looks like 'Morden Centennial', but my rose looks more like 'Morden Blush'.  Who knows?

This rose was bred early in Dr. Buck's program, prior to 1967, and introduced to commerce in 1972, but I would not have guessed it from the form or disease tolerance.  I don't know what has kept her hidden or out of main commerce.  About 2 feet tall and wide, she has good winter hardiness, better than 'Spanish Rhapsody' in my climate.  Disease resistance is still excellent as you can see from my un-cared for specimen with grass growing all around it.  She seems to be a floribunda in form, flowering in clusters, and rarely is without flowers.   I can't fault 'Prairie Princess' for beauty and she's Rose Rosette free, two years running so, I guess "one pays his money and takes his chances," but this time it paid off.   

The Bee-holders Eye

Beauty, as they say, is in the eye of the beholder.   Well, at least maybe someone once said it.  ProfessorRoush certainly can't take credit for the ungainly phrase, obviously espoused as an argumentative gauntlet to those who hold that there are objective standards for beauty upon which all living creatures would agree.  Such arguments often trend to discussions of symmetry and purity and perfection, and inevitably dissolve into fisticuffs and sometimes wars that involve hollow wooden horses, and I know better than to blunder into such an argument  in my garden.

Take, for example, my impressions this morning during the weekly chore of making the grasses and weeds all conform to one height.  I would have said that the most beautiful view of my garden this morning was at the corner of the bed pictured above, where Hibiscus 'Midnight Marvel' dominates the view with massive bright red blooms, accentuated by the pink-purple panicles of the neighboring Buddleia 'Buzz Raspberry.'   I've spoken before of my admiration for 'Midnight Marvel', a reliable and iron-clad perennial that makes its own statement in the garden, but I have said little about 'Buzz® Velvet,' the only remaining Buddleia of my garden, still reliably returning while others eventually withered or outright died in their prime.   I'm not fond of the color of this buddleia itself, but beside the cardinal red of the hibiscus, it certainly adds to the scene, doesn't it?

The bees of my garden however, honey and bumble alike, do not agree with my assessment, as they were busily buzzing over volunteer natives, the Argemone polyanthemos, or Prickly Poppy, growing nearby and they didn't touch the hibiscus or buddleia.   Every delicate white (papier-mâché, as Wikipedia and the French refer to it) flower was being visited nearly continually by one species or another, and a continual symphony of bee noises was evident even over the noise of the nearby idling lawn mower.  This is the very reason that I allow this ungainly and thorny plant to grow randomly in my garden; for the selfish reward of happy bees and the illusion of my own contribution to bee survival.

I was certainly not going to be stupid and argue with the bees over their perceptions of beauty today, as my photographic interruption to their gluttony had already upset the buzzing minions and I suspected they were forming ranks and preparing to counter my intrusion and biased human opinions.   No, I removed myself from the battlefield, ceding the question of beauty to their ageless wisdom.  Heck, I even somewhat agree with them, for the pure white of the Prickly Poppy is certainly as beautiful and perfect in its own way as the red Hibiscus.   Beauty in the compound eyes of another.

Both myself and the bees, however, would have been in philosophic conflict with the Japanese Beetles who are still plaguing my garden and dining on their own candidates for "beauty", the roses and early crape myrtles.  I sprayed the roses again day for beetles, praying that the bees stay on the Prickly Poppy and don't try for any rose pollen.   I will spare you a photo of the vile fornicating beetles today, and instead merely show you how close the Prickly Poppy is to 'Buzz Raspberry' and 'Midnight Marvel' in this bed.  I apologize for the poor tonal quality of this picture taken in the full late July sun of Kansas and for the crabgrass and weeds visible, but sometimes beauty is hidden by its environment and a little lighting and makeup can make all the world of difference in a photograph as well as in person.

What's Wrong With Dark?

'TimberCreek Ace'

ProfessorRoush is gravely disappointed in both mankind in general and in the thousands of electronic engineers who design our modern appliances and circuits and he has a question.   Why, oh why, does every thing that plugs into a wall need to shine at night?  I mean, quoting our aged President, "Cmon man!"  Is mankind, long established as the primary predator on the planet, still that afraid of the dark?   I know the light-emitting diode (LED) was a near-miraculous invention and it puts out a lot of light compared to its electricity use (9 times more efficient than an incandescent light source), but does everything have to have one?   Efficient or not, they still use electricity.   And they're plain irritating when they're just randomly stuck onto electronics.

'Black Stockings'

I woke up early and wandered on a still-pitch-dark night into my living room and kitchen this morning (the rooms are roughly contiguous) only to realize that I could quite clearly navigate by the indicator LED that turns on when the TV is off (of all the stupid ideas), by the two LEDs on the wifi extender, by LEDs on two kitchen safety sockets (if I wanted to know if they were powered, I COULD plug something into them), and by the clocks on the microwave, double oven, and an undercabinet radio.  Of yeah, and by the lighted panel on the refrigerator (lest I not know which button makes ice or water) and from the "Clean" notification on the dishwasher (Mrs. ProfessorRoush had run a load).  

'Night Embers'

A similar problem exists in our master bedroom, where each of three surge protectors have LEDs to assure me that everything is okay (one glows from both a switch and a blue light by the USB connections), the satellite cable system has a small red light to let me know it is OFF (it has both a white and blue one when it's ON), and a bedtable alarm clock glows orange.   This is in addition to the fact that opaque blinds are insufficient to block out the light pollution from town that floods the room and that the previously mentioned alarm clock projects on a ceiling so I can know the time without turning over.   I never use the alarm by the way, blessed with an internal clock that is always running, even away at conferences.  This year we at least eliminated one light source; a Vizio TV with an LED that turned on when the TV was off.

Unknown, but dark

It is no mystery to me that the number of sleep-deprived people is growing rapidly and why we are all ready, between our various tribes and political groups, to tear down civilization.   For goodness sake, I beg you, join me in the revolution to eliminate LED's on "off" electronics in the bedroom and to turn off street lights and other polluters outside.   Please engineers and politicians, give us back our dark nights, so we can sleep properly and deeply, albeit perhaps troubled still by dreams of saber-toothed cats and cave bears. I'm willing to chance it.

'Vatican City'

By now, Dear Reader, you've realized that I'm just on a rant and this blog entry has nothing to do with the somber dark daylilies pictured here.  In my defense, without the labels, I'm not sure anyone could tell the first four apart anyway.  I'm sorry for luring you into a rant with false pretenses of daylily pornography, but I had to get it off my chest.   Also, I need to correct a previous blog error in that this last daylily is 'Vatican City', not 'Popcorn Pete' as I said recently.   It's still pretty, even though it isn't perfectly dark, isn't it?   And now I'm really done because I just used 5 variations of "it" in the last sentence and I've obviously spent my anger and I'm fresh out of writing talent for the day.  Good Night!

Edged Wonders

'Storm Shadows'

It is quite definitely Daylily Season, and ProfessorRoush is both enjoying the show and lamenting his poor records.   As usual, my maps are only approximate, even though I thought them precise, or names were lost on planting or moving, so in this blog entry, I can be reasonably sure of about half of these daylilies.   Regardless, as I've noted before, the daylilies that I may have liked one year are not so appealing the next and I often have a set of similar favorites in a given year.   One year apricots, the next reds, the next light yellows, and so on.  This year, it's the edged daylilies that are drawing me in.

'Cosmic Struggle'

I'm reasonably sure of 'Storm Shadows' and 'Cosmic Struggle' and 'Bubblegum Delicious' here, but I'd be hard-pressed to tell one from another without the map.  'Storm Shadows' (Mitchell-K, 2004) has an incredibly thick ruffled cream-yellow edge and it holds up well in the heat. 'Cosmic Struggle' (Emmerich, 2009) opens early, but seems to be spotted easily by rain and it tears in high winds.  

'Bubblegum Delicious'

'Bubblegum Delicious' (Mitchell-K, 2009) was a solo purchase I made at a local nursery, so it was easier to keep track of (and more likely correctly labeled), than the inexpensive fans from the local annual Daylily Society sale.

'Popcorn Pete'?  Nope it's 'Vatican City'

I'm much less sure of 'Popcorn Pete' (later correction, it's 'Vatican City') and 'Bestseller' and 'Indian Giver', however.   My notes on 'Bestseller' are actually just an entry that I once held it in my hand and an "I don't remember where I planted it" statement.  Each is in the general vicinity of where I think I planted it, and each vaguely resembles the internet pictures of the flower, but I'm certainly not an expert at daylily identification.  Sometimes neither are the experts, because 'Bestseller' is of unknown providence to everyone.  I'd be more sure of 'Indian Giver' if one of its many descriptions would talk about the petals being "recurved."  I do wonder what's eating the petals of 'Popcorn Pete', however.   I haven't seen the Japanese Beetles bother my daylilies yet.

'Best Seller'?

'Indian Giver'?

'Mulberry Frosted Edges'

There are two unedged daylilies I'm going to show you just because they're especially beautiful right now.  'Mulberry Frosted Edges' (Hansen, 2000) is a nice, large, showy daylily with lots of character and, bonus, I'm reasonably certain of it's identity.   Her white edge is often understated in my garden, but I love the lilac halo around the golden throat.  

'Laura Harwood'

'Laura Harwood' is a treat that can't be mistaken for nearly anything else, so I'm quite sure of Laura.  She's a show piece, 5-9 blooms of 7" diameter coming each day on a nice compact healthy plant.  Hybridized by Harwood in 1997, 'Laura Harwood' is a keeper, one of those daylilies that I've already determined will eventually move with me to retirement.   I've got a list of plants for that, a special list kept in my head for a small garden to grow old with.   Provided that the Good Lord gives me that gift of growing old with a smaller garden, of course.  

Red, White, and Blue all over

On this Fourth of July, in the year of Our Lord 2023, ProfessorRoush is going to let the pictures (mostly) speak  for themselves.   I went out to take just one photo of each color, hoping that I'd have anything blue blooming at all, and I was yet overwhelmed by the abundance of red, white, and blue in a garden now brimming over with oranges and yellows from the daylilies.  Okay, I cheated a little on the blue since most of the species that are currently blooming with blue flowers are native plants; all weeds in my garden.   My apologies to my British readers for the insufferable reminder of the loss of your colonies.  Warning,  picture heavy!  

First the Red:

Pelargonium potted in front of the house

'Spiderman' Daylily

Hybrid Rugosa 'Linda Campbell'

Canadian Rose 'Hope for Humanity'

Then the White:

Phlox 'David'

Shasta Daisy 'Alaska'

The impossibly delicate Argemone polyanthemos,
 or Prickly Poppy

Rose 'Marie Bugnet', not at her best

Hibiscus syriacus 'Notwooodtwo' 

Hydranga paniculata

And last, but not least, the Blue:

Clematis 'Romona'

Salvia azurea; Blue Sage
Nothing is bluer!

Hisbiscus syriacus 'Blue Bird'

My nemesis; Commelina communis

Fringe-Leaf Ruellia; Ruellia humilis

Not bad, eh?   Not bad at all for a garden that currently is dominated  by daylilies and looks like this everywhere:

  HAPPY FOURTH OF JULY TO ALL!

Weather Woes and Wrong Roses

I realize it may be often boring when ProfessorRoush complains about the lack of rain in Kansas in the summer, but bear with me a minute, and I'll let you feel a bit of my pain, and then I'll throw in a gorgeous gratuitous rose picture to end on today on a (semi)-high note.   Down and up, your emotions on a never-ending rollercoaster along with my Kansas blog.

Frustration, thy name is moisture.   Necessary and welcome whenever, wetness in this area of the country is a gift, a blessing from the sky however and whenever it comes.  I'm at the point of happily accepting the 80 mph winds and hailstorms and occasional sheltering in the basement as long as it brings rain.   Since May 30th, we had not any rain in this area, a period of drought that denied daylilies and blackberries any chance for full development.

Worst of all, my weather app had promised a decent chance of rain every day this past 10 days.  You would logically think that if there was a 30% chance of rain each day, it would rain one day in every three, correct?   Well, in Manhattan Kansas, that logic doesn't compute.   Oh, it rained on most days, it just rained all around us.   After watching storms last week go around us, I started snapping screenshots of the radar this week for proof.   I'm the blue dot in these shots, and the top photo is Tuesday, the second Thursday (flooding north, nothing on us), and this one at right is Friday morning.   My weather app actually said it was sprinkling here Friday as I screenshot the radar.   I evidently need a new weather app.   Or my weather app needs to learn from its poor performance and improve.

Finally, Friday night this storm at the left developed in early evening and held true for a half inch of rain and then a second storm rolled over in the middle of the night and laid down another 1.5 inches.   Saturday morning I could almost hear my buffalograss applauding as I stepped outside.   I've now skipped two days of watering new roses and I think the browning grass is already greening up.  If there's a bright side to the drought, the lawn didn't grow at all last week and so I can skip a week of mowing.   That radar-imaged storm you see pictured at the left looked like this as it moved in: 

Doesn't that look beautiful?   I considered dancing naked in the rain, but realized the neighbors might talk.

In other news, I do have a number of new roses growing this summer, courtesy of the Home Depot "Minor Miracle" that I wrote about earlier and this one is one of the new ones, a fabulous florescent orange-red semi-double that screams "watch me" in a exhibitionist display of pride.  On the downside, I don't know what variety it really is.  Two of the labeled Home Depot 'Hope for Humanity' roses look like this and they're obviously not 'Hope for Humanity'.   My best guess is that I now have two 'Morden Fireglow', although the foliage seems more glossy than I remember that rose.  In its favor, the stems are red like 'Morden Fireglow' and the color is so unique, it is hard for it to be anything else.  Certainly, this isn't a reborn 'Tropicana' and time and winter hardiness may reveal its secret identity.   Of similar concern is that the labeled 'Rugelda' I purchased appears to be a 'Hope for Humanity' instead.  The 'Morden Sunrise' and 'Zephirine Drouhin' seem correct, so they're not all labeled wrong, but 'John Cabot' hasn't bloomed and isn't acting like a climber.  Who knows what I've got?

I said I would end on a (semi)-high note, right?   You didn't really expect a fully happy ending from this blog did you?   After all the times you've been here?   My mystery rose is a beautiful rose indeed and certainly provides some color to contrast the subtle daylilies, but is it really too much to expect that if I'm paying $13 or $14 for a big-box-store rose, it would be labeled correctly?   How hard is that?