Red Red Rose

Today I planted another Morden rose bush, a second Morden Ruby. This one is in full bloom with numerous gorgeous red roses and has a lot of healthy leafy growth. I found it on sale last week and I couldn't resist it!  Even my husband thought it looked gorgeous!  The Morden roses are all hardy (zone 2 or 3) and were cultivated for our prairie climate. Most of them are disease resistant and they stay a relatively small size, ( about 3 feet wide and 3 feet tall.)

My Morden Blush rose bush, the first one that I planted in 2007, has flowers on it today! I find that so exciting to see the first roses pop open! They are a pale baby pink. My Morden Centennial rose has plenty of buds ready to open, too, which I'm looking forward to, but I'm disappointed in my Winnipeg Parks rose bush. Few buds so far!   I had to cut off a lot of the shasta daisies which were falling over and shading the rose bushes.  I think another shot of fertilizer might be helpful, too.

The Hansa rose bush that was already here next to the house when we moved in 4 years ago is doing tremendously well!

The columbines are doing so beautifully now, pink, yellow and white blossoms cover the plants. These plants will grow well in shady conditions. Columbines don't like to be moved once they are established, however. Columbines, like lupines, have a long tap root and they don't do well when they are dug up and moved.  The 'old' plant will look great for 3 or 4 years, but then they often die back so it is important to let some seeds reproduce new little columbine plants to replace the old ones that die back.

My 'Angel bed' is one of my favorite flower beds. The lupines are blooming excessively there this year and the monkshood (aconitum) and delphiniums have fat buds and are going to bloom soon, too. The pink Lavatara and the portulaca have both started to bloom now.  (Portulaca is like a tiny succulent cactus plant and I love the tiny double blossoms they get all summer long!)