New Things

2012 was a good year in terms of garden expansion. We added  number of new plants, and some of our 2011 additions bloomed for the first time.

But somehow, not all of the new material made it to the blog.  So, in no particular order, here are some new things from Jan 2012 and beyond. 

A particularly nice ''Kronprinzessin Viktoria' blossom--her blooms have a tendency to untidiness that I'm not wild about, but this particular flower is nicely geometrical.

'White Cloud' Muhly on a foggy morning--also 'Black Moudry' below.

Our first 'Wedding Cake' bloom!  The plants are less than 8" tall, so this was an especially admirable effort.  These are SUCH weird roses--the petals are strangely thick, almost vinyl like.

One of the first flowers ever on our 'Fortune's Double Yellow,' a rose I've been yearning for since, oh, 1995 or so.   We bought it last year and it's already a 5-foot tall toothy beast. Tiny teeth, but a zillion of them, and all sharply recurved.  You can easily stick your hand in a FDY--but don't count on getting it back out again. It's like the world's most vicious velcro.  Pretty, though.

 
 More FDY

'Dainty Bess'--one of Matt's favorites.  A bit hard to photograph unless you catch it at just the right moment (which this isn't).

'General Gallieni'--just a tiny little newly planted band at the time, but it threw out this nice little bud nevertheless (and which, if I were a proper rose lover, I would have pinched off so the little guy could put all his energy into his roots--but I just couldn't bear to).

Our first bloom from the yellow Louisiana iris from my grandmother's yard!

A particularly nice bloom from 'Rhodologue Jules Gravereaux.' He's less than 1 foot high, only about 6 months old, and yet he's sporting 5 very nice flowers, including this nicely shaded specimen.

'Red Smith's Parish'--why "Red" when it's quite obviously pink?  I do not know.  Perhaps it ruddies up with age?  It appears to be quite free-blooming, though, having had at least one flower on it since February, despite being a little baby of a thing.

'Mrs Dudley Cross'--a very petalliferous Tea rose.

Finally, an okay(ish) picture of 'Spice'!  I find this rose hard to photograph, despite its being a very generous bloomer.

Another 'Spice.'

I love this white scabiosa.  Popular with the pollinators, too.  Must be nectarlicious.