Blooms of the Day

Last week my garden received two inches of rain! Hurray! Sadly it has already been used up and I'm back to watering daily. It's a good thing I have these pretty flowers to keep me going.

Alnwick Rose

Souvenir de la malmaison

Princess Alexandra of Kent



Young Lycidas-older open bloom and new bud

Indigo Rose Tomato

I am trying a new and unusual tomato this year, Indigo Rose. Indigo Rose has a striking purple coloration on its skin. The purple color come from anthocyanins. It was bred at Oregon State University by researchers in an attempt to make tomatoes with more antioxidants. A tomato named OSU Blue has been circulation in tomato circles for a while now.  Indigo Rose is the strain, variety, selection, etc... of OSU Blue that the researchers decided to release to the public.

So far it has been very productive although it is a smaller type tomato so this is not a great achievement. It's very pretty and the the purple color shows more in areas that are exposed to the sun. I'm waiting to see what they look like when they ripen.

Veggies

I still grow edibles even though you wouldn't know it from all my rose posts lately. So far this has been one of the best tomato growing seasons ever for me. The disease and insect pressure is low probably due the dry weather. They all have lots of flowers and one has some tiny fruit. The varieties I'm growing this year are: Indigo Rose, Green Zebra,  Paul Robeson, Isis Candy, Woodle Orange, Solar Flare, AAA Sweet Solano, and a few others whose names escape me right now.

I've also grown my first successful cauliflower in the Earthbox. Hurray! It is an heirloom purple variety that I grew from seed. I still have a few other varieties that I hope will make it in all this heat.

EPCOT Flower and Garden Festival 2012

I made my first visit to the 2012 Epcot Flower and Garden Festival this week. I always enjoy seeing all those lovely impossible plantings. This year was even better than the last. Here are some of the sights:

Queen of Sweden, Jude the Obscure, and Young Lycidas

 I have new beauties in my garden this Spring. Three more Austin roses have bloomed. Young Lycidas is similar in color and bloom form to Munstead Wood, but more "mauvish" and a little larger. The scent is also a nice medium strong old rose. 

 

 

 

 

Jude the Obscure sure earns its unofficial title of the best smelling Austin rose. It smells strongly of citrus and fruit in my yard. The bloom is a lovely large globular yellow that isn't too quick to open. I don't see any peach on the blooms yet. Maybe it needs colder temps to show those colors?

 

 

 

 

 

 

Queen of Sweden has these wonderful upright facing blooms that are densely packed inside and large and cupped on the outside. I saw a bee today trying to burrow into the flower. It has a nice unusual medium light scent.

I am very happy with all of my new Austins. Sadly my Abraham Darby has left the garden. It wasn't doing well and I pulled it out to discover a disease in the graft. It really isn't a mark against the variety though. There is some sort of cane fungus in one area of my garden that is lethal to roses. I think I've learned my lesson and won't put any more there. I will be getting another AD if the cuttings I gathered don't root. It was a great rose.

  

Port Sunlight

It's a double post day because Port Sunlight also bloomed. These have a really lovely yellow apricot color that reminds me of...sunlight! The only negative I can mention about the flowers is that they seem to open fast and probably won't stick around long.

Munstead Wood

Today Munstead Wood bloomed. It lost a few buds to the dreaded oak tree worms, but it's still very impressive. The color in the photo is close to the actual color. It reminds me of a larger, scented, and more dense petaled version of Burgundy Iceberg. I hope it doesn't also acquire the propensity for black spot that Burgundy Iceberg had. The scent is a very traditional old rose scent, which I like.