January 2009 Bloom

by Richard Chew

Finally got my act together. It has been a busy month.

The photos in this posting are blooms taken in the month of January. I also feature some of my new collections that I got last month.

Below is the miniature rose that I grow in shades. Manage to get some blooms. The size of bloom is smaller than when I got it from nursery.

The next is bloom from my rambling rose. This rose has not produced any flowers for quite a while. Then when it begun to produce new bulbs, it gave me a single bulb initially, then subsequently more shoots came out. The photo below a cluster of 5 blooms. The size of each bloom is about 2 to 3 cm. If it grows well and profuse, it can produce about 20 to 30 blooms in a single stem. Still a long way to go.... but this is good start.

Another good result is my ground cover rose, which had been infected with chlorosis for quite a while. Since Oct last year it was recovering gradually. There are more green leaves now. And just this month, it has produced a couple of blooms. Though the flower is not so full, I believe this will improve over time when more stronger shoots emerged.

The following is my new collection. This rose bloom is Maroon in colour. Unfortunately it bloomed when I was away back hometown for Chinese New Year celebration. I don't know exactly when it bloomed, but I believe the flower opened on the eve of Chinese New Year.

The following is my French Lace rose. This rose needs a lot of sun. It didn't receive sufficient direct sun in Dec and Jan. At this time of the year, my garden only receives about 1 hour direct sunlight. December was a very wet month, the weather didn't help much. Anyway I am glad it managed to bloom, though the flower doesn't look full.

The following pictures are new miniature collections. Though the bloom size is between 4 to 5 cm, is hard to come to terms why it is considered miniature. I presume miniature rose describes the shrub size rather the flower size.

The following is a yellow bronze rose. Actually the flower should have bronze edges. But couldn't get the result at the moment. In my recent fertilizing, I increased the dosage, hopefully the subsequent blooms will get to see the distinct edges.

Below is the side view of the bloom. The background is my white & purple vincas (periwinkle).

Below is another of my new miniature collection. This bloom was a bit strange because when I got this rose, the blooms were purple in colour. For some reason its bloom is in dark pink and white.

Side view as it bloomed.

My next project is to design a landscaped rose garden. Below is a glimpse of my garden.

I will be adding more rose collections to fill the empty spaces in my rose garden.

Will post more pictures of February blooms.