Folks, it’s officially that time of year again…ROSE TIME!!!
The earliest species are finishing up, the Banksias and Laevigata have put on a great show, Ecae is still glorious.
The David Austins have been producing a few “can’t wait for the season” flowers, but are now budding up in earnest amidst their oversized spring leaves. Since their late winter feed they have put on tremendous new growth and are going to make a pretty impressive picture in a couple of weeks.
The garden will be available for viewing by arrangement, so we’re desperately trying to get it looking vaguely respectable in time for the rose influx. Some winter jobs have been waiting for “the ground to dry up a bit” to get finished, and this only happened last week. It continuously amazes me how the roses coped being basically underwater for several months this year, many of the perennials didn’t fare so well and either died or just didn’t grow at all.
Another surprise is the Irises who appear to be having a bumper season despite the hideously wet winter and spring. Interestingly I presently have the Louisianas and the Bearded opening simultaneously. Usually the Louisianas are all but over before any but the earliest Bearded Irises open. Auckland and the upper Waikato are not ideal climates for the Bearded Irises to prosper, and many of them grow but rarely flower. I’m hoping to get some “never flowered before” ones this season as they seem to all be sending up spikes everywhere! 
Down at the shed…
The spring potting up is nearly done. We had a very good take on cuttings this season, but most of the tricky buggers, Noisettes, Bourbons and Hybrid Perpetuals were still stingy or absent in their offerings. So the plants potted up during the winter months are starting to boogy and many now ready to post.