Author: admin

Simple List of Roses (already planted) on the Farm

Abbaye de Cluny
Abraham Darby
Alba Meidiland
Alba Sauveolens
Albertine
Alchemist
Alfred Colomb
Alfred de Dalmas
Alister Stella Gray
Aloha
Altissimo
Anisley DIckson
Ann Boleyn
Apricot Clementine
Apricot Twist
Arcanum
Ardoisee de Lyon
Arthur Bell
Austrian Copper
Autumn Damask
Autumn Sunset
Baby Masquerade
Ballerina
Baltimore Belle
Barkarole
Baron Girod de l’Ain
Baronne Edmond de Rothschild
Bees Knees
Belinda’s Dream
Bella di Todi
Belle Amour
Belle de Crecy
Bentley’s Beauty
Betsy Sinclair
Betty Will
Bill Reid
Black Caviar
Black Jade
Blanc Double de Coubert
Bleu Magenta
Blush Noisette
Blushing Lucy
Bonica
Boule de Neige
Brilliant Pink Iceberg
Buff Beauty
Burnet Double Pink
Buttercup
Cafe Ole
Caramella
Cardinal de Richelieu
Carnival Glass
Cecile Brunner
Celine Forestier
Chapeau de Napoleon
Charles de Mills
Cheesecake
Chevy Chase
Chicago Peace
Chloris
Climbing Iceberg
Coffee Bean
Commandant Beaurepaire
Common Moss
Compassion
Complicata
Comte de Chambord
Constance Spry
Copper Kettle
Crackling Fire
Crown Princess Margareta
d’Aguesseau
Dainty Bess
Danae
Danielle
Darlow’s Enigma
Day Break
Daybreaker
Deep Velvet
Delany Sisters
Distant Drums
Dominic Sunset
Don Juan
Doorenbos
Dreaming Spires
Duchess de Brabant
Duchess of Portland
Duchesse de Montebello
Earth Angel
Easy Going
Eden
Electron
Elina
Elle
Etoile de Hollande
Eugene Furst
Evelyn
Excellenz von Schubert
Fantin Latour
Felicite Parmentier
Fellowship
Ferdinand Pichard
Ferdy
Firefighter
Florentina
Flower Power
Folklore
Fragrant Cloud
Francis E. Lester
Francois Juranville
Fred Loads
Gertrude Jekyll
Geschwind’s Orden
Ghislaine de Feligonde
Gizmo
Glad Tidings
Goldbusch
Golden Century
Goldfinch
Good as Gold
Gourmet Popcorn
Graham Thomas
Green Ice
Gros Choux d’Hollande
Gruss an Teplitz
Harrison’s Salmon
Hazeldean
Heaven’s Eye
Heidi
Henri Martin
Henry Nevard
Hermosa
Honeymoon
Hoot Owl
Hope and Joy
Horatio Nelson
Hot Cocoa
Hot Tamale
Iceberg
Iced Tea
Incantation
Incognito
Indian Summer
Irresistable
Isabella Skinner
Ispahan
Jacques Cartier
Jeanne Lajoie
Jeri Jennings
Joan Austin
Joan Fontaine
John Davis
Julia Child
Julie Ann
Kaiserin Friedrich
Kazanlik
Kiss Me Kate
Ko’s Yellow
Konigen von Danemark
Kosmos
Kristen
La Belle Sultane
La France
La Reine
Lady Ashe
Lady Emma Hamilton
Lady of Shalott
Lagerfeld
Laguna
Lamarque
Laneii
Laura Ashley
Laura Ford
Lavender Crystal
Leda
Leontine Gervais
Leverkusen
Liebeszauber
Little Girl
Little White Pet
Liverpool Remembers
Louise Odier
Lovely Fairy
Luis Desamero
Madame Alfred Carriere
Madame Hardy
Madame Plantier
Magic
Magic Carousel
Maiden’s Blush
Maigold
Malvern Hills
Maria Mathilde
Marijke Koopman
Mary Rose
Mayor of Casterbridge
Meg
Melody Parfumee
Memoire
Memory Lane
Michelangelo
Mme. Antoine Mari
Moonlight in Paris
Morden Ruby
Morden Sunrise
Mrs. Oakley Fisher
Mrs. William Koning
Mutabilis
Narrow Water
New Dawn
Nicole Carol Miller
Nostalgie
Oakington Ruby
Ocarina
Old Blush
Olds College
Olympiad
Pandemonium
Papa Meilland
Parole (Buxom Beauty)
Pat Austin
Paul Neyron
Paul Shirville
Peace
Peaches ‘n Cream
Philatelie
Pillow Fight
Playboy
Polka
Pompon de Paris
Pomponella
Pope John Paul II
Prairie Peace
Pride ‘n Joy
Purple Pavement
Purple Prince
Queen Elizabeth
R. californica Plena
R. eglanteria
R. foetida
R. moyesii
R. rubrifolia
R. spinosissima
Radio Times
Rainbow Niagara
Rainbow’s End
Ramblin Red
Red Intuition
Redwood Empire
Robert le Diable
Roberta Bondar
Roberto Capucci
Robin Hood
Robusta
Rock Star
Rosa gallica officinalis
Rosa Mundi
Rosanna
Rosaraie de l’Hay
Rosarium Uetersen
Rose de Rescht
Rosemary Harkness
Rosenstadt Freising
Rouge Royale
Royal Sunset
Royal WIlliam
Rubrifolia
Rugelda
Salita
Sally Holmes
Scabrosa
Scarlet Moss
Scentsational
Schon Ingeborg
Sebastian Kneipp
Sheila’s Perfume
Sight Saver
Singin in the Rain
Skyrocket
Small Miracle
Snow Pavement
Sophie’s Perpetual
South Africa
Souvenir de la Malmaison
Souvenir du Docteur Jamain
Spectabilis
Stanwell Perpetual
Stars ‘n’ Stripes
Stephen’s Big Purple
Super Dorothy
Swedish Doll
Sweet Revenge
Sydonie
Teasing Georgia
Teddy Bear
The Fairy
The Pilgrim
The Reeve
Topaz Jewel
Tranquility
Turbo
Tuscany Superb
Variegata di Bologna
Veilchenblau
Vineyard Song
Violet Hood
Walferdange
Warm Welcome
Wedding Bells
Westerland
White Koster
White Licorice
White Moss
Wild Blue Yonder
William III
William Lobb
William Shakespeare 2000
Winchester Cathedral
Work of Art
X-Rated
Yellow Magic
Yolande d’Aragon

We also have about 50 roses (many from the California collector I mentioned in the video) ready to go into the ground in spring. How many are the “right” number? It’s hard to say. There are definitely some of the above that are on the naughty list for being weak growers or just not interesting enough. Culling some of those will make room for new picks! Feel free to nudge me in the YouTube comments if you’d like clarification on some of these varieties & classes.

How to Get Rid of Aphids

How to Get Rid of Aphids

Most aphids are born pregnant. I say this both as a fun bit of trivia and to make a point: even more than other insect pests, they’re biologically fine-tuned for fast reproduction without any of the “fun stuff” to slow down the process. As in the below picture, the mother aphid doesn’t even interrupt feeding to pop out a genetic clone of herself, which in turn begins feeding on the plant and developing her own clones.

Image by Shipher (士緯) Wu (吳) CC BY-NC-SA 2.0

Aphids aren’t fast-moving themselves, but with this biology, they’re extremely quick to reproduce when there’s plenty of food. The food that fuels them best, as you may have noted in your own garden, is the fresh lush growing tips of plants. They’ll seemingly appear from nowhere to absolutely smother the fresh shoots of a rose or the vigorous young leaves of broccoli.

The usual question (and the title of this article) “How to Get Rid of Aphids” is both absurdly easy to answer and also difficult to fully explain. They’re easy to remove or kill. You can spray them off the growing tips with a sharp jet of water. You can smush them with your fingers if you’re not too squeamish. You can spray them with any of the usually usually recommended garden sprays: insecticidal soap, oil, or wettable sulfur. They’re all effective to kill aphids. A dusting of diatomaceous earth will do it too. For a quick survey of some of the methods to get rid of them, here’s my video on the topic:

There’s no lack of ways to dramatically reduce their population, but the core problems remain: they’re already in your garden, there’s no way to exclude them, and they reproduce fast enough that you’re likely to find them back on neighboring plants not long after dealing with them.

I do sometimes hear from distressed gardeners who say something along the lines of “I got this plant from the garden center and it must have introduced aphids to my garden.” That’s a tempting line of reasoning, but unless you’re gardening in a fully enclosed tissue culture lab, it’s almost certain that the aphids were already present and reproducing in your garden. When the timing is right, they can literally be blown in on international air currents and “rain” into your garden. They’re as inevitable as mosquitoes on the banks of the Fraser River (which is a topic I wish I knew less about!).

Here’s the good news: in the same way they their annual cycle of arrival and fast reproduction is unavoidable, their predators aren’t far behind. To predators like ladybugs, wasps and hoverflies, aphids are easy prey – slow moving, plentiful, and filled with sweet plant sap! While it can be frustrating to wait for beneficial insect populations to “catch up” there are some things you can do to help the process along. Your part in it is to provide a good amount of plant diversity in the garden and to lay off the pesticides. I talk about the more natural approach in this video:

My “hidden agenda” in adding diverse plant species to the garden is just this: as a gardener, it’s something I already enjoy doing. The fact that carrot relatives are particularly attractive to hoverflies just gives me a good excuse to add some very pretty eryngium (sea holly) with its steely blue flower clusters to the garden.

Does this approach really work? I suppose it depends on the way you measure it. It won’t actually prevent outbreaks of aphids entirely, but there’s plenty of horticultural science to back up the approach of introducing and supporting beneficial insect populations to dampen or balance out these population booms. In any case, in my view it’s a far better alternative than trying to wipe out pests with repeated applications of pesticides – which tend to become less effective over time as the populations develop pesticide resistance. And by the way, if you’d like some more plant suggestions for a balanced garden, here’s a video for you:

Tiny Wedding Chapel

While on the farm, feel free to stop by and visit the tiny chapel near the rose garden. There’s at least one other wayside chapel that notably claims the title of the “Smallest Chapel in the World” – but with all due respect ours is much smaller! Not that anyone is really counting…

As noted in the above video, we put our efforts into building this interesting little landmark in part just because it was a neat addition to the farm, but also in response to the ongoing question: do you host weddings or wedding photos?

This makes our answer straightforward: nothing too big!

Our farm setting is more appropriate to a low-key exchange or renewal of vows with the happy couple and those directly involved in the moment – officiant, witness(es), photographer. There’s no room or facilities for a large wedding party nor a gaggle of guests. Think of this as a casual backyard wedding for those who would rather use our backyard than their own. We’re not asking any fee for the use of the chapel or photos on the farm.

If you’d feel better paying something, make a donation in any amount to a charity of your choice or one of these: Child Marriage – Plan International or ally.org: Anti Human Trafficking

If this is something you’d be interested in arranging, contact us to let us know what you’re considering:

Please note that conditions on the farm will vary in ways we can’t predict. We always expect peak bloom of the roses in the middle of June, but a cool spring can push that back by quite a bit. If it rains, there’ll be mud. If it’s sunny, the farm next door may decide to harvest the hay – or worse, spread manure! Mosquitoes are a real possibility in the month of July.

I say all this both to manage expectations and to offer reassurance: if the day you picked isn’t going to work for you (either on your end or because of the conditions here) we’re amenable to changing the date and time. So long as we keep it friendly and flexible, I’m quite sure we can make something work. No prior arrangement is needed to come out for photos on one of our open days on the farm, currently Fridays and Saturdays from 9-3 during the gardening season.