Roses are a bit of work. It’s manageable, but it’s work. Mostly as I have said in many other posts, it’s a routine that you have to follow with them. You need to clean up around them underneath the bushes, and they are heavy feeders so basically every six weeks I’m feeding them.

Roses are susceptible to pests and fungus and other sorts of plant diseases so it’s important that you do have a plan. I do not keep my roses organically. I will feed them in between the systemic I use, and those feeds will be seaweed extract and what not so that is organic. But every six weeks during the growing season I use Bio Advanced 3 in 1 . It feeds, protect from disease, and protects from pests.

I had some deadheading again to do today and I have a giant rugosa rose bush that I have not dead headed yet and I can’t decide if I’m just going to let it grow rosehips or deadhead for one more bloom cycle.

I always forget that this garden has more roses than I think it does, so it takes a while to feed them. Plus, I did plant four new rose bushes this year. Slowly, I have found myself switching over to antique roses. I still have a lot of of David Austins and I have one grandiflora, which is Queen Elizabeth. I also have an Eden Climber which is a Meilland rose which has a puffy old fashioned habit introduced in 1985.

Most of my old roses with the exception of one that was a gift from a rosarian at Wyck in Philadelphia have come from two places, Antique Rose Emporium in Texas and Heirloom Roses in Oregon.

So given the amount of roses I have, it took 2 1/2 containers of the 64 ounce drench concentrate. The drench in the 64 ounce size is about $36 a container.

While I was feeding the roses, I also cleaned up underneath them and removed extra pachysandra among other things. Pachysandra grows ridiculously well here. And I hate it so I pull it out when I can. I allow it in some places, because it beats bishop’s weed. Speaking of bishop’s weed that is still the flavor of the summer . Oh, and I pulled some jewel weed that was literally almost 6 feet tall.

My garden has a jungle like quality right now, so as I’ve been doing my chores I’ve been taming the jungle. I can only do so much each day, but I still like the look of a layered garden versus a completely manicured garden.

A few years in, I am thrilled with the amount of perennials and lilies and other things that make up the summer flowers. I do add things here and there. I do add and subtract. Soon I will be culling the freaking ostrich ferns in the back again.

As we head into mid-July, I love the lush feel of all the hydrangeas I have planted. And I will have another flush of most roses soon since I have fed them. The daylilies are doing their thing and soon dinner plate hibiscus will put on a show. I have planted them in a few places as well.

Also, today I had time to adore my Franklinia tree. She has grown by leaps and bounds and I fed her just before all the rain started a couple of weeks ago. Today when I went to look, she has set her buds for her bloom cycle and she’s really going to put on a show this year.

It was a hot day, although not as humid as it has been. Tomorrow we are expecting more rain.

How does your garden grow?