Thursday, June 02, 2011

Too Much Color

My drive back from a quick trip to Saskatoon this week was accompanied by the audiobook version of Michael Pollan's "Second Nature: A Gardener's Education". After some chapters on the author's early experiences in gardening and the clash of culture vs. nature, there was a chapter on the history of roses (not a complete history by any means, but a few tidbits of interest). As I drove into Prince Albert, I found my car steering towards John's Garden Center, where hardy roses are likely to be found. Not much later, I walked out with "Prairie Celebration", a sub-zero Parkland hardy rose out of Morden, Manitoba. It is a shockingly bright pink, but at the time I felt less interested in pale pastels. I'm not sure it blends with the existing colors, as it is quite a showy color. Thinking about it more, I wonder if I should have bought three, and made a nice cluster of hot pink roses?
New rose "Prairie Celebration" is the hot pink flower on the right:

Blue Forget-Me-Not which now is naturalized in masses in my flower beds:

Pink Forget-Me-Not to complement the blue:

As a rule, roses for La Ronge (zone 1b) need to be one of the Parkland (Morden) roses or an Explorer rose (named after Canadian explorers, eg. John Cabot, William Baffin, etc.). For some reason, John's also had a significant number of hybrid tea roses, but I turned up my nose at those more tender roses and moved on to the hardy ones. "Prairie Celebration" is one of the newer Parkland roses, introduced in 2003. I read online that there is also a new one this year called "Prairie Snowdrift", which is white. That one wasn't available at my local garden center.
My pink Lily of the Valley spreads very slowly in my shady patch under an ash tree

I assume that its bad reputation for spreading aggressively probably comes from milder climate zones. I have waited years for this bunch to become more than a few lonely leaves. It is a great idea for planting under deciduous trees.
My first daffodils of the year:

6 comments:

Karen said...

Beautiful!

Anonymous said...

I love it! Love the brighter colour mixed in. Fantastic.

~K

Northern Shade said...

Your spring garden is full of blooms, very pretty. The ribbon of blue forget me nots weaving through the bed and tying everything together is charming. They look super with the yellow daffodils. 'Prairie Celebrations' sounds hardy, and should do well for you.

Chookie said...

I think it looks great! Love the bi-colour tulip too. Would it look good near the hot pink?

Chookie said...

I think it looks great! Love the bi-colour tulip too. Would it look good near the hot pink?

Anonymous said...

I wanted to comment that lillies of the waley like acidic soil, but then remembered how they grew vigorously at my parents' garden. So strange they take ages to multiply in your garden...

Alex from Kazakhstan