There's really no rhyme or reason to these pictures. They're mostly roses and insects making the most of these early autumn days.
If 'Pat Austin' weren't such a beautiful color rose I'd have moved her to the road bank. I do wish she'd hold her blossoms up. They don't work for cut flowers, either. But, lordy, they're beautiful.
The bees like them, too.
I still have enough roses and gomphrena to make little bouquets.
The gomphrena just keep going and going. They bloom from the first of May until the frost kills them. I think they may be on their last legs, though.
Unlike 'Pat Austin', 'Grande Amore' is an excellent cut rose. It has large blooms, sturdy stems and lasts a long time in the vase. I can never get a good picture of it, though. It's really quite stunning, but the color of it isn't good for photographing. (At least not for an amateur.) The light reflection makes all the petals kind of blend together and look out of focus. The foliage photogaphs well, but not the blooms. I keep trying, but in three years, I have yet to get a picture that does them justice.
'South Africa' photographs very well and is a real stunner. Well-named.
I planted two rambling roses on the road bank this spring, and they did absolutely nothing aside from look bad. Neither of them even produced one bloom. It's shadier and drier there than the garden, so I transplanted them today into the perennial bed, which is coming along bit by bit. Hopefully, these 'Tour de Malakoff' roses will take off here and do well next year.
A few days ago, I received an order of allium bulbs which I planted in the perennial bed. I have a few more things to do there, and then it'll be finished. Of course, those few things include digging up the remaining wildflowers and grasses and turning the soil. But, it's about 3/4 done!
Shame on the person who dumped this pretty and very friendly cat out on the highway. He has decided he'll stay here, even though the other two stray cats don't like him. (They don't much like each other, truth be told!) He hangs out in the garden any time I'm there and kind of makes a pest of himself, but he's young and silly, and loving, so he's welcome.
Cowpeas are putting out a second flush of beans and still look lush.
The aphids that attack the milkweed plants are some of the prettiest aphids, if you can appreciate an aphid. Thankfully, the only other plant that I've had an aphid issue with is the grapevine. They certainly are plentiful on the milkweed. A hard spray of water, or just a gloved hand scraped along the stem gets rid of them easily enough. If you wait long enough, they'll attract lady beetles, which eat them.
Aphids are little procreating machines. They don't have any males in the population, so there's no time wasted in fertilizing and laying eggs. They just eat and pop out live babies. They don't even poop. Everything goes to making those hundreds of clone kids. Almost everything. What doesn't, slowly builds up in the aphid's system and eventually kills her.
You know it's an aphid if it has what one fellow grad student called tailpipes. They're actually called cornicles. There are two stuck onto the rear of the abdomen, and on these bright orange aphids (Aphis nerii), they're quite obvious, because they're black.
The milkweed plants also have another insect "pest" - milkweed bugs. They're a bit less prolific than the aphids, but still plentiful. Unlike the aphids, they don't seem to do much damage, and the plants are about done for by the time they show up, so I haven't bothered to control them.
They moved over to nearby ornamental peppers, but I still can't see damage on the plants, so I'm okay with them for now.
Gardening season is drawing to a close, but I'll probably have a couple more posts before it's done. I'm still harvesting tomatoes, cowpeas and herbs.
Till next time.
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