bump

Oh hey, just saw this. The one on the right hand side in front, is about 18" from the wall. The one in back of that one is about the same, 18". The one on the left hand side is 12" from the wall. This is from the center of each plant. I went and measured with a tape measure, because it gave me an excuse to go out there and smell the fragrance yet again. Mmmm! So good!

It should be noted that this area is on the north east side of the house, in a gully that runs from east to west, so the walls themselves are somewhat shaded from a direct hit. So heat doesn't affect the roots as it would if this was a south facing area. There's also some shade from the Italian Cypress to the left in the photo, which just happens to occur around noon-1pm, which gives the roses a bit of a break.

If you look carefully at the photo you can see the walls are shaded while the roses are in sun. The photo was taken from the east looking to the west. To your left in the photo is south, to your right in the photo is north.

In addition, because this is on the north side of the house, the area is quite a bit shadier in the winter. This means the roses get a tiny bit of something like dormancy they don't get in the rest of the garden. The soil is colder in this area in the winter than it is in the rest of the garden.

The walls are sealed with something on the inside, some kind of waterproofing, per local building code.

I love the look of your garden it has mediterranean vibe going on!

Thanks! It's a Mediterranean climate, so it works. :^)

hoovb - how many Bishop's Castles did you plant to achieve that beautiful look? I just planted one and I'm looking forward to seeing what it does.

Ann

Three. There are two on the right hand side of the stairs and one on the left hand side of the stairs.

Wow - thanks hovb!

Ann

Thank you so much, Hoovb. My whole garden faces southwest, so I don't know if it'll be do-able for me. I had a man come with a back-hoe and renew the road going from the top of the hill of my garden down to an area close to the bottom, so I'll be able to drive my car down there, turn around, and drive it back up. Along the upper part of the roadI've got some roses growing, but with the new sharp cut the back-hoe made to widen said road, this bed was narrowed a lot . I had to remove several roses that were obviously too close to the new edge,but a few remain and my idea was to see how they fare over the summer. One of them-a Mrs. Reynolds Hole-I began digging out since it seemed too close to the new edge, but I discovered that , though the top growth was almost hanging over the road, the roots instead were almost all growing deep into the side of the hill,so moving it seemed a bad idea. There's also a Reine des Violettes next to it-very big-that is really over-hanging the road. If this one's roots are doing the same, it MIGHT be ok to leave it where it is. I'll have to build a retaining wall eventually...I'll have to go and measure the distances of these plants from the cut.

You are very welcome. Sounds like you have some thought and work ahead of you. I hope it all goes well.

You can say that again!!! Yesterday I went out there; it was violently windy and there was a lot of damage; I noticed that many of the roses in the bed up above the road suffered from severe wind rock; I'll have to do something about that, too. Anyway, RdV and Mrs.R.H. might be okay, but Fellemberg will have to be moved.

You have my sympathies. Violent wind overnight here as well far away in So Cal. I wonder if all the flowers on the Bishops are still there or shredded and desiccated.

Weather. It happens.

It was hoovb's blog posting of her Bishop's Castle in 2011 that inspired me to purchase 3 of these plants as the first roses to go into my new garden even though I'd never seen or smelled them in person. I still think they are the overall best roses I have. They've just about got it all: vigor, tolerance to adverse conditions, floriferousness, heady fragrance, nice color, graceful bush, disease free leaves, heat tolerance. It's one of the four roses that recovered after a late snow that knocked all the other roses back ( to be honest, it was damaged when the other 3 were not, but recovered faster than any of the other damaged ones). No, they don't tolerate intense winds well, but nothing I have does. Something I noticed today, when admiring how well they are doing compared to some of my other roses, is that it puts out an enormous number of flowers on each growth. Yes, sometimes it's mostly one or two, but also many candelabras of 20 or more buds on the basal breaks. They don't bloom all at once, but have side buds that bloom after the main flowers fade, prolonging the show.

After deadheading this one cluster and seeing all the flowers left, I had to count: 8 or 10 faded flowers and 14 blooms/buds left.

I counted 22 buds/blooms on this cluster.

I stopped when I got to 24 on the terminal cluster of this basal that appeared this year, with many more buds on the side branches of this one basal. It's the only Austin that I have that does this (so far).

So a hearty thanks to hoovb for introducing me to this rose. It's a great one.

Wow!!! I`ll say, it`s a great one!!! I forgot about this thread, because I didn`t have Bishop`s Castle when I read this. Now that I picked it up on a whim...I`m really, really glad that I did!!! Fabulous!!!

Carol

Beautiful blooms! How long ago did you plant your BCs?

Ann

Thanks! I hope mine looks as good as yours one day.

Ann

Noseometer - Oh those are fabulous!!!! I love the picture with all the blue catnip?, etc. Talk about gorgeous colors!!! I'm getting so excited for my Bishop's Castle to start blooming!!! Wonderful pictures!

Carol

Really appreciate the bush shots. Your garden is so soothing. What is the name of the short dark purple in the left mid ground across from BC"?

Are any of those purple bushes lavender? I grow Hidcote Superior and Wee one because they stay small.

Thanks for the nice words!

Ann, I bet yours will look a whole lot better than mine since I'm guessing that you are in a nicer climate for them!

rosecanadian, yes, that is Nepeta 'Walker's Low' directly to the left of BC.

totoro, the short dark purple left of BC and next to the flagstone path is Salvia daghestanica, a plant that requires xeric conditions. The grassy plants with the purple spikes in the bottom right corner are lavender. They are either 'Vicenza Blue' or 'Ellagance Purple' which I planted from seed and didn't bother to keep separate.

Gosh, you put up all those stupendous photos and then apologize??? (LOL)

I have got to get me some of those nepetas! do more companion planting! That is gorgeous! It's a shame though that Bishop's Castle isn't available here in Europe though. I get the impression that this is one Austin that does well in dry, hot climates,and as such might be worth a try.

Thanks for mentioning Salvia daghestanica requires xeric. I won't bother with all the rain we get here. I am so impressed you started your lavender from seed. I killed like three full grown lavenders already and I am struggling to germinate snapdragons indoors.

Thanks Bart - Nepeta 'Walker's Low' is fun and easy. It does seed itself around a bit, and is very easy from cuttings (I took 20 cuttings when I started my garden and every one rooted). I want to try some others, but this one is very nice. I hope you like butterflies! I'm not sure how much BC likes dry and hot, since it still gets singed flowers, jut not totally crispy like WS2K or others. But it keeps putting out more, until it gets really hot.

totoro - the plan I designed was for 50 lavender plants, and it was too expensive to buy plants, so I grew them all from seeds. It turned out better anyway since the plants I bought for other parts of the garden the year before, all died from a wilt!