Bloom Day Supplement: Roses In Shade And Other July Blooms
So on Tuesday night my Bloom Day post was getting long, and I was getting tired, so I decided to cover the back garden in a second post. Which is what I’m doing now.
I refer to the back garden as my shady garden, but it is a light, dappled shade mostly from tall Silver Maples (Acer saccharinum) and Siberian Elms (Ulmus pumila – yes, I know Siberian Elms are a terrible tree, but they were planted long before we moved here).
More flowers than you might expect are fairly happy with this level of light. No blackspot or other diseases – though I did have one rose I had to remove because of rose rosette.
Currently I have three different roses growing in the back garden, all in bloom.
The rambler ‘Darlow’s Enigma’ grows on the arbor. This rose has clusters of small, single white flowers that bloom throughout the summer.
They are not powerfully fragrant, but when you walk under the arbor you do catch a whiff of their sweet scent.
Growing against the white brick garage wall there is the wild Prairie Rose (Rosa setigera), with single pink blooms that fade to cream.
Finally, ‘Sally Holmes’ blooms near the east fence, positioned where it can get the most late afternoon sun. While the roses mentioned above started to bloom only this month, Sally has been flowering since early June. The flowers come in trusses that at that this point are showing some age.
Every winter for the past three years, the rabbits keep eating Sally’s canes almost down to the ground. She rebounds, though, and still blooms. This fall, however, I will not forget to surround her with chicken wire.
You may have noticed that in the back garden I favor white flowers specifically and softer colors generally. Indian Pink (Spigelia marylandica) is an exception to this. Judy thinks this flower has an extra-terrestrial look to it, but it is in fact a North American native, as the name suggests.
Going back to the theme of white flowers, there are some big old Smooth Hydrangea (Hydrangea arborescens) that bloom enthusiastically through the heat of summer.
Also, the Black Elderberry (Sambucus canadensis) is flowering now, with huge clusters of tiny cream-colored blooms. There is one Elderberry growing in my Thicket Corner, which also surrounds the Siberian Elm with Wild Currant (Ribes americanum), Gray Dogwood (Cornus racemosa) and Cranberrybush Viburnum (Viburnum opulus var. americanum).
This Elderberry is the straight species, with tiny berries are edible but don’t taste like much. When ripe, they are quickly eaten by the birds.
Let’s leave the flowering containers for another day, shall we?
Have you ever tried growing roses in shade?
gardeninacity 