Our first roses of the year were picked Monday, the 17th. As the blossoms opened even more, the larger of the yellow roses (photo, below) reached a span of over six inches. Beautiful! Although the roses are fragrant, HH says that he can't smell them. His "smeller" has declined in sensitivity over the past few years.
Today, I photographed the whole rose garden (below), and the real Mr Lincoln rose bush. I had intended to pick the Mr Lincoln bud for HH to enjoy. (He doesn't go outside, much, and it takes an effort to see the rose garden through the kitchen window.) I waited too long.
In Horticultural pursuits, I showed several of our bushes that I was/(am still) trimming to remove the winter killed branches. Most are doing well, as can be seen in the photos that I took, today.
Double Play Big Bang (larger bushes) and Magic Carpet (smaller bushes) spirea - with sedum ground cover (foreground) and tomatoes (background)
Ivory Halo Dogwood bush
(Dead) Hick's Yew of which I've just started digging out the roots - outside my bedroom window - The photo's not being 3-D, it's hard to tell that there is a hole around the few remaining dead branches and that there is a pile of dirt to the right of it. It has copious, tough roots that will make me glad that I've had the axe sharpened, when I get to that point.
Nanho Purple Butterfly bush, I think
Assorted holly bushes in front of the house - work in progress
Crepe Myrtles
Although I did not post "before hacking out the deadwood" photos of our crepe myrtle bushes, I'm posting a couple of "after hacking" photos of three of the four bushes. In the first photo, showing a dwarf variety, the bush on the right is one that I layered off of the 20-year-old bush on the left. The bright green at the right edge of the left photo is a couple of the Stella de Oro Daylily plants - with a volunteer tomato nestled in there. The second photo (on the right) shows one of the two standard variety crepe myrtle bushes that were much cheaper since I bought them on sale at a big box store.
Irises
The irises were lovely, again, this year; but, I didn't get around to photographing the various kinds - except the Root beer irises. The root beer irises were the earliest bloomers. Not too far distant from them are the latest bloomers - Orchid irises - shown below.
Loss of sense of smell is a symptom of Covid-19 :-(
Get HH tested.
Posted by: Ole Phat Stu | May 23, 2021 at 12:39 AM
As CC mentioned, HH's sense of smell has declined over years, not in the last couple of days. Loss of smell also happens during allergy season (even if not allergic, extremely high pollen counts can have an effect), the common cold and other reasons. Not saying it's impossible, but it is unlikely that HH has Covid since he has been vaccinated and rarely leaves the house anyway. Additionally, his food choices have been changing over the years, probably somewhat related to the change in his smeller.
Posted by: bogie | May 23, 2021 at 04:29 AM
I never would have guessed that as a dogwood. But, I don't have dogwoods, so don't really know what they look like besides the beautiful flowers I have seen from afar as I'm driving :)
Your garden areas are looking lovely and I can almost smell the roses thru the screen. Sorry the yew is no longer amongst the living, but gives you an excuse to do something different with that section.
Posted by: bogie | May 23, 2021 at 04:32 AM
Stu--Thanks for the thought; but, Bogie is right on. HH has nothing to worry about as far as COVID-19 goes.
BTW: Congratulations on getting your own 2nd jab. Well done!
Bogie--I don't know cause/effect of HH's evolutions; but, not only have HH's food "tolerances" changed, he is now tolerant of my cooking cruciferous vegetables - to which he used to be quite sensitive. Too, he no longer demands to know the identity of each food on his plate. He will occasionally ask, but it is not as once it was when he always asked "What is this?" before trying a bite.
I was confused when I saw the bush dogwood at the nursery, having been unaware of the different forms of "dogwood". The trees that we think of as dogwood are distinguished as "flowering dogwood".
Thanks for noticing the rose fragrances and the commiseration on the yew. At one time we had a line of yews on that side of the house and more about 20 feet across from them, in a planting bed. The only surviving yews are the sentinels at the front entry. The dead yew provided shielding for my bedroom window. Fortunately, the house next door has a single window that would have a view - from a bathroom in which they keep the shades drawn.
Posted by: Cop Car | May 23, 2021 at 07:05 AM
P.S. to Bogie--If I can get the plan past your father, I plan to have that area excavated to install another escape window - partly for the safety, but mostly so that bedroom can be advertised as a bedroom when we/you sell this house. Besides, it would make the room so much more pleasant (not that I now find it unpleasant!) In the meantime, if you have any thoughts on what to do there, please feel free to contribute.
When we built, it never occurred to me that we were constructing a house with but two bedrooms. (Neither den is located to provide short access to a bathroom, so don't lend themselves to bedroom use.) It's an odd combination, the moderately large size of the house and the paucity of bedrooms.
Posted by: Cop Car | May 23, 2021 at 07:14 AM