22.6.26 News from the field

 Currently, two biggest roses in my field are: ‘Erinnerung an Brod’ and ‘Aennchen von Tharau’ (Geschwind). Well, they were planted about 4 or 5 years ago, however they can’t be named optimal growers since they also suffered from different malconditions (of course, it’s not their fault). Nevertheless, they are doing quite ok, in my view, if compared to many other varieties.

Further, I’ve got these two once-blooming seedlings which I decided to keep. 

This one is a gallica hybrid (Capri x Soleil Brilliant). Overwintered with no protection at all. Survived and bloomed. Wonderful flowers, very full, heavy petals texture, resistant to heat, great scent, beaming color.

Another one is Blue for You x Zigeunerknabe. Survived with no winter protection at all. Not too many blooms, but the plant looks good and promises to be a bigger shrub. I loved the bloom color. Darker shade, with even darker petal rims, with bright yellow stamens, they seem to be lit from the middle. Scented! The blooms have a lot of pollen, I will try to breed from it.

There was a bit of surprise to see this seedling blooming: it is Penny Lane x Unknown White Rambler. One thing is certain - it is very hardy. No freeze back at all. It is most probably a once-bloomer. Nothing special in flowers, but I find it extremely interesting that this cross worked at all. And oddly enough, the blooms are not coming in clusters. I was expecting that. But I will monitore it further. Maybe, the clusters will form in future. 

And surprisingly, I spotted the first daylily seedling blooming. It is the one from the crosses I made 3 years ago, never bloomed before. Nothing spectacular at all, will be culled, but I am very glad that they finally began to show what they were.  

Seedling is on the left, parents - on the right.

And I finished planting my current daylily seedlings in one big bed. The overall number is 336. Still have quite a number to plant, but they will go into another bed. I am a bit worried, the big heat will be coming, no rains are in the forecast. I will have to come regularily to water them all.

So, I decided to show how I plant rose seedlings.

The point is, I have to plant everything in protective nets because of voles. This is very complicated, as I have to prepare such nets by myself. I have to make them from the big roll of net. This I do at home and bring the ready nets to my field for planting. Every (!) plant goes with the net. There is no other way.

The vole pictured below was caught by a predatory bird, I think, but was dropped because of some disturbance. I found it there with its neck broken. My hand is there just for sizing. I did not remove the vole. Some time passed, and when I returned to that spot, the body was already gone. The predator took it away. It is freaking good to have these little (or bigger) helpers - birds, weasels and snakes, but I prefer them to be much bigger in numbers, because the situation with voles is really dramatic. Sometimes I get terribly frustrated to see all the damage done by voles. すく€%&“@!!!