New Additions in the Garden

After spending the last couple of mornings digging up yellow clay and mixing in compost and sand, I've finally made some new additions to the front bed. I've planted some thyme along the walkway -- probably too close to the walkway, but we'll see. There's a delphinium behind the cooking sage and to one side of the new rose bush. The Double Bridal Wreath Spirea will go into the ground tomorrow in the bare spot on the western end of the wax myrtle hedge where it will hopefully be happy.

A new rose, Brilliant Pink Iceberg (the image is from Stockphoto) is the new centerpoint of the bed. I didn't actually intend to buy this variety. One side of the pot was labeled Gruss an Aachen, a lovely pale pink floribunda with a fairly modest growth habit. The plan was for two roses in this bed, the Gruss an Aachen toward the middle and to one side, and something a bit larger toward the back. I didn't see the label on the other side of the pot until I got the plant home. I looked it up online to get more information, and based on the description decided to keep it.

Brilliant Pink Iceberg is a sport of the more familiar white Iceberg. It has a similar growth habit to it's parent, in other words, it gets big -- sometimes very big. It is a repeat bloomer, flowering from spring to first frost, with moderately scented blooms in a mixed bright pink and white. It has no thorns, and as such is not in any way deer-tolerant -- something of an issue in Central Texas -- but I haven't had any deer problems in this area, and with the local pastureland being developed into subdivisions -- don't get me started -- I don't expect to see them become a problem in the future. It is very disease hardy -- a definite plus as I absolutely hate spraying anything on roses or coddling plants along. It's one the reasons I tend to grow old roses in the first place.

So the Pink Iceberg gets to stay, and the garden plan gets revised. It will probably turn out to be a happy accident, but next time I'm looking for a rose, I'll head over to the Antique Rose Emporium.

Here's a photo of what's been done so far (the new camera is on order from Amazon.) Still to come, there are some agapanthus bulbs on order, deep and medium blue, and I'll still need to pick up some fern-leaved lavender for the middle of the bed, in front of the rose. The daylilies still need to be shuffled around a bit and some of the scabiosas will find a home between the lavender and the thyme. Then I'll fill in the bare spot at the front with lamb's ears and either more thyme or some parsley.

Tomorrow, I'll start tackling the bed on the other side of the walkway.