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Very, very, very nice! It's a bit more pink as at my place. what kind of soil, fertilization and climate do You have?
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Thanks Jay-Jay! Her pinks are so subtle and dainty. My garden is in central western North Carolina. We're USDA Zone 7b. I live about 200 miles (320 kilometers) from Charleston, SC where the Noisettes were born. They seem to thrive in my climate. Our winters are generally mild (very rarely less than 20F at night) and our summers are long, hot and humid (60+ days greater than 86F).
I have 2 Mme. Carriere and they are both planted in full sun, 8+ hours a day. I have slightly loamy, red clay soil. Dense red clay is common from NC to Georgia. At planting, I amend with hen manure, mushroom compost, my household compost, bone meal, blood meal and Espoma Rose Tone. I change out ground harwood mulch once a year in spring. I fertilize the plants with Rose Tone, blood meal, bone meal and Epsom Salts once in spring and again in early autumn. Given that our summers are so hot, often with dry periods punctuated by heavy rain from summer storms, I don't fertilize much from June to August.
I've also noticed that my Mme Carriere produces some blooms with dark pink mottling or spots, especially at the bud stage. I wonder if this is because she gets so much sun? It's pretty when it happens. Have you seen this? What kind of soil do you have? Fertilizers you use? I see you live in the Netherlands. Cool and wet?
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#2 of 5 posted
15 APR 12 by
 Jay-Jay
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Your climate, soil and fertilisation (soil improvement included) sound good/excellent.
Our climate slowly tends towards Your's, but as bonus sometimes a sudden very cold winter. And the summers behave erratic.
The dry periods and the storms sound familiar, but over there everything is bigger. And the Tornado's seem to come to Your state too.
It's good not to fertilize too much (or even not at all after june)
The pink spots on Mme. Alfred Carrière pop up in rainy conditions over here. I've never had such pink flowerbuds at all.
My soil is for a great part a remnant of the ice-ages and yes with (that strange word again) erratics.
But I have improved it with organic fermented cow and sheep manure , home-made compost and fertilizer from nursery De Bierkreek.
Regards, Jay-Jay.
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I usually see the pinkest buds early in the season. They get lighter as the weather gets hotter and the days longer. We seem to use the same fertilizer types. I can get aged cow manure fairly easily but not sheep. We have lots of chicken farms in NC so hen manure is easy to get.
I'm jealous of your ice age soil. The clay we have is sometimes hard to work with. It is so dense but once it's amended, it makes great soil for roses. I've read good things about De Bierkreek fertilizer. In the US, Espoma offers a great line of natural, organic fertilizers that I frequently use in addition to my household compost. I can talk about soil all day long...
Our winters are generally more erratic than our summers. This winter was exceptionally mild, way above normal. The two years before were below normal, cold with lots of snow. But you can surely count on hot, humid days from June to August. Your comment about everything being bigger in America made me chuckle. It's so true!
Luckily I live about 50 miles (80 kilometers) from where the tornadoes in NC are more common. My city, WInston-Salem, sits at about 900 feet (275 meters) above sea level so the worst storms are a little less common. Charlotte and Raleigh are considerably flatter so they are more prone to the nastier storms. I grew up here so I am completely accustomed to our big summer storms, love them usually, especially when they come on 90F afternoons in July and cool off the evening air. We get an average of 48 inches (106cm) of rain each year.
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#4 of 5 posted
15 APR 12 by
Jay-Jay
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It's no need to envy me about my erratic soil..... it's boulder-clay and not the very nice löss from the province Limburg, where I was born.
Over here only the topmost 40-60 cm are soil to garden with, but beneath that, an impenetrable layer of 3-5 m of pure boulder-clay. Water stands on that layer, when it rains. And when it is dry, no water can rise.
A few km further, there is pure sand with sanddunes juniper-woods and heather.
Yesterday I saw on CNN the weatherforecast for the centre of the USA: lots and lots of heavy storms and tornadoes to come.
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Ok, I definitely don't envy your rocky clay (wink). I'll stick with my red clay. And the Midwesterners better keep those twisters out there and away from me!
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