Skip to main content

Featured

Agatha Christie's Greenway (Devon, England) - The House

I can think of two places that we visited where I enjoyed the house more than the gardens. The first was Greenway, not for the house itself, which was surprisingly small and cramped, but for the history behind it and the fascinating mementos on display. Agatha Christie and her husband Max Mallowan were enthusiastic collectors. You can see their collections on display throughout the house - European and Oriental ceramics, pottery, African tribal masks, Egyptian artifacts, Tunbridge ware, china, trinkets, and books. The Morning Room has a portrait of Agatha Christie as a child and her doll Rosie, sitting in a chair - The Drawing Room was where the family would gather in the evenings. Christie would entertain guests by reading chapters from manuscripts of her latest books.  Agatha Christie's bedroom. Max always slept on a smaller portable traveling cot (you can see part of it in the foreground). It was his favorite bed and he carried it with him on all of his archaeological travels. N...

Rose Balling

'Double Delight' rose suffering from rose balling

It is not a pretty sight and can be alarming to wake up one day and find your roses looking like this. However, it is not the end of the world (or in this case, your roses). 

"Rose balling" is a disfiguring condition that is caused by cool, wet weather. Flower buds fail to open properly and turn dingy in appearance. This is caused by rain which saturates the bud and is followed by hot sun which dries and scorches the bloom. 

There isn't a remedy for this with the exception of cutting off the offending eyesore. The future flowers should be fine (unless the exact conditions happen again). Placing roses in full sun locations helps (although my rose is in full sun) and good air circulation is also beneficial. 

Hopefully, the next flush of blooms will look more like this -



Text and photos by Phillip Oliver, Dirt Therapy

Comments

  1. Some of my white rose blooms have this. I wondered what was the problem. We have had so much rain lately. Now we are drying out. I hope not too much. That last rose photo is yummy.

    ReplyDelete
  2. The flower in the second picture is breathtaking!

    ReplyDelete
  3. This happens a lot in the fall. It's really disappointing. But nothing is perfect.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment