PROGRESS REPORT–‘CASCADE’ ROSE & LIFE IN GENERAL

You might recall that the previous set of blooms opened progressively paler. These were consistent and faded gently, ‘Cascade’ rose is at all times more intensely coloured than ‘Ballerina’, though: it is a richer, darker pink. (Photo taken 2 March)	With the old blooms fading and falling, the,4th generation is coming into bloom. Considering how young this plant is, its readiness to flower is amazing, and I suspect it really will rival ‘Ballerina’ as a shrub rose! (Photo taken 21 March)

I have reported several times on the exciting little rose I discovered growing IN fast flowing water and IN the shade, three tiny pink blooms drawing my attention to it. The last time, with links to older posts, was here. As I learn more about ‘Cascade’ – as I christened it after its place of birth – I become more and more convinced that I’m onto a winner.

Do you remember the post in which I told of the orchid which had been trashed by baboons? I cut up the flowering stems and planted them. Not unexpectedly the six rootless ones did not take, but the one which had a small piece of root attached remains as green as when I planted it, and I am confident that it will survive. Note the growing medium. I found old decayed pine logs that I could break with my fingers, and their spongy chunks form the basis of what looks to this amateur like rather professional orchid growing medium.  

So much for plants – what else in this progress report?

I started 2011 with a new foreman; I was rather pleased when eventually my previous foreman and I parted company, and I had already identified his replacement. Partially the previous foreman was responsible for four of my staff not being with us anymore and in November five temps started to work with the team. We were fortunate. They proved so willing and capable that I decided at the end of February to employ all five, rather than  three as  I had intended. In the process I decided not to replace my ‘estate lawnmower’ but rather to continue using the two strimmers for the purpose of cutting meadows and lawns. Such is the reality of rural Africa that the purchase price of an  industrial lawnmower is not much less than the annual salary of one man. In the process I keep mechanical costs down, leave  a smaller carbon footprint, and put food on the table of one more family. With rural unemployment at over 30%, you will realise the importance of a single job to an extended family. But why the pic? The fence at the entrance, and the work on it, was their idea. Made of invader wattle lathes and finished at the joints with wattle bark, it has already lifted the approach to Sequoia Gardens in a way I love – it is clear but unassuming. And it is a symbol of a new beginning in the way things get done at Sequoia Gardens. This was a casual photo taken the day I came home from teaching to find the fence half built. I will in due course feature it more fully.

Croft Cottage is also nearing completion. In fact all that needs to be done is the last furniture to be bought. Oh – and now that my trailer has been reconditioned – a process that took longer than it aught – I can fetch old tires to line the soak-pit beyond the septic tank, thus completing the plumbing and making the cottage habitable. The original stone structure was built sometime in the early 20th century. I broke out the side wall and doubled it in size, put on a new roof and added a shower-room towards the back and a stone-pillared veranda in front. Because for many years the stone-walled room was used as a store or inhabited by farm workers, I decided to call it Croft Cottage; a crofter being, in the north of the UK, a tenant farmer. It has been a slow process, for we owner-built it all, but I am very happy with the end product.

And so, here I am, at the end of a hectic period; this morning I completed my first-term reports. Yesterday our Rotary Club hosted the Ebenezer Mile Swim, our major fund-raiser for the year. On 1 March, the beginning of the financial year, I officially bought the crop of pine trees from my father, and all income from and responsibility for the farm is now mine. (It is a lifestyle farm: 40% of my salary plus the income from the farm is needed to sustain it, one of the reasons I’m developing tourist accommodation.)

By Friday I will be on leave. We are making progress in all sorts of ways. There are plans afoot. I am happy.

 

‘CASCADE’ ROSE PART 4 – EXPECT THE UNEXPECTED

Here is an update on my very own rose, which I first blogged about last December with follow-ups on 16 and 23 January . Last time I was waiting expectantly for the second bloom to open, and wondering if, like ‘Ballerina’, the blooms would fade from a brightish pink to near white. Well, what happened just left me in suspense for what the next buds would bring, seven of which are developing quite nicely on the next sprig as we speak…

Three days after the first, another bloom opened: slightly smaller, but very much paler than the first, which had kept its colour perfectly; in fact it might even have deepened very slightly with age…

 Then two days later the third bloom opened. It was even paler, showing only some pink in the bud, the open rose quite white. It was as though this plucky little rose had spent its all on producing that first perfect pink bloom…

But it took a deep breath, gained heart and started pushing forth its next flowering stem – which by this morning was beginning to look really promising. Meanwhile the first bloom will be three weeks old tomorrow, and still looks quite good. The little rose with the big heart continues to thrill me, and soon we will learn a bit more of what we can expect from it as it grows up…

 

 

‘CASCADE’ ROSE IN FLOWER!

6:30am, Sunday. I go out to check on yesterday’s cuttings – a very exciting find: a bright yellow tricolour variegation on an azalea. I managed to take three cuttings from the little branch. Stock-standard sized cuttings, at the best time of the year for azalea cuttings. They aught to grow away happily. I also transplanted 11 seedlings of the double flowered but supposedly ‘species’ Rosa rugosa. I planted the seeds in August. For the last six weeks they’ve shown no new growth, for the past two started looking yellowed and unhappy. But each little rose, less than 5cm high, had at least 30cm of healthy looking root growing down into the stones at the bottom of the pot. Fresh soil in individual pots and grow-stix should do the trick. You can see a few in the background beyond what turned out to be the excitement of the morn: my ‘Cascade’ rose (read more about it here), which yesterday showed colour in the bud, had opened overnight!

Serious photography followed. For almost the first time I really started getting into the new SLR-D Canon 1000D. With the camera on a tripod I captured the opening by the minute. 12 minutes between the first photos, and 40 minutes later the shot below, with a sheet of white paper slipped in behind to form a neutral backdrop.

I fetched a sprig of ‘Ballerina’ in order to compare them. ‘Ballerina’ has fuller heads with slightly smaller flowers – although my rose is very young still and this might in time change. The freshly opened flower is a deeper pink, a very satisfying shade. It has 9 petals, as opposed to the almost constant 5 of ‘Ballerina’. But my reading indicates that a rose must have 15-20 petals to be classified as semi-double. So this is still a single.

The photo below shows how ‘Ballerina’ fades as it matures. Time will tell if ‘Cascade’ does the same…

I re-arranged the buds to get the two young flowers – within hours of each other -  closer together… So far my rose has spotless foliage – although it has been under cover during the last two weeks of constant wet!

Not  too much in it, judging by the above shot…

By now it is lunch time – would you say I have started a love affair with this rose…?

Oh – and almost forgotten in the focus on the flower: my very exciting variegated azalea cuttings. Let’s hope that the variegation proves consistent, for it could prove to be a valuable find!