Rose Week 2 of 2

Part 2 of Lady Dixon Park Rose Week - photos of some of the beautiful roses, including two 'royal' roses and Ireland's own 'Wild Rover'. (The only one I have in my garden is Arthur Bell.)

Rose Week 1 of 2

Aren't roses gorgeous!!

Every July Lady Dixon Park, Belfast celebrates Rose Week with a week of free entertainment and activities.

Here are some of the photos I took.

The park contains over 45,000 blooms (who counts!?!), roses from around the world, and trial / display beds throughout. There's even a Princess Diana memorial garden.

Can you manage deadheading all these plants!?!

Tomorrow's post will show some varieties of the eye catching roses (up close) originating from Northern Ireland, England and USA.

Is cheap cheerful? (Echinacea, Red Hot Poker, Iris)

Back in March I bought a few cheapy plant packs for 99p in a pound shop (like the American dollar stores). They're simply root pieces that get planted up (seems easy enough).

Above: the pack and pieces of two root balls, one with sprouts starting. I planted this into a good size pot and labelled it. Always wanted an Echinacea Purpurea!

Left: the resulting plant (the orange one). I definitely see that it isn't Echinacea Purpurea, which I thought I'd purchased. I'm not even sure it's any type of Echinacea? Can you imagine trying to take this back to a dollar/pound shop and asking for 99p back? 
The white flowers are Gypsophila Elegans (Covent Garden White) an annual I grew from seed.

 Below: Close up of flower that was supposed to be Echinacea Purpurea

Left: Another root plant bought and potted up in March was Red Hot Poker. I've always admired this plant ...
and here's the result...

No Red Hot Poker flower so far. All three root pieces are growing but no sign of flowering. The Red Hot Poker are the spiky looking foliage (I've planted an annual in the pot as well).

Maybe Red Hot Poker doesn't flower in their first year? Or maybe it will be late this year?

I also bought a pack of Dutch Iris bulbs and planted them in pots back in March. They've probably been the most successful of the 'cheapy' plant selection.

The irises are finished now but gave several weeks of fab colour this month.