Climbing Rose Small Windowsill Growing Record, Welcoming the Second Spring

Last year we introduced Cat God's balcony climbing roses. Today we introduce another balcony rose expert - Tun Xingfu (Stockpiling Happiness). Just like her name, happiness is something you stockpile bit by bit. Let's see what stunning things her balcony has!

The second spring of growing climbing roses, making a record, and also handing in my homework for a year of effort. Blue Rain, Pink Dragon, and Parade, the three varieties that bloomed best this year, headline the post.

Some flower friends ask, can you even see them when you grow them like this, aren't you just growing them for others to look at? First, on the inner row of the windowsill I also grow shrubs so I can admire flowers up close. Second, the outer row of climbers on the windowsill can extend outward and use unlimited space. Third, my home is on the second floor, so I can admire the beautiful roses from downstairs just the same. Fourth, so what if it's for others to see, tons of people praise me and I'm very happy, I'm just that vain.

The climbers are all in 5-gallon pots, except Romantic Baby which is in a 3-gallon pot, and the shrubs are in 2-gallon pots. The soil is simple, coarse coconut coir, fine coconut coir and perlite at roughly 1:1:1. For fertilizer, it's fermented chicken manure, Osmocote, and Huaduoduo.

Pink Dragon. The variety that got me into this hobby, bought in May 2015, at one point almost died, it stayed in my grandmother's yard and then my northwest small windowsill, and after moving to the south-facing balcony for a year the flower quantity finally came up. These photos show the whole process from first bloom to about to fade.

Blue Rain is a small seedling I got from a flower friend in May last year, planted directly into a 5-gallon pot, and in one year it produced this much bloom. The branches are thin and soft, disease-resistant, an outstanding performer.

Parade, grows rapidly, very eye-catching, absolutely the brightest on the windowsill. Last May it came as a small seedling in the same batch as Blue Rain, now it must be five times the size of Blue Rain, now I finally know how Parade got its name. The second batch of spring flowers is also plentiful, but the flowers are small, too sunny so I didn't photograph them. Tough and easy to grow with a large flower quantity, highly recommended.

Still Parade, I love it too much, can't stop photographing it.

Climbing Baby close-up, the color is really super special, big love.

Ella Pompon and Red Dragon in a vase, I only bear to cut them when they're about to fade. Awkwardly photographed for a long time, my photography skills are mediocre.

Margaret Princess is a sister flower in adversity that came in the same batch as Pink Dragon, three years old now, didn't grow it well, flower quantity isn't large, everyone just look for fun and don't criticize me.

Princess is very delicate, and even when fading it stays a reserved little ball, keeping the Princess's poise.

Madame Summer, the flowers are huge, I included a comparison photo with Aunt Maggie, isn't that the cutest flower diameter difference. Madame Summer's single flower doesn't look as delicate as Princess, but the flowers are large, and the colors are dazzling, perfect for growing on a windowsill. But I didn't grow it well, lots of blind branches, small flower quantity, now the rebloom quantity is actually plentiful, but the flowers are smaller, still don't want to go down and photograph it.

Aurora Aria, last year the most eye-catching on the windowsill, however I didn't grow it well, spread hands and sigh, just barely take a look. Large flowers, wavy edges, strong fragrance (really super fragrant, other flowers' scent is all covered up). By the way, this is also a variety bred by Tianlang, does it count as a domestic rose?

Spirit of Freedom, large stature, many blind branches, loves to pretend to be a tree, came in the same batch as Blue Rain and Parade, look at this spring flower performance, sigh, maybe next time I need to bury more winter fertilizer.

Layer upon layer of pink little balls, but lacking a bit of liveliness, when I was choosing varieties I was very obsessed, the greater the expectation the greater the disappointment, counts as the most disappointing one I bought last year. Of course, radishes and greens each have their lovers, everyone don't attack me.

That's all for the climbing roses on the south-facing balcony, from left to right in order: Pink Dragon, Aurora, Princess, Parade, Blue Rain, Climbing Baby, Red Dragon, Ella, Madame Summer, Spirit of Freedom. Next I'll post some shrubs and flowers.

Red Leonardo, blooms continuously, being able to perform like this on a north balcony is very excellent.

The first two photos were taken with the camera's movement mode, there's a color difference from the real thing, the later photos had parameters adjusted, closer to the real thing. Blue Storm, my profile picture is it and Pompon Veranda, I can still clearly remember the thrill at the time, turns out I can also grow roses this beautiful.

Pompon Veranda, a multi-headed fresh and dainty beauty, grows relatively slowly, but the single flower period is long, and it's disease-resistant and tough. The first three photos are this year's, I went on a long trip, didn't capture the most beautiful time, the later photos were taken last year.

Hiyori, from branches to flowers it's all soft and delicate, a Japanese-style soft girl, needs a flower rack for support, or hanging is also nice. I both love and hate it, a real powdery mildew girl, out of dozens of pots of flowers on both the north and south balconies only it does its own thing and loves powdery mildew. The flower shape is... spring flower quantity is large, autumn flowers slightly fewer but love... more standard than spring flowers, in other seasons it turns in a day, not much different from a small white flower, not worth looking at.

Cut-flower Juliet, very strong upright habit, multi-headed and frequent bloomer with fast rebloom, a variety with no flaws to be found.

Red Apple, a very very true red, like Dior 999.

Zhenyu big ball, characteristics: ball ball ball, fragrant fragrant fragrant, multi-headed and frequent bloomer with long single flower period and fast rebloom, the only flaw, and maybe it doesn't count as a flaw, is soft branches, you can let it hang.

Monet, won't repeat myself, in short no flaws. Didn't photograph the spring flowers, a regret, the last 4 photos are from last year.

There are also some shrubs blooming sporadically, I'll just post a few casually. The white one is Wedding Road, the red one is Carola, red and white roses, both given to me by local flower friend @Chen Qing F, heart.

A very beautiful domestic rose, north balcony, looking forward to next year's spring flower performance.

Blue Snowflake can be a shrub or a climber, my mom's favorite, no pests or diseases, blooms continuously from May to November. Although there are Blue Rain, Blue Storm and so on with "blue" in the name among roses, strictly speaking, none of them is truly blue, Blue Snowflake nicely fills the blue gap.

Last year I was poisoned by Cat God's Worcester Beauty, immediately bought one from Hongyue, but unfortunately it didn't survive after planting. A friend of the blue series gave me one that seems to be Blue Light, planted on the north balcony, spring flowers only opened 5 blooms, second batch 3 blooms.

Clematis Utopia, bought from Hongyue last year together with Worcester Beauty, planted in a 1-gallon small pot, also on the north balcony, being able to perform like this really makes me want to go crazy praising it. In winter I'll change it to a 5-gallon pot to reward it twice.

Little Mermaid, a unique salmon red, a promotional free seedling from Old Gardener's shop, getting it randomly is a bit of a happy surprise.

A surprise from the Dragon Boat Festival. In the morning I accidentally discovered the hoya had bloomed, so happy. The small seedling I bought last year was tossed in a corner and watered occasionally, free-range style.

Red Dragon, Climbing Baby and Ella Pompon

When they're blooming abundantly, I have difficulty choosing and don't know which photo to post, so I post them all.

Climbing Baby

The view from inside the room, you can see I've placed them very densely, the outer row of climbers has spacing of about 20 cm and some almost touching each other, the inner row is squeezed into every gap, so inevitably there are red spider mites, but there's no way, I want to grow too many, roses, Blue Snowflake, hoya, and the south windowsill is only this big. Everyone can use me as a negative example (every evening there really are super many mosquitoes, I only opened it for a little while to take photos and got bitten 4 times, this is probably the biggest problem I've encountered in growing flowers)

The back balcony is really super suitable for growing azaleas!

Posting a few flower arrangement photos, taken on June 24th, by this time only Red Dragon and Ella Pompon of the second batch of flowers had held on. Red Dragon's second batch lost at least 20 buds, all battered by the rain, but I still love her passion.

Many flower friends ask me how I prune. Indeed pruning has a certain difficulty, you can tell from my arms, one pruning session takes nearly 3 hours, with more than ten scratches all over my body, even my armpits. I basically rely on my left hand to slowly lift the branches and my right hand to hold the scissors to prune, thick and stiff branches like Parade's are hard to lift, I've already given up on the places I can't reach, I'll deal with them at winter pruning, and as for the spent flowers just let them be, let's experiment and see what happens if I don't cut them.

Flower friend: Tun Xingfu

Xiongxiong Flower Friend WeChat Communication Group

Long press | Scan | Add Little Y as a friend

Inviting you to join the most popular flower friend WeChat group