THE WEATHER OUTSIDE IS FRIGHTFUL.......

.....Though some believe it is DELIGHTFUL

Let it stop, let it stop, let it STOP!

The bridge looking towards the house

Looking down, over the bridge

towards the house

.....and then up near. If I had played my cards right

and taken the pond and the house together,

well maybe, almost maybe,

we could have had a Courier and Ives -

as my friend Jim, says that we have. :)

................but he is prejudice, VERY PREJUDICE!

I love this jumble below - almost lead-glass like looking,

but branches and trees make that affect.

and a front mis-match- tilted old chair at the snow laden table!

(I think they have to go) :)

but served us well for years! MANY YEARS!

Oh, and still one more, just another snowy back view!

I admit the snow looks very beautiful, but I do not like the side affects, the roads and all other problems it can create and I am really thinking of people stranded in airports right now waiting to go home or to friends for Christmas. I really hope it works out for them......and for personal reasons, our grandson will be travelling from Edmonton on Boxing Day, as an unaccompanied minor, so I hope by then these problems are cleared up and for all travellers. I have to admit that the wannabe photographer in me has really enjoyed going out and taking pictures around the property. The problem is out of about five folders that my five excursions braving the elements have made, I have had to reduce my pictures so I could post an acceptable amount. But alas, I have still gone overboard, I could not limit them to under ten. Four to six would have been better. I thought of sending them to friends and asking them to pick for me. But, to heck with it. Ten it is! Hope you enjoy!

MY ROSES - “Ma to Pa”

MADAME ISAAC PEREIRE: Bourbon. Bred by Garcon - 1881 in France. Delicious Deep Pink blooms with very strong fragrance and many petals of 55 and more. Very floriferous with heavy nodding heads. Usually born singularly on short stems. It can be used as a large shrub or small climber.

I personally think that roses like this with heads that have a habit of facing downwards are far more appreciated when trained to climb………especially this rose and some of the Austin’s, when one can look into the blooms and appreciate them more. Unfortunately, up to now, I only have one photograph of this beautiful rose.

OCTAVIA HILL: Floribunda. Bred by Harkness - 1995 in United Kingdom. Lovely pure pink smallish blooms forming large clusters on short stems. It has a moderate fragrance. The bush is short - about 2.6 to 3.6 feet in my garden. The blooms very prettily shaped with many petals.

PARADE: Climber. Bred by Gene Boerner - 1953 in United States. This rose has deep pink. HT sized blooms in large clusters. Extremely floriferous and can put on quite a show, as you will see by pictures on HMF (HELP ME FIND) http://www.helpmefind.com/rose/pics.php?l=2.4648&nr=98343 grown by a rose colleague who frequents the Garden Web Roses Forum http://forums2.gardenweb.com/forums/roses/ I personally do not detect any fragrance with this rose. But it sure makes up for it in the abundance of blooms.

PARADISE: Hybrid Tea. Bred by Weeks - 1978 in the United States. This unique HT is a lovely shade of lavender with petals tipped at their edges with a light red blush. Depending on the amount of sun and the season, the colours and intensity will vary greatly. This is a beautifully shaped rose and is quite gorgeous in arrangements. Unfortunately, I do not detect much in the way of fragrance, but it is a keeper because of its unusual colour and beauty.

In full sun

'TIS THE SEASON.......

.........to be jolly!

fa la la la laa, la la, la laa!.........

After already having been to a few fun events, I check my calendar and see the dates are filling up and the social butterfly in me is looking forward to every one! I particularly look forward to meeting up with my family and friends, very much, at this time of the year and to all the scrumptious food. We feel blessed to have such wonderful loving friends and family in our life.

I won't turn this into an epistle, but I want to wish everyone who reads this new blog of mine a very “Merry Christmas” and a “Happy and Healthy New Year”.

Celebrate the happiness that friends are always giving, make every day a holiday and celebrate just living! Amanda Bradley

The photo above looks like one huge Christmas table centre, but it is a group of many which I made for our horticultural society's Christmas dinner tables for a couple of years. They sure made an impact when grouped together on our dining room table.

I am finding it is a really busy time right now. (who isn't?) I have just come back from a few days break in Victoria on the Island and Port Angeles, Wa. and I am a wee bit late with my Christmas preps. Hope to get some more rose pics up before Christmas, but if I do not get blogging for a wee while, I wish you all a "Very Merry Christmas" and thank you my friends for looking.

Love Pauline.

ROSES - "Pa to Pr"

PAUL’S HIMALAYAN MUSK: Rambler. Bred by George Paul, Jr. 1916 in the United Kingdom. The colour is blush pink to white and it forms huge clusters of moderately fragrant blooms. Individually, they are small and about an inch in diameter which are massed in exceedingly large trusses of 100 blooms or more. Hence the air is saturated with their fragrance. As with all old ramblers, it only blooms once in the season, but how SPECTACULAR. It makes a huge statement in our garden when it is blooming. It climbs at least 35’X40’ way up into the tall cedar trees. It is a real sight for sore eyes. We love it, and so does everyone else who gets the pleasure of seeing PHM in bloom. BREATHTAKING!!

PINK PEACE: Hybrid Tea. Bred by Francis Meilland 1958 in France. Large bright pink flowers usually born singularly on long stems. This spectacular rose is Intensely fragrant – a pleasure to own. I have three. They are wonderful, floriferous and tall and upright in my garden – also fabulous vase life.

PRETTY JESSICA: English Rose. Bred by David Austin 1983 in England. This rose is medium pink and is a true beauty. Short to medium height Blooms of many petals born in clusters on longish stems (for an English Rose). It has an intoxicating wonderful strong fragrance and is a lovely all round rose. I have three of them. Whenever I have more than one of the same rose, it means, I particularly love the rose.

PRINCESS OF WALES: Floribunda. Bred by Harkness 1997 in United Kingdom. Large creamy white trusses, born on medium stems. It bears an abundance of small double flowers, always in bloom. A rose I waited two years for, before I received it from England. We used to have a nursery nearby that ordered directly from Harkness, so it was wonderful to pour through the catalogue and pick out a good order. Very exciting!

Then one year I looked at their catalogue and there was a beautiful picture of Princess Diana holding a huge bouquet of these rose, “Princess of Wales”. The rose was introduced by Harkness to honour her 10 years of work with the British Lung Foundation. So, with every purchase of this rose there was to be a small donation collected for the foundation. They looked so beautiful to me that I happily included it in my order.

She passed away when my order was going through and there was such a demand that my order was not fulfilled for another two years. But I was glad to receive it. It was so tiny, but flourished amazingly. Then our deer problems cut in, and we almost lost it. It is now nurtured in a new bed and is doing excellent.

One year, I cut one stem, the huge truss was like a large bridal bouquet all on it’s own. And I won the best in its class at the Horticultural Society in it’s first season. So Princess Diana lives on through this rose for me and it will always have a special place in my heart. To my nose, there is virtually no fragrance, but She is a keeper regardless.

ONE DOZEN ROSES - DEMO ON HOW TO REVIVE AND RE-ARRANGE FOR LONGER LIFE!

We all have had the pleasure of receiving at some point in time a dozen roses. Do not wait again until they are gifted, why not treat yourself to a dozen? After all it is the season when many of us have zilch to bring in out of the garden. It is all nicer still when they come in a vase to begin with. However, all roses in the bunch may not last as long as the others, so I would like to show you how you can lengthen and revive their vase life as well as re-arranging them to look like new again.

Here is a beautiful bouquet I received from a dear uncle, (as it looked a few days after I received it). While some blooms stayed quite erect on their stems, others were slowly lowering their heads, and the stems had weakened and become soft at just below the calyx.

METHOD FOR REVIVAL: Carefully remove all flowers and greens from the vase, keep like material together. Fill a bathtub or large sink with very warm (not hot) water. Re-cut all roses on a 45degree angle and submerge them in the bathtub, re-cutting all the stems at a 45 degree angle under water. The blooms will float very prettily! Leave in water for at least two hours even longer to "overnight" is what I prefer. You know they are ready when they are stiff around the calyx again and heads stay quite erect – you will be amazed. Occasionally, the odd one just

does not make it.

Now for re-arranging. You can pretend you are starting from scratch, and this is the way I like to arrange such flowers for full effect.

VASE: Choose a vase similar to the one shown. The flowers actually came with this vase and with the smoky violet ribbon which was a perfect match to the lavender roses. It is important that there is some width to the vase below the neck (even if the neck is somewhat narrower) so that all the material can be arranged at reasonable angles - this is what makes the arrangement look nice and full.Fill your vase with warm water – if you do not have preservative, add an aspirin or a teaspoon of sugar to this and a few drops of bleach (about half a teaspoon) - good for keeping water clear – especially in a see-through vase. Also if you use certain material like Gypsophila, you will really need the bleach as they tend to sour the water.

Start with your greens. Always use lots of greens as they also act as the support for your arrangement. If you receive 1 dozen roses and there are not enough greens, please go and pick some more from your garden, anything should work. Here are some suggestions. Boxwood, ferns, all the Artemesia's, viburnums, camellia branches etc. Pieris is very nice too. I usually prepare and cut them all to length before I start. Pieces approx 6-12” long depending on the vase you use and the finished height! This mainly acts as a support and filler.

Place the greens all around the vase at as much angle as you can muster strategically around and throughout the centre, until it is quite full, but not too tightly packed. Here you have your base. You do not have to sink your roses deep into the vase, you will be able to make them look as long as you like as the greens should support the stems and sort of act like the florist oasis that is used in other arrangements.

Now the fun part. Place your roses evenly throughout. I started with one held high in the centre, this should be your highest point. Then evenly spaced four on a row down from that. Now you have used five and have seven to play with. Fill the spaces in nicely with the remainder till you have a pleasing look. If you have some gypsophila, statice or any contrasting filler, then you can nicely fill in the spaces with a little here and there being careful not to overdo this step. Now you will have a beautiful full vase of flowers which you can place on your coffee table etc.

If you are going to situate this with it’s back to the wall you can just place more of the roses at the front of the vase – to get full benefit.

ENJOY! Of course, you can use this method with any flowers, florist and/or garden.

MY ROSES - "Pr to Re"

PRINCESSE DE MONACO: Hybrid Tea, bred by Meilland(1981) in France. Cream and pink blend – It is reported as having a mild fruity fragrance. To my nose, it is more moderate – very pleasant. This is a beautiful rose, the buds are amazing. I think the opening buds are it’s main feature, but one keeps hoping to see the fully open bloom. It never seems to get that far, never completely opens right up. But all the stages that it develops are beautiful. Wonderful in a vase too. This rose, in my opinion, has the BEST foliage. Very dark beautiful

shiny leaves. It is of moderate height.

QUEEN ELIZABETH: Grandiflora. Bred by Dr. Walter Lammerts(l954) in the United States. Medium Pink. It is said to have a moderate fragrance. I personally, only detect the slightest hint of fragrance. This rose makes a wonderful statement in any garden. It is vigorous, healthy, floriferous, upright and very tall. It bears clusters of pure pink, hybrid tea shaped blooms on extremely long stems. The blooms are wonderful formed into a classic bouquet in a vase.

RADOX BOUQUET: Floribunda. Bred by Harkness(1980) in United Kingdom. Medium pink. Strong fragrance. Still new to me, so the verdict is not out yet. I cannot comment fairly, as I moved it this year after only it’s first year. And I think she has sulked ever since! So I will treat her especially well next year, and hope she will revert back to her first year’s strength. Going by last year’s performance, this bush was very tall almost like a grandiflora with large clusters of large blooms on long stems.

RENAISSANCE: Hybrid tea, bred by Harkness (1994) in United Kingdom. Blush pink shading to white. Strong sweet fragrance. Strong healthy bush of medium height and prolific bloom. Lovely cutting rose.