MY ROSES - "Co to Do"

CONSTANCE SPRY: English Rose bred by David Austin in the UK in 1961. This is the first English Rose by David Austin. Classified as a shrub, but It makes an excellent climber because of its enormous size. We have it growing on an arbour and also along a tall fence and rose arch where it can strut it's stuff!........ it truly is a sight to behold when in bloom. Unfortunately it only blooms once in a season, but my, oh my, it puts on a grand performance and the fragrance is outstanding. I had to have this rose when I first saw magazine pictures of it and I certainly was not disappointed! Lovely light to mid pink large abundant blooms. (please click on all pics to enlarge for better view)

CREAM ABUNDANCE: Floribunda, bred by Harkness in the UK. 1999. This rose was new to me last year and I already have it down as one of my most favourite roses. Fragrance is mild to moderate to my nose, though it is reported to be strong!!! It is a beautiful succulent colour of rich cream, very demure! Medium size blooms are formed in single to large clusters on medium stems. A very beautiful rose indeed!

DOUBLE DELIGHT: Hybrid Tea, bred by two separate breeders Ellis and Swim in Us. 1977. This has to be one of the most popular of all roses and rightly so. This HT has so much going for it. The colouration is very remarkable, predominantly cream with pink to cherry red on the outside of it's petals and colours blending together according to sunlight and age. Then the fragrance is exquisite and intense and has to be in the top five for fragrance in modern roses. It has won many awards. This rose is a double delight for fragrance and unique blend of colour, and for myself, two of my first DDs formed double crowns. Now that's taking it to the limit. A very favourite rose indeed!

REMINISCENCE OF AUGUST CUT FLOWER POWER

Just sharing with you the table arrangements I made for our annual summer picnic/dinner at our Probus Club last August. All the flowers were from our garden. I carefully picked ones I hoped to use for our "western" theme picnic. I was hoping to have arrangements with a yellow rose dominance for this theme. (as in the Yellow Rose of Texas). As time was getting close to the event, I could see I was going to have trouble finding enough yellows in my garden for this. A few weeks earlier or even later, they would have been very abundant - but of course Murphy's Law!!! Anyhow, I carefully picked, and conditioned blooms for up to two weeks before and refridgerated them in a spare fridge. As I was not going to be able to make my arrangements from all yellow roses, then I sucumbed to anything white, roses or otherwise for fill-ins.

(please click on all pictures for better view)

I chose to make up the arrangements on the day before the event I placed all my material in the kitchen ready to start. I looked around the kitchen and I thought how lovely it looked and smelled - like a little florist shop. I felt very proud of the beautiful flowers I had grown. The "white" side was particularly pretty, I thought. The flowers included white geraniums, antirrhinums, phlox, roses, and hydrangea.

The yellow side which was all roses, included Golden Celebration, Amber Queen and St. Patrick and Tamora (not quite yellow, but they blended)

..........and as a single contrast in each arrangement, (an afterthought) there was to be one large Double Delight in the center. This worked really well as I knew that the table runner and the napkins were going to be of red and white gingham, so it worked fine!

For the containers, I used canning jars which with pieces of bandanna wrapped around them in red and yellow! These added to the fun of it. I inserted florist oasis into each container to make arranging easier and more stable.

As each arrangement was finished, I set them on the dining room table out of the way, while I was working on the next one - always keeping one with me as a pattern to follow.

It is difficult to tell from these pictures, but the arrangements were oval shaped.

I used hosta leaves as a base - unfortunately the photos do not do them justice, I do not believe. I also used pieris for greenery. It does not really show up on the pictures, but it worked well.

Thanks for looking at my summer bounty! Pauline

MY ROSES - "Eb to Ev"

EBB TIDE: Floribunda. Bred by Tom Carruthers in the United States.2006. Strong fragrance - unusual colour of mauve also described as deep smoky purple. I guess in the rose world of "blues" this is a good description, bearing in mind that there is no such thing as "blue" in a rose, so the more blue a pink or red rose contains, then usually this is extremely sought after, it seems! Anyhow, new to me last season, I am sure looking forward to this rose this season when it has matured a little. This too looks wonderful in a vase with other roses - very complimentary, in my opinion. I am very happy with it.

EDEN ROSE: (aka Pierre de Ronsard) Climber. The first Rose of the "Romantica" line, bred by House of Meilland in France. 1985 Cream with pink dominance. What can I say, it is just beautiful. My own is really just starting off, (in comparison to some of the spectacular specimens I have seen) but getting the hang of training climbers a little better, I am really looking forward to it this year. One of the most romantic looking roses for sure, it takes your breath away. The flowers are quite large when fully open but look just as beautiful when not - a true cup shaped rose for sure. Sadly, the down side is, it has little fragrance, BUT, I would not want to be without this rose. Also very floriferous when it puts on it's main show. Repeats throughout the season, but with less abundance. I highly recommend this climber. Which too by the way, is not rampant, so it fits nicely over a walk-though rose arch.

EVELYN: English Rose bred by David Austin in the UK. 1992. A beautiful very popular Austin - lovely fragrance from which David Austin and French perfumiers got together to produce the perfume in one of Crabtree and Evelyn's line. I am fascinated with the colour range of this rose. You can have a perfect peach bloom and a perfectly clear pink bloom on the same stem - so charming. It is great in an arrangement for a special occasion, but it really does not last long in a vase. But that does not stop me - if it fades after two days, then I replace it with a different rose, still it is beautiful to see in an arrangement. Moderately floriforous in my garden.

Thank you for looking, Pauline

WILD THING!

WEDGWOOD HOUSE RESIDENTS

WILD THING...

.....You Make My Heart Sing

....You're Everything

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Momma Mia

Poppa Dear

Winter babies

Thanks for looking at our WILD THINGS! Pauline