A week of sunshine and suddenly all of the roses are out, and I’m trying to pick all the Sweet Peas to keep them going. I still haven’t put the tomatoes out though, in case a big wind comes up.
Continue reading “In a Vase on Monday – Roses and Sweet Peas”
The kettle belonged to C’s parents, originally used for boiling water on a wood stove, but stored in a cupboard over the last few years. When C found it, the lid fell off and almost broke his toe – it takes 2 hands to carry it when full of water. I’m looking forward to having it boiling ready for a cup of tea on the wood cook stove next winter.
Here are my favourite pink roses: English Rose ‘Gertrude Jeykll’, Delbard ‘Chartreuse de Parme’, and Rugosa Rose ‘Anne Endt’.
Continue reading “In a Vase on Monday – Pink Roses with Pinks and Ixias”
After two perfect days which were more like Autumn than the first days of Winter, today’s Queen’s Birthday holiday started out with rain. It was a nice day to stay a little longer in bed, but eventually I ventured out to take photos from under the awning on the porch.
Iris unguicularis is flowering, which always reminds me of Beverly Nichols who called her a ‘prima donna’. Luckily, (and touch wood) she seems to like me, although I have only one, rather than 20 as he did. From ‘Down the Garden Path’ :
The best of all is the Iris stylosa, (or the Iris unguicularis, if you are feeling high hat). It is a real sky blue . . . not the deep blue of summer, but the brilliant paler blue of a frosty January day. The lower petals have gold patches in their centres, spotted with purple. If you want a finer flower than this in winter, you had better go and lock yourself up in your greenhouse and sing hymns.
I picked some Hebes to remind me to plant more of them. At this time where the days are short and flowers are disappearing they are welcome food for bees and other pollinators, which made a *beeline* for the Hebes and Chrysanthemums in the bouquet.
Hebes are a native NZ plant, so they are tough in our environment, growing well in windy sunny places. They do well on a bank, but don’t cope with wet soggy soils or too much shade. There are hundreds of different cultivars – from the little green balls of the tiny Tom Thumb to large shrubs with exuberantly waving branches and long white flowers such as I have picked.
Continue reading “In a Vase on Monday – Roses with Hebes and Dichroa”
I read somewhere after I bought it that the Rose ‘Benjamin Britten’ is an odd Coral red, and it is really. The petals are a lipstick orange shading to red when the blooms are opening, changing to pinky red lipstick and yellow when open. I thought it was going to be a pure light red, but I don’t regret it. I love the scent, and it has done well on a clay bank where others have struggled.
It’s terrible when the iPad tries to help with spelling plant names. Something which normally seems so clever just falls apart when it hits a name like ‘Cayla’. Zoe Victoire Talon, the Comptesse, lived 100 years before the rose was bred in 1902 by Guillot (I have to fight to keep this from becoming ‘guillotine’). Her picture shows her looking elegant and refined like this rose.
Continue reading “In a Vase on Monday, Strawberry Hill and Comtesse de Cayla”
We took some flowers to C’s father in hospital this weekend, including Sweet Surrender, which is the first of my new lilies to flower. It has burst from the ground with strong long stalks covered with simple flowers.
Continue reading “In a Vase on Monday – Lily Sweet Surrender”
I was excited to arrive back at the garden and see all of the new tulips out and drifts of Thalia narcissi under the citrus trees. Friends were having a memorial so I made one vase with mostly pale colours: Tulips White Liberstar and Camargue, Freesia Symphony, Iris Apollo, Narcissus Thalia and Early Cheer, Lupins, Scilla, Iceberg Rose, and Hellebore x sternii.
While I was busy harvesting Tomatoes and Corn and Kumara the bees were harvesting pollen to feed new bees and nectar for honey to keep them going through the winter. Continue reading “Plants for Bees in Late Summer and Autumn”
Absent Gardener 