Tuesday, February 28, 2017

More Roses and a needleworked heart

 

Good afternoon Friends ~ Thank you all for your kind comments about my roses. I am NOT an expert, I garden on a limited budget, I fertilize sporadically, using a water soluable fertilizer. Sometimes they get a dose of Epsom Salts, sometimes bone meal, sometimes alfalfa. I have learned that the old garden varieties are more disease resistant, have wonderful scents, and have also learned that David Austin’s roses have been bred for those qualities also.

I’ll try to remember to go around and count how many I have now. I think at one time I had between 30-40. I was told many years ago before I started growing roses, that roses do not grow in FL. I’m so glad I didn’t listen to that advice. Certain roses are harder to grow here and require a LOT of care, as they do in other areas of the world. I try to stay away from them.

I bought my first two roses at a local flea market, around 1980-82. They were ‘Pink Pet’ and ‘Louis Philippe’, which is also known as the Florida Cracker rose.  ‘Pink Pet’ died some time ago, but I have a grandbaby of my original ‘Louis Philippe’ still growing. It is very hardy. It is in the ground.

I went out with recharged batteries in my camera to take photos I didn’t get yesterday. We had rain starting around 3 a.m., off and on and sometimes it was really heavy and steady. When it was light out, I could see out my bedroom window that I had a rain gutter problem and would have to fix it when the rain let up. I had to redig the little trench again for the French drain as it was filled with debris. Of course, now that I’ve cleaned the gutter areas, and did the Fr. drain, it hasn’t rained again.  More is expected though, and hopefully I fixed the problems.

The first three pictures are of ‘Louis Philippe’.

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The rose below is either Mr. Lincoln, or Chrysler Imperial. It smells heavenly. It is in a large pot.

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This is a ‘drift’ rose. I’m not crazy about the color, but I got a really good deal at a small local nursery because it was in bad shape. I didn’t know what the color was and hoped it would be a different color than it is. But alas. It does brighten the space where it is, also growing in a pot.

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Two more of ‘Granada’.

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I bought the next two roses online, and didn’t mark them when I got them as to name. One is ‘Borderer’ and the other is supposed to be ‘Homere’. Both are small roses. The top one is in a pot, and the other is in the ground.

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This next one is ‘Paul McCartney’. A wonderfully scented rose, bought at a plant sale 2-3 years ago at the local botanical gardens. Their spring plant sale is coming up again and I may go. It’s always fun to see what is there and to mingle with other plant lovers.

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I’m not sure what the next rose is. It is a cutting that I got going a few years back. It might be ‘Prosperity’, but I’m not real sure.

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This one below is ‘Ruths’ Wavy’ that I got in the trade with Connie from Hartwood Roses 2-3 years ago. It has a sweet scent and I love the delicate blooms. Look who was honing in. Smile What a treat to see it in the photo.

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Next is a wedding gift I’ve been working on since the 12th, I finished it today. The couple were married in our small church, Sunday morning before the service began. The ceremony was a surprise to the congregation. It was simple and filled with love and joy. The pictures I took were with my smart phone as I didn’t have my Canon powershot with me. I picked the best photo, a tender moment. I printed it onto iron on fabric and then worked around it. I edited the photo to be in sepia tones. I hope they will like this sweet momento of their wedding celebration.

Seed beads, fresh water pearls, silk ribbon and embroidery floss, and a crocheted edging.

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Ok, that’s it for this post. I’ve had my simple supper, a glass of Merlot, canned beets with butter and orange marmalade, and canned corned beef hash. My dear husband and I would call this type of meal a ‘camping meal’. Out of cans, simple and easy for when I don’t feel like cooking. It hit the spot and I was/am thankful.

Enjoy each day.

FlowerLady

Monday, February 27, 2017

Give-away winner & roses from my gardens

Good afternoon Folks ~ Here is is another Monday, the last Monday of February. Time is zipping right along.

The give-away contest for the book David  Austin’s ‘The English Rose’ has ended and the winner is # 1, who is Rebecca, of Thrifty Style at 68.  Congrats to you Rebecca.

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Be watching for two more gardening books to be reviewed and given away in the next couple of weeks.

I’ve taken quite a few pictures of roses that have been in bloom the past couple of weeks. Their scents, along with the scents of jasmines and other flower scents have been filling the air around Plum Cottage.  My heart if filled with thanksgiving and joy for God’s goodness and His beautiful creation.

I really love roses. Many, many years ago, I told my dear husband that I’d rather have living flowers to grow and enjoy in my gardens than to receive dying bouquets. He went along with my idea and would occasionally pick small bouquets from our own flowers. Sweet, sweet, sweet memories.

Ok, here we go for some rose eye-candy.

‘Don Juan’ compliments of friends Nanci & John

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‘International Herald Tribune’ from Rose Petals Nursery

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‘Knock-out’ local nursery

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Not sure what these next blooms are.  I’ve had the bush a long, long time and think it might be ‘Bon Silene’.

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This one might be ‘Old Blush’. Have had this for many years also.

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‘Carnation’ from Rose Petals Nursery.

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‘Mm. Laurette Messimy’. Bought this many, many years ago.

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‘Cemetery Rose’ traded with Connie of Hartwood Roses for one of my rose needleworked pieces.

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‘Rose de Rescht’ from friends Deb & Charly.

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‘Love’ compliments of friends Nanci & John.

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‘Fragrant Cloud’ compliments of friends Nanci & John

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‘Granada’ ~ I bought this rose soon after losing my dear husband. Bought it at Sam’s Club, spring 2013. Granada, Spain was one of our favorite places and we visited it 2-3 times while we lived in Spain when DH served his tour of duty for the US Navy. The roses in the Generalife gardens had ‘huge’ rose blooms and I’m happy to say this rose produced huge blooms for me this year.

The bud belies the size the flower will become.

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Look at the size of this next to my hand. The colors are stunningly beautiful.

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‘Winecup’ this color grabs my heart, from Rose Petals Nursery.

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S-i-g-h, ~  I hope you enjoyed seeing these beauties. Some are large, some are small, all are wonderful. Some are old garden varietes while others are more modern.

Thank you for visiting and for all of your kind comments in previous posts. I appreciate them and your time in writing them.

Have a great week ~ FlowerLady ~ who will be spending more time in my gardens trying to bring some semblance of order out of this sub-tropical jungle. I’ll blog whenever.

Tuesday, February 21, 2017

The English Roses ~ book review and give away

 

Hello Folks ~ We had Valentine’s day last week and spring will be here shortly.

With that in mind, I am going to review the wonderful and beautiful book by  ‘David Austin, The English Roses, Classic Favorites and New Additions, Third Addition.’ This was sent to me for reviewing by Firefly Books Ltd.

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This book is filled with page after page of David Austin’s beautiful roses.

Part One is ‘The Origins and Nature of the English Rose’. Very interesting information about these roses, history, breeding and growing. A fantastic reference book to go to over and over again for these roses. I could barely stop reading as it is very well written. You can tell the love of roses went into the breeding of all of these and into the writing for this book.

Part Two is ‘A Gallery of English Roses’.  Wonderful descriptions of each rose, including scents, how the name came to be, etc.

This is a book for any rose lover, or even if you are not one, it might make you want to at least pick out your favorite rose that will grow in your zone, order it, plant it whether in the ground or a pot, and enjoy!

Before receiving this book from Firefly Books Ltd. I had been doing some research on David Austin roses and found one that truly spoke to me. Then after receiving the book and reading it, viewing the photos and info on roses a second time, that one has stayed number one and then a few others have spoken to me as well. Winking smile

# 1 for me is Munstead Wood

All of these rose photos are courtesy of HelpMeFind. (The photos in the book are more beautiful that these.)

'Munstead Wood' rose photo

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Now for the others that caught my eye.

Fighting Temeraire

'Fighting Temeraire ®' rose photo

Desdemona

'Desdemona  (Shrub, Austin, 2015)' rose photo

Snow Goose

'Snow Goose' rose photo

Darcey Bussell

'Monferrato' rose photo

I love roses with wonderful scents.  I look for roses that are disease resistant, have wonderful scents and will grow in my tropical humid climate. Also ones that will do well in containers as FL has very sandy soil and where I am, we are only 3’ above sea level.

Here are a couple of paragraphs from this lovely book, not one for a shelf but for your coffee table, or somewhere where you’ll see the cover and be tempted to take a few minutes, or more, and view the wonderful eye-candy inside.

“True gardeners love growing things & living beauty, taking pleasure in the whole process of ever-changing life.  Plants have their own beauty – they are life. This is what gardening is about & also what growing roses is about.”

“There is a place for pot-grown roses in every garden, whatever the size. English roses are ideal for this purpose.”

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So folks, if you want to learn more about these beautiful roses and view the wonderful photographs, you can order the book here.

Or,

you can enter the give away that Firefly Books Ltd. has generously graced this post with for this book.

1. You must be a follower of my blog.

2. Leave an email addy so that I can let you know if you are the winner and to get your snail mail addy.

3. One entry per person, and the end of this give away will be midnight, this Sunday, 26th of February 2017.  I will use Random.org for drawing the winning name.

Thank you all for your kind comments on my last post. You are so encouraging to me and I really appreciate your kindness and taking the time to write.

So, get your name entered and one of you will be the happy winner of this wonderful book.

Thank you Caroline from Firefly Books Ltd. for this opportunity. The book was a joy to review and makes a wonderful addition to my libary of books, not just for gardening, but books of all kinds.

I love roses!

Have a great week everyone ~ FlowerLady