Homere ~ Tea Rose ~ introduced 1858

Good morning Friends ~ In my last post, I showed a picture of my sweet rose Homere. I bought this many years ago from two ladies in GA, who had a rose nursery and sold online.  One of the reasons why I bought this rose is because it is small and can be grown in a container. 

One of my commenters for last post asked if it might not be Honore.  I Honore, and while they have similar coloring, they are two different roses.

Also when I bought this rose and a few others, I was and still am, interested in the old garden roses and this is one of them. They are more hardly than the modern roses, and fit my cottage style garden better.

Here is a link to Homere which can be found at Old Roses and Beyond a wonderful website by Paul Barden.

I love roses, but especially the old garden roses.  I love their fullness, their shapes, colors and scents. I have lost some due to drought conditions, and other things, and sure do miss them. I ache when I lose a rose. I’ve not bought any in a few years now as they are not a priority in this economy.  I take cuttings of what I have and hope they root, not all do. (Looking through photos for pics of this particular rose, I saw several that I no longer have and my heart cries at the loss. But oh the joy their pictures give me after they are gone.)

It takes about three years for a rooted cutting to really take off and once this cutting does, I plan to take more cuttings, hoping a couple more will root to add to our gardens.

Here are some pictures of Homere over the years here at Plum Cottage gardens.

Feb. 2010

March 2010

June 2009

July 2009

Sept. 2009

Feb. 2008

Oct. 2008

The first bloom from my rooted cutting taken yesterday, balled up from all the rain, but still beautiful to me. I can hardly wait for this little rose to grow up, giving me larger blooms. Patience, patience.

As you head out into the world, seek flowers and let their beauty seep into you, filling you up with joy and thankfulness to the great Creator.

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"Who can estimate the elevating and refining influences and moral value of flowers with all their graceful forms, bewitching shades and combinations of colors and exquisitely varied perfumes? 

These silent influences are unconsciously felt even by those who do not appreciate them consciously and thus with better and still better fruits, nuts, grains, vegetables and flowers, will the earth be transformed, man's thought refined, and turned from the base destructive forces into nobler production. 

One which will lift him to high planes of action toward the happy day when the Creator of all this beautiful work is more acknowledged and loved, and where man shall offer his brother man, not bullets and bayonets, but richer grains, better fruit and fairer flowers from the bounty of this earth."

Father George Schoener (1864 -1941) 
The Importance and Fundamental Principles of Plant Breeding  

The rain has vacated the premises :-)

Good Evening Friends ~ Finally our skies have cleared up as the rain has moved on to the east out over the ocean.  I was starting to get cabin/cottage fever after being indoors since Sunday afternoon. The rain was nice and much needed and we didn’t get any nasty thunderstorm activity. Tonight the temp is ‘supposed’ to drop to around 61, we’ll see.

This afternoon, after the rains had subsided, around 3:15 or so, I headed out to the main garden to do some clean up there and more trimming.  Spent about an hour and it felt so good to be outside and I was thankful and happy to be getting something done.  I’ll be working at my job for the next three days, so there won’t be any gardening.

I’ve notice the past few days a humming bird visiting the overgrown hamelia paten shrub, but I usually see him when I’m washing dishes and know that by the time I run for the camera he’ll be gone. One of these days I hope to get some photos of him/her.

I’ve been embroidering and enjoying that. 

Below are some pics  taken over the past few days.

The first three pictures are of a rose sent to me as a baby from a friend in California.  I think she told me the name of it is Mary Elizabeth, but I’ve not found a rose with that name, so I really don’t know what it is.  It is pretty and sweetly scented.

The next three photos are at sunset with rain clouds quickly moving to the west northwest. We got more rain soon after I went back inside.

I think the flower below is Confederate Rose, but I’m not real sure. I grew this from seed. I usually miss these blooms as they are only open for a day.

Dainty Bess

Homere.  This is a cutting that I rooted. My original died this year, so when this little cutting bloomed I was thrilled.  It has more buds on it.  It does ball up in the rain, and that’s a bummer, but it is a sweet little rose. Of these pictures today, this one is my favorite.

Three more passion flower blooms.  The first one is just opening.  I never tire of seeing this flower.

Hope you all have a great weekend.

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"Flowers have a mysterious and subtle influence upon the feelings,

not unlike some strains of music. 

They relax the tenseness of the mind. 

They dissolve its vigor."  

Henry Ward Beecher

Tagetes lucida ~ Spanish Tarragon ~ Thanks Sharon

Good morning Folks ~ It is another rainy day.  It rained most of the day yesterday and the day before, and for the most part it’s just been gentle rain. No bright flashes or loud booms. This is how it looks on the weather map. The yellow/orange areas are full of thunder and lightening, and I’m hoping we won’t get any of that.

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I want to thank Sharon Lovejoy for letting me know what type of tarragon I have.

It is Tagetes lucida otherwise known as Spanish Tarragon or Winter Tarragon.

I don’t even remember when or where I got this tarragon, but I love using it and have found it ‘easy’ to propagate in a glass of water. It is great with carrots, fish and chicken.

For more info on it go to Mountain Valley Growers, and to Wikipedia.

You can use the flowers for dye, how neat is that?

Today I plan to fix a turkey.  I will save both breasts, one will be for Thanksgiving and the other for Christmas. We’ll have sandwich material and turkey for recipes for suppers too.

That’s it from Plum Cottage for now.  Hope you all have a great day.

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Let the rain kiss you.
Let the rain beat upon your head with silver liquid drops.
Let the rain sing you a lullaby.
Langston Hughes,  April Rain Song,  1902 - 1967

Another gray and windy day

Good afternoon everyone ~ Hope you all are having or have had a great weekend.

We were ‘supposed’ to get rain last weekend, got a few sprinkles, more rain is expected over the next couple of days and I do hope we get some.  We’ve had a few light sprinkles today.

I was able to get the picket fencing washed down with TSP and what a difference.  Now when the weather is not so iffy I can paint it. Yippee!

DH has finished framing the pair of little stained glass windows for the back/east wall of the gypsy shed, and has the lines marked out ready to cut.  That will be done in the next day or so and then the windows will be inserted.

I’m going to be raking out smoothly as possible the area between the clothesline and the gypsy shed so that I can lay down some tar paper before laying down broken paver stones fit together as much as possible.  The paper will keep ants and weeds from wreaking havoc with the area.

I have been visiting the Stitchin’ Fingers website and am being inspired left and right.  I just can’t get over all the wonderful needlework out there. My mind is reeling, my fingers itchin to start a new project.

I haven’t done much in the way of gardening this past week. Although, wait a minute, what’s this fading blister from? Ah yes, we trimmed some tree branches that were hanging over the fence from the apt. complex and I trimmed the front hedgerow too. We have more limbs all along the driveway to take care of, a little at a time as we are only allowed to put out so much a week for them to come pick up, to take to their facility and ground to mulch. It is free to the public any time.

So, here are pics from the week.

I’ll start off with an early morning picture the other day, just before the sun started coming up.

French tarragon

Philippine violets

Louis Philippe roses

Back of the gypsy shed with window lines drawn on.

One of the waiting windows.

Fall decoration in the kitchen porch entry.

Our weather is a tad cooler and I saw predictions for the end of the month where the temps are supposed to get down into the late 50’s.  That is really going to be nice, if it happens.

Hope you all have a great week wherever you are, whatever you are doing. If any are going through rough times, may you feel God’s love and peace surrounding you. He is with us always, it’s just that we sometimes do not notice.

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"Winter is an etching,
 
spring a watercolor,
 
summer an oil painting

and autumn a mosaic of them all."

Stanley Horowitz

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