Australia · from my garden · garden flowers · gardening · in my garden · roses · subtropical weather

In A Vase on Monday ~ 2024!

Joanne

Happy New Year!

It may sound odd to people living in the northern climes of the world when I say that as we enter the middle month of summer here in Australia, there are slim pickings in my garden. The heat causes flowers to wilt faster than usual. And on Christmas night we had a mini cyclone through the area. We lost power for five hours, but we were lucky: some poor people lost power for several days.

My roses, hardly species that they are, seem to cope well with Mother Nature’s tantrums. So again, I have chosen roses for my Monday vase, this time deep pink Gertrude Jekyll, which I have paired with pale lemon-coloured Anthemis ‘Susanna Mitchell’ daisies.

The Susanna Mitchell daisies are a spring flowering plant. I thought I had seen the last of the blooms for this season when they began to wilt and die, only to discover that after a spot of rain, they had a second flush of flowers. I am very impressed by these plants, they have been in flower since September and if the plant invades its neighbour and needs cutting back, it doesn’t look as if it has been trimmed. I even stuck a couple of wayward runners into a bare patch of soil and they are growing very nicely, without any special treatment.

Gertrude Jekyll is a David Austin rose. Its namesake, Gertrude Jekyll (1843-1932) was an influential garden designer and author in England, who, according to the David Austin website, advocated for “incorporating roses in mixed borders” ~~ a woman after my own heart! Most of my rose bushes are planted in a long garden running the length of my side front fence, sharing the garden bed with various other plants such as camellias, buddleia, petunias, impatiens, gerberas, and even a couple of Australian native plants.

There are insects galore making homes in my garden during summer, and inevitably I find a hitchhiker or two when I bring the flowers indoors. This week’s interloper can be seen on the lower Susanna Mitchell daisy.

My slightly scorched vase this week is my contribution to Cathy’s In A Vase on Monday challenge at Rambling in the Garden. Thank you, Cathy, for encouraging me to go outdoors and find the beauty in my garden during the hottest part of the year. 🙂

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Published by Joanne

22 thoughts on “In A Vase on Monday ~ 2024!”

  3. That summer vase is a breath of fresh air Joanne! Thank you so much for sharing your bright and cheerful flowers while we are in the darkest and most flowerless time of year here! I know what you mean about the heat making it hard to find anything for a vase, but your roses seem pretty reliable. Happy New Year!

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  4. How lovely to see your roses, Joanne, and Gertrude Jekyll too – I tend not to think of putting roses in my vases (in season, of course!), but I really should. Yours pair nicely with the daisies and with your complementary pink vase

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      1. Hmm, do I grow roses, Joanne? Until about 20 years ago I didn’t, then started with a couple of climbing roses over an archway, but it was less than 10 years ago that the bug set in and I quickly built up a large collection, adding more wherever I was able to create a spot for them. So yes, I do (perhaps about 40 varieties now?)! 🤣

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  5. Your beautiful pink roses are a great mood booster, Jo! I’m always startled when I see roses – or anything else with a summery vibe – at this time of year, even when I remind myself I’m looking at plants in the Southern Hemisphere. However, I do have a friend only 50 miles south of me who manages to have flowers at this time of year, at least until she starts pruning them in the middle of January.

    I’m glad your mini-cyclone produced nothing other than a short-term power outage! We had a 4.1 magnitude earthquake on New Year’s morning but I was outside and didn’t even feel it 😉

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    1. I’m pleased to hear your mood is improved by seeing my roses, Kris. Mine is always improved in summer when I see images of snow … haha. 😉
      Having an earthquake is not the greatest way to begin the New Year! Australia isn’t a country to have many earthquakes, but many years ago when I lived in Sydney, we had a small earthquake while I was in the bathroom. The whole house seemed to shake! When I called out to my husband who was out in the garden, to ask what the heck had just happened, he asked what I was talking about! So I understand why you didn’t feel the earthquake on New Year’s morning. The house rattling was quite scary, but it wasn’t until later in the day that we found out what it was.

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    1. Spring and summer will arrive before you know it, Tracy, and I look forward to seeing plants in gardens overseas when the seasons change again. 🙂

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  8. I would love to be in the middle month of summer, although, we are in a snow-drought here in NJ, and I heard on the news today it has been over 700 days for our area since we had any accumulating snow. I also love snowflakes, so maybe besides just the cold we will have some of winter’s beauty…just some it doesn’t stay around too long.

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