Australia · David Austin roses · from my garden · garden flowers · gardening · roses · subtropical climate · summer

In A Vase On Monday ~ It’s all about the Roses! 🌹

Joanne

When I went out into the garden this morning, I could see evidence of the seasons changing. The past week has been a tad cooler, especially overnight; it rained all weekend, but today has reverted back to summer weather.

Regardless of the warmer day, the roses in particular have decided it’s time to prepare to bid summer farewell. New growth has slowed, the rose bushes are less lush than they have been, and some seem to have given up producing new buds. Others, however, are putting on a final display before going dormant for a short period.

Olivia Rose Austin

I still hold out hope for another vase or two of roses before winter arrives, but for today at least, my vases for Cathy’s regular Monday meme at Rambling in the Garden just had to be all about the roses, just in case the weather turns cooler again.

Another, more fully opened Olivia Rose Austin

My David Austin rose bush, Olivia Rose Austin, has grown some beauties during the past week, as has my Roald Dahl. The star of the garden this week, however, is Desdemona. She has several clusters of both open blooms and tiny buds, so I chose several to bring indoors. Desdemona has only been in my garden since last spring, yet she already seems very happy and has continually flowered right throughout the hottest months of the year.

Pale yellow Roald Dahl, named for the author.

Sadly, because the heat has affected some of the rose blooms, the petals will begin to drop within a couple of days. At least I have plenty of photos to look back on during winter, when my rose bushes are bare.

I wonder if these Roald Dahl rose buds will open, now they are indoors?
Desdemona has become the unexpected ‘star’ rose of this summer’s garden.

The gerberas are still flowering, so I brought in all of the fully formed flowers to add to the pink vase. Last week, the gerberas reminded me of Happy Shining People – this week’s photo looks like Fireworks! ~~ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QAWuBSq8rLc

The pink roses vase is now in the formal lounge room at the front of the house. After gardening in the heat this morning, when I began to trim back a few leafless rose branches to get a head-start on winter pruning, it took a while for me to cool down again, even after several glasses of water and a shower. Once my body temp was back to normal, I enjoyed a cup of tea and read a chapter of a book while sitting beside the pink roses vase.

In another vase, I arranged the Roald Dahl roses with several stems on Society Garlic. They have such pretty flowers when clustered together in a vase.

Dainty Society Garlic flowers.

And the Roald Dahl roses vase is in the main thoroughfare of the house. If I don’t have a vase of flowers on this stand nowadays, it feels like there’s something missing from the room!

Roald Dahl roses with Society Garlic flowers for contrast.

My final, tiny vase, containing oddments of a Love Potion mauve rose and a couple of short stems of Roald Dahl and Lavender is beside my desk.

A small collection of flowers to brighten up my office.

Just a side-note – even using WordPress Reader to comment, I am noticing some of my comments are still not showing up! So if you see that I have “liked” your post, please check your spam comments to see if that is where my comment has gone. This ongoing commenting issue is extremely frustrating, to say the least. I only follow blogs that I enjoy reading, so being unable to communicate with my blogging friends at random times has become quite disheartening. So if you don’t mind persevering and searching for my wayward comments, I am hopeful that the problem will rectify itself in time. Fingers and toes crossed!

Meanwhile, don’t forget to visit Cathy to admire her Monday vase post; her garden in the UK is breaking out in beautiful springtime blooms! 🙂

Published by Joanne

39 thoughts on “In A Vase On Monday ~ It’s all about the Roses! 🌹”

  1. What a lovely collection in the three vases in the first picture! You have such an abundance of beauty in your garden to work with, even at the end of the season. I also love the picture of Roald Dahl rose with the buds — so pretty. I’m sorry you’re still having problems commenting with WordPress. It must be so exasperating!

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  2. Glorious displays, Joanne. I’d love a larger garden for more flowers but the ones I do have are starting to bud and come into leaf. I love each season normally but I’m hoping we’ve seen an end of the relentless rain so I can enjoy the new growth.

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    1. I understand the way you must feel about the rain, Cathy. We live in an area of high summer rainfall, so I am looking forward to some drier weather as well. I’ll keep my fingers crossed for both of us!

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  4. Your roses are delightful, Jo. If I had any roses to cut, I’d be using every one of them but I’ve largely given up on roses because they also want a lot of water and, despite our relatively good rainfall this year, there’s rarely enough to go around. I adore the Gerberas, although unfortunately they don’t seem to care for my garden. A friend here has had good luck with Garvinea Gerberas, which are said to better tolerate our climate but I’ve yet to find them in local garden centers.

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    1. I had to look up Garvinea Gerberas, Kris, and I see they can tolerate extreme cold weather. They look almost daisy-like in the pictures I saw, and very pretty. I do hope you can find some; if they are anything like my gerberas, they’ll be happy enough with just the occasional rainfall for moisture. The roses, however, as you say, do need additional watering. I am lucky in that respect as we have high rainfall in my area.

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  5. Beautiful roses, I wouldn’t know that they were winding down at all. Desdemona is so romantic and fluffy. That tall pink vase is a good find. tzgarden.blogspot.com

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  6. A lovely flush of roses today… you have some gorgeous cultivars. Our north/south hemispheres are about to flip again. We get to experience both extremes through our blogs. 🙂
    I’ve not found your comments in spam, fyi, which is a good sign, I think!

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    1. For some reason – known only to WordPress, obviously (said through gritted teeth!) – I haven’t noticed any issues with your blog page rejecting my comments at all. I’m really hoping the problem, whatever it is, will correct itself in time.
      We definitely experience the extremes between hemispheres by sharing blog posts! If my memory is correct, as we both enter the spring and autumn seasons, there is a period of time when our weather is similar too. 🙂

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        1. Exactly. And I like both of those equally balanced seasons the most. It’s also when gardeners can spend most time outdoors without sweltering in the heat or running indoors to hide from the cold. 😉

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  7. Beautiful! Your summer is fading, and our winter is clinging to life, although what we’re getting down here at sea level is rain, rather than the snow the mountains are getting. I have started cleanup work on the patio, but have a long ways to go and the weather is not being cooperative. I have ordered a few more plants, so I have something to look forward to.

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    1. That’s exciting, Carol! I love ordering plants too, but I’m not quite up to that point yet. We may still have an occasional hot day during March, so I will wait until April before I begin planting too many new plants. I look forward to seeing your spring plantings. ❤

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    2. Carol, I left a comment on your last post, but it didn’t show after posting … would you mind checking if it’s in your spam comments? This “missing comments” thing is such a pest!

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  8. Hi Joanne. No comments in my spam folder as yet, but I will remember to check. Your roses are lovely – you have so many! I hope the buds will open for you. The season is about to change for us too, with some dry and slightly milder days ahead. The March wind will no doubt keep us cool for a while though! Do you get much wind where you live?

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    1. As I read your comment, I thought you must have in March what we have in September to October – windy weather! That’s when the days are beginning to warm up just a tad too, so if we don’t have any rain, I need to water the garden to prevent the plants from drying out too much.

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    2. Susie, would you mind checking your spam comments folder for a comment from me? I left one on your Wordless Wednesday post, but it didn’t publish. :/

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  11. We seem to have got many of the same roses, Joanne, which gives me a warm fuzzy feeling!! It is so nice having your more ethereal late summer vases amidst our northern hemisphere early spring ones with their more solid colours, and it is a joy to see all your roses today. Your Olivia Rose Austin looks much paler than mine, which is curious. What have your daytime temperatures been like of late?

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    1. I absolutely love David Austin roses, which I know are available in England, but I have often wondered if mine are true to colour. The buds are often much darker than the petals are when the roses open. Perhaps they could fade, do you think? During summer, most of our days are between 28C to 33C – so 82F to 91F. Occasionally, it goes higher, but not often.

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      1. Yes, I imagine they would fade in the heat, especially with summer temperatures being as you describe. If you ever visit the UK, Joanne, I would recommend a visit to the David Austin gardens, attached to their nursery – and you would be welcome to visit my garden as well… 😉

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            1. My generation – my three older sisters – were all born in England! My parents emigrated from Cheshire to Australia before I was born. I have researched my family history and except for an Irish 2 x great-grandmother whose husband was born in London, my entire family is from the north of England. Cheshire, Lancashire, Derbyshire, Staffordshire and Yorkshire are the only counties I have direct ancestors from, so my English roots are very well embedded!

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