Category: David Austin roses

Australia · autumn · David Austin roses · garden flowers · in my garden · pets · roses · seasons

In A Vase On Monday ~ After the Rain

Joanne29 Comments

There has been a few dry days recently, with temperature reaching the low to mid twenties – my garden is so happy, and so am I! The garden is a bit of a mess in some areas with weeds overtaking any available soil space, so the first chore I have is weeding.

For my contribution to Cathy at Rambling in the Garden’s Monday vase, I picked any flowers that looked like they had survived the wet weather, and thrived since their petals dried.

Recently, another Cathy, this one at Words and Herbs, displayed her vase on a crocheted pansy doily. It reminded me of one my mother made, many years ago. I took my doily out today and I can see the main pattern is not the same as Cathy’s, but the edge is decorated by pansies. My Mum told me she didn’t have the patience to crochet the pansies, so I made those and she completed the rest. So to show Cathy my version on the doily I am adding it as today’s prop. 🙂

A few daisies are beginning to bloom again, and this week I found a single Souvenir de la Malmaison rose that was in rather good condition to add to my vase.

The red rose bush (with a forgotten name) also had a very blousy single red rose.

And I picked a few Olivia Rose Austin roses to add to the vase as well.

The man of the house complained that all the roses droop over the sides of the vase! I rather like the informality of roses with a drooping habit myself.

I feel certain that the couple of Verbena Polaris I picked are the last for this season, although I think I may have said that a couple of times recently, lol. They just keep on booming. 🙂

Likewise, I keep thinking I have seen the end of my Gerberas for a while, yet here they are again!

Although I hadn’t expected to add a second prop to my post today, Bowie had other ideas … see him there, lurking behind the flowers?

He quickly got the drift when I shooed him away. I thought he might knock over the vase – he’s a big kitty-cat!

I highly recommend a visit to both Cathy’s blogs to admire their spring flowers. So many plants are in bloom now in the Northern Hemisphere and I so enjoy seeing the varieties of plants and flowers that flourish in cooler climates. I am behind on catching up with everyone myself! But slowly, I am beginning to make my way around to each of my friends to see what they have been doing, while I have been taking advantage of the cooler weather here in Australia and catching up on chores around the house and garden. 🙂

Australia · autumn · chocolate · David Austin roses · family · garden flowers · grandchildren · in my garden · roses

In A Vase On [Easter] Monday!

Joanne22 Comments

Our family Easter celebrations began two weeks ago this year. My eldest son and his wife are in Bali for the long weekend, while youngest son, his wife and their two boys are in Adelaide, so we had a “whole family” get together two weeks ago for Easter. This weekend I had my two daughters and their families here. So what with one things and another, it has been a busy time.

During the past two weeks also, we have had rain nearly every day, not huge in quantity, but enough to prevent me from doing any gardening. How frustrating! Yesterday, however, when the sun shone for the first time in days, I got all my washing done. I also put my empty “bunny” vase in place last night, ready to add flowers today for my contribution to Cathy’s regular Monday event, In a Vase on Monday.

And what did I awaken to this morning? You guessed it, more rain!

Between showers, I collected a few pretties to add to my vase, although my lovely Gerberas, which I had thought were finished for the season, are a tad bedraggled again. The weight of the raindrops tends to make their delicate petals flop downwards.

Raindrops on roses – (and whiskers on kittens – sorry, I had to say it!) – on the other hand always look so beautiful. This lovely rose is a long stemmed ‘Olivia Rose Austin’; all the other roses on the bush were short stemmed, so wouldn’t suit my bunny vase.

There were a few red roses, but I only chose this one as it is fully opened. I am surprised by how many rose buds are still on all of my rose bushes, given the time of year and the number of rainy days we have had.

The Tibouchina flowers look rather stunning with raindrops on their petals as well. They are slightly weighted down by the moisture, but being stronger petals they seem to cope. I should also mention that the green foliage in the background is a few stems of Port Wine Magnolia. It isn’t in flower just now, but the foliage acted as an ideal vase filler, to hold the flower stems in place.

Being Easter, I had to add a prop of Easter eggs with my vases. The little ones all know where Nana’s stash is, and know that a simple “please” when they visit will have me sharing their “special treats”.

I read today that in the USA, there are no chocolate Easter eggs; also, there isn’t a four day long weekend over Easter, which is what we have here in Australia. So perhaps in the comments you can let me know how Easter is celebrated in other countries? 🙂

When I turned the calendar page to April today, I was surprised also to see a picture on the calendar of cows. That’s not very Easter-ish, but I do love cows. The calendar has an Australian country scene for each month, so that might be something that might interest some of you. This stand in the main living area, where I keep my recipe books – well, some of them – has become my favourite place to display my vase of flowers each week.

I have a row of various coloured Impatiens in my front garden and they have survived the hottest summer days, and now the cooler autumn days very well indeed. When we have a fine day again I will take a photo of them in the garden, as they really do look lovely.

This small vase of Impatiens sits beside me as I write. They have been indoors for about five hours now and I have noticed that the petals, now dried, look much more lively than in this photo.

It is rather late though, so I won’t take another photo. Today was another busy day, complete with visitors – who raided Nana’s Easter egg stash while here 😉 – and I am about to call it a night. I am dreadfully behind in replying to your lovely comments and also visiting everyone’s blogs, but this week I expect life to return to the usual schedule for a while.

Thank you once again, Cathy, for hosting In a Vase on Monday. ❤

Australia · autumn · challenges · David Austin roses · garden flowers · rain · roses · subtropical weather

In A Vase On Monday ~ Rain

Joanne16 Comments

There were times this morning when I thought I may have to forego my contribution to Cathy’s In A Vase On Monday this week. We have had several days of rain, and I know from past experience that with the amount of rain we’ve had, flowers need time to dry out. They look rather droopy and frazzled otherwise.

This is the scene I was met with when I reached the pink Gerberas. With heads laden with raindrops and drooping towards the ground, they otherwise looked okay … ish! I thought I’d pick them all, and see how they faired when taken inside the house and left to dry out for the day.

A very lovely Jude the Obscure rose tempted me; however, with that amount of water on her petals, I know that Jude would not be any happier indoors.

Likewise, Desdemona appears fresh and beautiful now the weather has cooled slightly, but she needs to dry before she can visit a vase indoors.

By later this afternoon, the Gerberas were beginning to dry off. Their petals are not as perfect as I have seen them in the past, but given their appearance this morning, they look much happier now.

Even the back off the Gerbera flowers are rather attractive!

Today, I gained a new appreciation for IAVOM contributors who manage to arrange a single species of flowers in a vase successfully. Who knew how difficult it would be!

When the pink Gerberas flopped to the side of the “vases” I knew I needed more flowers to hold them in place, so dashed outside again to grab a few red flowers.

A great advantage of Gerberas, however, is how photogenic these beauties are, when photographed individually. ❤

So my contribution this week to In a Vase on Monday, albeit late in the day – and using imperfect flowers – was once again an enjoyable challenge! 🙂

Australia · David Austin roses · garden flowers · in my garden · roses · seasons · subtropical climate

In A Vase On Monday ~ Remnants of Summer

Joanne37 Comments

As the last of the summer flowers begin to call it quits until spring, I collected flowers for today’s In a Vase on Monday, hosted each week by Cathy at Rambling in the Garden, that I may not see many of for the next few months, while the weather is cooler.

The Hydrangea shrubs look extremely healthy since the weather began to cool slightly; however, the flowers are looking just a tad battle-weary. They have been fighting the hot summer’s days for a while now, and are preparing to hibernate for winter. I still love their huge, showy blue blooms though, and picked nearly all the flowers that were left on the shrubs, bar a couple that may still grow larger.

The vase I chose for the Hydrangeas is one I had forgotten about! It lives in the guest bedroom, an old-style wash jug and basin with a dainty blue design. The design can just be seen in the first photo as a reflected image, so another day I will choose flowers to display in the vase that don’t insist on hiding the design!

The intricate detail of each flower, made up of several tiny, individual, flower-like sections is a wonder of nature, as far as I am concerned. Every year, I have to take at least one close-up of a flower.

On the wall in the guest bedroom, I have a canvas of a vase of hydrangeas, which can be seen on the wall behind the vase. The vase is sitting on top of a chest of drawers.

And here is a close-up of the picture. I really am a sucker for all things “Hydrangea” related.

As I have mentioned previously, the flowering season for the roses I adore is drawing to a close also, so I wanted to take full advantage of showing some more roses before they end.

This week, I have mainly David Austin’s ‘Roald Dahl’ roses in the vase, and as you can see, this photo shows some of the imperfections caused by summer heat and hungry insects.

David Austin’s ‘Jude the Obscure’ is also showing signs of heat affected petals. In spring, however, when the roses begin to bloom again and the weather isn’t quite as hot as in summer, the roses will look … well … just as pretty, but with less imperfections.

A cluster of Periwinkles growing beneath the shade of a Frangipani tree have recently started blooming, so I added a few stems to the vase, along with a pale pink salvia that has also just started to flower again.

In a tiny vase – a miniature wash jug and basin – I chose an assortment of miniature roses, mainly ‘Chameleon’, and one lilac ‘Love Potion’ which can be seen at the front of the vase.

The deep purple Tibouchina flower is from a recently planted shrub. Being such a young plant, I hadn’t expected it to flower so soon, so these beauties are a lovely surprise.

The daisies are beginning to flower again now. I have two plants of this gorgeous deep salmon-orange colour, and these two are the first on one of the plants. Before long, I will have enough daisies in bloom to fill a whole vase. 🙂 And on the right is a purple salvia.

As always, the tiny vase will spend the next few days beside my desk. Last week’s vases lasted until the end of the week – five whole days – which is a huge improvement on previous summer flowers, which started dropping after a couple of days. Now the weather is cooling, the flowers are much happier when they are brought indoors.

Also, since the weather has been slightly cooler, I have been spending more time in the garden. So if I temporarily go missing, as I have this past week, you know where I’ll be. 😉

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! 🌹

Joanne39 Comments

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! 🙂