Tag: Souvenir de la Malmaison rose

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 · garden flowers · in my garden · roses · subtropical weather · summer

In A Vase On Monday ~ Pastels

Joanne33 Comments

When I went outside to collect flowers for a vase yesterday afternoon for Cathy’s In a Vase on Monday meme at Rambling in the Garden, I was swarmed by a thousand mosquitoes! Okay, maybe not a thousand, but when you have your hands full of roses and can’t easily swat flying insects that are after your blood, it feels like thousands. 😉

So it was a matter of cut and run. I had waited for the showers of rain to ease before going outside, which is undoubtedly why there were so many active mozzies in the garden. Once in the vase, I decided to wait until today to take photos as the house seemed so dark with the overcast weather. I shouldn’t have waited: we have drizzling rain again today and the house is once again dark.

Last week, the pink Gerberas had only spent flowers, but this week I was able to cut several to bring indoors. There are also plenty of buds opening, so I may even bring in more to add to the vase later in the week. You may also notice some lilac-coloured Society Garlic blooms behind the Gerberas.

There are plenty of pale pink blooms on my Souvenir de la Malmaison rose bush. I wish I’d had longer to choose some to bring indoors, but by the time I reached that part of the garden, I’m sure the mozzies had told their family and friends I was there!

I love the delicate combination of Lavender and pink Gerberas together. When the weather improves, I would like to bring in more of the two for another vase. 🙂

Roald Dahl roses have a weeping habit, as is evident in the way they droop down the vase. By the smile on his face, they seem to be keeping my little duck ornament happy. 🙂 The Roald Dahl rose bush is also covered in blooms but again, I needed to try to outrun those mozzies!

From my kitchen window this morning I spotted a newly opened Hibiscus flower, so I zoomed in on it and caught a photo early. The rain will probably make the flower droop by tomorrow if this weather continues!

I do believe that as much as I enjoy all flowers, pastel colours are my favourites. 🙂

Thanks again, Cathy, for hosting In a Vase on Monday. 🙂

Australia · family · garden flowers · gardening · grandchildren · memories · roses · seasons · subtropical weather

In A Vase On Monday ~ A Scorcher!

Joanne37 Comments

Well, aren’t I glad arranged a brand new vase on Saturday morning as I had guests arriving in the afternoon – today is an absolute scorcher! Indoors is 28 degrees Celsius, outside is 34 degrees, yet our weather station in the kitchen – I love it as it keeps us up to date with actual details of the weather in our garden – says it “feels like” 40.3 degrees. I checked, and the conversion to Fahrenheit is 104.54F!

I am indoors today, adding my ‘In A Vase on Monday’ post, hosted by Cathy at Rambling in the Garden, with doors and windows closed and ceiling fans going in every room. We don’t have aircon. I always think that for the few days of unbearable heat we have here each year, I will survive without it; on days like today, I question my wisdom!

It was hot enough on Saturday morning as well, as evidenced by the scorched rose petals. I collected my vase of flowers in a hurry, while also deadheading as I went along; I also used the same vase as last week for the sake of speed – I had guests arriving soon – so hope I am forgiven for being boring. The roses I salvaged one or two of were Olivia Rose Austen, Souvenir de la Malmaison and Jude the Obscure. I feel dreadful about leaving my plants so badly unattended, but with this summer heat, I have no choice. 😦

I deadheaded far more Gerberas than I brought inside. A couple of red flowers had damaged stems, so they were placed right down low, beneath the foliage.

As you can see, some of the Gerberas are a tad frazzled, but the Verbena Polaris are loving the heat!

It was good to see that some Society Garlic ‘Tulbaghia’ flowers had survived, although most had fallen over and died in the heat. With flowers this pretty, I must plant some more when the weather cools.

For a greenery backdrop, I decided to try some sprigs off my Lilly Pilly tree. This variety may be Weeping Lilly Pilly ‘Waterhousea floribunda’, but as the flowers are not fully formed yet, I can’t be sure. I planted the tree around fifteen years ago, and can’t remember the details of its name. I do recall, however, that it was in a large pot near my back door, not looking healthy at all, so I decided to plant it in my (then) newly-built garden. It took off! And now it is a fully-fledged tree.

Previously, I have only added closeup shots of my vase and flowers, and from comments, I’ve realised that a full view is needed to add perspective of the size of the vase and flowers. So today, here is a full view of the vase in situ, in the living room at the front of the house. 🙂

When the larger vase was full, I had a few small stemmed leftovers, so I made up a smaller vase for the living room at the back of the house. My Lavender is beginning to bloom – doing a happy dance about that! – and I had a few sprigs of leftover Verbena and Lilly Pilly as well.

If we have too much rain it may upset the Lavender plants, so I am hoping it doesn’t get too wet before the season is over. From memory, this is French Lavender.

I think the Lavender and Verbena make a great team when together in a vase.

In the interests of providing perspective, here is the full view of the smaller vase. You might remember the miniature ornaments that featured in my Tiny Treasures post a couple of Mondays ago, seen here next to the vase.

I have just one more “vase” to add, and this one is from yesterday. My son, his wife and their two boys – featured modelling Christmas aprons I made late last year in this post – came to visit and swim in the pool. Later, when Masters Seven and Two (almost three) came back to the house, they presented me with four Frangipani flowers that they had picked for me.

I floated the flowers in some water immediately. 🙂

What Nana wouldn’t want to save as beautiful a memory as that? ❤

Thank you for getting me out in my hot garden, again, to choose flowers, Cathy! 🙂

Blogaversary · garden flowers · gardening · in my garden · In My World · native Australian birds · pets · photography · roses

Fourteen Years Ago Today …

Joanne19 Comments

So, what happened fourteen years ago today? I posted my first entry on this blog. So today is my blogaversary.

David Austin ‘Emily Brontë’ rose.

Over the years I have added posts on several topics, but the posts I enjoy adding these days mostly involve my garden, be it what I am doing – or have been doing – in my garden, or the results of my time spent there. Over the years I had forgotten what subject I wrote about for my first post, but hey, it was about the mango tree in my garden – gardening again. 🙂 So it could be assumed that nothing in my world has changed much in fourteen years.

David Austin ‘Gertrude Jekyll’ rose.

Actually, there have been many changes. My four children – none of whom are into gardening, I might add … (where did I go wrong?) – are now grown, married and have homes of their own, And my family has grown, I am now Nana to five gorgeous little people who have stolen my heart. The eldest has even shown interest in helping me in the garden, so perhaps the next generation is more suspectable to my (constant) training! 😉

We lost my father-in-law early last year, who I mentioned in my first post. 😦

Since I began blogging I have completed a degree, a Bachelor of Arts majoring in English. Along the way, I also completed a Diploma of Family History and a Diploma of Sustainable Living. University study is now officially out of my system – unless it involves learning about gardening, of course.

When I look back on the posts I added during the last fourteen years, there are gaps, some for long periods, when I have been otherwise occupied with “life” and haven’t added any posts. I always return though.

David Austin ‘Souvenir de la Malmaison’ rose.

During my most recent absence from blogging, I have been devoting nearly every day to my garden and my family (along with a few hours each day working in our family business, but that’s too boring to blog about!).

And my love of photography has been constant. Yesterday afternoon I took closeup shots of three gorgeous roses in full bloom in my garden. I am rather excited about sharing these photos! They are three of my special favourites … hmm, maybe every rose I grow is my favourite! The Souvenir de la Malmaison and Gertrude Jekyll are more established than the Emily Brontë though, which is a new addition just a few months ago. It was a rose I just had to have, as Brontë is the name of one of my gardening companions. ❤

Brontë, helping me in the garden just before nightfall this week. ❤

Thank you to all of my blogging friends for constantly returning to visit me here after my many absences. And thank you for inviting me into your worlds too! I find it quite incredible how invested I have become in the lives of other bloggers, people whom I have never met, yet it means so much to me to know you can be there with just a click of my computer mouse for a brief chat. ❤

From the archives. Butcher bird in the Tibouchina tree. February 2021.