26-Oct-2019
Prospero
A pretty bush in full bloom, not large, mine is near the border of this particular
rosebed. the book says its fragrant, but I've never checked it, or arranged them
in a vase, I guess I have so many roses that I've never got around to picking these
to bring inside. A rather thorny little bush that grows well in our climate.
An early Austin rose that may have been discarded - not sure about that.
26-Oct-2019
John Hopper
A rose that has missed having his photo taken because he was swamped by other huge rose bushes. This pruning season I gave those big guys a really hard going over, and now
John can show what he can do! An odd shaped grower, very upright and I did halve him
so that I could reach his blooms this year. Now I can share it with you. He's an old Hybrid Perpetual from the U.K. back in 1862.
My book says "very fragrant"... and apparently he's been a popular hedge rose.
26-Oct-2019
Crown Princess Margarita
A large sprawling shrub rose that I gave a really hard prune to this year. So far its
looking really good and responded to the harshness of my pruning skills. At the
moment covered in these large ruffled blooms, so heavy they do weight down the canes somewhat.
This one can be trained as a small climber, I've seen it on a trellis, but
in my garden its on the edge of the bed along the horse-yard fenceline so she has to behave.
26-Oct-2019
Red Alstroemaria
Growing in a corner of a rose bed under some filtered shade of a huge cedar tree.
It replaced a magnificent rose called Black Beauty that didn't thrive in those conditions. Very sad to have to give it the shovel treatment, I did enjoy the
one flower a season while it lasted.
26-Oct-2019
The Dark Lady
Not quite fully out, when its fully opened the stem isn't quite strong enough to
hold the bloom up and they hang down a little making it more difficult to get a really
good shot without having to cut the stem and bring it indoors. Its one of my favourite
Austin roses... a reasonable sized shrub (very leafy) not too tall so I can reach the
blooms if I need to.
25-Oct-2019
Probably "Blue Staccato"
A tall bearded iris in flower right now. These border a couple of the rose beds, this
one is near some deep red roses, e.g., Prospero and The Dark Lady. I prefer the shorter'iris as edging plants, but when we lifted the tubers a few years ago, they got
mixed up and I'm never sure where the colours are going to appear and hope they don't clash
with the roses if they open up together.
24-Sep-2019
Marie van Houtte
The average height sprawling shrub of this old rose it quite an attractive addition to the rose garden.
Bearing fragrant blooms the year round, and at present is covered in blooms and buds. You need some space to have this rose in the garden.
Bred in France back in the late 1800's but the lady she was named after lived in Belgium.
24-Sep-2019
One of the first iris for 2019
This one is a bordering sized iris called "Pink Kitten" and since I took this
photo 2 more have opened up on this particular stem... the iris are on the edge
of one of the pathways through the rose garden.
24-Sep-2019
Spanish Bluebells
Endymion hispanicus. This is the time of year that hundreds of bluebells flower. The English bluebell first, E. non-scriptus, followed by these larger bluebells. We have a sea of blue happening here! Besides blue, we have pink and white English bluebells, a smaller plant that multiply and come up in amongst the rose bushes making it a little
more difficult for Dick to weed the rosebeds, but the sight of all the flowers makes it worthwhile.
24-Sep-2019
The Cherokee Rose
Rosa laevigata. We have this growing on a tall lattice between the rose garden
and a wind break. Always the first to come back into flower in early spring, though
the old antique roses have been flowering right through winter, there's always a couple of flowers on the oldies. This one only blooms once, and for quite a short season, but
that's okay, all the others begin flowering very soon and the Cherokee greenery provides a pleasant backdrop.
15-Sep-2019
Ambridge Rose
The only rose on the bush as yet... very early for roses in my garden. October there'll be a lot more.