Seasonal Celebrations in the Rose Bed

If you come to visit me you’ll ring the door bell from outside and then as you enter and close the door, this is the first thing you will see …

It’s what I see every time I look out of my back door and its bursting with blooms right now. In this small corner of my back garden, the roses are maturing and much larger this year. Covered in so many more blooms than last year, I’m really thrilled with them. Who said roses are difficult? I find them easy – the instructions are so precise: I know exactly when and how much to water and fertilise each shrub and how and when to prune.

Besides the once a year chop, I finger prune my roses occasionally and I am rewarded with such wonderful blooms and greenery, they are an absolute pleasure to me. And when they are pruned and bare for a short while, they just blend into the scenery allowing the other plants in their midst to shine – but only for a brief time while they recover and then come back to steal the lime-light, because once they are flowering its hard not to notice them.

[one_half]Basking in the shadows of the Roses[/one_half]

[one_half_last]Quite a few blooms on Monday …[/one_half_last]

[one_half]And lots more blooms by Wednesday[/one_half]

[one_half_last]And even more today![/one_half_last]

I’m tempted to cut the roses and bring them indoors, but I am enjoying this view so much I just can’t bring myself to cut them.

This is a ‘Summer’ Bed, at it’s best from December through to March. It’s far from perfect … I’ve made many changes and keep trying different things, but the roses are a constant around which everything else changes from time to time – except I think I’ll leave the Jasmine on the trellises now – I’m happy with them, even if they are too close in colour to the roses (the foliage). The result is that you do not notice the bare rose stalks when they are pruned and bare from the end of July through to early September – and when the Jasmine flowers in September and October, the scent as you enter the property is wonderful. Jasmine and Lavender …

Growing in the bed below I have Dietes grandilora, Penstemon, a Daisy bush, Heliotropium, a Duranta gold on either side and at the very front some of my Lobularia and Carex’s are really struggling because the dogs and the moles are at war here. Those dogs and moles have cost me a lot of plants! I’m considering other options – when they make me really cross then thorny plants, scarecrows, fences, ‘get off’ pellets … and other scary options spring to mind!

In other news, it’s a busy work time with little time for the garden and even less for blogging, but in two weeks time we will have a break and with it lots of lovely time to spend in the garden!

I’m joining Donna of Garden’s Eye View for Seasonal Celebrations. Seasonal Celebrations is a time for marking the change of seasons and what is happening in your part of the world during this time!

Happy Gardening, wherever you are!
xxx