The Flowers of September

The calendar may say September, but it's still summer in the garden. The zinnias are blooming in bright and pale pinks with a few whites and oranges in the mix. A bouquet of flowers that includes Queen Anne's Lace adds just the right touch of sweet feminine.

Orange is a loud color that seems to scream look at me, but oh how I love orange in the fall.  Until the frost is on the pumpkin, making due with an orange zinnia works. 

Then there's the whisper of white zinnias.

A small rose blooms along side the garage. It was nearly choked out of existence last year by an overly vivacious trumpet vine, but its hearty nature won out.  It was still blooming in late November.  This summer it weathered the drought and is in a full flush of tiny blooms with a blush of color before opening.

I love photographing flowers using the macro setting.  The little rose above is only an inch or two across at the most; the buds even smaller.  Through the wonder of technology we can capture every detail from the secret center to the blemishes on the outside petal.

And sometimes it's a different perspective that creates a delightful surprise.  I totally ignored the law of thirds in every one of these photos and I don't care. 

Break rules, have fun, and capture all that makes you smile, dance, sing, and sometimes weep. 

In the Pink

Can you believe it? January is winding down.  It's been a tough month for me; one full of frustration.  I had such plans for the newly turned page in the book of life.  Instead of moving forward and acting upon my word for 2012, imagine, I've mostly been nursing a painful back. My plans to have a go at 365 just couldn't get off the ground, so I'm filing that one away for another year.  As we head into the final days of January, things are looking up and I'm in the pink!

Frustration and yes, pain, are part of life, but that doesn't mean we must accept it lying down.  Oh no...when life seems too dull and too cloudy there are pink roses...

 
With soft swirls and a deep center that invites us to imagine...

And bouquets in jars filled with conversation hearts because it's always time for a little romance.

Hey...just so you know

Thanks for the comments and well-wishes through this mean, nasty, no-good, awful, horrible start to 2012!

Monthly Garden Bouquet: A Bouquet of June

Today my grandson and I walked to the railroad tracks after asking permission from the kind lady across the street if we could cross her lawn. Never stepping on to another person’s lawn without permission was one of those common courtesies I learned as a child, but seems lost in today’s too often oblivious world. I’ve been admiring her gorgeous red rose from afar, so I asked if she minded if I took a few photographs. “Not at all,” she said, “Please take any pictures you like.” So I did. Only I fell in love with this rose that looked like pink champagne to me.  

Then, it was on to the railroad tracks and the stand of daisies that I’ve been longing to put in a bouquet.

 Floral design was a big part of my past life and the urge to create something from freshly picked flowers tugs at me. The little man cut a few daisies while I snapped photos of daisies, the graffiti on the train car, and him.

At home we plunked them in tepid water immediately. While the daisies sipped up water through stems, I went back to the generous floribunda in my front yard to pick a few stems. I had to stand back amazed…the wandering, flopping canes are an explosion of deep pink with flowers crowding each other on fragile stems. I honestly don’t think I’ve seen so many sweet roses on a single cane in my life. I’m not sure if it’s all the rain or me. Last year I cut the rosebush back severely once blooming was over, but something made it outdo itself when it comes to the sheer number of blooms.

S t y l i z e d  B o u q u e t

A stylized bouquet or arrangement is a mass design with a clean, clear-cut geometric shape to it. I wanted a round design on top of a square glass container. No need for precision, but I cut rose stems all the same size and then tilt them into the container interlocking the stems for security. The thorns help to keep the stems in place as they hook each other. Mine has no focal, but many stylized designs are all about the focal point.

I simply poked daisies around the roses to give it a bit of countryside panache.

I love ribbons. Satin, brocade, and French wired are my favorites. I wrapped a piece of wide satin ribbon just once around the container. An elegant little bow with tails completes the look. Love ribbons, too? There’s a fabulous shop in Perrysburg, Ohio, called The Ribbonry. It’s filled with elegant, beautiful ribbons. I’ve not been there in a long while, but perhaps I’ll make a trip there in a couple weeks.

C r e a m e r  B o u q u e t

I had flowers left over and I just can’t toss fresh flowers, so I grabbed a small white ironstone creamer and filled it with daisies and roses.

F l o a t i n g  i n  a  B o w l

WHAT? I have more flowers leftover? I filled a pink Depression glass bubble bowl with water and simply floated the leftover pink roses in it. It will remain in the center of the dining room table decorating the lovely cotton crocheted lace tablecloth my mom made. 

Ideas for containers to float flowers in: small fish bowls, glasses of varying sizes and shapes, stemware, apothecary jars, canning jars, a ladle leaning against a bowl, pumpkins and gourds hollowed out, half a basketball, a bathtub (imagine the surprise of guests to see flowers swimming in your bathtub), colorful buckets for children, galvanized pans, buckets, watering cans, old iron troughs, hollowed out stones, and the list goes on. Anything that holds water can be used, so have fun!

A special thanks with a hug to the inspiring Noelle at Ramblings from a Desert Garden for hosting the Monthly Garden Bouquet. Please stop by  her blog and take a peek at the June bouquets of other creative souls

The Mystery of Three Roses

“I’m Nobody! Who are you?

Are you — Nobody — too?

Then there’s a pair of us…”

 ~Emily Dickinson

 
 
 
 
 
I imagine the three roses in the front flower bed repeating Emily Dickinson’s poem every morning to each other. I’m not certain what cultivar of Rosa each is, but I’m going to give it a go and I’d sure love it if you chimed in and helped me uncover the mystery of these three roses.
 

GRANDIFLORA?

 

The first rose to bloom starts budding in May and is usually finished by the middle of the June.

 

 
 
With only a few rows of petals, the center becomes a plethora of yellow pistil and carpals as soon as it becomes full-blown. The stems grow long and gangly throughout the season forcing me to cut them back to keep them from lopping into the yard and making it difficult to mow. 
 
 

 
It’s a one time bloomer with little or no scent and I’ve yet to see a hip on this rose. This rose reminds me of one my mother grew. Wicked thorns run up and down the stems and bite. I’m quite sure it’s not a species rose, more than likely it’s a grandiflora. What do you think?
 

HYBRID TEA?

 

The next rose to bloom is a vivid, look-at-me-I’m-beautiful orange. The vibrant blaze of orange weakens with age. The buds are beautiful with a high point. The flower itself is blowsy, bending the stem that attempts to hold it up. One flower per stem leads me to believe that it’s a hybrid tea that blooms throughout the season until frost nips the buds. Like a perfume counter in a department store, the flowers emanate a rich and gloriously Attar of rose scent.

I just wish I could figure out how to get more than three buds on the bush at one time. After checking several sources and putting in the criteria at Everyone Rose, could it possibly be Las Vegas, Rosa ‘KORgane’?

FLORIBUNDA?

The last rose is a wandering, climbing beauty with multiple stems of flowers in various stages of bloom radiating from thicker canes. New growth clambers over the shrub ending up in the yard forcing me to prune it back no matter what time of year it is. This rose could use a trellis or fence to meander about.

The full-blown blooms are barely 2 inches across and remind me of the fairy roses I grew on the farm. Adorable buds bloom into deep pink mature flowers. The plant flowers only in June, which leads me to believe it’s not a polyantha.

If you want to catch a glimpse of scent the nose must be buried into the center. It’s a charmer and I’m lucky to have happened up on it, even if it does sport long thorns that grab at clothing and skin.
 
 

It’s doubtful I ever uncover the mystery that is the cultivar of these roses, but as Shakespeare penned, “What’s in a name? that which we call a rose/ By any other name would smell as sweet;” well…except for the ones that carry no scent deep in the swirl of petals.

Pink Roses or Undies?

"Flowers really do intoxicate me." ~Vita Sackville-West

When money is tight, which is too often the case, tough decisions must be made. Like any red-blooded lady I love lingerie…pretty, lacy, satiny or utilitarian white cotton, when what lies beneath is new I’m giddy. Sure, I love the sweet confections Victoria Secret displays. Nothing says girlie like sheer pastel panties edged in frothy lace. Who doesn’t want a matching bra with just a touch of push ‘em up function? However, if I have to choose between new undies or roses, I’ll choose roses.

"Flowers are the sweetest thing God ever made and forgot to put a soul in." 

                                                                             ~Harriet Beecher Stowe

Over the years I’ve heard all the reasons why I should not spend money on fresh flowers. Flowers are a waste of money…They’re going to die in a few days…Flowers are frivolous and self-indulgent. If I can’t eat a plant, I don’t grow it or buy it. I wince every time I hear one of these joyless reasons why I should not sprinkle my life with flowers. Ok…point taken, but not entirely understood and I’m not planning to take any of these reasons to heart in the near future and probably not ever.

 “A flowerless room is a soulless room, to my way of thinking; but even a solitary little vase of a living flower may redeem it.” ~Vita Sackville-West

To counterpoint reasons offered I suggest a small experiment. Anyone who feels flowers on the table or desk where you spend your day are not worth the money, take a crowbar and pry open your purse for one small bouquet of flowers or even a single stem. Place the flowers where you can see them and enjoy them all day. Take them home with you in the evening so you can continue to observe the beauty. Did your spirits lift each time you noticed the colors? Did you wrinkle your nose with pleasure each time a breeze from unknown sources stirred the air, swirling fragrance about you? After a few days, tell me if you didn’t find even a shred of joy in that single rose.

“The Amen! Of nature is always a flower.” ~Oliver Wendell Holmes

It’s that shred of joy that awakens my spirit and causes a sigh that makes purchasing fresh flowers worthwhile. I wonder why fresh flowers are so important to one and not another. I wonder what gene pulsates through my body making something so beautiful, so ephemeral so important to me. Each time I walk past a bouquet of flowers I stop for a moment and I feel blessed to be in the presence of such splendor. I am overwhelmed by the miracle of such perfect imperfections of nature. Something stirs in my soul and I know without flowers that a little piece of my heart would die and fall into oblivion.

A profusion of pink roses bending ragged in the rain speaks to me of all gentleness and its enduring.”

~William Carlos Williams

I have no answers as to the why’s and perhaps it’s a waste of time to question, so I’ll continue to live as I always have under the mantra…I’d rather buy one single pink rose than a dozen pairs of pink silk undies.

"You love roses - so do I.  I wish the sky would rain down roses, as they rain from the shaken bush.  Why will it not?  Then all the valley would be pink and white and soft to tread on.  They would fall as light as feathers, smelling sweet, and it would be like sleeping and like walking all at once!"

~ George Eliot

Dreams for a New Year

“I learned this, at least, by my experiment: that if one advances confidently in the direction of [her] dreams, and endeavors to live the life which [she] imagined, [she] will meet with a success unexpected in common hours.”                ~ Henry David Thoreau

I’m going to take Mr. Thoreau’s advice and march in the direction of my dreams trying to live the life I’ve imagined. And when I do I too shall meet success when least expected. Before I begin this new journey, I must take stock of the year that flew by on swift wings.

I shall consider where I’ve been, where I’m going, and where I want to go. I must review the year in my mind, embracing the memories of family, friends, laughter, and sometimes sorrows. I ask myself…Did I treat every person I met with respect and a gentle smile or was I too busy living that I forgot to be grateful, to be humble, to be loving? Did I sow some seeds of friendship along the way or disenchant old friends that deserve the best I have to offer? Did I plant a garden of flowers and tend it with fortitude mixed with joy or did I allow weeds and ill winds to choke the beauty? These are the questions that must be answered so I can begin the story anew on a clean slate

Once I have come to terms with 2009, I can begin my journey toward 2010 dreams. Whether you dream of gardens, flowers, vegetables, family, a life-change, a new love, or a new location, may you capture your dream in the New Year and hold it fast.

Mark Twain reminds us, “Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by things you didn’t do than by the ones you did do.

So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails.

Explore.

Dream.

Discover."

                                                                                                                                  

Happy New Year!

Rain, Rain...Go Away

Another day of rain in northwest Ohio, but the weatherman informs me, we’re not alone. It looks like half the country will be enjoying summer rain. I know all about how important rain is to gardens, fields, and everything under the sun, but enough all ready. I need to mow the lawn and can’t find a dry day to do it and I have more pots to plant!

So what do you do on a rainy day in June when uncooperative weather keeps you indoors? Here are a few rainy day ideas for gardeners:

Things to Do on a Rainy Day



1. Stare out the window looking over your garden and wishing it would stop raining.
   
   
2. Do a rain dance in reverse.
   
   
3. Put on a plastic poncho and rain boots and walk around the garden pretending to be Mother Nature watering her children.
   
   
4. Search the internet for garden blogs, gardens to visit, and recipes to use up all those zucchinis you’ll be picking later this summer.
   
   
5. Design a new flowerbed on graph paper.
   
   
6. Search the newspapers for a pick-your-own Strawberry grower.
   
   
7. Head to a nursery or garden center and check out what’s left and what’s on sale.
   
   
8. Take your camera outside and try to capture a photo of rain falling. Get wet in the process and take a photo of flowers covered in drops of rain, instead.
   
   
9. Call a gardening friend and commiserate together.
   
   
10. 
    
    Take the day off from gardening and pamper yourself doing whatever it is you love best…oh that IS gardening.
    
    
    
    
    “The real secret of luxuriant gardens is plenty of water.”
    -Richard C. Davids, Garden Wizardry
    
    
    Now get out there and…oh forget it.