OTHER FLOWERS....

While Roses are my favourite flower, I do have others plants here & there for display...

This is a Blood Lily that my neighbor gave me. I have it potted because I was not sure whether or not it had survived it's 800km journey in her bag from her son's garden. 1 bulb flowered;the other did not...

Next is a Cosmos that is different...it's 3rd year of self sowing!

Then a new 'pink' Delphinium... I consider it to be more mauve than pink but it is still a lovely plant.

A break away does not pay....sometimes!

From an unamed Cutting
Next: Big Purple
Bottom: Best friend






All in all our 7 day break was a success, but oh the work to come back to in the garden...the roses had ALL bloomed at once in the hot weather...something we have not seen in November for many years! Dead heading was the first chore followed by the spraying which was on track time wise...I had done that before we went away,. but a couple of bushes had developed Rust and one plant was so badly affected I cut out a whole branch at the base. It's a rather nice red rose but next year it gets the chop because the same thing happens every season. Not being able to get the spray I used to use has made the fight harder against this disease.
While we were away we visited the Tasman Bay Rose Gardens,where we order our roses from each year...the range was truly magic and one of them I ordered is Princess de Monaco... no scent but shape wise, magnificent.
The extra sun last month certainly helped the display of my roses and we have been cutting them regularly for house and friends.So called Patio roses are as big as their Hybrid Tea counterparts and one, Patio Charm is splendid giving me lots of blooms for a rose bowl. Vienna Woods is super this year thanks to the drier weather...it hates the wet weather and never looks good after heavy rain.
On with the photos...

I Promised me a Rose garden!

Here we are in mid spring and in spite of gale force winds, the roses are going mad!
Each day brings more blooms and "Rose Month" is living up to it's title. I can't help going out with camera each day as the 'scene' changes! I'm going away for 8 days next week and I am so going to miss the daily walk around the 'estate'
The following photos are of the round front garden.... different angles..

Potted Colour

The November Garden

Here we are in November, a month when the roses really put on a grand display... not all at the same time as each bush has it's own start time agenda! The harsh winds of October have gone and we are being blessed with days of light breezes, sun and overnight showers...the best of all!
Other flowers continue to bloom and I'll be adding them as they bloom....

Vienna Woods



Sylvia



Margaret Merill



Special Occasion


Tequila Sunrise



Noble Anthony


City of London

More from the Spring Garden

My apologies for the too large photos of the previous post! I had forgotten they need to be smaller!
Some of these are roses, but more of other flowers blooming right now....




The unamed very dark red rose taken from a cutting of last season...




"Eifell Tower"



Aubretia



Spanish Iris



"Patio Charm"



"Dublin Bay" kept as a bush rose...not as a climber!

October 27 2007 Spring

My goodness, I never knew time to go so fast! Over a year has gone by and here I am in Spring again....put it down to being really busy with my Webwork, Family and life in general.

We had a fairly good winter this year with few frosts, but they were heavy even so...again I lost potplants and my lovely Felicia bush... I have now given up hope that I can grow it ever again! Also again, Matamata fared well in comparison to other parts of New Zealand and a warmer than usual start to Spring saw growth of to an early start.

October has been a month of westerly and southerly gales, worse in other areas than here...again we missed the worst of those.

We purchased more roses this year, replacing perennials, which, while lovely to look at, did not quite compare to roses....and more roses. I also gained another 2 off my husband who is just too fussy for his own good when choosing roses...my gain for sure with "Champagne"another Vienna Woods ( 2 now) . A friend gave me 2 Noble Anthony, an English type rose as well. Tequila Sunrise I moved from my Husband's garden as it was only there temporarily.

A cutting I took from a neighbor's garden was the first to bloom this year...no name for it but it is a very black/red with an overpowering scent...it's planted right by the front door!

The 'round' gartden which has had a lot of annuals and perennials now has 8 rose bushes in it,along with snapdragons (dwarf) delphiniums,iris,Gazanias, Marigolds (Tagestes) Callas,Dianthus and Sweet William...all still in the growing stage but all flowering and gradually filling up the spaces. Cosmos have again self sown as have the Granny's Bonnets and a new orange coloured Cosmos which set seed and bloomed 3 times last season...they are dwarf compared to the normal Cosmos but have a flare of colour when en masse!

Most of my potplants succumbed to frost again so I have far fewer than last year, and now they house annuals instead!

Next month we intend to visit Nelson where our roses come from....just have to see their huge display gardens at their best, and of course, choose next year's new roses....

"Eifell Tower"


"Champagne"



"Margaret Merril"



" City of London" a Climber

Spring 2006 (September)

After a long hard winter, Spring has arrived here and already the new growth is well underway. While the garden is still in it's early blooming stage, there is still a lot of colour which is brilliant on a sunny day...we are still to see the good days as we have had only 4 really fine days so far in September....but that is Spring...unpredictable.
The roses are really going ahead now and the new growth of leaves continues to power ahead.
So.. in the photos here I have:

Tulips....,the fancy frilled pink which are nearly finished.
Ranunculas..... which I tried for the first time this year and they have proved to be a great addition for colour and pickability for the house!
Pansies....always a constant display, although the frosts of this last winter held them back for a while they are now filling the garden with a great display. They are in all my gardens and pots too!
Anenomes....they are in the round Lawn garden and putting on a brave display, but tend to be a little fragile if the wind gets up or rain comes.At least the plants continue to give good value for many weeks with constant deadheading making this possible.

Other plants which are not featured here are....Aubretia,Thrift,Iris,Snapdragons, dwarf Cornflower,Felicia,Lillies and quite a few others.....all growing well and they will be in bloom later on.

Lossess in the Flower Garden

The flower garden took a real beating with all the heavy frosts we had this winter. Our area has has had long weeks of heavy frosts and plants that normally would have survived have died,so a big replanting will have to be done come Spring....there is still too much risk of more frosts yet!

I lost the lovely Felicia,all my Gazanias and Arctotis,some of my Iris and the frieesias completely collapsed! I should have a blaze of colour from the pansies,Primula Malacoides but the cold has stopped all growth and they are looking very insipid. A bright note though are my Hyacinths which I have in pots and in the garden...all blooming well...the Anenomes are just starting to bloom as are the daffodils. A Zygocactus which should have bloomed at Eastertime is covered with flowers...it's on my Patio Table along with some Kalachoes which are showing a lot of buds.

Right now Laury is away and has the Camera with him so I cant take any photos of these!

Losses in the Flower Garden

The flower garden took a real beating with all the heavy frosts we had this winter. Our area has has had long weeks of heavy frosts and plants that normally would have survived have died,so a big replanting will have to be done come Spring....there is still too much risk of more frosts yet!

I lost the lovely Felicia,all my Gazanias and Arctotis,some of my Iris and the frieesias completely collapsed! I should have a blaze of colour from the pansies,Primula Malacoides but the cold has stopped all growth and they are looking very insipid. A bright note though are my Hyacinths which I have in pots and in the garden...all blooming well...the Anenomes are just starting to bloom as are the daffodils. A Zygocactus which should have bloomed at Eastertime is covered with flowers...it's on my Patio Table along with some Kalachoes which are showing a lot of buds.

Right now Laury is away and has the Camera with him so I cant take any photos of these!

Spring is coming............

These I picked last Summer and Autumn


The winter here has been long and hard for my garden this year but Spring is just over a month away now and already the new shoots are showing after the pruning which I finished 2 weeks ago. This year I left it until later than I normally would because of the heavy frosts. We are trying out the latest idea in pruning...to knee high instead of lower! Some we did the old way and we look forward to seeing just how much of a difference it makes!
We have added more new roses to the garden and some into large barrels,so we are eagerly awaiting the blooms from them this year.
Laury has planted "City of London" in a corner of the section so that it can climb in two directions easily along the wooden fence. 3 big barrels sit in the front of our carpark space because that's the only spare room for them..."Vienna Woods"...."Best Friend" and "Champagne" have their home there! He rescued an " Ingrid bergman" from a 1/2 price sale and that has gone into "his" garden.
I changed my Front window garden slightly.....less flowers and more roses...another "Vienna Woods" "Destiny " which he did not like so I snaffled it as it is a beautiful long lasting vase rose, and "Norwich Castle" which was a "gift" rose from the Nursery.

I got a cutting of a lovely deep red highly perfumed rose from a neighbor...she could not remember it's name though and it will be ready for the garden next year....heaven only knows where I shall place it!