Celebrating gardens, photography and a creative life
My idea of serene… Rosa ‘Phyllis Bide’ grows on a simple framework of pillars and crossbeams on both sides of a path to The Gallery tea room at David Austin Roses in Wolverhampton, England. It’s just one of many climbers and ramblers showcased along the pathway, but I always used to take a moment to linger beside this pretty rambling rose, and I’m sure you can see why. Continue reading “Serene: Path Framed By Rambling Roses”
A gnome has photobombed my picture that was supposed to show the transformation of a rose from bud to bloom.
Before the gnome arrived, the roses looked underwhelming, despite my best efforts. The shrub is shapely, and covered in a mass of blooms, but each rose is a dainty size, even when fully open. Continue reading “Transformation From Rosebud to Bloom (Plus Photobombing Gnome)”
The air potato vine (Dioscorea bulbifera) is a vigorous plant that can be hard to shift from the garden once it takes over. While it may become a menace, the veined, heart shaped leaves are very decorative backlit against a blue sky. This plant was tumbling over a bottle tree in Jackson, Mississippi.
This sweet little posy of zinnias was all the nicer for being a gift from Jim Rosenblatt. His official title may be Dean Emeritus of The Mississippi College School of Law, but he wears the unofficial title of Plant Enthusiast with the same self-depreciation and benevolent good nature.
Several years ago, he created a cutting / kitchen garden in an unused corner of the faculty’s parking lot. The soil is rich and crumbly now, after years of being tended, making the plot very productive. These zinnias were freshly gathered from there.
I wonder how many other people have benefitted from gifts of peppers, tomatoes, herbs and flowers from his car park plot? Many more will have their day brightened by spotting this city centre garden as they passed. Continue reading “Happiness In A Vase: Zinnias”
When I first started gardening, it was in a garden that was so big, it seemed to eat up plants. The broad expanses of clay soil, hospitable enough with plenty of leaf mould and grit dug in, were insatiable. Had this been a boarding house for plants, a jaunty ‘Vacancies’ sign would have been permanently on display.
I could order a whole box of bare roots, at considerable cost, but they seemed to melt away in the garden’s expanse. Three would go here, and three more there; a choice plant by the gate so you were bound to appreciate it; a few more in the main borders and underneath the canopies of trees, but the box was soon, sadly, emptied and the garden seemed virtually as open as it had been before.
Luckily I like propagating – splitting plants, growing from seed – so that was OK. But I developed the habit of not liking annuals. Annuals were a waste. Mere temporary fixes. Their gap of land would still be a gap in a year’s time – in five years or twenty – if ‘real’ plants were not put there instead. Continue reading “Weekly Photo Challenge: Temporary Plants”
I’m fond of hardy geraniums (cranesbills), so was happy to see this new-to-me cultivar. Young ‘Havana Blues’ plants might appear a little on the straggly side until well established, when waving, wiry stems compete en mass to bear the most perfect, jewel-like flower. Continue reading “Regular Random: Five Minutes With Geranium ‘Havana Blues’”
Susan Rushton 