The cancer rose.....

Three years ago I planted a Zephririne Drouhn climbing rose that I ordered from a mail order catalog.  It came in the mail right after I was diagnosed with breast cancer.  You might remember my initial "silly rose story" that I posted in 2012, you can read it here.  I am not sure why I called it the cancer rose, it just popped into my head at that moment when Galen and I were planting the bare root in the ground, and I felt that if the rose survived, I would too.  Yes, I know, that's silly. 

Well, I am happy to say the rose survived and is thriving!  It has climbed up the post and over the pergola, just as I planned. 

It turned out to be a beautiful rose and it has a spicy clove scent.  It smells heavenly! 

I guess I knew all along the rose would survive.  And, of course, I knew that I would too! 

Hope you all have a wonderful day!

Rose topiaries

Sitting here on this cold January morning sipping my second cup of hot steamy coffee, my thoughts take me to the garden.  January is the perfect time to plan your summer garden.  This year I want to plant two rose topiaries in pots by the steps as you enter the front door.  

Light pink with a sweet fragrance.  

     My sketch             

A rose hedge would be lovely too, or rosemary topiaries, maybe on the back patio.  What could be better for a cottage garden.  

I am sure you have ideas rolling around in your head, planning new things for your home or garden for the coming year.  

A new year, a fresh start...new opportunities, new choices, new ideas.  I feel a sense of optimism and hope as I plan for this new year.

Enjoy your day!  

A silly rose story

About a year and a half ago I ordered a rose bush from a catalog.... a Zephririne Drouhn rose, a climber, for our pergola over the patio.  Catalog places usually mail the plant when it's time to put them in the ground, so last year, the end of February, my rose came in the mail.  It was right after the time I was diagnosed with breast cancer.  

Galen dug the hole and we planted the rose.  I said to him, this is my cancer rose.  We will watch it grow and survive.....ah, unless it dies, which we don't want to think about, and we snickered and said, no it's going to live and grow to be beautiful.)    

One year later ~ 

the rose has grown almost four feet tall, and, yes, it has survived.  Yesterday it bloomed.  What a beautiful pink bloom and so fragrant.  I can't wait until it covers the pergola.  

I know this is a silly story, but it's just something that came about on it's own.  Some things are meant to happen that way, I think.  I believe in small miracles and this, to me, is kind of a small miracle.  

Yay!  It survived and I survived the first year.  

  

Gardens

Hello everyone!  How are you?  It's been a while since I posted so I just wanted to wish all of you a wonderful year!  

January calls for digging out all those garden books (no pun intended) and gathering ideas for your garden come spring.  Oh yes, we're thinking spring here.  The anticipation is exhilarating.    

Climbing roses...

stone pathways with flowers along walkways...

pergolas and trellises filled with climbers...

and beautiful color everywhere.  Fill flower pots for even more interest.  Just a few ideas to get you going!  

Give me odorous at sunrise a garden of beautiful flowers where I can walk undisturbed.

~Walt Whitman

Photos from Alastair Sawday's Special places to stay.  Garden Bed and Breakfast

A rose chintz plate

I found this plate at a home and garden show a few years ago and it's one of my favorite plates. It was only $5.00. Reminds me of my grandmother. A Rose Chintz plate made in England. Look at the old crackle in the glaze.



I have it displayed on top of the mantel over the fireplace. I don't change my mantel very often, except for maybe around the Christmas holiday, but I do like the addition of the rose chintz plate.

I think it gives our living room an Old English kind of feeling.

Enjoy your day!

Roses and lavender

Knock Out Rose

My rose bush has a beautiful creamy yellow bloom on it!

It's a new rose bush that I bought last year and it wasn't looking very promising. I wasn't sure it was going to bloom, but it did. And it has more buds coming. I am quite happy because I would like to grow more and more roses in the garden.

And......my lavender plant has loads of blooms and it smells sooooo good.

Just wanted to show you some blooms in my garden.

Won't you come into the garden?

I would like my roses to see you.

~Richard B. Sheridan

Roses

After long dreaming in the folded bud,

After long nights of waiting ~ Ah, who knows

How joyous a surprise, to open wide

And find one's self ~ a rose!

~May Lewis

I've decided my garden will have more roses this year.

Paging through my garden books, I'm gathering more ideas and more inspiration! I love the gravel garden above, and notice the red roses. I'm thinking maybe I could use this in one part of my garden.

Definitely more roses.....

now I just have to decide what kinds of roses and what colors and where to plant them......

Garden

Lots of lettuce for salads.




Cucumbers, tomatoes and basil.

Yummy sugar peas.

The garden is growing nicely.

A pot of fresh mint for iced tea.

And beautiful pink rose for you!

A rose painting

"If the rose puzzled its mind over the question how it grew, it would not have been the miracle that it is."

J B Yeats 1871-1957

Have a great weekend!

The Rose

As a flower in the garden
Bending toward the sun,
Unfolds it's tiny petals
One, by one, by one...
So faith expands it's beauty
Until at last it grows
into life's lasting flower...
The heart's fair perfect rose.

~Rebecca Helmann~

I've been painting roses, lots and lots of roses!

Watercolor flowers

Dabbing in watercolors today.

4x6 painting

framed

This is a very unusual frame and I thought the flower painting would look good in it. There's a lady bug and a dragonfly on the frame which gives it that garden look.