Monday, March 30, 2009

Welcoming Autumn

We're having absolutely beautiful weather at the moment, I've been enjoying being outdoors so much.
Jude the ObscureAnne Boelyn St. Cecilia Tamora Anne Boelyn Pink Simplicity in the front Abraham Darby Candy Cane treerose (pink), Gold Bunny (yellow)
Some roses are showing much larger blooms with more intense colours, I think they love the Autumn as well. Some of them are putting out long canes and having growth spurt, so I'd better make it snappy to go and give them a trim to keep them tidy so they'll give me more flowers rather than looking like octopuses with no flowers. Have a lovely day, won't you?
Abraham Darby The Dark Lady Abraham Darby

Tuesday, March 24, 2009

Paintings, Roses and Awards

Riet at Quiltin' n Stitching Lady has honoured me with the two awards below. Thank you so much, sweet Riet. It's taken me a while to attend to them, so instead of passing these to other bloggers, I strongly suggest you go and visit Riet's beautiful blog and see the beautiful things she has there. Many of you have expressed to me that you'll never get tired of looking at roses, I have to echo the same. What's that next to the roses? Hubby asked me if I painted them when he first saw them. No, I didn't paint them, I got them for $8 each and I think they are a good deal, I think I'd take longer than eight dollars worth of time to paint them. They are painted on mounted wood boards. I think I bought them because of the teacups and saucers. I'll always be a teacups and teapots gal! It's been an overcast day here, so the camera doesn't pick up the roses' colours so well indoors........... Let's take them outside and see what happens.................Ahhhh! Much better colours and lighting! Don't you reckon? Roses used here: Abraham Darby, Jubilee Celebration, Anne Boelyn, St. Cecilia, Sir Edward Elgar, The Dark Lady (All David Austin or English Roses)

Thursday, March 19, 2009

Don't forget to deadhead your roses!

What have I been up to? Well, lots and lots of having people over, entertaining, fellowshipping.........
Extremely busy but happy and content.....................
And have barely had time to take photos................
The Dark Lady
Tips on Growing Beautiful Roses #4 : Roses need deadheading. Deadheading simply means cutting off the spent blooms to encourage new blooms. It shouldn't be confused with pruning which is cutting the plant down to 1/3 of its size in wintertime. It's all about where you want the energy to go to when it comes to roses. Often times if spent flowers are not deadheaded, the plant will use its energy to produce rosehips, which often happens in the autumn or winter. I find rosehips on some of my roses in summer when I haven't been deadheading them diligently. The result is less flowers! So the remedy is to cut off all spent flowers, you'll find new shoots appearing in two to three weeks, which should lead to more flowers. So have I been deadheading my roses? No! Not very consistently lately. Ah, well, will have to go and catch up now..............have a great day everyone, tata!
Abraham DarbyChina Doll Tree Rose Pink Simplicity