SMELL THE ROSES

We have been living at our new place for about 15 months now. It feels like progress on the new garden has been tediously slow. But then I look back through the photos!

In my garden today, and making me happy: Rosa 'Zéphirine Drouhin' in glorious bloom.

I spent the long weekend dilly-dallying in the farm garden, basking in gloriously sunny, winter weather ...

Holidays mean a break for me from the routine of chasing about after kids, and time out to lose myself in my garden, and smell my roses which are always so beautiful across the summer.

My find for this week is a gorgeous song called 'Bloom' (!) by The Paper Kites, an up-and-coming Indie band out of Melbourne.

I love to take macro shots of my flowers, but I thought with these photos that I would also pan back and give you a sense of place - some context as to where each of my flowers sits within the garden. Enjoy!

Outside my window ... man, who's got time to gaze out the window?! Just as well this week has been short, because it's been way too busy. When last I had time to look, I saw this:

I have returned from a month at our farm with a 'cocky's suntan' from many hours in the garden. Despite a hot Aussie summer, our garden is coping quite well, and my roses greeted me with their unparalleled beauty yet again. They are so resilient & undemanding. 

here are just a few more roses in bloom at my farm garden right now - I couldn't resist a little French title for this post considering so many of these roses are French Delbards!

A relatively warm winter in Australia means the roses are out early. Yay! Here are some of mine from my farm garden. Perhaps you can smell them?

The roses are blooming away happily in our farm garden, oblivious to the impending cold ... and the autumn leaves are starting to colour.

Jan has identified my beautiful unknown rose as 'Albertine', a stunning, large climber, bred in France in 1921.

We were back at the farm on the weekend for a birthday camping sleepover (hmmm, more like 'talk-over'!) for my newly 13-year-old daughter.

This is the lovely 'Jude the Obscure' rose by David Austin. I must confess, I had no idea about the naming of this rose but a quick bit of research & I now know it was named after the novel written by Thomas Hardy in 1895.

This is one of my favourite roses & is called 'Seduction', a romantic, girly blend of the softest pink & pearly cream, and frilly to boot.

This is one of my newly planted roses, a little ground cover rose called 'Grannie's Bonnet'.

This is a Delbard rose called Paris 2000. So delicate & pretty. I planted it this spring having purchased it at 'the best rose sale ever' ! Evidently, it was selected as the floral emblem for Paris' millennium celebrations, then planted throughout France in public and private gardens.

David Austin rose 'Graham Thomas' in its glory. This is one of his signature roses, well known for its prolific flowering & disease resistance. A beautiful buttery yellow.

My 'Reine des violettes' rose is in full bloom at the moment. It is a hybrid perpetual rose & was bred way back in 1860 by Millet-Mallet in France. My rose is only 8 years old, but I think it has earned a spot in my garden with such a long history. It is a 'living antiquity'!

I am lucky enough to live 'within a stone's throw' of one of Australia's largest rose growers. Every couple of years, they have an enormous 'nursery door' clearance of their roses at 'next to nothing' prices.

Sorry, can't go another day without posting a rose photo - I told you it's an addiction! This is 'Jubilee Celebration' - yes, by David Austin.