A Rose is a Rose is a Rose

“Anyone who has time for drama is not gardening enough.”

Gardening brings a sense of balance to life’s ups and downs, and a garden to work in is a beautiful way to enjoy being outside in the elements, intimately connecting us to the seasons and the daily weather conditions; the wind, soil, sun, rainfall, frost and heat. It is a simple way to naturally relieve…

“If you think one day you will get it all done, and then you can relax, you are bound to be disappointed.”

It is June which in the southern hemisphere heralds winter. The onset of winter means early morning frosts, cool nights and some welcome rain. The roses are mostly dormant and the landscape has a blessed break from summer weeds, heat, and dust. Although, in limbo, the garden work continues with plans for Spring. In fact,…

“I am the lover’s gift; I am the wedding wreath..

I adore flowers in the home, particularly roses cut fresh from the garden, but I don’t find the act described as ‘flower arranging’ at all inspiring. History tells us of tight protocols around arranging flowers and set rules that applied to the craft through the decades. The phrase ‘Flower arranging’ is reminiscent of dusty church…

“Autumn paints in colours that summer has never seen”.

Autumn is here in all its entirety. A sudden change in light, skies clear and the chill of first frosts. Glorious with no rush or panic, unlike Spring, that holds that feverish sense of haste. Autumn is a quiet time, a chance to make grand plans and dream of all the things that the slow…

Bountiful blooms even without a green thumb!

Potted geraniums ( accurately known as Pelargoniums ) in Australia do not have the same panache in the garden world as the glorious displays of geranium window boxes everywhere across Spain and Italy. Here we love them anyway for their humble, almost comedic style and robust nature in our hot, dry climate. The no-fuss plant…

Keep calm and garden on…

Silence in the air this morning, not a breath of wind outside as first light peeks over the horizon, the hills in a smokey blue haze. Inside is quiet, too, with the random scramble of mice in the walls and the predictable sounds of scurrying across the floor in distant rooms. We are in the…

“Summer’s lease hath all too short a date”

Summer’s end, but I’m not ready for the chill of winter yet. Nonetheless, I’m eagerly waiting for slightly cooler days so I can be in the garden for longer than a few hours. Although it has turned cool in the morning and evening in my region, the days are continuing to be fairly hot. Sadly,…

The Tea Garden

My favourite garden project is my ‘Tea Garden’, a small area, started in 2018, that is viewed from the kitchen window and surrounds a large arch seat. There is a plum tree outside the fence that, together with the arch, provide a perfect place for a quiet reverie and a cuppa, especially in Spring. When…

There are no right ways to make a garden -only alternatives.

Considering the state of the ground my garden started in, I decided to be less hard on myself and claim that my garden is a success so far. If you have not read my previous stories about the garden, in short, it is heavy dry clay soil, where one area was old lawn and the…

“Roses do not bloom hurriedly; for beauty, like any masterpiece, takes time to blossom.”

The garden is blooming in abundance once more, and I’m delighted. We have had a glorious summer apart from the disastrous early start that saw many roses drop their leaves. The mild season has been especially welcome because we have spent so much time at home this year and are able to take care of…

“Weeds are stubborn. Weeds are independent. Weeds aren’t tolerated”

Prominent in the garden this week are weeds. They are clearly winning the battle for the limelight. There is something about summer in a garden that does not entice me out to weed. Every morning, a balancing act occurs between starting early enough to beat the heat, flies and bees but not too early or…

“If it’s hot, it’s hot. If it’s dry, it’s dry. If it’s raining, it’s good.”

Happiness reigns because it is raining at last in the garden and the topic on everyone’s lips in the country this week will be “How much rain did you get?” Unseasonal rain sounds like music. There’s no angst about it because crops are harvested, so it’s all about filling water tanks and dams or watering…

“I like to keep myself wrapped in layers of sleep and wait for the geraniums”.

Going off topic today to talk about the pretty, colourful plants we call geraniums. What is known as geraniums may be pelargoniums a native plant from South Africa. These plants are a gardener’s best friend as they are easy to grow, require only a small amount of care and are extremely hardy. And of course,…

“One Rose is Enough for the Dawn.”

Often visitors ask me what my favourite rose is, and I usually can’t decide, but in recent weeks and on reflection, I think it is Lady of Shalott. I have written about this rose several times and have at present two in the garden, although in pots. Even though I had shared any information I knew on…

“The garden suggests there might be a place where we can meet nature halfway”

A romantic country garden is a popularly held dream by many, an escape to a simpler, more relaxed way of life. In reality, though, it is a far cry from a gentle, passive, easy lifestyle because a rural landscape is magnified and intense in every way. The environment of farm life, the sun, the wind,…

“A rose in a desert can only survive on its strength, not its beauty.”

Buff Beauty is the rose I’m highlighting this week. It has just started to bloom and looks splendid. Buff is not well known in Australia as a colour and may be recognised as a chicken variety called the Buff Orpington, a large, docile, quiet variety, considered a heritage bird. But for those in the know Buff…

“I am following Nature without being able to grasp her… I perhaps owe having become a painter to flowers. ”

Nurture; nur·ture a verb (used with object), nur·tured, nur·tur·ing. “To help develop, help grow, nourish, sustain, to promote growth” Nurture is the best word to describe my growing of Claude Monet and Nahema roses in my garden because these two roses, more than any others, have been taken care of quite diligently, with daily encouragement, care, and…

“Patience is a flower that does not grow in everybody’s garden”

Patience is a necessary life skill, especially worth developing for gardeners. As we work hand in hand with nature to create and maintain the garden of our dreams we know it will take time, persistence and backbone. Apart from providing all the right elements as best we can, there is a point where we have…

“When the flower blooms, the bees come uninvited. ”

“In all the recipes for happiness I have ever seen, ‘something to look forward to’ has been given as an important ingredient. Something to look forward to! How rich the gardener, any gardener, is in this particular integrant! For always he [or she] looks forward to something, if it is only the appearance of the…

“Summertime is always the best of what might be.”

“Christmas is the tenderness of the past, courage for the present, and hope for the future” This year Christmas has been hard with restrictions on family gatherings, the constant sadness of lives lost, and the millions of people suffering from the pandemic. Many people have been forced to live more isolated lives and cannot share…

“What I need most of all are flowers, always, always.”

The great Impressionists painters emerged in 1870’s France and were known for rejecting the strict rules of fine art and looking at the world in new ways. Instead of realistic portraits in a studio, these painters thought they could use the light’s fleeting nature from the sun in front of their subjects, outside. This brought…

Then Spring Came

Spring has returned. The Earth is like a child that knows poems. Pablo Neruda Spring, the gorgeous season of the year, has arrived in the garden. The garden suddenly a happy place full of activity and new beginnings. The lavender buzzing with thousands of bees, blossoms like fairy dust here one day and blown away…

Colour my World

What colour is in a picture, enthusiasm is in life Vincent Van Gogh Yes, I am addicted to roses, I admit it. My mother too, loved her garden in the Blue Mountains of New South Wales, which was perfect for roses and she indulged as well. As a family we enjoyed her passion for roses…

“There are always flowers for those who want to see them”

Winter has struggled to take a firm hold this year. The usual severity of the white, crisp frost has been light around the garden this winter ( so far) The cold nights and early morning chill is followed by the warmth of bright sunshine on most days. If no sun then welcome rain has fallen,…

La Rosa Paul Cezanne

Art is a harmony parallel with nature. Paul Cezanne The beautiful rose, Paul Cezanne- JACdeli, is part of the Delbard Painters Collection. Bred in France in 1992 and named to honour Paul Cézanne, one of the French Post Impressionists painters who lived and died in Aix-en-Provence France. We live in a rainbow of chaos. Paul…

“Each moment of the year has its own beauty, a picture which was never seen before, and which shall never be seen again.”

– Centre front in my mind and heart over the last few months are my roses. Living in isolation in a rural environment is quite usual, although not quite anti-social as we have experienced this year. Without the opportunity to see family and friends, my focus has been on the garden, and I have busily…

“The rose and the thorn, and sorrow and gladness are linked together.”

If unexpected self-isolation can teach us anything, we must be grateful for simple things that perhaps we sometimes take for granted. Our personal freedom, health, and loved ones are the most important aspects of life I am grateful for. What joy I felt to be free again after those three weeks of lockdown and to…

“At the heart of gardening there is a belief in the miraculous.”

Miracles do happen as Mirabel Osler once said in the quote above and my garden is testament to this. When I first glimpsed the destruction from the ravage of January this year, I thought I’d never have a bloom on a rose again. I described in my last post ” There is no gardening without humility”. …

“There is no gardening without humility…

“There is no gardening without humility, an assiduous willingness to learn and a cheerful readiness to confess you were mistaken. Nature is constantly sending even its oldest scholars to the bottom of the class for some egregious blunder.” [So just keep studying and enjoy it!] Alfred Austin, English poet laureate, in The Garden That I…

“Success and failure, triumph and disaster. That is the rhythm of life in the garden.”

As a beautiful new rosebud, the new decade begins. But it is a sombre morning today to wake to the shock of the plight of thousands of people in bushfire regions of Australia who are stranded and frightened on the South Coast of NSW and Victoria. It is hard to be cheerful when so many…

“It is the time you have wasted for your rose that makes your rose so important.”

Water As the year closes and mid-summer moves on, the garden roses need some care and attention if you want the blooms to continue into Autumn. Water is the number one essential ingredient in summer for roses. They are reasonably drought tolerant unless not completely established yet, but roses will not thrive and flourish without…

A new year is simply the turn of a calendar page — and a beautiful chance for us to turn over a new leaf.

It is customary in Australia to ring in the New Year with the excitement of fireworks, parties, friends, and champagne and the good intentions of new year resolutions. I have always enjoyed New Year’s Eve, and since early childhood, I’ve been able to celebrate the coming year at a party. My first memories of New…

Christmas is the day that holds all time together.

All we need in Australia this year for Christmas is RAIN. Apart from wishing for rain my hope is that everyone enjoyed a wonderful Christmas with family and friends and that the New Year brings fulfillment in all areas of life. Australia is in a dreadful situation with severe bushfires across the country, due to…

“Hope is one of the essential tools of a farmer or gardener.”

“You have to have a sense of humility when you grow plants-never forget that nature is in charge” Sebastion Bras How could we ever forget that nature is in charge when we live through such extreme weather conditions.? Smoke filled atmosphere from the fires burning many kilometres away, the continual chance of dust storms, no…

“And the shower of roses spun around me, inviting me to take part in their ever-present waltz.”

It would be lovely if the sentiment expressed in today’s quote were the reality in the garden now, but the roses are still not as prolific as anticipated. There are some beautiful blooms but no grand colour splash across the garden as a whole. Patience is what is needed now. Coaxing the roses through the…

“I’ve always felt that having a garden is like having a good and loyal friend. ”

I love inspiring quotes. At times I’ll come across a quote that rings so true to me, and is exactly the sentiment I had thought of but not quite been able to express. The quote above by garden author C Z Guest says it all, and in a similar vein to columnist and landscape designer…

Who killed the Lady of Shalott?

The Summer glow that radiates from The Lady Of Shalott Rose is one reason it is one of my favourite roses. The colours are rich, in shades of deep apricot, red and salmon pink with a faint touch of yellow underneath that gleams in the sun all season. The flower is romantic and shaped like…

“Life is itself a school, and nature always a fresh study.”

It’s pretty tough in the garden sometimes even though Spring’s colour and fragrance have replaced the cold and frosty days of winter. We have experienced extreme weather this Spring with long days of high winds, heat and dust storms that have created havoc. Many plants are struggling from wind damage and the ground, despite my…

“Perhaps optimism is a rosy interpretation of the facts, or perhaps optimism is a factual interpretation of the rose.”

What have I been up to in my garden in recent days as I move forward with optimism through the gorgeous Spring season? There are many new roses this year that have yet to flower as Spring moves on. After the dust storms devastation, I have cut almost all damaged blooms and deadheaded the roses….

“To Plant a Garden is to Believe in Tomorrow”

In almost every garden, the land is made better and so is the gardener. Robert Rodale When I reflect on the past few years of growing a rose garden, I often wonder, after a day of being scratched by rose thorns, bitten by mosquitoes and exhausted by the heat, why it is I love it so…

“Every spring, like it or not, we are all beginners, all over again.”

Perfect blooms in the garden this season are scarce because I’ve had a few setbacks. The roses are not looking good at all. Growing roses definitely has it’s up and downs and this week is a mix of both. It still hasn’t rained. The air is dehydrated, and it feels as if it has not…

Giardino Della Gherardesca Italy

In between the 15th century Palazzo Della Gherardesca and the “Conventino”, a 16th century Palazzo, once a convent is an 11 acre botanical garden in the Renaissance city of Florence. It is on the right bank of the Florentine Arno River The Giardino Della Gherardesca, a refined, lush garden of magnificent, natural beauty and one…