Into the Rose Garden

It's that time of year again. The Rose Garden is in full bloom. Just have a look at some of these beauties.

There was no pruning done this year before the rose bushes started to get going. So the bushes were allowed to grow at their whim and put out a wonderful display. Although this created a mess of branches and runners going every-which-way, it made the garden more natural and honestly, just a lovely riot of untamed colour. 

The bushes will be cut back once they have finished their initial blooming, which will most likely cause them to put forth another growth spurt and more blooms later in the summer. Which is not a bad thing. 
 

First up is our Peace Rose. It's a gorgeous salmon or peach colour that becomes more yellow in the center as it opens up. 

This one starts out dark and then fades to a more delicate pink as it fully opens. It has the most wonderful scent as well.

This is one of the yearly favourites, called "Rio Samba". It has been in the garden for a number of years and each year it puts forth a beautiful display. It doesn't have much of a scent, but it makes up for it in striking patterns and strong stems. And large thorns.

Here is the same "Rio Samba" once it has fully opened. 

This beautifully full rose is a David Austin variety. David Austin roses are known for their fullness, or "double rose" as they often have twice the petal count as other rose types. 

Another David Austin rose; this time in peach (and it the rain). 

This pink stipes-and-speckles rose has the sweetest, almost innocent scent. It has been in the garden for as long as I can remember (which is a fairly long time). We have dubbed it the Candy Cane rose because of it's stripes. It blooms twice; once in late May and then again towards the end of August. It has clusters of flowers that don't last as long as the other roses in the garden, but it makes up for in the number of blooms it puts forth. It's probably one of my favourites in the garden. 

This dark rose is a new addition to the Rose Garden this year. I took Dad to the garden center to pick out a Father's Day gift. He saw this and immediately put it in our shopping cart. It's called "Purple Tiger". It took to it's new home just fine and put out a beautiful display of blooms despite being replanted in mid-June.

This is just a small sample of the roses in bloom this year in the Rose Garden. The weather has been so warm the past week that most of time I am just focusing on staying cool and keeping hydrated. Hope you enjoyed this short trip into the Rose Garden.

Fall is in the Air

This morning I definitely felt the air was crisper and decidedly cooler. Walking to my studio I could see that the color of the leaves on the trees has really started to change. My observations were solidified by a large noisy flock of Canadian geese flying overhead. Gone are the languid and lazy days of summer. Fall is finally here.

The official autumnal equinox took place this year at 12:55am this morning, and marked the beginning of Fall in the Northern Hemisphere (those lucky enough to be living in the Southern Hemisphere celebrate vernal equinox and are marking the beginning of Spring . . .oh, to be in New Zealand or Australia right now!)

Sadly, from now until the winter solstice on December 21, the days get will shorter. Luckily in Vancouver we still get a number of sunny clear days in September and into October. However, the temperatures will continue to get colder as we tilt further and further away from the sun.

The good news is that this will provide the best conditions for producing colorful fall foliage - clear days followed by cool nights. If there is too much rain, or early frosts and freezing temperatures, then the colors won't be as vibrant. But too little rain and the leaves fall from the trees before they've even had a chance to change color. Instead of yellows and reds, the leaves quickly turn brown and die.

When I was young(er) my brother and I used to love piling up the colored leaves in our yard and jumping into them.

Then we would have to rake them up, only to jump into them again. This continued until the time a little slug found its’ way from the underside of one of the leaves into my mouth. At six years old, this was traumatic and promptly ended my days of jumping into piles of leaves. But I still have to give a little smile each time I see a small child running through the leaves. And I will admit I still find delight when I shuffle my feet through the fallen dry leaves and listen as they crackle and swirl up underneath me.

Happy Autumnal Equinox !