We’re starting to spruce up the house for the crisp autumn and tuck away all the summer gardens. The roses are still flourishing in the garden and not ready to be tucked in quite yet. We introduced so many of my favorite roses into the garden this year. Earlier in the spring, my grandfather stopped in and surprise us with a bonus from his winnings at the casino. I, myself am not much of the casino loving girl but my grandfather goes a couple of times a month and I have to say he carries a rabbit’s foot. I hid away his winnings for the spring flower catalogs to come out and circled and lamented on which roses to place my investment towards.
My grandfather, in his younger years had a small garden hid away in his backyard in the city. He always had a line of roses along his fence in every color imaginable. His garden has gotten smaller and the roses aren’t as plentiful as before but his garden is still perfect and not a weed to be seen. I only hope to be as nimble as he is in his 80s. Everyday he ventures down to my parents at 9:00am and works around her gardens puttering here and there. Sometimes he stops and drops off plants from his garden in front of the studio for me to plant after work.
The above rose my grandfather salvaged from his next door neighbor. The new neighbors ripped out this cute little rose that had been growing there for over 50 years. The flower is the size of a quarter. Art and Imogene, once lived next door and planted this rose. It may have been there even earlier than them. It’s survived 30 years with new families moving in and out. I’m so lucky that it survived the curbside and is now flourishing amongst my flowers. Hopefully it will winter well and grow another 50+ years.
Jacques Cartier and White Dawn
Crocus Rose – David Austin
Bruce and I are in the midst of putting together plans for the farm. The new focus is on herbs and roses making some small artisan products and dried and fresh herbs. Focusing on what grows best instead of forcing the ground to grow plants it just doesn’t want to. I have plenty of sun which the roses love which is why I’ve been lucky growing these blooms. See I don’t need a casino… isn’t gardening a big game of chance? It’s all about a chance to get just the right amount of water, having the deer ignore your plants and getting just the right temperature.
One of our first products is the Minty Hip Lip Balm. It has a mixture of rose petals from our gardens, wild rose hips from my mom’s garden and my dad’s spearmint patch. Below are some of the pictures from our photo shoot we had a few days ago.
Stanwell Perpetual – Heirloom Rose
I have a few more weeks of these pretty blooms and then I’ll wait patiently for spring to come. This year was another building block year in the garden. Next year all my babies will grow to toddler stage which will bring less weeding (YAY) and more roses.
Leave a Reply