October is like the end of the main course in my garden. It gives us one last bite of beauty to luxuriate in and to appreciate. The roses always put on a splendid flush in October. Relieved that summer's heat is over, their blooms are bigger, with saturated color.
It seems my garden saves the best for last:
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| Buff Beauty |
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| Peace |
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| La Marne |
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| Madame Joseph Schwartz |
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| Lady Hillingdon |
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| Madame Berkeley |
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| Carefree Beauty |
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| Iceberg |
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| Antoine Rivoire |
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| Innocencia Vigorosa |
And right on cue, the camellias begin to serve their contribution:
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| Hana Jiman |
Camellias are like dessert. They usually come after the big flush of the roses, and bring a small taste of charm and delicacy to relish all winter. Not a big meal, but just enough to sweeten the garden. Obviously, the spider above likes dessert!
HolleyGarden, I especially like your La Marne and Innocencia Vigorosa. I'm starting to get a thing for singles. Your garden looks like it's lovin' October!!
ReplyDeleteI passed up a pretty peachy single rose this past spring, and now I could kick myself! I have no idea what its name was, but I think a few singles mixed in with the doubles compliment them both.
DeleteDainty Bess is my single, currently producing a succession of flowers. I covet Mermaid, but I need a non-steroid imitator.
DeleteI've heard great things about Dainty Bess. I've also heard that Mermaid is quite vigorous, with vicious thorns! I hope you find an imitator to your liking. :)
DeleteOh, to have Roses still blooming in October, and Camellias blooming at all! Sigh...
ReplyDeleteI am so thankful that camellias bloom here. My husband doesn't like them - or maybe he just doesn't want me to get another plant obsession - but I am so pleased when I see their blooms coming on just as everything else is starting to slow down.
DeleteDear HollyGarden I have been following your blog way before I joined Blotanical. I always loved to look at the roses in your garden, they are so beautiful. You and a few others really inspired me to create my own blog, a pretty blog, with beautiful pictures of roses. Never stop showing your roses, they are exquisite. Karen.
ReplyDeleteHow sweet, Karen. Thank you. If I inspired you in any little way to start your own blog, I am pleased. I love for rose growers to share their knowledge of roses - and their beauty.
DeleteThey are all just beautiful. Buff Beauty is a longtime favourite of mine, but I love the simplicity of your Innocencia Vigorosa.
ReplyDeleteI swoon every time I see Buff Beauty bloom. Mine is not very large yet, so it's getting better every year, but I just can't get over those clusters of dainty blooms, and I love the color, too! Innocencia, to me, looks so very sweet. It's a cheerful rose.
DeleteEven though it's going to get colder this weekend, our Roses are still blooming... We have Peace --and love it. George is still able to bring a bloom into the house for me every morning. LOVE them.....
ReplyDeleteYour blossoms are MARVELOUS..
Hugs,
Betsy
I fall in love with Peace again every time it blooms. And I think it's takes the prettiest picture of any rose in my garden.
DeleteI do love your roses.
ReplyDeleteI my garden it seems the only rose still doing anything is New Dawn - and I know it's a very mainstream rose that's often frowned upon, but I love that little flash of pink between all the autumn colours.
We had our first frost last night, so winter is closing in on us, but this morning the sunshine is glorious and it seems like it will still be a while before the garden goes into complete dormancy.
Oh, I hope New Dawn isn't too much frowned upon - I have two new ones, and I think she is beautiful! I love autumn, but it's a little sad to have to say goodbye to so much of the garden when winter finally arrives.
DeleteYou have such beautiful blooms still. Roses are lovely but you are so lucky to have that Camellia. Of course I would notice that since they aren't hardy here, but you do have wonderful blooms.
ReplyDeleteCher Sunray Gardens
I am always thrilled when the camellias start to bloom. They are a sweet winter treat. I feel lucky to be where they will grow.
Deleteholley, they are certainly delicious blooms, if I were a spider I'd go for them too. I know what you mean i think, about dessert, October for me is probably the main course, so much flowering going on. Lots of camellias don't turn me on, but yours are lovely.
ReplyDeleteYes, you are just now getting started on your spring blooms! Here, I forget how little everything blooms when the summer temps are so high, until they start blooming again in autumn.
DeleteStill very special blooms in your garden Holley, afraid in late October the garden is well past its best in my part of the world.
ReplyDeleteYes, I think you're quite a bit cooler than here. We are actually just now seeing autumn's arrival. Winter takes its time in coming here - I like it that way, even though I pay for the mild winters with brutal summers!
DeleteYour flowers esp. those roses are giving more fragrances and food for daily life. Cheers..
ReplyDelete"Food for daily life" - so true!
DeleteThat is a wonderful display of roses. I especially like Innocencia Vigorosa and Iceberg (you can see I have a thing for white roses).
ReplyDeleteI'm starting to have a thing for them, too. I used to love darker colors, but now find myself drawn to the pastels, and the whites.
DeleteMagnificent blooms, I especially love BuffBeauty. I might have to get one of those for my garden
ReplyDeleteI've been in love with Buff Beauty since I saw the first picture of it. It still makes my knees go weak!
DeleteSo, so pretty! I love your Lady Hillingdon. I have only a handful of roses, but they also appreciate the nice weather and bloom once again before winter hits. It is a wonderful time of year!
ReplyDeleteOh, it is wonderful now. Not too hot, and the flowers really appreciate the cooler days!
DeleteYour garden must be filled with fragrance from all these roses, Holley. I like the Innocencia Vigorosa- so simple and fresh-looking and also its rose-opposite, Buff Beauty- round, full and soft as a cloud in the sky.
ReplyDelete"Soft as a cloud in the sky." What a lyrical way to put it. And yes, you are exactly right. :)
DeleteInnocencia Vigorosa, what a beauty! I shall find out if this rose is suitable for our climate. Amazing that Camellias follow up directly the flowering seasons of the roses. Our Camellias only start flowering in February or even March.
ReplyDeleteI have sasanquas as well as japonicas. The japonicas bloom in early spring, but the sasanquas start blooming now.
DeleteIf your lucky, you may get petit fours with your coffee.
ReplyDelete:) Yes, petit fours sound perfect!
DeleteMy Icebergs are blooming like crazy too. They will be blooming with snow on their heads. The weather is changing, but they don't seem to know it. They will be the last course in my garden too. You have such a wonderful garden of roses.
ReplyDeleteI don't think I've ever seen my Icebergs so very happy. How wonderful to have them blooming in the snow! I bet that is a joyous sight to behold!
DeleteOctober is a wonderful thing in the Texas landscape. HolleyGarden your roses are beautiful, hopefully mine will look that good next October.
ReplyDeleteI bet they will!
DeleteOh, what a delicious treat. I'm in southern Ontario. My last rose dropped its petals a month ago. I have very little in flower now. Just a few hardy things hanging on until the big freeze. Your Madame Joseph Schwartz is beautiful. I must look for that. Thanks for sharing your lovely rose photos. Not crazy about the spider though. Sent a shiver up my spine.
ReplyDeletehaha - I was a bit cautious while I took its picture, even though this type of spider is very benign!
DeleteHolley - I was always under the impression that Roses did best in heat. (Throwing out that embarrassing ignorance here...) Now it's apparent that after the Hostas wilt in the cool weather, and the Monarda is long gone - it's the Roses that give us the gift of final blooms! Thanks for sharing the beauty!
ReplyDeleteRoses love the heat, but here, it's just too hot! Roses (nor many flowers) don't like it when the heat gets over 100. They go dormant and quit blooming, and then when the weather gets cooler, they bloom again! It's worth waiting for. And I've always been impressed that roses can bloom for 3 seasons (or more), depending on where you're gardening!
DeleteHolley how fabulous to have so many roses in bloom....I marvel at the stunning blooms....mine seem best in spring. Although they are stalwart bloomers even after a freeze.
ReplyDeleteYes, I love spring rose blooms, too. They're both wonderful times in the garden, but I think the spring's are just a bit more fresh. Still, they're a welcome sight after such hot summers as we have here!
DeleteHolley I could not imagine a dessert with a spider on it but hey food is so weird in US... :-) I'm totally with you about the last bite, I've always kept it aside but when I was a child and couldn't finish all my meal I used to get angry because only the best bites were left...
ReplyDeleteI am officially in love with Madame Joseph Schwartz, I must look around for it! Innocencia vigorosa looks very nice too and I bet the name says it all!
I've started trying to eat the best bites first, but it's hard to break a lifelong habit! Madame Joseph Schwartz is impressing me this year, too. And I love the cloud of gaura I have planted next to it. I think they compliment each other perfectly.
DeleteDefinitely savour the last bite, but then that maybe has to do with me remembering when I was a child and I would refuse to eat things I didn't like first. My mother would make me sit at the table until I finished everything on my plate. Now I eat the stuff I'm not as fond of first to get it over with and save the best for last.
ReplyDeleteOur mothers must have been very much alike! That's why I save the best for last - I had to finish everything on my plate!
DeleteYour roses are lovely!
ReplyDeleteThanks. They are truly lovely at certain times.
DeleteI do usually save the best for last! And I love all those delicately colored roses you have blooming! Camellias seem more like delicious but hardy bread to me - they help keep me going through the winter!
ReplyDeletehaha - love the bread reference! So true!
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