I Dream in Color

I dreamed of a garden.

And after a bit of trial and error, I realized roses did well in the sunny soil here. 

So then I began to dream of a rose garden.

And after some work, a few years of waiting, some mistakes, and a few changes, my dream has begun to come true.

I'm still changing things, and still waiting.

But when I dream, I dream in color.

Start a garden.   

And you'll be dreaming in color, too. 

Mighty, Small

What to see one of my most prolific blooming roses?

Carnival Glass

You may be surprised when I tell you this is a miniature rose.  I bought it on a whim, thinking a miniature rose would look sweet planted in the front of this bed.  I have been extremely happy with that impulse decision.

Not only is Carnival Glass a prolific bloomer, but it is also disease resistant and hardy in zones 5 though 10.  I have mine in the ground, where I keep it to around 2 tall and wide.  It has a slight fragrance, but you have to bend down so low to smell it, I don't think that's important.  Blooms are up to 2 inches wide.  They look quite sweet in a bouquet.

Carnival Glass (in front) planted in my garden

It would be stunning in a pot, too.

Bush shot

I completely understand people that get addicted to miniature roses.  They're sweet little shrubs with an abundance of tiny blooms.  After getting Carnival Glass, I have purchased several other varieties of miniature roses.  I have yet to be disappointed.

Yes, I know - it just might be the start of an addiction!

A Simple Plan - Earth Day Reading 2012

I love Michelle at The Sage Butterfly's annual Earth Day Reading Project, "a meme where bloggers share what books inspire them to live or garden more sustainably".

Last year because of Michelle's meme, I read the book 'Animal, Vegetable, Miracle' by Barbara Kingsolver.  It helped us to change the way we eat.  Mostly because this book's plan seemed very doable, even for me.

Monarch butterfly

But when other gardeners ask me about sustainability, I have always questioned whether the little things I could do would make much of an impact.  I needed a plan for my garden.  Something simple.  Something doable.

Then it came to me.

Question Mark butterfly

My father worked at a chemical plant for many years.  I'm certain that there were aspects of his career that were very exciting.  My father's generation was a generation of discovery, exploration, and experimentation.  Space travel was the newest and most exciting frontier.  Cars were being built to go faster, and look sleeker.  Modern appliances were beginning to help with mundane chores.  And advances in chemical research were being tested for use in medicine, agriculture, and consumer use.

Now we know that some of those chemicals have long term effects that were unknown at the time of discovery, some of them causing harm.  The pendulum toward using chemicals is starting to swing back.

  

Variegated Fritillary butterfly

In my garden, I have never used any insecticides or fungicides, not because I was adverse to using them, but because I was too lazy! And a funny thing started to happen.  I started noticing butterflies.  More and more every year.

So now how do I measure success in sustainability?

Look closely - Dwarf Yellow butterfly laying eggs

By counting butterflies.  This has become my doable plan.

 'National Audubon Society Field Guild to North American Butterflies' by Robert Michael Pyle is the book I use for identification of the butterflies in my garden.  Although this book is not one I read from end to end, it gets a lot of use.  It is a great help in being able to easily and quickly identify the butterflies in my garden.  

Tiger Swallowtail butterfly

Chemicals are useful.  They can also be harmful.  So now when making a decision about the chemicals used in my garden, I turn to the butterflies for guidance.  If it might do them harm, I avoid it.   

It may seem obvious to not use any chemicals in the garden.  But it didn't seem so obvious until I started seeing butterflies in my garden.  Suddenly, I felt responsible for something.  Something that affected much more than just my little garden.

Buckeye butterfly

I wish the pendulum could stop somewhere in the middle, where butterflies lived, but not bedbugs.  Perhaps one day we will be able to figure out the perfect balance.  Until then, this is my simple plan for sustainability:  Do what's good for the butterflies.

Delivery!

Whenever the Federal Express truck comes up our driveway, we chant out "I've got a package for you.  It's a big one!", parroting the lines in the movie 'Legally Blond'.  Well, when Federal Express came yesterday, he did have a package for me.  And it was a big one!  A big one from Bluestone Perennials.  (Actually two!)

Carefree Beauty

Dressed in my gardening clothes (shorts that are a little too tight and too short, and a tank top that's a little too low cut (clothes that I would never, ever wear in public!), I watched out the window for him to leave so I could open my packages.  But instead of ringing the doorbell and leaving like he usually does, he rang the doorbell and just stood there.

And stood there.  And stood there.  And stood there.

Buff Beauty

Finally, I decided he must need my signature, so I opened the door and stepped out.

No signature needed.  He wanted to talk roses!  He and his wife were trying to put in a garden and wanted to grow roses.  We talked about all things roses - rose types, rose names, disease resistance, planting, soil preparation, fragrance, etc.

I've never had a complete stranger tell me they admire my garden in person.  I was quite flattered.

Julia Child

Oh, yeah - I know you've been wondering all this time what was in the package!  Some agastache because of Scott from Rhone Street Gardens.  Some liatris (gayfeather) that I have admired in Bluestem's garden in Plano Prairie Garden.  A cimicifuga that Stacy from Microcosm suggested for the winter garden.  And of course, some other impulse purchases.

Now, back to compliments.

Pat Austin

I was also complimented by Kevin of Nitty Gritty Dirt Man.  He awarded my blog The Sunshine Award.  How sweet!  I am supposed to answer 10 questions, pass the award on to 10 other bloggers, and let them know in a comment and link to the post about this award.

I always worry that I will insult some bloggers by not awarding it to them.  And if you ever feel that way, I am truly sorry.  But even though it is always difficult to name just a few blogs out of the many I read and enjoy, I decided to accept it and continue to pass it along.

10 questions I am supposed to answer:
1.  What is your favorite color?
     Peach
2.  What is your favorite animal?
     Cat
3.  What is your favorite number?
     3
4.   What is your favorite non-alcoholic drink?
     Raspberry tea from Taco Bell, even though I hardly ever indulge.
5.   Which is your favorite - Facebook or Twitter?
    Well, I don't do either, so I can't answer this question!
6.    What is your passion?
    Uh - gardening.  And since you probably knew that, I'll throw in another.  Reading.  You probably guessed that, too!
7.    Do you prefer giving or receiving presents?
    Both!
8.    What is your favorite pattern?
   Who came up with these questions?  I have no favorite.  I like a lot of different patterns, and love mixing them.
9.    What is your favorite day of the week?
    Friday.  Who could not like Friday?
10.   What is your favorite flower?
    Must be roses!

And without further ado - drumroll please -
In no particular order, the 10 bloggers to which I would like to award The Sunshine Award:

1.  Gardens Eye View
2.  Garden Walk Garden Talk
3.  Carolyn's Shade Gardens
4.  Secrets of a Seed Scatterer
5.  The Gardening Blog
6.  Pam's English Cottage Garden
7.  PlantPostings
8.  Red House Garden
9.  A Hocking Hill's Garden
10.The Sage Butterfly

Congratulations!  Pass it along if you want.  Like the Federal Express man's compliment to me, I hope it makes your day.

A Lesson in Cauliflower

Cauliflower.  To me it's almost tasteless.  Bland.  But, I still eat it.  And last fall I decided to grow it.  Little did I know I would learn so much from two little plants.

The first cauliflower started out o.k.

But it started turning pink!  I hurried to research the problem.  Apparently, because the leaves never fully matured, it left the head open to the sun's burning rays.  The sunburned parts turn pink.  The pink is not harmful, although the pink areas are supposedly not as nutritious.  Still, I ate the entire head, pink and all, and it tasted just fine.

The second lesson came from the following:

See the green looking cauliflower?  See the odd shape of the head inside?

If I thought a pink cauliflower was bad, I was really concerned about a green one!  A green one that was starting to look like it had a mind of its own, growing in some strange pattern.

You see, I had purchased both of these as plants, not seeds, and I actually didn't remember (and of course, didn't label) what I had planted.  After having a pink cauliflower, I panicked when I saw a green one!  I should have researched it then, but I didn't.  Thinking the green cauliflower head with the strange pattern was defective, or at least starting to bolt, I didn't take any more pictures, but immediately ate the evidence.

It tasted like cauliflower to me.

Of course, later on I researched it.  It's supposed to be green.  With an odd pattern.  That's because it's a Romanesco broccoli, also known as Roman cauliflower.  Seems it can't make up its mind what it wants to be when it grows up.

The lessons?  Pink cauliflower is sunburned.  Green cauliflower is a different variety.  Enjoy its strange look.  And plant more next fall!

I also harvested just a bit of lettuce.  That is the very last of the plants from my garden planted last fall!

I'm joining Christine and Barbie at The Gardening Blog for Garden Bloggers Harvest Day.

A String of Pearls

Every woman should own a string of pearls, don't you agree?  (If you're a woman, you'll probably say yes, if you're a man, maybe not!)  Pearls are classic and will never go out of style.  Simple and beautiful, they dress up any outfit from a simple black dress to an outfit with blue jeans.

Today I'm going to introduce you to a rose that is like a string of pearls.  Simple and beautiful.  It could fit in almost anywhere.

This is Perle d'Or rose (translated it means Gold Pearl).  It's small peachy-pink blooms are like tiny little pearls, glistening in the sunlight.  So sweet, so petite, so delicate.

But the rose is not.  Designated an Earthkind rose, this rose is tough, drought tolerant, tolerant of many types of soils, disease resistant, and grows in zones 6 through 9.

Mine has gotten quite large (over 5 ft.), but this rose could easily be kept around 3 ft tall.   It would look wonderful grown in a container as a patio rose where you could see the details of its bloom.  Not yet convinced?  This rose is almost thornless, and fragrant.  I listed it as one of the top 5 old garden roses in my garden.

Classic, simple, beautiful.  Just like a string of pearls.

I'm Seeing Red!

The Knock Out roses have started blooming in the walking garden!  Oh, how I love to see them bloom.  This makes me fall in love with this garden all over again.

I know Knock Out roses have been much criticized.  And a lot of rosarians may wonder why I grow Knock Out roses here, when I grow so many different types of roses.  Well, let me explain.

Remember, this bed was designed to be a plopping garden.  A garden with a lot of bulbs and perennials.  When I put this garden bed in, I knew this bed might take a lot of my gardening time.  But I wanted roses here.  Of course, I also wanted those roses to be easy maintenance, very disease resistant, bloom constantly, and red.  I could have chosen another rose, but I chose Knock Outs.

Maybe I'm too sensitive, but I'm tired of feeling like I need to defend my choice.  Knock Outs are a rose, and if you find them too many places (shopping malls, every neighborhood, along the highway), that is because they give people what they want - a rose that is extremely disease resistant and blooms constantly.  I know they're not disease resistant in every area, but here, they are ideal.  The only thing lacking is fragrance.

I'm glad I made the decision to put Knock Out roses in this bed.  (There are other roses in this bed, by the way.)  From now on, in this blog, I'm treating Knock Outs like any other rose in my garden - without embarrassment or apology, and with love.

Magical may not be the first adjective you think of when you think of Knock Out roses, but especially in spring when they first bloom in my garden, they are magical to me.