A Thing of Beauty

Munstead Wood

A few days ago, there was a question on a Facebook page I subscribed to about which David Austin rose one would be.
A silly game, I know, but it made me consider it.
At first, I thought there was no rose that represented me, that I could identify with, but recently I realised that there is one - Munstead Wood.

The one with the velvety petals, not a too orderly aspect, with an intense fragrant, but pretty well endowed thorn-wise :)

I took several photos of it this year, unfortunately not one at its peak blooming time, but you'll have to settle with these for the time being.

I've clearly not pruned the bush correctly, so it looks rather loose. It's still work in progress.

Here's the bush in late May

 and here it is in early June

And here it is again, in different stages, wet and dry, in all its gorgeous glory

 

A Promise of Spring, a Reminder of Winter

January has passed and so has February. With the beginning of March, there’s been sunshine and warm weather, and sitting outside without a jacket on, and new buds showing up.

And then the bad-bad winter decided to show us her frosty show was not over, so we had big frosts, which made me put the winter protection back on the plants that needed it the most. Mid-March, and I was shovelling snow instead of doing proper gardening work.

However, the worst is now over. With some victims (buds) and some survivors (plants).
Here are some pictures with small joys in my winter garden from February and early March.

The snow drops were a nice surprise. I planted some, but those I planted last autumn have yet to bloom. These were a couple of bunches that were planted by some previous tenants.

 And here is a small bouquet I made for indoors. The first this year all from my garden.

 

 Hellebores were among the survivors. Well, they are winter flowers and they have proven it standing strong against the snow and frosts.

Rosa Munstead Wood put out these very pretty red buds, which I am not sure survived the last frosts. They seem to be still alive, but not so much in a good shape.
We'll see soon enough.

One of my favourite roses from David Austin is Brother Cadfael - it is a nice pink, it has that charming old rose fragrance and it is a good bloomer. It also seemed to be pretty disease resistent and to put out a lot a growth in its first summer with me. So, when I pruned it before the winter, there were a couple of long canes that I cut in order to give the bush a nice shape and I decided to just put one of them in the ground, directly in the garden and simply cover it with a plastic bottle.
In all honesty, I did not expect it to survive, especially considering that I planted it at the end of November, but here's a peak through the bottle where you can see its nice buds.
Doesn't it look like a survivor, too?

This is not a plant, but, together with its twin sister, it has certainly added some winter interest to my garden and I do hope my 'clients' are gonna thank me in summer.

And here are some pictures of indoor beauties.

Hope to be back soon