Lavender and Vanilla; Friends of the Gardens: June 2015

Thursday, 25 June 2015

Ode to a cabbage;

The Kitchen garden;

I, the best ever cook, with a degree in coleslaw making, my secret with a dash of this and a pinch of that, a drop or two of a sun kissed lemon, a few snips of the greenest chives, the best olive oil ever produced, triple virgin… knife in hand went up to the kitchen garden. There in all its cabbage glory, filled to the brim with chlorophyll. Leaves crisp, folded sweetly into each other holding tight, the last of the last; nearly a crime to cut it, stands, ready, waiting. No, not yet, tomorrow will be the day.

Tomorrow was to late, the last of the last was last, sunken in itself, shredded leaves, half eaten, its glory gone for ever not as supposed in the best ever coleslaw way, but roughly devoured by some other creature, without the blessings of garlic chives, sweet balsamic, and the touch of a spoonful of Dijonaise. Sigh…

soups...glorious soups, cooking is fun.

©Photos mygarden/Text Ts/ Lavender & Vanilla

Saturday, 6 June 2015

The beauty of old Roses, a winter's tale;

Old china rose Irene Watts can quickly become a favourite.

Everything about this rose is lovely. Its double, luscious pink blooms fading to a soft ivory, a fine fragrance, dwarf, twiggy growth with healthy foliage, double, pale pink flowers with deeper centers and a pleasant fragrance. Fairly dwarf and hardy, disease resistant. Continuously flowering, nearly thornless, Breeder Guillot, 1896.

Roses must be fragrant. Ts

China Rose Old Blush

Rosa 'Old Blush', derived from Rosa chinensis, and is generally accepted as the first East Asian rose cultivar to reach Europe. It is recorded in Denmark in 1752 and England in 1793, but was probably cultivated in China for several centuries'Old Blush' has light silvery pink semi-double flowers of medium size. They have a nice fragrance, The red buds appear in clusters almost continuously, here in the subtropics throughout the year, and can develop to small, red rose hips.

The shrub has an arching from, few prickles and mid-green leaves that have a crimson colour when young. It grows 100 to 150 centimetres tall and about 90 to 120 centimetres wide,tolerates half shade, and poor soils.

A rose as beautiful as it might be, without scent is dead, just colour and matter, no heart nor soul. Ts

Perle d’Or

Rosa 'Perle d'Or a cultivar bred by Joseph Rambaux in 1875 and introduced by Francis Dubreuil in France in 1883. Its parents were a double-flowered R. multiflora seedling and the tea rose 'Madame Falcot' (Guillot 1858). It is sometimes considered to be a china rose and sometimes considered a polyanthus.

Small shrub, height and with 1.2m

Successive flushes of bloom spring, summer, autumn and winter. Lovely

fragrance

Water to establish and then very drought tolerant. Will not tolerate being watered too often.

Perle d’Or (pearl of gold) is a highly regarded old garden rose that is well suited to many growing conditions even alkaline clay soil and hot dry weather. It blooms from spring until fall replacing spent flowers quickly with new flushes of bloom.

Feelings are fragile like the petal of a rose, easily bruised, unable to recover, curl up and die. Ts

Crépuscule is a reliable, strong rose bred by Francis Dubreuil in France in 1904. It is classified as a Noisette, one of the Old Garden Roses.

Flowering throughout the season in decorative small clusters, Crépuscule creates a beautiful rose display with intense, sweet, musk Old Rose fragrance.

Crépuscule can grow into a very large tall shrub rose up to 4m high and 2 to 4m wide. It is also capable of a semi-climbing habit and can be trained against a trellis or along a fence.

Quick to repeat flower, richly fragrant and very disease resistant; a wonderfully easy to grow rose in the garden.

Sophie's Perpetual

China. Beautifully shaped, fragrant, double silver and pink cupped flowers adorn this old rose of unknown origin. If left unpruned it will climb, otherwise it will grow into a medium-sized shrub.

Pleasant fragrance

Height: Medium: 90–120cm

in June you can smell roses in the sunshine.Ts

Monsieur Tillier

1891

a large, upright shrub bears flowers that are a mixture of pale rose, salmon and purple. Fully open flowers of Monsieur Tillier are compact and attractive, flat and very double with petals that are often imbricated. Its unique fragrance is rich and spicy.