After a Light Rain

Posted on 08/10/2013 by Laurie

Magic Carpet Rose, after a light rain.

A Word A Week: Vibrant

Posted on 06/19/2013 by Laurie

I was delighted to read this week’s challenge from Sue at A Word in Your Ear. My Neon Flash Spireas are in bloom now – and aren’t they vibrant?

Lovely Kates

Posted on 06/12/2013 by Laurie

Asiatic Lily “Kiss Me Kate” – named, I assume after the Cole Porter musical – is the standout in my garden this week. I planted the “Kate” bulbs in 2000 and they are still producing beautifully every year. This year, however, we had unusually cool weather for early June – that is, until yesterday afternoon when our official temperature was 99 degrees F. As a result, I had the opportunity to observe that the blooms that opened during the cooler temperatures had much darker coloration than those that opened on warmer days. Kiss Me Kate is a bicolor lily often described as being magenta and creamy yellow. Mine are usually a mauvish-pink turning to salmon-pink at the border of the yellow centers; and just this year did I see a few that were close to red on the outer edges. I have 5 groupings of the Kates, standing at about 3 feet tall. In early morning and early evening light, the colors look like those of the sunset.

Congratulations, Graduates!

Posted on 05/18/2013 by Laurie

A few pictures from the bed and breakfast as we celebrate Kansas State University graduations this weekend with our guests …

Wishing the best to all of the new graduates out there!

(For the buttercream recipe, see my Wild Blueberry Cupcakes post.)

Mystery Blooms in the Garden

Posted on 06/06/2012 by Laurie

As I recently learned from Redneck Rosarian, June is National Rose Month … a perfect excuse to once again write about roses.

I have several ground cover roses in my garden. When I purchased them at least 8 years ago, they were labelled “Red”. In truth, they are more of a magenta. Anyhow, I am quite fond of them. They bloom from mid-Spring through Autumn and add a lot of color to the landscape … and they have proven hardy in Kansas. Now here is my mystery. A few weeks ago, one of the bushes, at the end of one branch, started producing clusters of pale pink roses. At first I thought that I was seeing an errant limb from Flower Carpet Pink, but both the form of the flower and the color were wrong to belong to that other rose. Upon closer examination, I could see that the pale pink blooms were definitely coming from the magenta ground cover rose bush. The flowers on the rest of the branch matched the rest of the bush. What has happened to cause this mutation? Will there be more mismatched roses? Nature is full of mysteries. Fortunately, this is a fun one.