Roses for Ginger
For this challenge, I created a floral arrangement and an artistic photographic rendering of it.
Tag Archives: Roses
K-State Gardens
As part of my resolution to experience more of what Manhattan has to offer, I recently attended a gala at Kansas State University Gardens. It was a wonderful evening. The theme was Three Coins in the Fountain to celebrate the installation of a second fountain in the gardens. Unfortunately, I didn’t bring my camera that night, but that just gave me extra reason to go back! The gardens are just over 2 miles from The Morning Star. I hope that you enjoy my photos. (Since the completion of the gardens is still “in progress”, I’ll certainly have more in the future.)
Mystery Blooms in the Garden
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.
Magenta/Red Ground Cover Roses
- Mystery Blooms (2 colors on the same branch)
- “Flower Carpet Pink” Rose
Miniature Roses: A Gift for the Garden
To many, it will come as no surprise that I love roses. However, I am not a rose snob. I love large, elegant, fragrant blooms and can chat away about this and that variety. When I go to a garden center, I have to examine every rose bush and ask all sorts of questions about the growth habits of each variety before I can bring one home. But I also have a penchant for buying those little potted rose plants with the tiny, highly structured flowers that sell in grocery stores for a few bucks around the holidays – a gift for my garden. When I buy them over the winter, I keep them alive inside until I can plant them outdoors in the Spring; and, they have turned out to be surprisingly winter hardy for Kansas. My oldest few have been in the garden for four years now. I have around a dozen grocery-store-bought miniature rose bushes in the garden, give or take, ranging from the most delicate pink to bright coral. I don’t know their names, but that doesn’t matter. What’s in a name?
You Can’t Give Away Kindness
Kindness is difficult to give away because it always keeps coming back
In recent weeks we have hosted a potpourri of events at the Bed & Breakfast. Afterward, several of our guests sent us flowers to thank us. We, of course, did not expect flowers; but it did make us feel appreciated and that’s a nice feeling. Moreover, it was a reminder of why we do our best to do more than just what is expected of us. It is rewarding to see that our work makes people happy. How lucky we are to have such gracious guests and so many guests that we can call friends!
Memorial Day Rose
Memorial Day will soon be here. Appropriately, we -meaning my helper Benjamin, with me looking over his shoulder, giving instructions, and taking photos – planted an eponymously named rose today. Originally called Decoration Day, a day to honor Union soldiers fallen during the Civil War, in the 20th century Memorial Day became a holiday to honor all American soldiers killed in war. Often, however, people use the day to pay respects to any loved ones who have passed away.
Memorial Day Rose, a 2004 Weeks Rose introduction and AARS winner, is a hybrid tea rose with a strong damask rose fragrance. It’s just heavenly. When I was looking for a rose to bring home to plant, I sniffed every single variety at the garden center. While there were several others – Mr. Lincoln and Fragrant Cloud – to which my nose gave equally high scores, I thought that Memorial Day would look best in the spot that I had picked out. And as I thought about it, I realized that this rose was an excellent selection for more than aesthetic reasons.
My father-in-law, a highly decorated war veteran, recently passed away. So, I think that as members of our family pass by this rose in the garden, the sweet fragrance of Memorial Day may occasion pleasant memories of time spent with Bob.
Memorial Day Rose
- Benjamin planting Memorial Day Rose
The James W. Berry Memorial Rose Garden, Manhattan City Park
Manhattan City Park is only a few blocks from the Bed & Breakfast and I’ve been wanting to get over there to see the Rose Garden for a few weeks now. With yesterday morning’s breakfast starting late, I was able to dash over to the park for some pictures about 45 minutes after sunrise. It’s hard to believe, but I actually got there too early as the sun was blocked by trees and I had to wait for it to get a little higher in the sky before any of the flowers were in the sun. I did get some nice pictures of the roses and the fountain, but was not able to stay for as long as I would have liked.
The Rose Garden was started in the 1920’s by Mr. Berry, an 1883 graduate of what was then Kansas State Agricultural College (now Kansas State University). He was a member of the Kiwanis Club which was instrumental in tending to and funding the garden in the early years. The garden served in part as a demonstration plot to show that roses could be grown in Kansas. Boy can they!
The fountain was originally put in City Park in 1895 and was moved to the Rose Garden in 1986. Whenever I study the fountain, I am delighted by the detailed workmanship and wonder if there is still anyone around who does such work.
Paul Scarlett Rose on Arbor
Tropicana Rose
Olympiad Rose
Bella Roma Rose
Fountain Detail
Cinco de Mayo Roses: A Festival of Color
Back in the Autumn, I picked up a Cinco de Mayo Rose on whim. At our old house, where we had originally opened the bed and breakfast, I put in a rose hedge, a rose bed, and some landscape roses. In total, I had around 60 rose bushes, give or take. For various reasons I had decided not to attempt to reproduce that garden when we moved the B & B to this house 12 years ago and instead came up with a completely different garden design. But at times, I found that the three ground cover roses that I planted here just weren’t filling my rosy desires; and here and there, now and then, I’ve had to add more specimens from the genus rosa. Cinco de Mayo was one such planting. I am now seeing it in bloom after its first winter and so far think that it is a very nice addition to my growing collection. The blooms range from a deep purplish-red to coral-pink. Depending on the light, they can look completely different at different times of the day and the color is more intense in cooler weather and when the blooms are new, becoming less saturated in color but no less attractive on warmer days and as the blooms age. One review that I read described the blooms of this All American Rose Selection as “mysterious”. Roses and Other Gardening Joys has a fun post on Cinco de Mayo as well. Ah, so nice to have roses!
“In the Garden of thy Heart ..
Plant naught but the rose of love.”
– Baha u llah
A Taste of Morning 