A Dozen Roses--For Free

From looking at this picture, one might think that I have a loving, generous husband who purchased a bunch of roses for me.

Just to be clear, I do have a loving, generous husband. But the roses came from my oft mentioned rosebush. I was actually able to take a whole branch full of roses and put it in my vase. Sometimes I would stop my housework for a moment just to smell them.

I would have brought inside each and every rose that bloomed but some I left outside for the neighbors to see. It doesn't seem likely that the neighbors even noticed, but I liked to envision some of them driving by and admiring my roses.

Yellow Rose of my Neighborhood

So this is one of the roses from my rosebush that didn't bloom last year. I cannot take credit for how lovely it turned out. I tried pruning but I think I started too late. I gave them plant food but probably not enough. So why it turned out so gorgeous is beyond me.

I will however take full credit for the picture turning out so well. I just used the camera application in my phone. It was a little tricky because I had to hold the rose down with one hand and use the camera with the other. But it turned out great.

The rose smells lovely by the way. So if anyone wants to come by my house to stop and smell the roses, feel free.

And if anyone recognizes what variety of rose this is, perhaps you could let me know.

Garden Update

Now that it is late spring, my flower bed has changed quite a bit. The hyacinths and daffodils have passed their blooming time and have been cut back. But the roses are just getting going. I have also planted some pansies.

We have a concrete planter at the corner of one flower bed and I decided to put some strawberry plants in there. I haven't actually planted them yet so they are still in the little flower pots that I originally bought them in. But I saw something today that motivated me to get them planted soon. It was an actual little tiny green strawberry. (See top picture) There are other blossoms on the plant so I am hoping we get a little crop of strawberries this season.

The other picture is one of my rosebushes. Last year, we got quite a few roses, but only from one bush. The lower picture is of the other bush that didn't bloom. Why it decided to bloom this year is just as big of a mystery as what kept it from blooming last year. I am looking forward to seeing what color its flowers are.

As soon as I have more color in my garden, I will post more colorful pictures. After all, one reason why I started blogging is so I could post pictures of my flower bed.

Coming Soon--A Flower Bed with Flowers

One of the reasons for starting a blog was so I could show off my flower bed that came with our new house last year. When we first moved in, it was more of a weed bed with a couple of rose bushes. Eventually I weeded it and planted some wildflower seeds.

By early summer, one rose bush was budding and a few wild flowers were coming up. But it wasn't really enough to make it look like a flower bed. So last fall, I purchased some daffodil and hyacinth bulbs and planted them.

I have read that bulbs come up pretty easy if you plant them at the right time and the right way. (Pointy side goes up.) This appears to be true. My daffodils are well above ground now as are the hyacinths. My concern now is that we started getting more freezing weather over the past week and I hope all my little bulbs survive this cold snap.

The roses are also starting to form new leaves. So at this point, everything is alive. We'll see if I can keep it that way this season.

First Rose of Summer

I have not had much success with gardening and such. Once someone gave me a chrysanthemum and told me they were very easy to care for. The thing was dead in weeks. And I did water it.

So imagine my surprise when I discovered the rosebush at our new house was actually blooming. In fact, it had several blooms on it. I had not even caring for it except for watering. (And that was done mostly by frequent rain showers.)

Now I have big plans for the flower bed. It involves planting bulbs in the fall and some potted plants in the spring. Maybe even a bushy plant someday like an azalea. We shall see if the plants do better when I show them TLC or if I ignore them.

By the way, I plan on pruning the rosebush next spring. I am already wondering if it will ever bloom again.