For as long as I can remember, I've had very definite ideas about what colours I do and do not like. I find living amongst pale shades of grey, accented by other vibrant jewel colours such as purples, pinks, emeralds and turquoises calming and restful, and if asked to nominate one favourite colour, I cannot. I have so many. Try as I might, though, I just cannot take to bright orange (unless it is juice in a glass or yummy pumpkin soup).
Many years ago a friend told me that yellow was the colour of happiness and I should try to include just a little bit in my quilts, which I did, mainly to keep her happy!
Now, despite my colour bias I am now noticing pale yellow tones slowly starting to infiltrate my garden, in the guise of some chameleon roses, roses that may begin as a apricot, buff or lemon yellow and fade to peach tones or even ivory or the multi-colour roses with pink or crimson flowers and lemon centres.
Long Tall Sally was the first to charm me with her vigorous growth and many stunning bouquets of single petalled blooms. Since then, I've slowly been adding these previously taboo hues to my garden, appreciating each one for its own individual and intriguing beauty. The only problem was that some of these more intensely coloured warm coloured flowers didn't mesh with some of the other cool coloured pinks, purples, crimsons and whites so I decided to designate one section for those transitional roses and companion plant with tawny reds, lemons, peaches and cream shades.
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| Long Tall Sally |
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| Long Tall Sally |
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| Smooth Sunglow |
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| Smooth Sunglow |
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| Smooth Sunglow |
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| The same Smooth Sunglow blooms a couple of hours later |
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| Smooth Sunglow 24 hours later |
Smooth Sunglow is a thornless rose, said to be 99% thorn-free. I bought my mother half a dozen or so "Smooth Touch" roses a couple of years ago as more friendly additions to her rose garden and Sunglow was one of these. Intrigued by the many moods of my mother's rose, I added one to my garden as well this year. Sunglow begins in a bright yellow shade, fades to a soft lemon and then the petals turn to a soft pink that deepens to the hue of the first pic above.
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| Rosette Delizy |
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| Rosette Delizy |
Rosette Delizy is another chameleon roses. She has a particularly vigorous growth habit and fortunately I allowed plenty of space around her in the garden. Her buds begin a lemony cream colour and the colour develops to a soft to mid pink. I'm not sure she is totally suited to Sydney conditions as her buds tend to droop on those hot days we often experience.
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| Smooth Splendour |
Smooth Splendour begins as a pale cream colour that also deepens to yellow before moving through the various shades of pink finish in mid pink shades.
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| Some random miniature rose |
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| David Austin Leander |
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| Leander |
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| Leander |
A couple of days ago I noticed that we had some babies in our garden. Half a dozen or so tadpoles are living in a bucket of water that housed one of my water lilies. They're really tiny, not much larger than my pinkie fingernail, and every couple of days I check their progress, delighted that some little frogs have chosen to raise their family in our garden. As a child, we often spotted "taddies" in a small creek that ran through the bottom of our neighbour's property, although these were larger than these little guys. I look forward to watching their tails diminish until they eventually hop out and begin their lives as frogs.
This is my first blog for the year. My wish for 2015 is for health and happiness for my friends and family and a I would like to send a huge thank you to my family for indulging me in these ramblings, for their kind comments about my blog (that I haven't always quite got around to answering) and moral support for my studies.
