Feeling Rosy - The Sequel 2

This is 'Félicité Parmentier', the second of the roses that arrived from Peter Beales Roses in January as bare rooted plants.



I was most taken by her when we visited the Queens Garden at
Sudeley Castle, Gloucestershire last summer. As far as fragrance is concerned it does not make me swoon and probably does not carry on the air. Himself gave it the nose test and the verdict was ''lemon sherbet" which I thought was spot on. I am still most pleased with her as a new addition to the garden. I am now trying to decide on a clematis as a companion. She should grow to about 4 feet high and have a girth of about 3 feet. Suggestions would be most welcome.

Do you Bamboo??

Look at the groovy hula skirt on that last one!

We have a couple different bamboos growing in our yard…a Black and a yellow striped .

Quintessentially tropical.

Beautiful, yes…But also an amazing sustainable building product..a high yield renewable resource.

I was lucky to have recently won some bamboo sheets from Annechovie.

They. Are. Amazing.

Sooo soft, so breathable. luxurious. I am in love.

So, unfortunately, is the big black dog.

Yeeesch. Just keepin’ it real, folks.

BUT…

Linda Garland, who now lives in Bali REALLY bamboo’s.

She is an architectural, interior and landscape designer who builds homes made of Bamboo.

This one, in east Bali, was featured in the recent Architectural Digest.

Not a nail was used…everything is pegged together using traditional Sumatran architecture and building principles.

Even the walls are made of woven inky blue black plaited bamboo!

From the tented bed the owners can look out to the ocean.

Then…because everybody needs a guest house

she concocted this gorgeous morsel on the property, too!

Linda has been creating and living in Bali for the past 35 years.

Ooooh...I went off into pocketa pocketa dreamland on that sentence...I wanna be that Linda.

Her own estate is also made of bamboo…which she rents out…

Takers?

You, too, can learn to make or grow your own house out of bamboo here.

Seriously.

Two's Company

Y IS FOR?



YOUNG LOVE!

We came across this couple at the RHS Garden in Rosemoor, Devon one afternoon last August. We quickly tiptoed away so as not to disturb them.

On the subject of the alphabet I came across a fascinating newspaper story today about a Google alphabet found in Britain's hedgerows, roads and buildings. The young woman who compiled it decided to hunt down perfect Google Earth images representing all 26 letters of the alphabet whilst she was recovering from a serious road accident. It was interesting to note that she had difficulties finding K,N and especially Q. The article and all 26 photos can be seen here - do have a peek !

You can see more posts on the letter Y over on ABC Wednesday - yaaaaaaaay!

Spot the Gnome!

The last Sunday in June was oh so hot! The perfect excuse for me to persuade himself to take time off from a major domestic plumbing job. Instead of having his head stuck under a bath I persuaded him to accompany me to a garden festival. No that's not him above but this manly chip off the old block was wearing the perfect headwear for the day. His arms must get tired though!

Our destination was the nearby Arley Hall which is about a twenty minutes drive away. This was the fifteenth Arley Hall Garden Festival . We have seen the event grow over the years. From a small affair there are now about forty nurseries selling as well as gardening accessories and other stalls.

We had to enter through the back way this year ~



- a shame as some visitors may well have missed out on the impressive avenue of pleached limes at the front ~




We were serenaded by this rather smartly attired trio before we made tracks for the floral marquee ~


Unlike the Chelsea Flower Show gnomes are not personae non gratae at Arley - see if you can spot the little chap lurking in the flowers ~




A dazzling display of hostas but with some of the miniatures costing up to £18 a plant, I was not prepared to risk providing my slugs and snails with a free breakfast ~




I admired this iris ensata 'Rose Queen' but was not tempted ~



Back out again from a most humid and muggy marquee into the open air. We enjoyed looking at the entries in a children's competition ~




There are no show gardens at Arley but many of the nurseries had put together attractive little display areas ~







Then of course down to the serious business of the day - plant perusal and oh what a choice ! ~





We finished our visit to the festival with a stroll round the beautiful gardens. Arley is famous for its double herbaceous border which was at its peak ~





I could have quite happily settled here for a snooze once we had walked round the garden but resisted the temptation ~



Of course I bought some plants and will 'fess up later this week as to what came home with me !

You must see…

What we salvage when we machete the back yard…

Amazing riches…

sometimes called yard waste.

“That man is richest whose pleasures are cheapest.”

~Henry David Thoreau

Cheap is good…

works for us.

Hampton's, Flowers and More . . So Much Going On!

I am so behind with posting and reading some of my favorite blogs but I have a good excuse. Almost two weeks ago my oldest son sent me an email saying he was getting married on July 18th. That's right - in just two weeks! My son and his fiance are in the military and his fiance is being sent to Germany on a four-year assignment. Needless to say we have been working on wedding preparations. Last weekend the mother of the bride flew in for the weekend. She, along with the bride to be, came to stay with us in Atlanta to do some wedding shopping - the dress, shoes, accessories, etc. The wedding is taking place in a small South Carolina town, Sumter, and my job is to organize the rehearsal dinner (renamed the "family dinner" by my son so not to make him nervous). His request was to find something nice that would be casual. That's a problem in Sumter. I spent hours searching the web and finally found a place - one that I think will be perfect. It's a new restaurant called Hampton's and they have al fresco dining in an area called the Alley Way. Their website is hard to find but the food sounds wonderful and the place looks to be exactly what I was hoping for. Have you ever planned a location event sight unseen? I'm a little nervous.

Meanwhile - what to wear? I'm a big fan of online shopping and I found a lovely dress for an outdoor wedding. It arrived on Thursday but it didn't fit well so Thursday night I spent hours going through websites looking for a dress. I finally found a beautiful dress at Nordstrom's on sale! The dress shipped over the weekend so if I don't like it - there is still time to find something else!

This weekend I've been busy stuffing candy boxes with black and white m&ms and making white tissue paper flowers for the centerpieces. Next weekend I'll be trying to perfect the bride & groom strawberries.

Here are pictures of the tissue paper flowers. Do they look better with the edges curled or with no curl? I appreciate you thoughts!

Uncurled?

or Curled?

If you have other easy wedding tips or suggestions for the mother of the groom, please feel free to share. I would love to hear from you.

A Worisit ?

I was recently chatting plants with my sister on the phone as we are wont to do. She told me that she had found a plant in her garden which she does not remember planting :) Her verbal description of "Well it's sort of like a frilly white iris" left me scratching my head, so she promised to email me a photo which arrived today. A brief description accompanied the photo "It was in flower about 2 weeks ago and about 12" tall. Just two leaves from the base of what could be a bulb but don't know for sure and quite a fleshy stem"

I am still scratching my head - it looks familiar but I am unable to put a name to it. I will be getting the reference books out but maybe some kind and knowledgeable person might be able to shed light on its identity.