September 20
Greetings, fellow gardeners! How has your late summer been shaping up? Have you ordered your spring bulbs yet? I haven’t. I’ve filled my cart on probably a dozen separate occasions but can’t seem to pull the trigger. I’m thinking our garden could use lots of alliums and more narcissus. What about you?
I’m thoroughly enjoying the sunshine these past few weeks, although I’d like it to be about 10 degrees cooler. High 80’s is a bit much. We’ve got a bumper crop of thrips, various larvae and even some spider mites munching on our roses which I think can be attributed to this hot, dry time of year. The joy.
Jesse and I have been doing some small things to prep for autumn and winter like topping off the beds with more compost and such-like, but that’s about it. All the projects I mentioned in the last post that we’d like to get to are still just on paper. Practicing patience! Sort of!
We celebrated Madison’s birthday last week. (I still can’t believe my daughter is 20.) Here we are going to get our hair did and here’s a photo of the “pink lady” cake I made for after her b-day dinner at Bouchon in Asheville. I probably won’t make that cake again (tasty but a little too “scone-like” for me) but Bouchon was wonderful. I recommend it if you’re ever in the area.
I’ll be at Biltmore for the rose trials reception and awards thingamajig this weekend and I hope to get some snaps from that. In the meantime, I’ll keep this post short and sweet with some recent photos from our garden. Enjoy the rest of your week!
Claire Austin
Dainty Bess
Hot Cocoa
Venosa Violacea
Blush Noisette
Clotilde Soupert
Hot Cocoa
Viola ‘Terracotta’
Cactus-flowered zinnias
Café au Lait dahlia (with thrip damage!)
Japanese Anemone ‘September Charm’
Mme Ernest Calvat (reached the top of her new arch!)
Dahlia ‘Bee Happy’
Soft orange collection dahlia from Longfield Gardens
‘China Doll’
Dainty Bess
Sombreuil
PS: Some rings I fabricated recently: Tourmaline, Garnet and Scapolite in sterling, brass & 14kt gold. If you’re interested in any of these get in touch. 🙂 {UPDATE: garnet ring in center is no longer available.}
OH … such beautiful pictures! And I especially love the one of you and Madison – wonder why! So happy she had such a good birthday!
Thanks! It was a lot of fun to have her here so we could celebrate!
Ditto the above comment. I know you get taken for sisters.
The roses are finally getting a break from the heat and showing their relief by covering themselves with buds. Fingers crossed we don’t get an early freeze. Our autumns are glorious except for that one little flaw. It’s already been down to 37 deg. Love your China Doll. The closest I have to it (not hardy here) is Little Chap, a good bloomer.
Awww shucks! Thank you. 🙂
Oh boy I am crossing fingers for you that you don’t get an early frost. I remember what that’s like, believe me! Glad to hear you’re getting that break from the heat. I’m hoping we will soon, too. China Doll is a pretty rose but kind of blackspot prone in our garden so she’s on a watch list. Little Chap looks like a nice rose!
Amazing photos, and THAT cake looks delicious!!
Hope some day my “Claire Austin” looks like that, because it hasn’t done much till now. The only rose it gave me was quite disapointing.
That’s interesting about your Claire Austin…mine gave us a lot of blooms, but conversely our Lichfield Angel is struggling. The Claire is grafted and the Lichfield is own-root so maybe that has something to do with it.
Oh, what gorgeousness! Thanks so much for sharing. We have had so much rain. All summer, really, and now it’s shaping up to be a wet fall, too. Not my favorite kind of weather.
I hadn’t thought too much about bulbs, all our beds are still pretty much in transition and so I hate to plant anything where they’ll just get disturbed next spring, but I might have a few safe spots…
I know a thing or two about transition! 😉
We haven’t done bulbs yet and I wonder if we ever will this year. Too many other things to get to, first!
I hope your autumn stopped being so rainy and blah and you’ve been able to get outside and enjoy your garden and take those cute puppies of yours for walks!