Raindrops on Roses......

whiskers on kittens: no kittens here unfortunately, too many allergy suffereers!! Raindrops on roses are some of my favorite things however! Today we have a drizzly rain, so I thought I would share some more spring flowers with you to brighten our day! The Iris are almost done now, but they were quite long lived once the weather cooled down a bit. I do LOVE my iris!

When we moved to this house 4 years ago we removed many ancient azalea bushes that were planted right next to the foundation on the west side of the house. Boring, boring, boring!!!!
We had to hire a crew with chains and a small dozer to come in and yank the bushes out. In their place we put up trellises and planted two climbing single petal roses to climb along the bare side of the house. They are doing beautifully and will rebloom profusely if I remove the spent blossoms. They remind of the wild beach roses that grow in the sand dunes on Cape Cod. I can almost smell the salt air!!

At the same time I planted this New Dawn rose and it is doing really really well climbing on one of the fences that borders the dogs yard. It thrives on banana peels and coffee ground infusions. (I don't use any sprays or chemicals on my roses or anywhere else in my garden and these are my results. Gardening simply and organicaly is not difficult and just look at the results!!)

We all have a huge responsibility to take care of our planet and to respect the ecosystems that we depend on for life. Whenever I see ads for killing pests or lawn grubs, I just cringe!! those same insecticides completely descimate the entire bug population and destroy all life within the soil. People do not realize that without earthworms and other decomposers our planet would cease to sustain life. These creatures are not immune to the chemicals used to kill lawn eating bugs!! Wake up PEOPLE!!!!

We live in the watershed for the Chesapeake Bay and so many are so determined to have lush green lawns- but the price is far too high and as far as I am concerned the use of lawn chemicals and insecticides should be banned. Every year people dump tons of bags of fertilizers and insecticides onto their lawns to achieve what they think are wonderful outdoor spaces. WHere do these chemicals end up?? In the creeks and streams and rivers that feedintot he marshes that empty intot he Bay. Does the environment survive- no way it becomes sterile and devoid of the necessary palnt and microscopic life that are vital to support eh minnows and brid life that cll these marshes home. All for green laws!!! It is really sickening what we are doing to our beautiful natural spaces. PLEASE!PLEASE !DO NOT use such chemicals - restore the balance of life within your soil by composting and building healthy palnts that are capable of warding off occasional munchings by so called Pest insects.! Just look at my plants to know that there is no need for such chemical warfare!!!!

CLIMBING DOWN OFF OF MY ORGANIC GARDENING SOAP BOX NOW!!

My catmint is just begining to bloom. I love the periwinkle blue color of the florets and so do the butterflies!

This rose is called Gertrude Jekyl after the famous English Gardener. It is wonderfuly fragrant, reblooms and has some really nasty thorns!!! The number of petals in each blossom is truely amazing!

Here again is Belinda's Dream in all of her cabbage rose luciousness!

Who ever said taht purple and orange can't work together??? Just look in the garden for answers to color questions.

The sun will return and the roses will continue to bloom and the next time that I share garden shots with you we will ahve a whole new crop of blooms to show off!!

I hope that everyone has a hppy, creative and internally sunny day- especially if the sun is not shining where you are living!!!

Blooming Inspirations !!!!!

My garden is one of my greatest sources of artistic inspiration. We have had lots of wonderful and much needed rain and the plants are so very happy and blooming like crazy!! i am going to share a whole raft of photos with you for this post. I am busily working on decluttering my studio, (Yes it is STILL going on!!) as I will be participating in an Artist's Yard Sale, tomorrow morning at Liberty Town. This will be a fabulous opportunity to get rid of all sorts of stuff , from fabric to scrapbooking supplies and books that I no longer refer to!! I will be very busy tagging items and loading the car in readiness for a 6:30 am departure tomorrow morning. Keep your fingers crossed that the rain holds off for us till the afternoon.!!!

And now for some inspiration and entertainment, I present my flowers!!

My Hosta's are spectacular this year- 4th year in the ground and the columbine remind me of fairies dancing above the enormous leaves! the columbine were started from seed given to me by my dear friend Rebecca in CT, and I let them come up where ever they choose!

I have never seen this variety of Columbine before and perhaps it came along with some daylillies that my Mother in Law shared with me. I love the crown shape and the delicate blue color.

This variety of Columbine turns it's beautiful heads upwards to see the sun. There seems to be some Bee assisted gene reassortment occurring in my garden!!! LOVE IT!!!

The iris are glorious this year! Many of these plants I carried with us when we moved from Oklahoma. To my surprise and delight, bearded iris flourish in the climate of Oklahoma but the hot winds and dry soil create a very shortend bloom time there. Here where we have more rain and a lack of hot dry wind, the blossoms last much longer!

I wish that you could smell the fragrance of these white ones. They simply sparkle in the sun!

the pink iris are a later blooming variety. I have several plants with many stalks with 5-6 buds per stalk. They are just starting to come on now.

This is one of my garden stepping stones. you can see how much I love Iris, as this was the image that I choose to use for creating my first stained glass stepping stone. I must cut back some of the Creeping Jenny as it is threatening to consume the stone! I do love th look of the hot green ground cover creeping in around the other plants!!

This African Cape Daisy is a new addition to my garden this year. I love the hot orange color with the intense purple eye zone. We will have to wait and see how she does in this climate thru the summer.

Now for my roses. Four years ago when we first moved here, I noticed this poor rose struggling to survive on the East side of our house. It was planted right next to the foundation and got no sun due to the large trees that were shading the entire area. It still managed to put out some beautiful foliage, but I could tell that even that was a struggle. I decided to try to move it and to give it a fighting chance. Either I would kill it, or it would be much happier and might even bloom. I prepared a spot for it on the west side of the house where there were no trees and lots of afternoon sun. I lived thru the transition and bloomed the following summer. i believe that it is a Chrysler Imperial Rose . It is absolutely stunning in form and there are no disease issues- I don't use any spray or insecticide in my garden everything is organic. The fragrance from one blossom will scent an entire room!! This is one of my best rescue victories to date!!!

This rose is named Belinda's Dream and it loves hot and humid climates, is a strong repeat bloomer and has a wonderful fragarance. If you love roses and live in this sort of climate this rose is a must have!!! you can get it from Antique Rose Emporium In Texas- that is where I get all of my roses- yes mail order!!! The roses are OWN ROOT and arrivein beautiful conditon - If they can thrive in Texas, they can grow ANYWHERE!!!

Belinda is simply loaded with buds and she loves chopped up banana peels added to her soil at the roots!

This is a more wild rose that blooms it's fool head off on the west side of the house. She is just getting started!!

Now I must share a beautiful piece of hand dyed vintage fabric that lept into my arms at Artistic Artifacts during my last visit. Judy collects and dyes all of these vintage pieces herself. I am planning on using this wonderful table cloth on many different projects. The first will bea denim shirt that I am going to cover with fabric collage and bead work, with this piece as the focal or inspiration piece. Even though the fabric is torn and some parts are falling off, I will use every bit of it in various projects. this piece will give me so many options for projects!!!! This is just one of hundreds of examles of lovely pieces available from Judy through her Artistic Artifacts web site. Don't leave them all for me to purchase!!!!!

I must be off to price yard sale items!!

I hope that everyone has a wonderful weekend!!

Happy Birthday,Mom!!!