The G.O. and I are absentee gardeners, and spend a few hours each time we go up to our house on the Mid North Coast of NSW keeping the garden presentable, and for me in particular enjoying the time spent in the sun pruning and weeding. During the recent long weekend we spent there, as well as the foodie country offerings of elladee_words there were modest garden offerings which thrilled us.
We occupied several hours of the weekend on maintenance jobs and gardening what at the moment is a very parched yard as the usually verdant area heads into summer having had not much winter rain. Our garden is dry but there were a couple of gems. The yellow iris rewarded the G.O.’s sprinklings of water by offering up all its blooms the morning we left. Our yellow climbing rose flowered for the first time, pale but triumphant. Our elegant champagne standard rose decided glamorous crimson climber suited it better
“We come from the earth.
We return to the earth.
And in between we garden.”
daleleelife101.blog 
what a cheeky rose … fancy changing colours on you! hope you get rain up there soon …. it is dry everywhere again, not encouraging going in to summer …
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My theory was the original rose was a casualty of the neighbour who mows our lawn but apparently roses can revert to their root stock…
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I’m certainly not big into gardening, but isn’t it something on the lines of five leaf plants are a cultivated stock and seven leaves are root stock?
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I’m barely into gardening and a rose novice but apparently they are grafted onto root stock, to which ours has reverted 🙂
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oh yes, that explains it perfectly!
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How lovely that your garden is springing back to life, I envy you the new growth…….everything here is now dying with the onset of autumn 😦
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Thank you 🙂 I’m not sure how much springing the garden will be doing unless it rains – was in the late 30’s both here & there today… and it’s only October. The garden has recovered in the past, and there’s not much we can do, relying on tank water, even if we were there.
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Ah, EllaDee – seems those flowers were just waiting for you and the GO to give them a bit of attention so they could perform for you again this year. Sad about the ‘elegant champagne’ rose, but perhaps the robust red will be better suited to the climate and your cottage trellis? I don’t think I’ll ever forget Mum’s rose-covered trellis at the farm: three reds, I think, each flowering at a slightly different time, and each bursting with scent – magnets for lazily buzzing bees.
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The crimson climber is so much better suited to that spot, so much better that it adapted than died – when it stops flowering the G.O. will make it a proper trellis as the cottagey style trellis you can see is at the bottom of the house and the rose is taller than the window. We don’t have heaps of room and the climbing roses are stunning – as your Mum’s sounds – for not a lot of space.
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The roses even look like the smell nice. Looks like the yellow iris were performing just for you
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I’m glad the roses look like they smell nice but the reality is the dry conditions are taking their toll – I was surprised, and grateful for what was there. We have an old red rose that has the proper old fashioned fragrance, which I love. Hopefully summer will bring sufficient rain, but not excess. Rain is always THE topic of conversation in the country 😉
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I’ve not seen a kangaroo paw before, EllaDee. What an interesting plant! I had a bed of white irises but my dogs ruined them and I’ve been unable to get another bed going. Your roses are beautiful. Yes, one seems to have reverted back to its “old self” but that happens. Many roses today are grafts and its possible that the old rose will re-appear. It’s happened to me before. My garden usually does well but goes downhill with each of my trips to Michigan. Water is my problem, too. If I set a sprinkler on a timer, it will rain daily while I’m away and everything will be water-logged upon my return. If I don’t set a timer, there will be no rain and all will be dried up. I’ll get it right one of these trips home. 🙂
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If the think they would suit your garden they thrive like and where roses do, mostly on studied neglect and the right location. This is our only success and a plain Kangaroo Paw the G.O. put in before I even came to the house.
In a fit of optimistic garden design I bought a dozen pink hybrid Kangaroo Paws @ $12 and planted them across that same garden… not one survived.
The champagne rose’s new incarnation suits the house but the it did have the most gorgeous roses.
As we are never there, and even if we were we’d be relying mostly on water from the sky as the house is on tank water if we plant something we do our best and cross our fingers.
Maybe you’ll have to investigate a timer you can activate from your phone, or is that concept still relatively sci-fi I wonder.
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Sometimes things do better when we aren’t constantly attentive. My plants always die unless I ignore them. 😉 The garden looks beautiful and clearly benefits from the bursts of care. 🙂
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Thank you. Fortunately the TA garden copes with little water or maintenance. I spend a lot of time mentally walking around it… far more effective than counting sheep when I can’t sleep…
I’ve been known to kill houseplants with kindness.
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