The pleasure of our gardens, part 21

The fading beauty of our first First Prize rose of the season.

It is said that true friendship is like a rose. We can't realize its beauty until it fades.

Fortunately, most of our new roses bloom for about a week ~ sometimes longer, occasionally less ~ before their beauty fades. Luckily, their memories live on through my photographs of our beautiful flowers.

Although half the interest of a garden is the constant exercise of the imagination, so it has been said, I am happy to inform you that our flower beds are full of color as we near the middle of spring.

First Prize rose

White rose

Pristine rose

In little more than a week, thanks to our recent surge in sunshine and warmer temperatures, we have welcomed first blooms of our First Prize, Pristine, white and orange roses in our backyard garden of our San Francisco Bay Area residence. And, our iris bed has produced more than a dozen beautiful purple and white blooms, too.

Purple and white iris

Soon, we expect to greet our first Mr. Lincoln, Queen Elizabeth and All That Jazz rose blooms, too.

Indeed, I am a believer of this bit of gardening wisdom, courtesy of Robert Brault: "I cultivate my garden and my garden cultivates me."

Yes, my dear friends, it's a very exciting time to be a gardener.

All photographs by Michael Dickens, copyright 2012. 

It's what's on my mind on a rainy day

The beauty of raindrops clinging to the petals of a Pristine rose
in our backyard garden.

A thought and a quote to share on a very rainy winter's day in March in the San Francisco Bay Area:

"Into each life, some rain must fall.
The best thing one can do when it's raining is to let it rain."

~ Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

And ... stop to admire the beauty of the raindrops, too.

Photograph of Pristine rose by Michael Dickens, copyright 2011.

The pleasure of our gardens, part 16

Our first Queen Elizabeth rose of the season /
 Blooming just in time for the Royal Wedding.

Oh, the joy of morning rain to enhance the beauty of flowers.

It has been a celebratory week of first blooms in our gardens this week.  There's been something new to enjoy each day.

First iris bloom of spring.

Aided by the right amount of sunshine and rain, our first roses and iris are now blooming and adding beautiful color and tone to our backyard garden.

Among the earliest to bloom have been our White roses as well as our Queen Elizabeth, Pristine and First Prize roses.  And Thursday morning, I stood on our deck and observed our first iris had opened, too.

Our first Pristine rose bloom of the spring /
Enjoying the late afternoon sunshine of April 21.

Yes, it's been a celebratory week of first blooms.  And in the case of the lovely pink Queen Elizabeth rose, its arrival is just in time for next week's Royal Wedding. Who knew!

Random musings about morning fog, our rose garden, French Roast coffee and Elvis Costello

As I opened the front door this morning at precisely 6:30 a.m. to bring in the New York Times, I couldn't help but notice the weather surrounding our cul-de-sac:  It was very foggy outside. The accumulated dew on the newspaper's plastic wrapper, laying idle for a couple of hours on our front steps, spoke volumes.

The fog's impact reduced visibility surrounding our house to the length of a football pitch.  It was just another typical, late-summer morning shaping up in the Bay Area.

Orange rose with morning dew
on petals and leaves

Not surprisingly, the Bay Area forecast for today predicted morning fog, then mostly cloudy skies.  Although our high is supposed to reach 70 by this afternoon, I have my doubts. Something about a trough of low pressure moving through northern California that's bringing cooler conditions to the Bay Area. I've become all too accustomed to cool, moderate summer temperatures living in the Bay Area for the past 15 years. While I would welcome a 70-degree, late-summer afternoon, now, I'll happily settle for the 65-degree temperature that is due San Francisco today, where the fog is legendary throughout the summer months.

Pristine rose

The upside to today's morning fog and lingering dew is two-fold:  The overnight accumulation of dew and moisture means I don't need water the lawn and plants as planned, and, just as pleasing, it makes for good conditions to take photographs of our roses.

Mr. Lincoln rose:
Lovely to look at,
but difficult to photograph.

When I stepped outside to our backyard garden, I witnessed the dew on many of the roses, including their petals and their leaves.  The lingering fog and dew makes observing them interesting, but it's also very challenging to accurately capture it in a photograph. Ditto for the rich redness of the Mr. Lincoln roses ~ lovely to look at in person, but difficult to achieve the right hue of red when taking a picture.

Standing among giants:
I'm 5-feet-10 and
shorter than our
Mr. Lincoln and
Queen Elizabeth
rose bushes.

In the past month, we've let both our Queen Elizabeth and Mr. Lincoln rose bushes grow.  Nothing magical about it, and yet, they've have grown quite tall ~ taller than me, and I'm 5-feet-10.  Both of these bushes continue to show great blooms in September. Ditto for our Orange rose bush and our First Prize bush, too.

With autumn less than a week away and October close, our weather, finally, will perk up ~ if only for a few weeks.  With it, there's promise that our roses can continue enjoying some additional happiness and further growth, too.

In the meantime, as I await the fog to lift and the mercury rise, I'll gather my thoughts about the pleasure of our garden, savor a warm cup of my favorite French Roast coffee, and listen attentively as Elvis Costello sings about "Shipbuilding," from his 1983 album, Punch the Clock, appreciating the mournful, lovely trumpet solo by Chet Baker that accompanies some of Costello's most poignant lyrics, written during Britain's build up to the 1982 war with Argentina over the Falkland Islands.  Different times.

Morning becomes eclectic.

The pleasure of our gardens, part 7

The beginning of June marks a transitional time for our gardens.  As spring winds down and summer nears, there's a noticeable shift in the composition and colors of the flowers that dot our landscape.

Earlier this month, we bid farewell to the last of our irises and, as of this writing, there are just a few rhododendron still blooming.  It's too bad they can't extend their stay just a little longer ~ both add vibrancy with their respective purple hues ~ but their blooming cycle is limited and, thus, not to be taken for granted.  So, you can imagine my interest in documenting, through pictures, the beauty of both our irises and rhododendrons with their new arrival each spring.

Surprisingly, last weekend, while gardening on the shady, east side of our house, I discovered two late-blooming calla lilies.  I guess they are late bloomers since their prime blooming season starts in late winter and concludes in early spring. Nearby, our fuchsia bush continues an active growth cycle with dozens of colorful blooms, nicely aided by a north-facing, mid-afternoon sunshine that arrives daily almost without fail.

As Bay Area temperatures rise, our rose bushes will produce more blooms.  It also means we'll need to run our water drip system more regularly to keep our rose bushes properly hydrated.  Our rose bushes enjoy a good drink of water ~ and, fortunately, it needn't have to be Perrier or San Pellegrino to keep them happy and healthy.

With summer's arrival on June 21, soon we'll be able to enjoy more of the many beautiful colors produced by our Queen Elizabeth, Mr. Lincoln, Pristine, First Prize, All That Jazz and Angel Face rose bushes.

I've got my digital camera ready to document the welcoming of our perennial friends.  Stay tuned.

Top photo: Fuchsia.  Bottom photo: Queen Elizabeth rose.
Photos by Michael Dickens, 2010.

The pleasure of our gardens, part 4

If spring is nature's way of saying "Let's Party!" as comedian Robin Williams once suggested, then, indeed, let's break out the Champagne, pop the corks and celebrate.

As May unfolds, our rose bushes have adapted nicely to the ample sunshine and warmer temperatures that arrived this week after a couple of unseasonably late April showers. Collectively, they have given rise to many beautifully hued and magnificent blooms.

Within the past week, our Pristine, Queen Elizabeth, Mr. Lincoln and orange rose bushes, all which reside in our back yard and receive a southern exposure to the sun, have bloomed for the first time this season. Meanwhile, our First Prize rose bush, which debuted earliest of our 10 rose bushes and is also a southerner, continues to shows wonderful color and maturity.

However, as I write this post, it's our white rose bush, which faces west towards the Bay, that has bubbled over with delightful enthusiasm. Gazing down from our patio deck, I easily counted a dozen blooms whose petals have opened with much aplomb, and at least another dozen that will join in the celebration any day now.

Elsewhere, in our front yard, new calla lilies have opened next to our porch; the fuchsia are thriving, and the May Day weekend brought the return of our first rhododendron blooms (which I'll write more about in the near future).

Although April showers sometimes dampen our spirit, by May we can most appreciate the good things it's enabled for our future.

Let's celebrate!