My favorite time in the garden, is the first flush of Spring roses. Coming up to our Open Day here at Bloomfield Cottage, the weather has been fickle. Considering it is still only mid Spring, we had a couple of extremely hot 38-40 degree days, then it dipped back down to a comfortable 22-23 degrees with a light shower or two. Consequently many of the first buds got scorched, and overnight, nasty little Thrip turned up, running amok in the rose petals!
Most visitors probably didn`t even notice, but the day before our Open Garden, was our local Rose Society Show, in which I was taking part. So on Friday night, as I walked about the roses trying to select some blooms, I was almost in despair! They were all marked! I couldn`t find a thing worth showing. I was quite depressed as I trudged back inside - not one rose in my bucket.
Now Iv`e got a lot of roses, and to not find one worthy, well I cant tell you how cranky I was. So the next morning I got ready early and bucket in hand went out for another look. Thankfully overnight quite a few roses had opened up. They weren`t spectacular, but at least I managed to scrape together enough to display for judging. Here are a few photos of this years beautifully grown, displayed and judged roses by various members.
I only managed two Third Places in this years C grade, but I did win First in the vegetable and Photographic section. However, no time to celebrate - I had an Open Garden to ready for the very next day! Thankfully the weather was cool, overcast, and there was even a bit of misty rain to start the day, which is just what was needed for a gentle garden day. Everything looked perky and happy and the cloud cover made for perfect photography. 10am they started wandering in. The urn was bubbling and morning tea laid out. Some quiet garden music was playing softly and the plant stall ready and waiting.
We had a lovely day talking to all sorts of garden lovers and enthusiasts, some budding photographers and lots of friends who dropped by. So here are some photos of the day for you to enjoy ..... ( I did sneak a few pics in that were taken up to two weeks later as not everything was in flower on the day)
