White After Labour Day?

It's enough to make a proper flower blush!

My Morden Snowbeauty is in week two of its second flush. I couldn't be more pleased with this lovely beauty.

The pale pink buds are opening this time a little pinker than the first pure white flush and it is really rather enchanting.

My annual pelargoniums will bloom right into the fall if last year is any indication.

And are a welcome counterpoint to all the rosy complexions out there.

My delightful little fairy bells are in full bloom again. This is my first year with them and I hope they make it through the winter as I am rather charmed with their tiny dancing when a breeze blows over them.

My Little Lamb hydrangea has put out it biggest blooms ever, after a harsh winter that took it down to its base.

I wonder if the seven flower heads on it are so big because my toddler cut the others off when they were just getting started? Hmmm...maybe he is a gardener in the making. :)

These creamy little sprays are not a part of the garden.

They are a present from hubby for my birthday. It appears he knows how to make me blush after Labour Day as well. :)
Hope you are enjoying the beauty of your late summer gardens!

One of the most attractive things about the flowers is their beautiful reserve.
~Henry David Thoreau

A Subtle Beauty

I mentioned in the last post that my Dad came for a overnight visit on Father’s Day weekend and – yes – there was a garden nursery involved!

I took my Dad to Sal’s to get him a hardy rose for Father’s Day. Up against the front of his house (south-facing) he has the same tough old rugosa rose that has probably been there for twenty years or more, just blooming its heart out. You know the one, kinda magenta, about six feet tall. Tough as nails. He really likes roses but I don’t think he realized there were so many new hardy roses available that he could add to his garden.

So, while Dad picked out the Morden Fireglow to dazzle passersby his front garden, I succumbed to the temptations there and picked the subtle and sweet Morden Snowbeauty for my back garden (among a couple other treasures you shall meet soon!).

According to the Canadian Rose Society, the Morden Snowbeauty, one of the Parkland series, “is a hardy, recurrent-blooming shrub suitable for mass plantings or as a specimen. It is named for the lovely snow white flowers produced during the growing season. They are slightly fragrant, average 8 cm across, have an average of 12 petals and are produced in clusters of 3-5 flowers.”

They say the scent is slight; however, it is delectably citrusy and quite mesmerizing up close. The rose is hardy to zone 2b (I am in 3b so that is awesome) and bred to be resistant to diseases such as powdery mildew and blackspot.

This is all good news to me as I have long drooled over roses that are out of zone. I am really a bit of a romantic, I think, when it comes to my vision for the garden, and roses will definitely be a part of my sunny borders. So the fact that there are people out there working to create gorgeous, tough and hardy roses delights me. (Thanks, rose breeders! We prairie gardeners deeply appreciate you!)

Of course, besides all that good stuff, the blooms are white, which I so love, and it is so perfectly sweet, that I will find a sunny spot for it in the southwest-facing area of the yard.


Now who else can I take to the nursery? Hubby has been talking trees...hmmm!