Roses

Apparently, this is a good year for roses.

just by the door in the front garden

The Thoughtful Man is very conscientious about deadheading the roses. It makes the Roses keep producing flowers longer. He usually snips them when they are about to lose petals.

Because of the warm weather, they are going from bud to full-blown quite quickly. I asked him if we could save the petals this year. We did a bit of that one year, but not purposefully.

I didn't expect so many! This is about the 4th/5th time I have had a batch of petals to dry.
I have been spreading them and tossing them periodically. They feel so silky smooth! With the heat, they are drying fast. I have been filling loads of dishes and vases around the house.

Some of the roses we have.
When we bought them, we looked for scented ones. But the lovely regular rose scent, not the perfumey one that we smelled in one of the RHS gardens. I don't know how to descibe the difference, but I think most of ours are like David Austin roses.

I love yellow roses.

This bush has a darker yellow than the cluster above.

These orange ones look amazing when they are fully open. Such different orange shades and variations.

I usually put them in a low dish of water for a bit just to get a bit of pleasure from them for a while.

There is one called 'chocolate'. But at the moment, it just has buds.

But I absolutely love the depth of colour in it. Actually more like cinnamon.
The photo isn't really showing it. But here is a close up of a couple of the petals in the mix that is drying.

And somehow I wasn't consulted about this purple veined rose being planted alongside the red through yellow roses!

But it does make its own statement there in the shade of the firethorn bush.

We do have a white one, which blends well with the yellows because it looks cream colour as it ages. My mother-in-law gave it to us for our 25th wedding anniversary.