I used to be an avid rose gardener. While the roses have gradually given way to hummingbird plants, I still have a few bushes, and I love photographing their gorgeous blooms.
August 28, 2013 - It’s been a while since I’ve written about the roses and butterflies in the backyard. While I love to go cool places to photograph birds, sometimes the best opportunities come in your own backyard. As frequent readers of my blog know, I have a bit of a green thumb, and I’ve landscaped our garden with […]
December 13, 2012 - My ‘Gold Medal’ rose is blooming like crazy right now. The big yellow flowers are very pretty and fragrant. I went outside on Sunday morning to fertilize the roses, and I immediately ran back inside to get the camera. The dew drops were too pretty not to photograph!
July 26, 2012 - This is my ‘Hot Cocoa’ rose that has been blooming wonderfully for the past few weeks. All my roses are doing really well, and standing up to the heat better this summer than ever before (knock wood!) One of our young neighbors loves to come and smell the roses in the evenings. Her happy squeal […]
July 15, 2012 - …the flowers were all covered in little water droplets. I often get asked if I ever sprinkle my flowers with drops to make dew. No, whenever I’ve tried that, it looks really fake. Besides, in Florida in the summertime, you don’t often have to wait for the real thing!
August 11, 2011 - The roses are suffering from the summer heat and the insects. I’ve stopped using insecticides since last winter. First I was worried that the insecticides would harm the wintering birds, then I realized that I was starting to see more insects in the rosebeds as a result of the decreased usage of pesticides. So here […]
June 22, 2011 - I’ve been neglecting my roses lately. First it was because I had Painted Buntings and then baby birds in the backyard. Then it was because it just got hot. But I haven’t been spraying, and the rose blooms are being eaten by insects. Except for this one! This is my ‘Gold Medal’ rose that grows […]
April 13, 2011 - I enjoyed having my zoom lens along on our walk this evening. The light of the sunset reflected on the water of the Pebble Ridge pond, creating awesome ripples of color. Then Rich pointed out the Wood Stork about to fly in just over the pond! Score! The sunset was beautiful. I zoomed all the […]
March 31, 2011 - Goldy and Squirt spent the day cowering together under their favorite “safe chair”. Wow were those thunderstorms strong!! I got home expecting to see most of my rose blooms blown to the ground, but they looked ok. This was taken before the storms…
March 30, 2011 - My backyard roses are starting to bloom! I love how they all bloom at about the same time in the spring, about six weeks after I prune them almost back to the ground. It’s amazing how fast these bushes grow.
February 16, 2011 - I pruned my roses heavily about two weeks ago, and I’m still waiting for the bushes to leaf out. This morning I saw lots of little red growlets but no leaves yet. So I’ll post a picture of the ‘Minnie Pearl’ rose that I took before I pruned the bush. It’s hard to wait for […]
February 5, 2011 - Every spring in mid-February I prune the roses back hard. In Florida, roses don’t really get a dormant period, thanks to our nice warm weather. They don’t lose their leaves like they do up north, and mine usually bloom all year round. So I force them into a short period of dormancy when I prune […]
January 3, 2011 - My miniature rose ‘Minnie Pearl’ loves this cold weather. While most of the bushes are sporting frost-bitten blooms, ‘Minnie Pearl’ is bursting with fresh green foliage and two tiny perfect little blooms. I took out the wide-angle lens, the extension tubes, and the diffuser filter, and had fun with my camera. :)
December 6, 2010 - I love living in a climate where I get rose blooms in December! (Hopefully they will still be blooming after it freezes tonight… :-p)
November 2, 2010 - The backyard is very colorful these days, with all the roses blooming at the same time. That’s the good thing about a good prune — it triggers a beautifully coordinated bloom cycle!
October 23, 2010 - The roses are starting to bloom again after I pruned them hard at the beginning of September. It’s fun to see the healthy foliage and the perfect blooms. I love the mixture of colors. The Floribundas have bloomed the fastest. The hybrid teas are starting to bloom, but they are not quite this colorful yet. […]
October 14, 2010 - My roses are starting their fall bloom cycle after I pruned them heavily at the beginning of September. This one is ‘Memorial Day.’
July 26, 2010 - Or is it ‘Deja Blu’? Rich says that this rose isn’t blue, but its shade is supposed to be somewhat unique. (Of course, if you’re thinking “hey, she posted yet another rose picture!”, then deja vu might be most appropriate…)
July 22, 2010 - Normally in July my roses aren’t looking so good. This year, they look great! Even my ‘Pope John Paul II’ rose, which tends to wilt in the harsh summer heat, is flourishing and covered in blooms. Also blooming well this month is my ‘Moonstone’ rose, which is totally covered in blooms right now. Isn’t it […]
July 19, 2010 - Last night we had a nice unexpected rainfall, and I went out afterward with the camera to photograph flowers covered with raindrops. This ‘Moonstone’ rose shot was my favorite.
June 22, 2010 - My ‘Gold Medal’ rose bush has burst into bloom this week. It’s covered in golden roses!
June 5, 2010 - Rich and I are celebrating our 6th wedding anniversary today. Squirt wanted to celebrate by eating this rose, but I wouldn’t let him. I photographed it instead.
May 17, 2010 - My ‘Deja Blu’ mini rose has started to put on some nice new growth, and I think this was one of the first blooms of the season. The deep magenta color is fun (and unusual for a mini rose).
May 15, 2010 - Today was Rose Care Day. Rich helped me fertilize, then I sprayed. It felt really good to spend the morning outside in the yard. There were plenty of birds out and we saw/heard cardinals, mockingbirds, house finches, red-winged blackbirds, grackles, and mourning doves (the usual summer crowd). This evening I did not take my camera […]
April 21, 2010 - The backyard roses have all burst into bloom and they are absolutely gorgeous! The blooms are a bit late this year, due to the cold weather. But it was worth the wait. I went outside and took a series of pictures, then used Photoshop Elements to merge them together into a panorama. The only thing […]
April 16, 2010 - Peter and Carla are very good mail delivery people. While we were on vacation, they delivered the American Rose magazine containing the results of this year’s rose photography contest. Guess what? Two of the three photos that I submitted won!! My ‘Nancy Reagan’ rose took first place in the Hybrid Tea category: After I came […]
April 11, 2010 - Happy birthday, Goldy and Missy! This purple ‘Angel Face’ bloomed just for you. :) It’s hard to believe it’s been 8 years since Dyeyo and I went shopping for birdseed and came home instead with two sweet little kittens.
April 10, 2010 - This bee and mystery insect were hanging out on a rose. I think they were dead, actually. I wonder who stung who?
April 7, 2010 - My ‘Peace’ rose has begun blooming for the spring. It’s fun to see the leaves all glossy and healthy, and the color of the rose is deeper (I guess because of the cold weather?) The yellow and pink hues are more vibrant in April than any other time of the year.
April 5, 2010 - The roses are slow to begin blooming, but it’s worth the wait. Look at this ‘Bella Roma’ bloom. It’s not often that I get such perfect (not eaten by insects!) roses.
March 30, 2010 - My mini rose ‘Irresistible’ had the most perfect bloom today. Maybe in celebration of the first goldyfinches at Missy’s Diner!! :)
March 24, 2010 - Happy Birthday, Squirt! Squirt got ham for his birthday and I got a present, too: my ‘Veteran’s Honor’ rose picture was printed in the current edition of American Rose magazine! Cool!
March 21, 2010 - ‘Chris Evert’ is one of the only roses blooming right now – and its blooms are bright orange and huge. :)
March 9, 2010 - The first rose bloom of the season…I didn’t prune ‘Chris Evert’ as hard as some of the other bushes, so it’s blooming while the rest are just starting to flush. You can see some cold damage in the bloom, but overall, it’s nice to look out and see some color!
February 19, 2010 - The goldfinches were hungry today, and they didn’t mind that I was outside planting flowers. Now I have a colorful yard again and some fun close-ups!
February 8, 2010 - My flash extender for the camera came a day early! I’m excited to get it because now I’ll be able to take better pictures at Circle B when it is cloudy. Since the birds in our backyard had already gone to bed when I got home today, though, I settled for testing the extender by […]
February 5, 2010 - Aftermath of the great rose pruning of 2010. As I worked in the front, people driving by kept slowing down to gape, probably wondering why in the world I’d cut back my roses like that! But wait about six weeks and the fresh growth and healthy blooms will be totally worth it. :)
January 15, 2010 - My poor roses! They definitely didn’t appreciate the cold snap. They fared better than most of our plants, though.
January 2, 2010 - This ‘Firefighter’ rose looked beautiful yesterday with raindrops all over it. We got an inch and a half of rain – not a bad way to start the new year! Much better than the 30 degree weather that we’re supposed to get tonight…the pineapples are all well tucked in under a nice warm tarp!
December 12, 2009 - The recent rains have damaged some of my rose petals, but it’s still fun to see ‘Memorial Day’ putting out blooms that are not totally eaten by thrips.
December 4, 2009 - We got four inches of rain today. That must be more than we’ve gotten in the past few months combined! The roses sure are not complaining…and this ‘Chris Evert’ bloom was especially pretty covered in raindrops. :)
October 11, 2009 - Tonight Squirt and I enjoyed our ‘Tropical Sunset’ (Squirt from his grill, me from behind the mower). We’re having record highs in the mid-90s…when is the cool October weather going to arrive?
October 10, 2009 - Happy Mum-mum Day! Here’s a ‘Peace’ rose to celebrate. :) I went over to Missy’s Diner and enjoyed the early morning birding hour. Check out the updated pictures.
October 6, 2009 - ‘Melody Parfumee’ is so pretty covered in bloom. I love how her new flowers are dark purple and they lighten as they age.
October 5, 2009 - The roses burst into bloom this week. It’s so strange to look across and see straight into Carla and Peter’s yard. The roses are going to enjoy the extra sunlight, though!
September 26, 2009 - ‘Bella Roma’ was hit really hard by the thrips this summer, and I haven’t seem decent blooms on the bush since April. This one was particularly pretty.
September 23, 2009 - ‘St. Patrick’ is blooming great! It’s the tallest in the yard and it’s covered in blooms right now.
September 21, 2009 - This rose is ‘First Prize’ in my book. I love the deep pink color.