National Velvet

A Rose Touched By Gentle Sunlight

Photographs copyright: DAVID McMAHON

When we built this house, the Authorbloglets and I created the garden and planted everything that grows in it. This rose bush is in our back yard and it is the only one of its kind that we have - the best way I can describe the colour is to call it bronze.

It has an unusual scent as well. I'm not sure about the breeding background, but I'd love to know where the characteristics of this subtle scent came from. It's more like the buttery scent of a Fuji apple than the waft of a traditional rose.

I was tinkering around in the garden when I noticed that the late-evening sun was playing across the petals, endowing them with a quality that was almost like watching rich velvet. I had to resist the urge to touch it - and to get my camera instead.

Visit Luiz Santilli Jr for the home of Today's Flowers.

Flower Power

For He's A Jolly Good Yellow

Photographs copyright: DAVID McMAHON

There is no better floral tribute to the memory of a cherished family member than flowers from your own garden. Our home this weekend was full of the scent of roses, in honour of someone who enjoyed walking through our garden at this time of year and always commented on how the scent of our many rose bushes along the entire perimeter of our property simply filled the warm spring air.

The roses are just coming into bloom now. I cut them back in early August, much later than other gardeners, for a simple reason. I don't believe in pruning while we still have winter frost. So I cut back when the nights are (fractionally) warmer and the roses seem to reward my thought process.

Each plant is thriving despite the dry weather, the arid September and the fact that because of water restrictions, we cannot water our lawns. Our garden is now an array of colours and scents and so from this point onwards, while the rest of the world readies for winter, our vases at home are full of a profusion of the beat that Nature has to offer.

These roses are from a climbing Freesia variety. I never used to be a fan of climbing roses until I bought one by mistake a few years ago. It now occupies about seven or eight metres (roughly 24 feet) across part of our back fence and I guess that convinced me that there is always room in a garden for more of the climbing variety.

These yellow roses were chosen to complement the colour of our bricks. Interestingly enough, I often get asked why I don't have a traditional wooden trellis supporting them. That's when I take people closer, to notice the subtle wire mesh across the brickwork, strong enough to support a heavy rose as it arches across an expanse, but slim enough not to be noticed.

By the way, you did notice the reflection in this last shot, didn't you? Sometimes even a six-footer has to stand on a chair to get that sort of angle.

Visit Luiz Santilli Jr for the home of Today's Flowers.