Vintage & Re-purposed Vases ... AT MY ROSE GARDEN

TIME-WORN

My enduring love of ‘country antique’ kitchenalia and gardenalia has always been viewed as quaint, even quirky, by close family and friends.  Every time I bought home yet another time-worn object, my family would audibly groan.  As I lovingly placed my latest ‘find’ in pride of place, my family would avert their eyes and ‘ignore’ yet another ungainly and unsightly object.   My love for time-worn, useful objects was never seen as fashionable, and definitely not on-trend.  

SILVER JUGS

Now, of course, all things ‘vintage’ are seen as not only fashionable, but highly desirable.  Tarnished silver tea pots and jugs, arranged to capture the eye, would have been viewed not so long ago, as needing a good polish!  Today, tarnish on silver is carefully nurtured, seen as honouring the advance of time on beautifully crafted silver tea-wares.

MILK GLASS

Coloured glass has long been recognised as lovely enough to hold floral bouquets and posies.  And colour themed glass is gorgeous enough to display in its own right.  What could be prettier than a range of pink glass, or green glass, often simple in design?  Milk glass, sometimes rare and difficult to find now, is also prized for its range of colours and textures.    

CRYSTAL

And coloured glass’ more glamorous cousin, crystal, outshines any coloured theme.    Add a lovely vintage mirror and the effect is magnified many times.    

LUSTRE-WARE

Once pearlescent and lustre-ware china was seen as gauche.  Now these treasures from the 1950’s and ‘40’s are highly sought after.   Vases of all shapes, sizes and colours, dusted with a pearl sheen, act as pretty vessels for flowers.  These vases are gorgeously coloured, shaped into cornucopias, or stylised leaves.  Some are short and squat, or elongated.  Others are fan shaped with a broad mouth. 

GARDEN FLOWERS

Such vases were designed to hold flowers picked fresh from the garden.  Flowers with short, knobbly stems; flowers with heavy heads that need support on the lip of a vase; flowers sweetly perfumed; flowers coloured soft or bright; flowers that have not travelled across oceans; flowers that are free from sprays and safe to sniff; flowers untouched by cold-storage for weeks on end; flowers left to softly drop their petals. 

JUGS OF FLOWERS

And jugs, staunch and functional, can now be re-purposed as flower vases.  Oh, the simple joy of a fat bunch of just-picked flowers pushed into a chipped, once loved jug.  A jug filled with water only, no fancy flower food or chemicals, just fresh water.   Flowers just picked from a country garden are perfectly suited to such humble vessels.   And of course, in a country garden, flowers are a-plenty and ... seasonal.  

An Heirloom 'Button-Hole' Rose .. AT MY ROSE GARDEN

Safrano - The Button-Hole Rose

The Tea rose, Safrano, (Beauregard, France, 1839) is ‘one of the most enduring of the Teas’, growing ‘well in warm and cold conditions’ (Tea roses old roses for warm gardens/authors, Chapman, L., Drage, N., Durston, D., et al, , 2008).  This description is borne out AT MY ROSE GARDEN, with Safrano continuing to flower through several frosts this winter; some of the coldest temperatures recorded in just over 100 years in the S. E. Queensland region. 

Unfortunately, Safrano’s flowers are not so sought after as cut flowers nowadays.  Her perfume is faint, and the fragile, porcelain like petals are no longer appreciated in comparison with more robust roses now grown as cut flowers under glass. 

Yet, in the early 20^th Century, Safrano’s buds were highly sought after throughout Europe, and a main-stay of the winter floristry trade (Chapman et al).  Indeed, her toughness and ability to flower mid-winter when most roses are dormant explains Safrano’s popularity throughout the 19^th Century and early 20^th Century. 

It would be easy to dismiss Safrano as just another tough-as-boots old fashioned rose, until you see her winter buds bursting forth.  The sight of Safrano’s elegant buds, pale apricot and prettily blushed, is one of the glories of the winter rose garden, here AT MY ROSE GARDEN.  And the sight of her frosted buds is a special delight on a freezing, cold morning.   

Add a sprig of rosemary, and a Safrano bud is gorgeously suited to enhance any lapel, offering a cheery glimpse of Spring.  Traditionally used as a gentleman’s button-hole rose, Safrano looks sufficiently elegant to adorn more formal nuptial lapels.   Given the current popularity of coral tones for weddings, I can think of no better excuse for reviving this lovely old custom.   

A Tea-Time Ritual from the Tea Rooms .. AT MY ROSE GARDEN

A Tea Time Ritual 

Sometimes it’s the simple things in life that mean the most.  For instance, nothing can be lovelier than a hot, soothing cup of tea on a cold July day.  Simple choices can bring a touch of comfort to a gloomy day.   Choose the tea to suit the mood ... maybe Earl Grey ... lovely with a slice of lemon, picked fresh from the lemon tree.  Or, perhaps an uplifting cup of English Breakfast ...  preferably strong, with a hint of full cream milk.  

Indeed, a simple tea ritual can be both soothing and uplifting.  A dainty, porcelain tea cup, swirling with pretty flowers, adds a special touch to the tea-drinking ritual.    And, of course, tea is even better when brewed from loose tea leaves.  So a pretty, well loved tea pot is just the thing.  Fill the tea pot with hot water, then empty, to warm the pot first.  Measure the tea leaves, one round spoonful per person and one for the pot, into the now-warm teapot.  Pour over freshly boiled water.  Turn the teapot slowly 3 times clockwise, then 3 times anti-clockwise, and allow the tea to ‘draw’. 

Set a tea-tray with pretty pieces; milk in a flower-sprigged china creamer, sugar in a dainty sugar bowl.  Lemon slices on a small porcelain tray.  A tiny teaspoon just for tea, placed on the tea saucer.  Add a lacy, hand-embroidered (‘fancy-worked’ as my mother used to say) doily.  For a special touch to the tea-tray, a tiny, china tea cup with one freshly picked, full blown rose. 

 And to finish off this delightful ritual, perhaps a little light reading ... definitely nothing gloomy, or newsworthy ... a snippet of Vita Sackville-West’s insights from her Sissinghurst garden.  

Or a gorgeous English gardening magazine with a delicious story celebrating Margery Fish, whose stories of her cottage garden are now classics.  

Or, take a pretty card and write a short note to a friend ... guaranteed to make you feel very virtuous as you sip your tea! 

Now, settle into a sun-lit corner in the garden, and ... indulge.  Sip, dream and breathe-a-while. 

A simple ritual ... worth repeating often.  

Winter Blooms among the Heirloom Roses .. AT MY ROSE GARDEN

Heirloom Roses  .. AT MY ROSE GARDEN

 

Our Heirloom Roses here AT MY ROSE GARDEN are grown as nature intended ... under the sun in our country garden nestled around a century old Queenslander-style home.   Our Heirloom Roses are gorgeously fragrant, from a by-gone era, passed down through the generations.    Located on the Sunshine Coast Hinterland in S.E. Queensland, our Heirloom Roses AT MY ROSE GARDEN are not generally found in cold climates, preferring warmer climates, and include old-fashioned Bourbon, Hybrid Musk, Noisette and Tea roses.  Tea roses, ancestor of modern Hybrid Teas, are a favourite from the 19^th Century, said to be named because of their sweet, dry tea-like fragrance.

Right now it is July, and that means it is mid-winter in Australia.  Winter in S.E. Queensland can be cooler than many people consider usual for a sub-tropical climate.  The expectation is that Queensland is warm throughout winter.  Here in the Hinterland of the Sunshine Coast we are experiencing temperatures as low as minus 1 degree Centigrade, resulting in crisp, white frosts.  Our warm climate Heirloom Roses, including our Tea roses, continue to bloom, despite their dislike of the cold.  

Madame de Watteville, said to be a sport of the forever-blooming pink Tea rose, Duchesse de Brabant, looks like a snow queen here against the backdrop of frost.  Her sweetly fragrant blooms are hardier than their delicate appearance might suggest.

Tea Rose – G. Nabonnand (sometimes sold as Jean Ducher in Australia) continues flowering against a frosty backdrop.  G. Nabonnand's soft pink, nodding flowers cover the bushes through all seasons.  Not even frost will deter her proliferation of blooms.

Also defying the frosty mornings in mid July, is the lovely Safrano, another Tea rose with a delicate appearance.  Safrano is continuing to supply us here AT MY ROSE GARDEN with the prettiest apricot buds opening into gorgeous, transient blooms.  Safrano was popular in the late 19^th and early 20^th Centuries as a bud rose for men’s jacket lapels ... a lovely trend that must surely have looked very dapper!  Worthy of revival, perhaps?

Known in the early 20^th Century as the ‘magnolia rose’, the Tea rose, Devoniensis, also blooms throughout winter.  The lusciously rich cream rose petals unfold from soft pink buds.  Devoniensis bears a hauntingly sweet perfume.  Only the brave dare to lean in close enough to sniff her blooms. Her stems are fiercely armed with dark red, hooked, very sharp thorns.   Admire this exquisite Tea rose from afar!