'Tis the season .. to make memories at Christmas

I have always loved Christmas with its sights sounds and smells .. bright lights, colourful decorations and the fragrances that make up memories of Christmas times' past.  Growing up with the Australian bush at our back door, the smells of Christmas featured earthy yet spicy aromas of eucalyptus trees in the brilliant heat of an Australian summer. 

Our Christmas tree was a branch from a row of radiata pines planted by my grandmother.  The spicy smell of the resin from the pine is quintessentially Christmas for me.

But the joy of celebrating Christmas is that we can create new memories for ourselves and loved ones.  It doesn't need to be expensive.  What wealth there is in one rose filled with hundreds of petals.  And being surrounded by the fragrance of heirloom roses blooming in the heat of December is an opportunity to build new memories for our grandchildren.

New traditions;  An Australian native casuarina pine as our Christmas tree;  Long lunches groaning with fresh Australian seafood and salads;  Cold plum pudding with cool, creamy custard.  And after all the day's excitement, a relaxing evening walk in the garden with Pop trialling new 'child-sized' watering cans left under the Christmas tree.    

And new games to learn; like smelling and sniffing the roses .. before plucking the petals and tossing them in the air laughing and giggling.  This last trick taught by a mischievous uncle!  

And enjoying the riches of simple moments in simple surroundings creating life-long memories for another generation.  Even if families are separated by miles, laughter and fun can still be shared with the magic of today's technologies.

Oh, the joy of celebrating Christmas .. 

Merry Christmas !!

Drying Botanicals for Fragrance and Colour .. AT MY ROSE GARDEN

After all the hard work of planting and growing heirloom roses, the joy of gathering up buckets brimming with roses, flowering herbs and assorted flowers and foliage is one of my all-time favourite  luxuries. 

Then there's the fun part of arranging posies and bouquets for special requests and occasions.  But after all the bouquets are wrapped and picked up or delivered, there are always left-overs.  

Being one of the last baby boomers, with parents who had grown up in the war years, wastefulness was never tolerated.  And childhood lessons are often hard to shake, so I have always felt uncomfortable throwing away left-over lovelies, like single roses, fragrant herbs and foliage.  

So I have decided to gather up spare roses and left-over bunches of herbs like feverfew and lemon thyme, and hang them to dry in my downstairs 'studio'.  

I'm gathering a little collection now and they're starting to look lovely .. little bunches and posies dangling in the breeze.

In fact, they're looking so lovely that I've started to pick and dry posies and bunches of roses and herbs on purpose .. just to hang and dry.

The fragrance is lovely .. softer and more muted than the strong scent of freshly cut roses and herbs .. but still very present.

So now whenever there's a bounty in the garden, or I need to dead-head roses, instead of throwing them out I gather up bunches and hang them upside down.

And they're just lovely hanging from the rafters!!!

So now I'm selling pretty little posies of dried botanicals that don't wither in the sun and heat and don't need to have their water changed daily ..

A perfect little gift for that difficult someone to buy for ..

Contact me via Facebook: Edgeworth Lley - Heirloom Roses if you'd like to place an order.

Rose-craft Workshops Preview for 2016 .. AT MY ROSE GARDEN

In 2016 we are expanding our Rose-craft Workshops to include using roses in a range of simple skin-care products, healthy gluten-free cookery and children's rose-craft workshops.  

Our Workshops range from half-day (10am - 12.30am) and full day (10am - 3pm) and are held twice monthly from February to May, and then August to November.  Full day workshops are held on one Tuesday, with half-day workshops on one Saturday each month.  We are still working on dates for each Workshop but places are limited so book early.  In addition, we also design unique Rose-craft Workshops for small groups.  

Next year we are planning Children's Ring-A-Rosie Workshops during school holidays for children 8-12 years of age in 2016.  Parents are invited to stay and participate or relax in the garden with a cuppa.  Dates and topics soon.   

Check our Facebook page 'Edgeworth Lley- Heirloom Roses' for all Workshops dates to be released soon.

All our Workshops use the heirloom roses and herbs we grow at 'Edgeworth Lley'.  The roses we grow have varying fragrances, from sweet and strong through to fruity and spicy. In our Roses 'n Lotions Workshop for instance, we find a mix off these fragrances are lovely to use in simple and easy-to-make skin-care lotions.  

The oils released from rose petals are known for their benefits to skin, such as healing scars and regenerating skin tissue.  And the fragrance as it is released, helps to sooth and calm the mind.  

Through our workshops, we're hoping to teach that it is possible to make some of our own skin-care products using organic botanicals and every-day pantry basics most of us already have in stock.  If we can make our own skin-care products using natural ingredients we avoid using petro-chemicals and other nasties in many of our purchased skin lotions.  

In our Roses 'n Lotions Workshops we will look at using botanicals such as roses and herbs in every-day skin-care products.  (We don't all have to have large country gardens to use botanicals in our own skin care.  Just a few pots of herbs will provide enough botanicals for our own personal use.)  

And so here's a preview of our Roses 'n Lotions Workshops planned for 2016.  

One of the loveliest garden activities in the rose garden is gathering rose blooms and petals.   The roses will be gathered just after the dew has dried off the roses in the morning, before the petals have had time to release their fragrance to the heat of the day.

Then it is time to pluck the petals from the roses, after shaking off any beneficial insects so they can get back to work in the garden!  The rose petals are then gathered into small bowls, where they will be massaged by hand to release their fragrance.  This is a seriously heady experience as you breathe in the rose fragrances.  

The petals are then separated into glass jars and covered with olive oil, or apple cider vinegar, or filtered water and allowed to steep while we go off and have a cuppa in the garden.  After steeping, these will then be  converted into rose-fragranced body oils, sprays and soothing lotions for every-day use.  

Another of our Rose-craft Workshops, is learning the art of gathering and drying rose petals for use in the kitchen.  Our Roses in the Kitchen Workshop will show specific skills using roses in every-day cooking, such as in healthy gluten-free recipes.  

We will look at which roses are the most suitable to use for cooking.  We will also be doing fun things you might not expect to do in a rose garden; such as nibbling and sniffing some of the sweetest and most fragrant roses.  (For those of you familiar with our posts, you will know that our heirloom roses are never sprayed with pesticides or fungicides so are safe to use this way.)  

In the Roses-in-the-Kitchen workshop we'll look at drying whole roses and petals and how to use these too in beautiful recipes. We will make rose-based spice mixes as well as using fresh and dried roses in healthy gluten-free cooking ..  

.. and discover how not only the fragrance, but the colour of rose petals can be extracted to give natural colouring to healthy recipes.  

As well as our Roses 'n Lotions, and Roses-in-the-Kitchen Workshops, and children's Ring-A-Rosie Workshops, we will still have our Floral Rose-craft Workshops where you'll learn the floral art of roses in Tussie Mussies and Posies, in Rose Crowns and Rose Wreaths, as well as in fragrant artisan Rose Pot-Potpourris.  

We hope we meet some of you at our 2016 Workshops.  

Nature-Play for Grown-ups .. AT MY ROSE GARDEN

The concept of 'nature play' for children is gaining momentum with recognition of its many cognitive and emotional benefits.  

But Nature-Play for grown-ups?  These days who has time to 'play'; what with work pressures, having time for  family  and then bills to pay, the concept of 'play' seems a little frivolous!  

Yet, if we don't take time-out to be still

and contemplate, preferably in a park or garden,

the business of 'every day' can become overwhelming.

So at 'Edgeworth Lley' we've devised a series of workshops that focus on 'Nature-Play' for adults.

We use therapeutic concepts that enable our minds to rest and allows time to slow down.  

Bringing the flowers in, so to speak, so that we can focus on the moment .. to enjoy some of the simple pleasures we have forgotten as adults.  

Watching petals fall from spent blooms,

stopping to smell the roses 

and discovering that different roses have a range of scents!

To learn nature-based activities, such as how to combine botanicals in skin care, in the kitchen and in flower-craft.

And to recognise that taking time-out in nature is an investment in our health and well-being.

We are planning our 2016 workshops for adults where new skills will be learned, and where

picking a few tiny sprigs of roses with herbs and perennials from the garden, or

making a tiny boutonniere can be one reminder to slow down a little, 

and to on purpose 'smell the roses'. 

Companions for Roses .. AT MY ROSE GARDEN

Did you know that our heirloom roses thrive on having companions?  We plant lots of perennials, biennials and herbs at the feet of our roses.  This suppresses weeds and shades the roots of the roses in our hot summers, keeping their roots nice and cool. 

Some of our favourite perennials and herbs to use are Feverfew with little daisy flowers and button noses.  The flowers of Feverfew make a lovely herbal tea too!

And who can go past the lovely, lemon-scented thyme. Stepping on this herb releases the freshest, sweetest aroma.  We have two varieties of lemon thyme, dark green and variegated.  Right now both varieties are covered in tiny pink flowers and the bees are in heaven!

Some of the larger shrubs we grow with our roses need to be pruned now and then.  Right now we're allowing the gorgeous purple plumes of colour on our Buddleja davidii to dominate.  And the fragrance perfumes the garden for many metres!

One of the surprises in our garden is the lovely white Evening Primrose (Oenothera sp. 'Alba').  Despite it's delicate appearance, it is very hardy and provides a ground hugging cover constantly in flower.  A real treasure. 

And one of our very favourites that we can't live without is the furry leaved lamb's ears (Stachys byzantina).  We need to replace this from our stock plants from time to time during seasons of continuous rain, but it quickly bounces back and provides a lovely edge to the garden bed.

Best of all, each of the perennials and shrubs we grow with our roses also look lovely in posies!  

Which is why we constantly propagate our favourite perennials so that we always have spares, just in case!  And from time to time we offer some of our favourite perennials at our Farm Gate specials for those lucky enough to live in the Sunshine Coast Hinterland in Queensland, Australia!

So perennials are companions that the heirloom roses (and we) can't live without, really!  

Behind the Scenes - Creating Fairytales .. AT MY ROSE GARDEN

One of the joys of growing heirloom roses for a living is the abundance of a beautiful and fragrant resource that helps make fairy-tales come true.  

And creating fragrant coronets for little flower-girls is one of those especially joyous things.   Tiny pink Mlle Cecile Brunner and Pink Prosperity roses brim with fragrance. Scatter with sweetly flowering lemon thyme sprigs, gossamer like gypsophilla and silver acacia leaves, all gathered from among the heirloom roses and tie with an antique fairy-pink ribbon. 

It is these moments that bring an extra layer of joy into the garden, especially for very special occasions.  And working with this bounty is just lovely ..

But the realities behind the scenes of growing a large garden of fragrant heirloom roses with perennials and annuals is not always immediately evident.  Especially if visitors see a bounty of roses and think there might be a few spare to 'give away'. Sometimes it can be very hard to say 'no' to polite requests for 'just a few roses that you can spare' , or even 'just a little bag of rosebuds' for free, of course.

But like any business, there are hidden costs, not the least being time and labour. Maintaining the roses and a large country garden costs much effort and resources, not to mention purchasing high quality heirloom rose plants from specialist growers.  

Weeding and mulching are never-ending and time intensive.  Yet these are necessary tasks as our roses are never sprayed with pesticides or fungicides and we keep weeds down through sheet mulching (sometimes with a little extra 'help').   And once these tasks are done, there are a myriad of others, many of which involve sitting behind a computer!!

But these efforts pay off and the garden starts to look respectable again with lovely roses that are safe to smell and even eat.  And we can again gather roses and run more workshops and supply special occasions with posies and other delightful things ...

So next time I'm tempted to be obliging to a polite request for 'just a few spare roses', I need only remind myself why the answer must be a definite 'no'.  

We need our roses to make fairy-tales for little flower-girls come true ..