Something Beautiful - in miniature ... AT MY ROSE GARDEN

Sighted on an early morning walk, miniature blooms of Leptospermum species, covering the tree in clouds of white blossom.   

Commonly called Tea Tree, this member of the Myrtaceae family is largely endemic to Australia.  Traditionally used by early settlers to make a tea by boiling its leaves in water.  A valuable source of nectar, it is still used in honey production throughout Australia.  

Tea Tree's tiny flowers also make a lovely addition to herbal and rose posies, adding a fragrant touch of the Australian bush - 'Something beautiful' in miniature.

Rose Petal Butter - Tea Rooms .. AT MY ROSE GARDEN

At a time when most of us are on summer holidays, there is time to linger over a relaxed afternoon tea after a morning of swimming, walking or sightseeing.   And a simple home-made touch imbues feelings of timeless luxury without fuss.   Perfect when gathering with friends or family.  

Prepare a simple feast of home-made sandwiches alongside plates of fragrant, summer strawberries.  And for a final flourish, freshly made scones served with rose petal butter on pretty china!    

Rose petal butter can be prepared days ahead.  Here’s how:  

Pick a handful of fragrant, organic pink and red rose petals (best picked first thing in the morning on the day you plan to make the rose petal butter).   Shake and rinse, then pat dry with a clean tea towel.  

Place butter (about 150 g) in a small bowl to soften slightly (to room temperature).    

Add most of your clean, dry rose petals (save some petals for decoration) to the softened butter.  

Mix in the rose petals with a stainless steel knife.  The knife will simultaneously chop the petals and mix them into the butter.

The rose petal butter should be creamy with rose petals evenly mixed through. 

  

Rinse a small ceramic bowl or mould with cold water.  Do not dry (this allows the butter to be released easily for serving).  Pat the rose petal/butter mixture into a small ceramic bowl or mould. 

Cover with the remaining rose petals (this will form a seal and later a base for the butter).  Cover with cling film.  Refrigerate if using in the next few days, or freeze for later use. 

 To serve; remove cling film and invert mould onto a pretty plate.  (To release butter from mould, place a warm cloth over mould.  You may need to insert a hot knife around edge to help ease butter out of the mould).   

Your rose butter will have taken on subtle hues and aromas of the fragrant rose petals.  Serve with warm date scones... A simple touch of luxury that is just delightful.    

Something Beautiful - Create a pretty posy .. AT MY ROSE GARDEN

AT MY ROSE GARDEN, we have decided that every week this year we will do, see or create something beautiful. 

This week’s something beautiful:   

The Christmas and New Year season can often bring back memories of lost loved ones, along with feelings of loneliness and sadness.  Perhaps you know of someone who needs a little cheering up.   Gather fragrant garden roses and create a pretty posy, as a surprise gift.  (And by creating this posy, you cheer yourself up too!)  .. Something beautiful to do and create this week! 

   

Here's how we made our pretty posy:

Pick your roses in the cool of the evening the night before you plan to create your posy.  Each rose is different, but as a general rule of thumb, pick your roses when they are just about to open, or partially open.  Place roses in a container of cool water up to their necks in a dark place overnight.  This will condition the roses and help your posy stay fresh for longer.   

To add colour, extra fragrance and texture to your posy, gather sprigs of herbs and foliage.  We often include common herbs, such as lemon thyme, spearmint and rosemary, which all have a strong, spicy perfume.  These can be picked at any time of year as foliage, as well as when in flower.  The strong perfume from these herbs if stored with roses can induce them to open their blooms too soon.   For this reason, condition your sprigs of herbs and foliage in a separate container of water away from the roses. 

Heirloom, English rose

G. Nabonnand, Tea rose

Wife of Bath, English rose

For our posy, among the roses we picked was the pink, highly fragrant English Heirloom rose.  We added the softly fragrant Tea rose, G. Nabonnand, with soft peach/pink blooms.   And for a final touch of luxury, we added the myrrh scented English rose, Wife of Bath.  For hints of bright colour that contrast well with the soft pink roses, we inserted stems of purple salvia.  Pale pink flowering stems of spearmint added here and there throughout the posy gave a touch of spicy fragrance.   To finish off the posy tie with a pretty ribbon!

Now you have created ‘something beautiful’. 

Something Beautiful for 2015 - Heirloom Roses .. AT MY ROSE GARDEN

The New Year brings an anticipation of new and exciting things for 2015.  

With approximately 52 unblemished weeks in the year ahead, here AT MY ROSE GARDEN, we plan to see, do or create ‘something beautiful’ each week.   

And the unfurling of a new bud of the Tea rose, Triomphe de Luxembourg, depicts 'something beautiful' perfectly.    (Note - While this rose differs from the original rose of this name, it continues to be known as Triomphe de Luxembourg in Australia (Chapman, Drage, et al). 

Typical of many of the Tea roses that sulk if transplanted, our rose did not do well after being transplanted from an overcrowded position to a sunny, more open aspect.   Now, after 2 years of sulking, it is offering us forgiveness with its voluptuous, lilac pink, slightly perfumed roses.

The opening of the plump, pointed buds is a lovely sight and definitely ‘something beautiful ‘to see.  

Sepals are just parting to reveal the plump, pink bud.

    More of the bud is revealed as each of the sepals fold down.

Now that the sepals have opened, the lovely petals are revealed as they curl at the edges to form a plump, luscious bud.

The crimped and curled petals of the bud promise a glorious rose when in full bloom.

The pale petals fold back further to reveal more of its pink centre.

Now the rose bud is showing off with its folded petals revealing a lusciously plump, lilac pink centre.  Nearby buds at various stages of unfurling provide a lovely sight.  

And the full blown rose is something to behold, with pale, almost dusk petals revealing a lilac pink reverse, dusted with crystals.  Exquisite and definitely ‘something beautiful’ to see. 

We hope you too are inspired to see, do or create ‘something beautiful’ for each week of 2015.

Heirloom Roses - Summer's Blessing .. AT MY ROSE GARDEN

After a few parched years, rain at Christmas heralds a summer blessing this year.  Days of soft drizzle offer a gentle reprieve from the recent humidity and heat.   

The soft rain has generously endowed the mid-summer garden with lovely vignettes:

Brimming bird baths afloat with rose petals;

Luscious blooms of Red Pierre, a modern climbing Hybrid Tea reminiscent of old fashioned roses, decadently be-jeweled with rain drops;

Mrs B R Cant, a Tea rose, glorious in her lightly dusted mid-summer plumage;

Porcelain-like Tea roses, Safrano and  ...

G. Nabonnand, delicately lovely under their crystalline dusting of rain drops;

A splendidly plump bud of the modern shrub rose, Elina, luminous against dark rain clouds;

New plum-coloured growth of the Tea, Mrs Reynolds Hole, promising an abundance of crimson, richly perfumed late summer blooms;

Shy English Mary Rose peeps out, splendid with jewels, from under her shelter of feverfew;

And the exquisitely nodding heads of the rare Tea rose, Carlsruhe Maria Bruhn (purportedly the true Mlle de Sombrieul) are delicately pale and lovely under a drift of soft, summer rain.

Oh, and then there's the perfume of rain showers mingled with fragrant roses ... 
Summer's blessing at Christmas.  

A Christmas Wreath Workshop .. AT MY ROSE GARDEN

We love Christmas here AT MY ROSE GARDEN.   

One of our favourite Christmas traditions is making and decorating a Christmas wreath to herald in the season.  And the most satisfying way to do this is to gather (or forage with permission of course) locally grown natural materials.  

(NOTE:  Some plant materials have sap that may be an irritant to human skin, or the entire plant may be toxic, so ALWAYS check that your plant material is safe before you handle it.)

 

A wreath made with fresh greenery greets visitors with the wonderful fragrances of Christmas; Eucalyptus and lemon-scented Leptospermum softened with the mulled perfume of an Australian summer. 

 

 

 

Along the Sunshine Coast, Hibiscus bushes grow boisterously with long, flexible stems; perfect for wreath making.   At our Christmas wreath making workshops we used bundles of these stems, stripped of leaves and flowers.  We added supple summer shoots from our tropical ‘ice-cream bean’ tree.  Woven together they make lovely, textured natural wreath bases. 

 

 

 

And as each workshop progresses, an array of unique, beautiful wreaths begin to take shape, using fragrant leaves and flowers from our collection of locally gathered plant material.  Accents of juvenile silver wattle leaves, seed heads, rosemary, tiny bunches of thyme, and herb flowers are added to give texture and fragrance. 

 

Our own Christmas wreath, stuffed to overflowing with bunches of gathered green leaves and studded with fragrant herbs,  hangs country style on our front gate ... 

 

 

 

On Christmas morning I will sneak a quiet moment to tuck in a fresh rose bud  ... symbolising the birth of the Christ-babe.

 

 

 

 

 

Blessings and joy to all ...

 

Heirloom Roses - An Impossible Choice .. AT MY ROSE GARDEN

An impossible choice; deciding on a favourite rose.   

With so many heirloom roses taking their turn to offer exquisite blooms, it is impossible to choose just one;

Perhaps in the cool of the evening I might decide on a long-time favourite; Souvenir de St. Anne’s, circa 1917, reported to be a sport of the Bourbon rose, Souvenir de la Malmaison.  Discovered in a Country Estate garden near Dublin, she has pale pink blooms that appear as though shaped from the finest porcelain, until you snatch a sweet, cinnamon spiked perfume.  But don’t be fooled, Svnr de St.Anne’s is one tough rose, continuing to bloom through drought and heat.

Or perhaps the handsome 1894 French tea rose known in Australia as Francis Dubrueil. Richly perfumed to match his luxuriant velvet-like dark red roses, this is a surprising member of the usually less showy Tea rose family.  An aristocrat in the garden.  

Or in the early morning, just as the sun is spreading over the garden, a warm glow greets your eye.  Not strictly heirloom being an English rose, Benjamin Britten’s coral hues are a surprising blend of bright and warm reds, softly yellow at its base.  The full blooms are strongly perfumed, held tall on prickly limbs. 

  

A new favourite is one of the lesser known Hybrid Musks, Nur Mahal, released by Rev. Pemberton in 1923. 

A deep primrose pink, with a spicy perfume, Nur Mahal is as exotic and beautiful as the Indian Empress for whom she was named.  The influential wife of the early 17^th C Mughal Emperor Jahangir, Nur Mahal supported the cause of women in the Empire, providing land and dowries for orphan girls, even modifying women’s clothing to suit the hot climate.  Brilliantly clever, Nur Mahal used her intellect to promote culture and the arts, increase revenue from trade, influence architecture and create beautiful gardens.  These she opened up for the common population to enjoy.  Nur Mahal is also credited with discovering ‘attar of roses’ through observing fragrant oil floating on water strewn with rose petals. 

I love that three centuries later, in the early 20^th C, a Reverend from the United Kingdom acknowledged this extra-ordinary woman’s intellect and influence.  Had he not, I may never have heard of Nur Mahal’s incredible legacy. 

And so it is for her legacy brought to life through a visionary rosarian, that I planted Nur Mahal amid the heirloom roses.  The lovely semi-double blooms are exquisitely and vibrantly wrought; a worthy testament.

Aaaah, such choices ...