Monday, September 22, 2008


Sunday when I went into the garden before my granddaughters arrived (and later in the day their mother Hilary would show up for dinner) I went to see which roses I could cut to display on the dinner table. Even though it was a day before autumn there were many roses in bloom. But most were from roses that tended to cluster in threes. When this happens the middle rose is in bloom while on each side they are yet to open. If you cut these below the three you prevent the opening of the other two. The only solution is a bowl of roses. When you cut that middle rose the stem is no longer than an inch and a half and that is too short for a vase. So what one does is fill a shallow bowl with water and float the roses after cutting that stem to about an inch. My mother's Mexican bowl looked beautiful with the roses which were mostly from English Roses, St. Swithun and Spirit of Freedom.



There are a few others like Abraham Darby, Shropshire Lad, Mary Rose and Fair Bianca. That small red bud in the green vase is an old climber that came with our house, Rosa 'Blaze'. Somehow this infrequent re-bloomer bloomed. I placed the bowl and the vase on our new dining room table tablecloth. I purchased it a couple of weeks ago on Granville Island. It is from India.

Lauren was keen to have her picture taken in her sailor dress but Rebecca did not want to wear a dress. Both, in my eyes, look lovely.